GradEL workshops are a chance for students to hear firsthand from professionals across a range of industries and backgrounds. These are two-hour, one-time sessions that provide insight into the real-world experiences of MIT faculty members, industry business leaders, and more.
Recent TLC Distinguished Speaker Series:
Maximize your impact for a better world:
The importance of developing your technical leadership and communication skills while at MIT
Fireside chat with L. Rafael Reif, MIT President Emeritus
Hosted by Anantha P. Chandrakasan, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and Dean of the School of Engineering
In addition to an exceptional technical education, what capabilities do you need to tackle the world’s biggest challenges? How can technical leadership skills propel your career and ability to make a difference in the world?
Join us for a fireside chat with Rafael Reif hosted by Anantha Chandrakasan as they explore how technical leadership and communication skills can transform your aspirations into world-changing reality. They will share their experiences as pioneers in their fields and how they developed to be outstanding leaders.
Whether your focus is industry, entrepreneurship, or academia, you will learn how investing in technical leadership capabilities now will greatly increase your effectiveness and success in the future.
Limited seating!
Recent Workshop:
100-Day Plans For Any New Job: A Leader’s Perspective
Linda DuCharme, Former President of ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company
Room 32-124
The first 100 days of any job is a critical time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Learn from the Hiring Manager’s perspective how to prioritize between gaining job knowledge, developing a peer network, and exceeding expectations in execution. Review and improve examples of real starting assignments and 100-day plans to inform your own.
Recent Lunch & Learn:
Designing Engaging AI Applications for Well-Being
How can we design AI solutions that meaningfully enhance human well-being? How do we identify the problems worth solving? What principles guide the development of engaging and trustworthy AI-human interactions?
Join Nazli Ece Usta, Lead Product Strategist and MIT MS Integrated Design & Management alum, as she shares insights from a real-life case study exploring research methods and solution design aimed at improving human well-being through AI. This session covers emotion-driven research techniques to uncover latent human needs, translating positive psychology into actionable AI designs, and establishing clear guidelines for empathetic, engaging, and trustworthy AI-human interactions. In addition to key learnings from a real-world experiment comparing AI-guided reflection with traditional journaling, the session highlights emerging opportunities in the evolving landscape of generative AI for mental well-being.
Recent Workshop:
Resolving Non-Technical Showstoppers in Complex Systems
Professor Emeritus Joel Schindall
Globalstar Sr. VP and Chief Engineer
MIT Bernard Gordon Professor of the Practice of Product Development
founding director of GEL and GradEL
What issues do you think emerged when designing the world’s first worldwide satellite comm system? No, not Starlink. We’re talking about Globalstar, launched in the late 90’s and still operating today! Learn from the Globalstar Sr. VP and Chief Engineer who made it happen, Professor Emeritus Joel Schindall. You will hear about the unique design and collaboration challenges they encountered. Through hands-on case study exercises, you will learn how to execute multi-dimensional trade offs. Practice using those strategies based on what really went down… or should we say… up?
Recent Workshop:
Technology and Finance
Prof. Olivier de Weck
Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems, Associate Department Head of Aero Astro (Course XVI)
Room 32-124
Explore cutting-edge methods for assessing the economic potential of emerging technologies. Learn key financial tools like Net Present Value (NPV), Real Options Analysis (ROA), and Portfolio Management to make informed R&D investment decisions. Gain insights into risk assessment, resource allocation, and strategic financial planning to optimize technology portfolios and drive innovation sustainability. Don't miss this opportunity to align technology strategy with business success and gain a competitive edge in the market!
Recent Lunch & Learn:
An Engineer in Marketing? It’s more likely than you think!
Megan Lee, Biomedical Engineer, Upstream Marketing Manager, Medical Microinstruments Inc.
Room 35-434 GradEL Lounge
The engineering skills you are learning can be valued in ways you can’t imagine! Join Megan Lee as she walks through her career journey from being an entry-level engineer designing innovative new medical device products to directing global marketing strategies for robotics and digital surgeries. Discuss what engineering and leadership skills made her stretch assignments successful and her career goals possible. And learn the inside scoop on why Engineers are uniquely useful in unexpected leadership roles.
Recent Workshop:
Engineering Curveballs: How to Navigate the Unexpected
Room 32-124
What happens when you face a technical challenge that no class or training ever
prepared you for? In this interactive workshop, you'll learn problem-solving
techniques like root cause analysis, problem definition, and the power of
asking the right questions. Then, put your skills to the test with industry
guests as they share real, unexpected challenges from their careers—guiding you
through an investigation to develop and refine solution proposals.
Recent Workshop:
Secrets to Taking Charge of Your Next Role
Panel discussion
Room 32-124
Are you prepared to "hit the ground running" at your next internship or in a new role after graduating? Learning how to “take charge” and actively engage with your new responsibilities is an important skill to master.
This workshop will help you understand and build this skillset as it relates to your future goals. Hear from a panel of MIT Grad Students as they share their experiences and advice on successfully kickstarting their careers.
Recent Lunch & Learn:
Next-Gen Negotiation: AI and the Art of Reaching Agreement
Samuel ‘Mooly’ Dinnar, Lecturer, GradEL, and Leroy Sibanda, Curriculum Development Associate, GradEL
Video highlights: https://vimeo.com/1046875840
In a world where technology is rewriting the rules of human engagement, how can AI empower us to negotiate smarter, communicate more effectively, and find common ground? This interactive discussion on the future of negotiation was led by the GradEL faculty of multistakeholder Negotiation (6.9260).
Recent Workshop:
World-Class R&D for Geographically Distributed Markets
Reza Rahaman, Managing Director, Technical Leadership and Communication Programs (UPOP, GEL, GradEL, CommLab)
This workshop gives a high-level view of where R&D fits, strategically and organizationally within the enterprise. It looks 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. (Held on November 14, 2024, 5-7 pm.)
Recent Workshop:
Reimagining the Hearing Aid Industry - the Case of Eargo
Danny Shen, Funder and President of Ruby Robotics, Serial Entrepreneur
From garage to IPO, MIT alumn Danny Shen shares his story of founding Eargo, a company that challenged an industry of entrenched incumbents to reimagine the hearing aid industry and break down barriers to adoption. This is an interactive workshop where product and strategic questions faced by the founders are presented and discussed. (Held on October 30, 2024, 5-7 pm)
Recent Workshop:
Making Informed Tradeoff Decisions: What Do Stakeholders Care About?
Joia Spooner-Fleming, Global R&D Senior Executive
Learn how technical leaders make important tradeoff decisions while taking into account the engineering results, the business impact, and the variety of stakeholder needs that come with all challenging issues. (Held on October 16, 2024, 5-7pm)
Recent Workshop:
How Women in STEM Lead
Panel discussion
Room 32-144
Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D panel discussion hosted by Monica Pheifer, Principal Lecturer, GradEL.
A panel of women in science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing, and design will share the unique challenges they’ve experienced and the unique value they’ve provided in their technical leadership careers. (Held on September 26, 2024, 5-7pm)
