Fall 2012 - MIT Club of New York

MIT Club of New York
Newsletter for the Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
FALL 2012
Join us for
Kick-Off ‘12
on
September 5th, 2012
6:30-8:30 PM
at
Letter from the President
Scott Morrison ‘86 EE
I began my term as President of the MIT Club of New York at the beginning of the year –
it’s been a warm winter season in New York and that holds true for our Club and alumni
as well.
Aleo Restaurant
First, I want to thank the more than 650 alumni and guests who signed-up for our events
during the period from January through March. This is an exceptional turnout, and
represents both enthusiasm for Club events among alumni and continued quality and
variety of offerings from the Club’s volunteers.
It’s FREE (for MITCNY members
+ 1 guest; $15 for non-members)
and all are welcome!
Next, I must thank the Club’s alumni volunteers. Balancing multiple work-life, family-life,
volunteer and other obligations is not easy, and I truly appreciate the efforts our the
Club’s board and committee volunteers in serving our alumni community. Over the last
three months, our volunteers have conceived of, orchestrated and delivered, on average,
one event per week! The effort that goes into this – including identifying topic areas that
match alumni needs, planning for speakers and event formats, finding venues, working
through logistics, marketing and communicating – cannot be underestimated. Your
continued participation in Club activities and ongoing Club Membership is also a “thank
you” for our volunteers.
7 West 20th Street
(between Fifth & Sixth Avenues)
New York, NY 10011
Register online at www.mitclub.org
Upcoming Events
More events are always being added! For
details on these and other events, please visit
www.mitclub.org.
September
Kick-off 2012-’13!
October
Professional Programs Finance Series
Risk Management in the Spotlight:
Past, Present and Future
MIT Comes to NYC: View from the Top
Global Capital Markets: What Next?
Building the City: A Tour of the
Second Avenue Subway Line
November
MIT Comes to NYC: Robert Urban,
Executive Director, The Koch Institute
Print Your Imagination - Tour of the
Shapeways 3D Printing Facility
During this term, the MIT Club of New York Board has endorsed 5 objectives for the Club,
and we are already progressing on them:
• Build a network of at least 50 volunteers who work on at least 2 activities during the
year.
• Conduct an alumni survey to better understand needs of the MIT alumni community
in NY, identify top 3 actions, communicate these to our alumni base, and execute on
them.
• Aim for 2 events with participation of 150+ in Spring 2012.
• Advance our community service efforts through interest among volunteers
(e.g. at least 20 involved in these activities) and advertise our efforts through MIT
communications channels.
• Insure the Board and Committee Directors are excited about the Club; think about
rewards/recognition and define specific work that can be accomplished.
Some of these are ongoing, and as you read this, consider how you can further these
goals. Alumni volunteers are the Club’s lifeblood. If you are not currenlty volunteering
with the Club, please help us with the first objective. Liora Sukhatme (liora@alum.
mit.edu), one of the Club’s Executive VPs, is the initial focal point for Club volunteers.
Please feel free to reach out to me (smor@alum.mit.edu) or any of the Club’s board
members regarding specific volunteer opportunities or event ideas. Many of the Board
members are also on-hand at events – most of which provide ample time for networking,
so please bring ideas to our events.
In Spring 2012, we will distribute an alumni survey, and expect to report on results (either
in this newsletter and/or on our web site), and will take action on the survey for our Fall
2012 and Spring 2013 programming.
Continued on page 3
MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012 | 1
2012-13 MIT Club of New York
eat • play • volunteer • celebrate
officers
MITCNY Social Program
Immediate Past President
Gary Brackenridge ‘97 MG
Executive Vice President
Michael Johnson CP ‘97
Liora Sukhatme ‘98 MG
Vice President of Educational and
Cultural Programs
Yu-hui Lin ‘97 LI
Vice President of Social Programs
and Inter-Club Relations
Dominic Ricci ‘99 PH
Vice President of Professional
Programs
Lenora Suki MG ‘97
Vice President of Service Programs
Michael Johnson CP ‘97
Vice President of Communications
and Membership
Charlene Chuang ‘05 BCS
Secretary
Aaron Koffman CP ‘03
Treasurer
Jeremy Gerstle ‘99 EECS
Club Counsel
Arthur Katz ‘61 MG
Nominating Committee Chair
Gregory Arenson ‘70 EC
Directors
Cristina Dolan MAS ‘94
Liora Sukhatme ‘98 MG
Thomas Halket ‘70 PH
Kenneth Wang ‘71 EC
newsletter
Editor
Jeremy Gerstle ‘99 EECS
Graphic Designer
Amy Kim ‘91 AR
website
www.mitclub.org
2 | MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012
A new year arrives as the MIT Club of New York launches into its social calendar for the
2012-2013 season on Wednesday, September 5th at Aleo Restaurant with our annual
Kick-Off event. Enjoy refreshments and hors d’oeuvres while learning about your local
alumni club, meeting club officers, and mingling with fellow MIT alums. The cavalcade of
conviviality continues throughout the year –escape from work to relax, socialize with old
friends, and make new one at MIT happy hours and inter-alumni club mixers. Assuming
the Mayan apocalypse fails to manifest, this January will bring us the Toast to IAP, MIT’s
yearly traditional homage to that hallowed inter semester hollow. Keep an eye on http://
newyork.alumclub.mit.edu and follow @mitclubny on Twitter to stay in the know.
I am pleased to include that we have
already held two events with participation
of more than 150 (based on registration) -MIT Comes to NYC: An Evening with Peter
Diamond and Class Size = One Billion. We
will likely exceed that objective with our
Spring events.
What’s that? You’re looking for an excuse to explore new bars and restaurants? You get
a thrill out of meeting people, chatting them up, then introducing them to each other
minutes later? The Club is looking for a few good people to organize social outings such
as happy hours and brunches. Contact Dom Ricci (domr@alum.mit.edu), the VP for
Social & Interclub Programming, for more details.
City Meals on Wheels
Michael Johnson CP ‘97
During the 2011-12 season, more than 40 alumni dedicated their time to serving
homebound seniors in New York City. In December 2011, and in April and May of
2012, the MIT Club of New York partnered with City Meals on Wheels, a non-profit
organization that provides a continuous lifeline of nutritious food and human company
to homebound elderly New Yorkers in need. In four separate volunteer sessions, alumni
traveled in teams of four delivering food and pleasantries to elderly seniors in housing
developments along the Upper East Side.
Through their experience and dedication, many alumni gained a strong appreciation for
service, but also gained new friendships and a renewed connection with the Club. Some
alumni even invited family and friends to volunteer as well. The partnership between City
Meals and the MIT Club of New York has become a key hallmark for the Club’s ongoing
service efforts and strong commitment to disadvantaged New Yorkers.
We hope you will join us in the 2012-13 season!
City-As-School Partnership
Photos: Tanit Sakakini
President
Scott Morrison ‘86 EE
Continued from page 1
Dom Ricci ’99 PH
Michael Johnson CP ‘97
What was it like attending MIT? How and why did you choose your profession or career
path? What are you passionate about? What are your strengths and weaknesses? These
were some of the questions that Alumni were asked as part of new initiative with CityAs-School and the Life-Learning Lecture Series. City-As-School (CAS) is one of the oldest
alternative public schools in New York City.
Dominic Ricci ’99 PH; Joe Harrington ’61, SM ’63, SCD ‘66; Bruce Blanchard ’57, SM ’64
Leverage your MIT network: Attend the 2012 Alumni Leadership
Conference
As alumni volunteers and club leaders, don’t miss this year’s Alumni Leadership
Conference (ALC), a celebratory campus gathering designed to enhance your
effectiveness and enjoyment as an ambassador for MIT.
This year’s program will feature talks by MIT administration leaders and students,
discussing the Institute’s initiatives and future; tailored workshops on getting the most
out of the newly launched Encompass platform from iModules; and social events to
celebrate the important role alumni volunteers play in the life of the Institute.
Save the dates! September 21-22, 2012. ALC will inspire, inform, and motivate you. While
discovering what is new at MIT, you’ll have an opportunity to hone leadership skills,
celebrate alumni volunteer service, and meet old and new alumni friends who share
your loyalty to MIT.
A personal motivator for me is the MIT
Club of New York’s participation in
community service, and while we provide
a number of opportunities for giving back
to the community, we need additional
alumni to participate in meeting our
community service objective. Most of
these opportunities involve only a few
hours of time, so if you are not able to
help with Club events, please consider
participating in our community service
efforts.
Regarding the final objective, we are
commited to recognizing the efforts
of alumni in Giving to MIT through
volunteering time with the MIT Club
of New York. Recognition comes in
many ways – including through this
newsletter, through web and social media
communication, through MIT volunteer
appreciation events, and through the
satisfication of engaging our alumni.
Please join me in these ways of giving and
in continuing to serve alumni needs.
Registration is open. General information is available now at http://alum.mit.edu/alc.
CAS is a nontraditional academic high school that serves over 700 students, ages 17-22,
through highly structured internships and interdisciplinary course offerings. The school
targets students who do not thrive in a traditional classroom-learning environment or
are at risk of dropping out of school and is a founding member and model school for the
New York State Performance Consortium and the International Network of Experiential
Programs and Schools (INEPS). From January to May 2012, alumni participated in a series
of monthly round table discussions along with five to six students and faculty on topics
such as discovering your talents and strengths, building professional relationships and
industry specific workshops on topics such as business, law, health, art and architecture.
Alumni from various backgrounds in business, real estate, engineering and government
provided their knowledge on how to focus your passions but learned from a younger
generation about their desired paths, dreams and goals. The Club will look to continue
this partnership in coming year and invite alumni from all backgrounds to participate and
give a couple of hours a month to young, inspiring minds.
MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012 | 3
professional programs
Photo: Lyne Bernard MCP ’95
that centers on how people prefer to be
managed.
From left to right Jon Kaufman SM ’97, Bhaskar Pant (MIT Professional Education), Karen Ho ’94 EECS, and Scott
Morrison ‘86 EECS
A Look at Professional
Programs in 2011/2012 and
Beyond
Career Development: Dealing
with Complex Communication
Challenges
With another year of inspiring
conversations in 2011/2012, Professional
Programs brought together the people
and voices - alums and friends of MIT
alike - that make us think and connect
in new ways. Our new energy program,
The Energy C-Suite Series, kicked off in
high style with two companies whose
technologies promise radically improved
energy efficiency. We promise more
innovative perspectives from emerging
leaders in alternative and mainstream
energy companies. The social enterprise
series we launched last year gave us
another rousing NYC launch to the MIT
Public Service Center’s annual IDEAS/
Global Challenge and connected more
people to invention in the public interest.
Look forward to next year’s fall program
on education or food and agriculture.
Professional development programs this
past year honed in on the challenges faced
by new managers with Stepping Up and
Speaking Out, where we cracked open
the DNA of leadership as we all work with
global economic shifts. AEC programs are
coming back as well with a new slate of
tours and presentations of iconic places
and cutting-edge perspectives, finishing
the season with Times Square and the
TKTS Booth. Our popular finance programs
will keep on rolling with a brunch series
that tackles tough topics and will return
with more quantitative finance speaker
events next year. My heartfelt thanks to
all the committed Directors, volunteers,
sponsors, partners and friends of MIT Club
of New York Professional Programs. We
look forward to another great year.
On Tuesday March 27th, MIT Club of
New York Professional Programs’ event,
Speaking Up: How Effective Managers
Deal with Complex Communication
Challenges, brought together four senior
managers from various industries to
discuss communicating effectively in
challenging situations.
- Lenora Suki SM ‘97, Vice President
4 | MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012
Panelists Jon Kaufman ’97 SM, Partner,
Bain & Company, Bhaskar Pant, Executive
Director, MIT Professional Education,
Karen Ho ’94 EE former Chief Operating
Officer, Broadway Technology, and
Scott Morrison ’86 EE Vice President at
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
The event was moderated by Lenora Suki
SM ‘97, and organized by Lyne Bernard
MCP ‘95, as a follow up to our fall 2011
event Stepping Up, which focused on new
leadership roles.
With our work requiring communication
across more cultures, generations,
geographies and technologies than
ever before, our panel’s pearls of
communication wisdom included
personal anecdotes and advice for working
effectively with superiors, subordinates,
clients and peers in a global economy.
Bhaskar Pant’s view on intercultural
communication emphasizes learning
about the social and business culture of
your conversation partner the people
and customizing communications to to
that understanding to get messages
across in the most respectful and effective
way. Scott Morrison also focused on
solidifying relationships and build trust. He
recommended a mentorship framework
Karen Ho’s thoughts on gender
communication issues suggested
that women in male-dominated work
environments are best-served by focusing
on their substantive contributions. Her
stand-out advice was that at the heart of
stereotypes lie positive traits: emotional =
passionate and quiet = good listener.
Turning the tables, Jon Kaufman talked
about getting tough advice on his own
communication style and how important it
is to know how others in your environment
perceive you. Seeking feedback and being
open to adjusting your communication
style are important steps in your career.
We thank Holland and Knight for their
support and the use of their offices.
- Lyne Bernard MCP ’95
Activities of the FinanceOriented Professional
Programs
The Finance Brunch Series is well into its
fifth year with topics ranging from End of
the Euro to high-frequency trading and
regulation. These brunches offer a regular,
topical, small-scale and informal way to
connect and exchange ideas on common
interests in finance. We choose event
topics within a month of each brunch to
make sure they’re current, and we vary
topics to reach as many alums as possible.
You don’t have to be immersed in the
topic to come, contribute, enjoy and hear
what your fellow alums have to say.
Professional Programs continues to
develop our relationship with Courant
and their Mathematical Finance program.
We are coordinating our fall ‘12 event for
September or early October.
Thank you for your interest in and support
of the Finance Professional Programs. We
look forward to seeing you at one or more
of our events throughout 2012.
Second Annual Kick-Off of the
MIT IDEAS Global Challenge
in New York City
Energy C-Suite Series Launch
Event on Quantum Dot
Nanotechnology
It was a full house again when MITCNY
Professional Programs partnered with the
MIT Public Service Center and the Hub
NYC on March 6th to support yet another
inspiring year of student-led teams
competing for prizes with innovative
solutions to positively impact underserved
populations all over the world in health,
agriculture, technology, infrastructure,
housing and many other areas.
MIT Club of NY Professional Programs
launched its Energy C-Suite Series
on February 27th with an exciting
presentation by Seth Coe-Sullivan,
EECS ’05 titled View From the Top in
Energy Efficiency and Quantum Dot
Nanotechnology. Seth Coe-Sullivan,
founder of QD Vision, started the
nanomaterials product company at the
age of 27 and was named one of the top
35 innovators under the age of 35 by
Technology Review Magazine.
One of last year’s winners, ALCAS,
Advanced Low Cost Autoclave Solutions,
brought the impact of the competition
home to the audience as they described
their elegant and simple innovations
to pressure cookers to sterilize medical
equipment in Nepal. Safe Water World
showed us their portable, low-cost testing
kits with easy-to-execute microbial water
tests in a design that is durable enough
to be used in the field, which is currently
being piloted in Chile.
In a silent auction, attendees reviewed
the missions of the competing teams and
“bid” their technical knowledge, business
skills and global networks to mentor teams
through the competition and execution of
their projects. For the 11 teams asking for
help, more than 30 people signed up to
offer their energy to the projects.
Learn more about the event and the teams
in this year’s MIT IDEAS Global Challenge
at: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu.
We learned that, although lighting
consumes 22% of electricity production,
the ubiquitous incandescent bulb is wildly
inefficient at converting electricity to
visible light. To address this deficiency, QD
Vision uses quantum dots, semiconductor
nanocrystals that glow when exposed to
current or light. Discovered in the 1980s,
quantum dot technology is helping
QD Vision literally blaze a new path,
particularly for home lighting and flat
panel displays.
In a feature we aim to replicate in future
events, Seth Coe-Sullivan shared not only
a vivid description of the technology but
also what it takes to lead an innovative
company in an energy industry
experiencing rapid change and paradigm
shifts in technology.
We thank First Republic Bank for kindly
hosting the event.
-Jonathan Koch ‘82 ME
Many thanks to our sponsors, Liquidnet,
for contributing refreshments and a
welcoming space.
- Lenora Suki SM’97
TKTS booth in Times Square
On May 8th, 2012 MITCNY Professional
Programs hosted a talk by Nicholas Leahy,
Principal at Perkins Eastman Architects,
and structural engineer Michael Ludvik,
discussing the design and construction
process for the TKTS booth in Times
Square, a notable new urban and
cultural amenity for midtown Manhattan.
Featuring a sloped plaza defined by
luminous glass steps and supported by a
load-bearing glass structure, the building
encloses a fiberglass booth from which
tickets are sold.
Leahy began the presentation with an
overview of the history of Father Duffy
Square and the design competition which
resulted in a winning concept design by
the Australian firm Choi Ropiha (now Choi
Ropiha Fighera.)
Having explained the project’s genesis,
Leahy and Ludvik then explained some
of the many challenges that arose during
the design process, including the need
to engage multiple stakeholders, a
constrained and prominent site which
required extensive off-site prefabrication
to minimize construction time, as well as
the extensive research and negotiation
required to produce the innovative glass
structure. In addition, Leahy discussed the
project’s innovative mechanical systems,
including a geothermal heating and
cooling system which extends 450 feet
beneath the site, and a high-efficiency
HVAC system which keeps the interior
clean and dust-free.
Leahy ended the presentation by
discussing the public and critical reaction
to the project- it was immediately adopted
as a hangout space by tourists and locals,
and since its opening has been featured in
many media outlets including films, music
videos, and in multiple television news
spots.
Many thanks to Keon-Soo Nam AR ’03
and Harriet Provine AR ‘09 for their
assistance in organizing this event.
-Kenneth Namkung AR ‘03
- Jay Damask ‘90 EECS
MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012 | 5
educational & cultural programs
MIT Comes to NYC
Photo: Connie Yee, ’08 ME
An Evening with Peter
Diamond, Nobel Laureate in
Economics
MIT Comes to NYC
Cecilia d’Oliveira ‘97 EECS
Class Size = One Billion:
How Open Educational Resources Are Transforming Education
A whopping 90% of MIT students and 50% of alumni use MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW).
Half of current MIT freshmen were looking at OCW in high school. Of those, 36% said
OCW was a significant factor in school choice!
On January 31st, two representatives from OCW – Cecilia d’Oliveira ‘97 EECS, Executive
Director, and Shigeru Miyagawa, Chair of Faculty Advisory Committee – gave an
engaging presentation to over 100 MIT alumni, Google employees, and OCW donors on
the history and the future of open educational resources, in particular OCW. Between the
inception of OCW in 2001 and 2010, worldwide demand for higher education has surged
60%. In developing countries such as India and China, we see a substantial growth in
demand but a very limite access to higher education. In mature economies, with the
current state of economy, lifelong learning has become ever more important.
Aligned with the mission of MIT, OCW started ten years ago sparking a revolution where
the materials that come out of classes are given away for free. This has encouraged other
universities like Stanford and sites including Khan Academy to share their ideas and
knowledge. A wide range of communities, from high school educators developing their
curriculum to home-schooled students to working professionals to entrepreneurs, has
benefited from such open access to quality resources.
We welcomed Professor Peter
Diamond, 2010 Nobel Laureate in
Economics and MIT Ph.D. 1963, on
March 1st as part of the MIT Comes to NYC
Speaker Series. His talk on “Steps to Limit
Future Global Economic Crises” was a soldout event. Prof. Diamond covered various
issues of current interest, principally the
interplay between unemployment and
Federal debt. In this context, he said, there
is a tension between the needs of the
future and what needs to be done in the
present to resolve the consumer debt
crisis. He provided an in-depth look into
how various sectors of the job market are
working such as the relationship between
job openings, new hires, separations,
people quitting the workforce and those
discharged. The statistics he showed
painted a grim picture wherein the
average duration of joblessness among the
unemployed is close to a post-war high.
From 2009 to 2010 the poor economy
caused the long-term unemployed to
increase in number. Dr. Diamond view
was that even under very long-term
projections, Federal debt is not unsustainable, given that most of it is held
internally. He advocated that lessons be
learned from past agricultural bankruptcy
reform and mortgages in bankruptcy
should be modified. He also supported
greater liquid capital requirements on
banks and better risk management of the
financial system as a whole. We would like
to thank Grace Koo (course 14, SB, 1992),
for her generosity in hosting the event at
Credit Suisse.
From left to right: Gregory Arenson ’71 ECON, Karen Arenson ’70 ECON, Barton Stuck ’69 EECS, Priscilla Diamond
-Yu-Hui Lin ’97 LI
- Connie Yee ’08 ME
6 | MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012
Photos: David Laidig MS ’10
A full recording of this presentation is on YouTube. Special thanks to Google NYC for
hosting the reception and talk!
Photo: David Laidig MS ’10
Now, as we look forward to the next decade at MIT, there will be three main educationfocused components: MIT, MIT’s OCW and MITx (a new online learning initiative
announced last December). As for OCW, we can expect to see enhanced content, more
videos, and growth of learning communities.
From left to right: Patrick Chan ’87 CE, Sammy Thomas, Gerald Tourgee ’77 ME, Carol Tourgee
MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012 | 7
MIT Club of New York
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8 | MIT Club of New York | Fall 2012
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