MIT Sloan Brings Bitcoin Conference to Campus
The MIT Sloan School of Management has announced that the university’s own Bitcoin Club will host its yearly Expo on March 5 and 6. Bitcoin, for readers who missed out on the Silk Road darknet market controversy of 2013—along with their chance to purchase guns, pharmaceuticals, and data from the comfort of their own home—is an open-source virtual currency, which, according to its official site, “uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks.”
MIT U LAB Returns for MOOC
MIT Sloan School of Management course, Transforming Business, Society, and Self with U.Lab, has returned to Mooc.org, part of the not-for-profit enterprise composed of 30 leading global institutions that aims to transform online and on-campus learning on an open source platform, for another session. The course, taught by MIT’s Otto Scharmer, was reviewed as “eye-opening” or “life-changing” by 88 percent of the students who had previously completed it.
According to edX, ” U.Lab has inspired the first-known use of a MOOC by a government as a platform for citizens to shape the issues that matter to them, it has been used in management teams of the world’s leading NGOs, and it is now being used in 42 Impact Hubs worldwide – by locally-rooted, globally connected communities of change makers to catalyze systemic change.”
Sloan Students Come Together for Fundraiser
Students from all six programs at the MIT Sloan School of Management have come together to raise money for the student led fundraiser for the Sloan Annual Fund. For the student fundraiser, each degree program holds its own campaign and has its own fundraising goal. The Student Giving portion of the Sloan Annual Fund is a multi-program event that was designed to bring the classes together.
The MIT Sloan Annual Fund provides funding for many of the School’s most important initiatives and priorities. Money given to the fund go toward supporting innovative new programs and courses at Sloan, fellowships for students and funding research projects developed and led by junior faculty. The fund also helps Sloan to expand their alumni and student networks by bringing both groups together.
Mason Students Pitch Innovative Ideas At Conference
The Mason Enterprise Research Conference gave six George Mason School of Business students a special opportunity to sell 75 business leaders and entrepreneurial academics on their ideas and inventions.
The annual conference holds its focus on innovation launchpads, that is, co-working spaces, incubators and accelerators. Six “seed level” teams of Mason-based innovators were given time to present during the Mason Innovation Lab Patriot Demo Day session. The groups showcased their ideas in an attempt to convince one of the bigwigs in attendance to help them, either with advice or their checkbook. Continue reading…
MIT Sloan School of Management to Hold Conference on Long-Term Unemployment
Although the short-term unemployment rate in the U.S. is receding to pre-recession levels, long-term unemployment remains at levels unseen since the Great Depression. Nearly 4 million people have now been out of a job for more than six months. To address this crisis, its underlying causes and potential solutions, MIT Sloan School of Management’s Institute for Work and Employment Research is holding a conference on May 6 for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.
“This will be the first national gathering of its kind to bring together these groups of experts to discuss long-term unemployment,” says MIT Sloan School of Management Prof. Ofer Sharone. “There are millions of people left out of the workforce who want to contribute. This is devastating families because of the loss of income, it’s emotionally devastating individuals, and it’s hurting our economy. We need to find solutions that work and solve this problem.”
The conference stems from a project by Sharone at the Institute for Career Transitions in which he is connecting long-term unemployed individuals with volunteer career coaches. Tracking their outcomes, he’s hoping to determine which strategies work. In addition to discussing early results from this project, the conference will bring together representatives from the most promising programs across the U.S. that support the long-term unemployed, along with policymakers and thought leaders on this issue.
The conference will be held from 9:00am – 3:30pm at MIT’s Morss Hall in the Walker Memorial Building. Members of the media are invited to attend, but pre-registration is requested. To register, please contact Michelle Rosin at mrosin03@gmail.com.
MIT Announces Recipients of the 2014 Jamieson Teaching Awards
MIT has announced that The 2014 MIT Sloan recipients of the Jamieson Teaching Awards are Professor Georgia Perakis and Associate Professor Juanjuan Zhang. The Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching prize offered by the School, was established in 2006 and is awarded each year to two MIT Sloan faculty members, as well as two electrical engineering and computer science faculty members, for their contributions to educational excellence at MIT.
Perakis, the William F. Pounds Professor of Management, a professor of operations research and operations management, and the MIT Sloan faculty co-director of the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, was cited for her “dedication, passion, and innovative thinking that have had a long-standing impact on the School.”
Perakis, who has been a member of the faculty since 1998, said she’s passionate about her job because of the students that she teaches and mentors. “The students here are amazing, and they shape who I am. I feel like a constant student because I am always learning from them,” she said.
Zhang is an associate professor who teaches marketing management and studies social interactions and marketing strategies. The Jamieson Prize Selection Committee noted her “dedication to knowledge dissemination and pedagogical innovation, with impact extending across the Institute.”
Zhang said she was “deeply thankful” for the award. “MIT Sloan has been really supportive of my teaching over the years,” she said. “My colleagues have gone out of their way to help, and my students have brought so much enthusiasm into the classroom, which makes teaching an inspiring experience to me.”
