Events

The MIT Portugal Program has announced that its Second Annual Symposium will take place on Tuesday 28 September at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. The Symposium, titled "Creating Value through Systems Thinking," will feature presentations by the Program's faculty and students detailing the accomplishments of the Program during its first four years. Industry representatives will also contribute to an assessment of the Program's contributions and how they can be sustained and enhanced in the future.

Full agenda information is now available.

The featured MIT speaker will be Ed Crawley, the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT and a Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Prof. Crawley is the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon – MIT Engineering Leadership Program, an effort to significantly strengthen the quality of engineering leadership education for competitiveness and innovation. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge – MIT Institute, a joint venture with Cambridge University, funded by the British government and industry, with a mission to understand and generalize how universities act as engines of innovation and economic growth. Previously he had served for seven years as the Head of the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at MIT.

Prof. Crawley's research currently focuses on the domain of architecture, design and decision support in complex technical systems that involve economic and stakeholder issues. He has engaged extensively in public service, most recently as co-chair of the Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. Prof. Crawley is a leading advocate of innovation in engineering education, which he has pursued through his founding leadership of the international CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Initiative and as a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT. He is also an entrepreneur and founder of several companies, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Orbital Sciences Corporation.