2007 ALC Highlights
Learn, Share, Practice: Foundations of MIT
View the ALC 2007 Slide Show
View Conference Video Highlights
James Nevins Jr. SM '56, VP of the Class of 1956, enjoys the speed networking event. All photos this page: Chris Brown.
MIT Alumni Association President Harbo Jensen PhD '74 had goods news to report to the 400+ volunteers attending the Sept. 28-29 Alumni Leadership Conference (ALC) on campus. Record fundraising dollars and participation. An MIT building designated as a future alumni center. Stellar events including a women's leadership conference. New clubs and affinity groups. Club activity that spawned the California Clean Tech Open competition. The MIT Enterprise Forum Innovation Accelerator grant.
These examples of Association volunteers in action illustrate ALC's theme—Learn, Share, and Practice: Foundations of MIT. ALC, an annual weekend of workshops and networking hosted by the MIT Alumni Association, drew volunteers from 28 states and five countries. Saturday workshops ranged from How to Be a Class Webmaster to Web 2.0 Tools and Persuasive Communication. Select dowloadable presentations are available for many workshops as is video from some presentations and workshops.
Jim Banks '76 (left) and Chiquita White '85 mingle at the leadership awards dinner, where White was given the Alumni Association's highest honor, the Bronze Beaver.
A dose of Speed Networking prepared alumni volunteers for a festive reception at the MIT Museum's new Innovation Gallery and Charm School prepped the etiquette-conscious for a leadership awards dinner that feted exceptional alumni such as the five Bronze Beaver winners: Theodore P. Heuchling '46, SM '48; Henry H. Houh '89, SM '91, PhD '98; Arnold A. Kramer '52; Martin Y. Tang SM '72; and Chiquita V. White '85.
MIT principles guided alumni business success
Sherwin Greenblatt '62, SM '64, head of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, gave a keynote address Friday evening. Greenblatt has served MIT as vice president and an entrepreneurial mentor, and the Institute has been a powerful personal and professional influence for him.
Sherwin Greenblatt '62, SM '64 is currently head of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service.
As a graduating master's student, Greenblatt was persuaded by his professor, Amar Bose '51, SM '52, PhD '56, to become the first employee of a company that would make practical products based on acoustic research. Greenblatt took that challenge, weathering long hours and business uncertainties before Bose Corporation became globally successful. He retired in 2002 and soon agreed to head the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), which helps students, faculty, and alumni turn great ideas into business successes. At President Susan Hockfield's behest, he served as interim executive vice president for 18 months, returning last winter to his volunteer mentoring role. VMS is currently working with 120 members of the MIT community who have raised $350 million in venture and angel funding; 25 entrepreneurs have launched their businesses.
In his ALC talk, Greenblatt said Bose's corporate culture was based on MIT principles. "One important point was that we hired good people, not just good engineers," he said. "We recognized that we have to give people freedom to grow and to learn new things. And we played for the long run. Other companies had pressures of the market for the next quarter."
Impact on local communities
Many volunteers have used their MIT expertise to benefit local communities, and they shared experiences at a show-and-tell session. The Club of Boston provided science demonstrations and a Science Trivia Challenge at the Cambridge Science Festival. The Club of Hartford, CT, launched a colloquium that resulted in seven local teachers attending the MIT Science and Engineering Program for Teachers. The MIT Club of Northern California's Clean Technology Program was the catalyst for the California Clean Tech Open, a state-wide competition.
Alumni contribute directly to MIT as well. More than 9,000 volunteers serve through activities such as interviewing prospective students, organizing class reunions and giving, and hosting student externs. Last year, 33,332 alumni contributed $41,993,372 to the Institute.
Faculty–Student focus
Civil and Environmental Engineering Head Patrick Jaillet SM '82, PhD '85 (far right) fields a question during the faculty–student panel. He's joined (left to right) by PhD student Todd Radford SM '03 and senior Shannon O'Connell.
Taking a sip from the fire hose is an ALC highlight. Civil and Environmental Engineering Head Patrick Jaillet SM '82, PhD '85 described the department's origins from the first civil engineering classes offered in 1865 to today's innovations in education and research such as projects on nanotech concrete and environmental genomics.
Senior Shannon O'Connell presented her research that developed a way to keep ocean currents from disrupting the flow of CO2 en route to deep ocean storage. "I was working on creating a shroud or protection so the current would not move it. It was like a chimney in reverse," O'Connell said. The successful project both helped induce the flow and dilute the mixture, which should minimize the environmental impact. PhD student Todd Radford SM '03 described a project for rural bridge construction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that relies on local materials. He's analyzing the lattice truss of classic New England covered bridges to formulate adaptations and design guidelines so local people can build their own bridges.
Economics Head Jim Poterba pointed to the outsized influence of the relatively small number of MIT economics graduates—such as Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke PhD '79; George Shultz '51, who served as secretary of state, treasury, and labor; and Freakonomics author Stephen D. Levitt PhD '94. The program accepts only 20 PhD students from more than 700 applicants each year.
Senior Josephine Duh described her research on the impact of changes in deductibles and co-payments, which found that raising these costs does not increase the total cost of health care to families. PhD student Greg Fischer's study of risk in microfinance contracts may lead to new joint liability agreements that could encourage entrepreneurship by sharing both risks and rewards.
Throughout the weekend, volunteers gained information, contacts, and resources to continue community building endeavors around shared MIT values and ideals. "The ALC themes remind us that all of us, all of the time, are both students and teachers," said President Susan Hockfield of the conference's Learn, Share, Practice motif. "You are the information army—you convey how an MIT education can change a life and how that life can change the world."
