Our sessions will focus on building skills in core areas related to leadership development and also on how graduate engineering students can earn a new GradEL Certificate in Technical Leadership based on completion of our academic courses. (See here for additional info on requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership Program.) We will also explain how doctoral engineering students can combine our academic classes to satisfy minor requirements in selected graduate degree programs. These workshops will be delivered in collaboration with GradSage, an advisory group to the Dean of Engineering. We invite you to register and attend our workshop series, which counts toward satisfying requirements toward the certificate. All workshops will be capped at 50 participants and held in-person from 5:00-7:00pm. Please email Lisa Stagnone lstag@mit.edu) and David Nino (dnino@mit.edu) if you have questions.
Schedule:
Workshop 1 – World-Class R&D for Geographically Distributed Markets
Thursday, February 16, 5-7pm., Location: 32-124
By Reza Rahaman, Bernard M. Gordon Industry Co-Director and senior lecturer
This workshop gives a high-level view of where R&D fits, strategically and organizationally within the enterprise. It takes a look at some of the issues in operating across cultures and highlights how cultural differences may lead to product development solutions that optimize for different value equations. This is brought to life by a group exercise that looks at developing a simple cleaning product across two geographies.
Workshop 2 – Technology and Finance: What technical leaders need to know about dollars and sense
Tuesday, February 28, 5-7pm,Location: 32-124
By Oli de Weck, Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
This workshop will focus on the relationship between corporate finance and R&D investments in technology. We review the foundations in corporate finance including reading a balance sheet, analyzing a profit and loss statement (P/L) and showing how R&D projects are one of the vital links between the short term and long term view of a company’s financial posture. Student participants will select a company of their interest ahead of time and work in teams of two to carry out an initial analysis. This workshop will also compare the annual financial performance for 2019 and 2020 to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the firm (negative, positive or neutral).
Workshop 3 – Building a talent pipeline: What it takes to recruit the next generation of engineers
Wednesday March 15, 5-7pm, Location: 32-124
By Jim Magarian, Senior Lecturer and Associate Academic Director
This workshop will examine recent research on graduating university students' career choices and the changing landscape of engineering recruiting in industry. We will review evidence from a career preferences experiment and will discuss preference themes that emerge among contemporary gradautes as they contemplate choosing engineering and engineering-related jobs. An activity will enable participants to practice adjusting how jobs are designed and marketed based on lessons from research findings. This workshop's goal is to equip future engineering leaders with an ability to recruit and hire diverse and talented university gradautes to strengthen their engineering organizations.
Workshop 4 – Taking charge of new roles after graduating
Thursday April 6, 5-7pm, Location: 32-124
By David Nino, Senior Program Manager and Senior Lecturer
Are you prepared to hit-the-ground running in new roles after graduating? Learning how to "take charge" is an important leadership capability and this final workshop will help you build the skillset as it relates to future roles. The workshop is intended for our gradauting students but all others are welcome. During part of the session, a panel of speakers will join us to share their experiences and advice on transitioning to new roles. They will also address your questions. Stay tuned for future updates on our panel of speakers.