Symposium: The Campus—Then, Now, Next
Designing Places for Inventing the Future:
The Campus—Then, Now, Next
College campuses have long played a vital role in our society as educators of future generations, incubators for innovation and economic development, and partners with the communities we serve. On March 30–31, leaders in campus design and innovation gathered in Kresge Auditorium to share ideas on the past, present, and future, as well as MIT’s role as an innovative campus.
Program
Wednesday, March 30
Lunch and networking
Welcome
Cynthia Barnhart (+), Chancellor, MIT
Ford Professor of Engineering Cynthia Barnhart was named Chancellor of MIT on February 3, 2014. Barnhart, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, served as Associate Dean of the School of Engineering since 2007, then acting Dean of Engineering from 2010 to 2011. She was also Director of Transportation@MIT. Barnhart is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and has also served as co-director of both the Center for Transportation and Logistics and the Operations Research Center. Barnhart’s teaching and research interests involve the development of optimization methods for large-scale transportation and logistics problems. Her approaches often require the development of new models and algorithms and their implementations in real operating environments. Her research foci include integrated schedule planning, robust scheduling, and real-time re-planning. Barnhart earned a BS degree from the University of Vermont in 1981 and her SM and PhD degrees from MIT in 1985 and 1988, respectively.
The Chancellor has oversight responsibility for graduate and undergraduate education at MIT, student life, student services, and other areas that impact student experience. The Chancellor and the Provost are the Institute’s two most senior academic officers. Together, they advise the President and participate in strategic planning, faculty appointments, resource development, and Institute resources and buildings.
The Infinite Corridor and Beyond
The symposium opened by exploring campus architecture and design, including the story of MIT's Main Group and its influence on other campuses during the past 100 years. Topics included campus planning and learning spaces, with insight into the design of two newer campuses: the Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.
Hashim Sarkis (+), Session chair; Professor and Dean, MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Hashim Sarkis was appointed Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning in January of 2015, prior to which, he was at Harvard University Graduate School of Design as The Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism. In addition to professorships at Harvard University and MIT, Sarkis has held numerous visiting appointments around the world, including the American University of Beirut and the Metropolis Program in Barcelona.
In addition to his academic work, Sarkis is principal architect in the Cambridge- and Beirut-based firm, HashimSarkis Studios, founded in 1998. His architectural and planning projects include affordable housing, institutional buildings, and town planning around the globe. His current projects include the Byblos Town Hall and the Courtowers, both under construction.
Sarkis has received many awards and honors, including the Venice Architecture Biennale US Pavilion featuring Byblos Town Hall, Housing for the Fishermen of Tyre, and the Balloon Landing Park (June–November 2014) and First Prize Award for the Byblos Town Hall Competition, Byblos, Lebanon (2011). His work has been published in the Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century Architecture with the Housing for the Fishermen of Tyre selected as one of the most significant buildings of the 21st Century (2008). He also received numerous teaching awards while at Harvard University.
Sarkis is the author of many articles and books that have filled important gaps in the history of modern architecture and urban design. These include Circa 1958: Lebanon in the Pictures and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis and the edited books CASE: Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital and Josep Lluis Sert: The Architect of Urban Design (with Eric Mumford).
Sarkis was a founding member of Plan B, Institute for Urban Design Studies in Lebanon and the Middle East and the Arab Center for Architecture. He has served on the board of several organizations including the Association for Rural Development in Southern Lebanon. He holds professional registration with the Beirut Order of Engineers and Architects.
Sarkis earned Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master’s and PhD in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Mark Jarzombek (+), Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, MIT
Mark Jarzombek, professor of the history and theory of architecture, works on a wide range of historical topics from the 12th century to the modern era, with a particular focus on nineteenth and twentieth century aesthetics and the history and theory of architecture.
He is one of the country’s leading advocates for global history and has published several books and articles on that topic, including the ground-breaking textbook, A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006), with co-author Vikram Prakash and with the noted illustrator Francis D.K. Ching. He is the sole author of Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (Wiley Press, 2013), which is a sensitive synthesis of first society architecture through time and includes custom-made drawings, maps, and photographs. The book builds on the latest research in archeological and anthropological knowledge while at the same time challenging some of their received perspectives.
His work on global architecture history is further highlighted by a million-dollar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that Jarzombek received to create a new scholarly entity: the Global Architecture History Teaching Collaborative. Promoting the development and exchange of teaching materials for architectural history education across the globe, the collaborative provides awards to members and their teams to develop new lecture material from global perspectives. Through edX, Jarzombek taught the first-ever MOOC on the history of architecture, with 25,000 people registering and 5,500 active participants, world-wide. It is among the most successful courses taught on the edX platform to date.
Jarzombek has organized several major international conferences on topics such as Holocaust Memorials, Architecture and Cultural Studies, and East European Architecture. He is the faculty editor of Thresholds, an annual peer-reviewed journal produced by the MIT Department of Architecture and held in more than 150 university art and architecture libraries around the world.
Hilary Ballon (+), Professor of Urban Studies and Architecture, NYU; Deputy Vice Chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi
As Deputy Vice Chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi, Hilary Ballon is part of the leadership team that is developing NYU’s new, full-scale campus for undergraduate and graduate students and pursuing President Sexton’s vision of NYU as a global network university. A founding member of the team that began planning NYUAD in September 2007, she has been involved in all aspects of the new university, with particular emphasis on the design of a new, globally oriented curriculum and of the campuses in downtown Abu Dhabi and on Saadiyat Island. A frequent traveler to Abu Dhabi, Ballon is based in New York, where a priority is to build an organic connection between NYU in New York and Abu Dhabi. In addition to her administrative duties, Ballon teaches courses on urbanism and architecture to undergraduates and in the graduate planning program at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Ballon serves on the Board of Directors of the Museum of the City of New York, the Regional Plan Association, and the Skyscraper Museum and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Princeton School of Architecture She was chairman of the Planning Board of Englewood, New Jersey from 2000–2005. where she dealt with contested development issues and rewrote the town’s master plan.
Ballon received a BA from Princeton University and a PhD from MIT. Her academic awards include fellowships from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Andrew H. Mellon Foundation.
David Adjaye (+), Principal and Founder, Adjaye Associates, London and New York
David Adjaye OBE was born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents and his influences range from contemporary art, music, and science to African art forms and the civic life of cities. He founded Adjaye Associates in 2000 and immediately won several prestigious commissions. In Oslo, he designed the Nobel Peace Centre in the shell of a disused railway station (completed in 2005) and in London, his design for the Whitechapel Idea Store pioneered a new approach to the provision of information services (2005). Later projects in London included the Stephen Lawrence Centre, with teaching and community spaces (2007); Rivington Place, an exhibition venue and resource centre (2007); and the Bernie Grant Centre for the performing arts (2007).
Adjaye Associates now has offices in London, Berlin, New York, Accra, and Shanghai and is working throughout the world. In the United States, Adjaye is the designer of a new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver (2007), two public libraries in Washington DC (2012), the Sugar Hill low income housing development in Harlem (2014), and the redesigned Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at Harvard’s Hutchins Center (2014). Adjaye Associates’ largest completed project to date is the £160 million Moscow School of Management Skolkovo (2010). Current projects include the $360 million Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC, the Alara concept store in Lagos, the Aishti Foundation arts and retail center in Beirut, and a new headquarters building for the International Finance Corporation in Dakar.
David Adjaye is the winner of the 2016 McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT.
Christian Veddeler (+), Director, Senior Architect, UNStudio
Christian Veddeler is a Director at UNStudio. Along with his role in UNStudio’s Board of Directors, he leads several international projects, currently including mixed-use high-rise projects in the US and Germany. In close collaboration with Ben van Berkel, Veddeler was in charge of the Campus for the Singapore University of Technology and Design, which was completed in 2015.
Previously, Veddeler has been responsible for a series of key projects by UNStudio that focused on inclusive design methodologie; the interplay of architecture and its context, performance, and aesthetics; the K4 office section of the recently completed Arnhem Central Station Masterplan; Chicago’s Burnham Pavilion; and the New Amsterdam Pavilion in New York City. His extensive involvement in academia includes numerous teaching assignments, among them Harvard University, TU Delft, and the AA Visiting School. As a visiting professor Veddeler led the Advanced Architecture Design postgraduate master program at the Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC) in Frankfurt, Germany for three consecutive years.
Veddeler is a registered architect in the Netherlands and has received a Master of Science with Honors degree in Architecture from the TU Delft.
Julie Newman (+), Director, Office of Sustainability; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
Julie Newman has worked in the field of sustainable development and campus sustainability for 20 years. Her work and research has focused on the intersection between decision-making processes and organizational behavior in institutionalizing sustainability into higher education.
In the summer of 2013, Newman joined MIT as the first Director of Sustainability for the Institute. She is charged with establishing the MIT Office of Sustainability while building on existing partnerships with the City of Cambridge and Boston. Prior to joining MIT, Newman founded in 2004 the Office of Sustainability at Yale University, where she also held a lecturer appointment with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She assisted with the launch of the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute in 1997 before moving to Yale. In 2004, Newman founded the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium, the longest-standing active network of university sustainability professionals, to advance education and action for sustainable development on university campuses in the northeast and maritime regions.
Newman lectures and consults for universities both nationally and internationally, participates on a variety of boards and advisory committees, and has contributed to a series of edited books and peer-reviewed journals. She holds a BS in Natural Resource Policy and Management from the University of Michigan; an MS in Environmental Policy and Biology from Tufts University; and a PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies from the University of New Hampshire.
From Instruction to Innovation
Innovation districts are growing in cities worldwide, thanks to partnerships between universities, government, and industry. The session included reflections on incubating urban innovation spaces, such as Kendall Square (Cambridge, MA) and Roosevelt Island (New York, NY).
Adèle Naudé Santos (+), Session chair; Professor, MIT School of Architecture and Planning
Adèle Naudé Santos, FAIA, currently Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at MIT, was dean of the School of Architecture and Planning from 2004 to 2014. During her tenure as dean, she founded the Center for Advanced Urbanism–an important think tank on urban futures and her leadership led to MIT being named the top university for architecture and the built environment by QS World University Rankings in 2015. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning is consistently ranked the number one planning program in the US.
Prior to her arrival at MIT Santos was professor at the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design, where she taught the design of housing environments and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration. She was founding dean at the University of California, San Diego School of Architecture, architecture chair at the University of Pennsylvania, and taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Rice University.
Santos is principal architect in the San Francisco/Somerville-based firm, Santos Prescott and Associates. Her projects include affordable and luxury housing and institutional buildings. She recently completed projects in California, Guatemala and China. She has received a number of awards and honors, including the 2009 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. She serves as a juror for numerous national and international design competitions and award programs.
Santos received an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association in London, Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard, and Master of Architecture and Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Israel Ruiz (+), Executive Vice President and Treasurer, MIT
Israel Ruiz is the Executive Vice President (EVP) and Treasurer of MIT. He is the Institute’s chief financial officer and, as a Trustee of the MIT Corporation and a member of its Executive Committee, he is the chief steward of more than $17.7 billion of MIT's financial assets and $3.1 billion in operating revenues and is responsible for administering the Institute's $5.2 billion capital plan through 2030. He is responsible for financial strategy and operations as well as human resources, information technology, facilities, sustainability, security, government relations, and medical.
Ruiz is a true believer in the power of research, technology, and innovation to bring opportunity to people and improve the world. Involved since early 2000s with MIT’s digital education efforts, he co-led the Task Force that published the “Future of MIT Education” report outlining the tremendous opportunities that digital learning technologies bring to education. He is on the board of directors of edX.
Ruiz co-leads the $1.2 billion Institute proposal to create a vibrant mixed-use development in Kendall Square. With a strong understanding of MIT’s innovation ecosystem and future technology trajectories, he publicly led the re-zoning effort of Kendall Square in 2013 with an eye to creating place and providing density and mixed-use development to accelerate the process to move ideas from laboratory to market. He continues to actively co-lead the development of the process through its complex execution phase, expected to last beyond 2020.
Prior to becoming EVP and Treasurer in 2011, Ruiz held different positions at MIT, including Vice President for Finance and Director of Finance. Before joining MIT, he worked at Hewlett-Packard (1995–2000) and Nissan Automotive (1993–1995). He holds a Master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a degree in industrial engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, in his native Barcelona.
Katie Stebbins (+), Assistant Secretary of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Katie Stebbins was named assistant secretary of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2015, the first appointee to this position. A champion for economic revitalization via innovation ecosystems, she has more than 20 years’ experience in city and regional development. Announcing Stebbins’s appointment, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development said that she “served the City of Springfield for ten years, specializing in environment planning and brownfield redevelopment, worked for the Cecil Group in Boston, and served as the Western Massachusetts Director for Mass. Mentoring Partnership. Most recently, [Stebbins] ran her own consulting practice and was the primary consultant for the Holyoke Innovation District on behalf of the Massachusetts Tech Collaborative. She is also an entrepreneur who actively participates in the mentoring and accelerator space and launched her own civic tech startup in 2012.” A city planner, Stebbins is leading the application of lessons learned in the economic development of environments such as Kendall Square (Cambridge, MA) to spark growth of the smaller cities in the less densely populated regions throughout Massachusetts.
Roger Duffy (+), Design Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), New York
Roger Duffy is a Design Partner in the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). His design work encompasses a wide range of award-winning urban projects, from transportation-oriented developments, residential, hospitality, and office buildings to academic, museum, and gallery spaces. Among Duffy’s key initiatives was the launching of SOM Journal, an annually published book of SOM’s best work as selected and critiqued by an independent jury of artists, designers, and critics. He also conceived SOM Thinkers, a collection of essays about how architecture is perceived and understood within our culture and by the wider public that interacts with buildings.
Experimentation and collaboration characterize Duffy’s projects worldwide. Light is a critical aspect of his work, as is innovation in sustainability. Duffy’s collaborative design approach is rooted in a deep understanding of the unique qualities of each client’s program, site, and aspirations. The urban context of his work has influenced many of his projects, such as his adaptive re-use of 510 Fifth Avenue; the CornellNYC Tech Master Plan’s treatment of reclaimed space on Roosevelt Island; The University Center for the New School at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street; and The Park Hotel in Hyderabad, adjacent to a railway. Two major transportation facilities designed by Duffy’s teams recently opened: Denver Union Station in downtown Denver and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2, outside of Mumbai. In New York City, Duffy led two SOM teams that explored alternate visions for the future of both Penn Station—Madison Square Garden (2013) and the area around Grand Central Terminal (2012).
Duffy received a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. A fellow of the AIA, he served on the board of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University for many years. He has lectured at Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Harvard, National Building Museum, Netherlands Architectural Institute, Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, University of Toronto, University of Pennsylvania, and Vassar, and he has taught seminars at Harvard and Cooper Union. His projects have received numerous design awards and are featured regularly in the press.
Marion Weiss (+), Graham Chair Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania; Cofounder, WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, New York
Marion Weiss is the Graham Chair Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design and the cofounder of WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, a multidisciplinary design practice based in New York City.
Her firm WEISS/MANFREDI expands the definition of architecture by connecting the territories of art, architecture, infrastructure, and ecology to create new public realms. Competition-winning projects such as the Olympic Sculpture Park, University of Pennsylvania’s Nanotechnology Center, Barnard College’s Diana Center, the Women’s Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center construct reciprocal relationships between city and nature, architecture and infrastructure. Current and upcoming projects include a mixed-use building for MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative that will house the new MIT Museum, a corporate co-location building called “The Bridge” at Cornell Tech’s new campus in New York City, and the US Embassy in New Delhi, India.
Weiss has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Cornell University, Princeton University, and most recently as the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University. She has been honored with the Academy Award for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award, Harvard’s International VR Green Urban Design Award, the New York AIA Gold Medal of Honor, and exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Venice Biennale, the Louvre, and the Guggenheim Museum. Princeton Architectural Press has published two monographs on her work entitled, WEISS/MANFREDI: Surface/Subsurface and Site Specific: The Work of WEISS/MANFREDI Architects. A new book, Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures, was published in 2015.
Carlo Ratti (+), Professor of the Practice; Director, SENSEable City Lab, MIT
An architect and engineer by training, Carlo Ratti practices in Italy and teaches at MIT, where he directs the Senseable City Lab. He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, later earning his MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Ratti holds several patents and has co-authored more than 250 publications. As well as being a regular contributor to Project Syndicate, he has written for Le Monde, El Pais, La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, Scientific American and The New York Times. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, MAXXI in Rome, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Ratti has been featured in Esquire’s “Best & Brightest” list and in Thames & Hudson’s selection of “60 innovators” shaping our creative future. Blueprint included him as one of the “25 People Who Will Change the World of Design”, Forbes listed him as one of the “Names You Need To Know”, and Fast Company named him as one of the “50 Most Influential Designers in America”. He was also featured in Wired’s “Smart List: 50 people who will change the world”. In 2011, Ratti was awarded the Renzo Piano Foundation prize for “New Talents in Architecture”. Two of his projects—the Digital Water Pavilion and the Copenhagen Wheel—have been included by TIME in the list of the ‘Best Inventions of the Year’, in 2007 and 2014, respectively.
Ratti has been a presenter at TED (in 2011 and 2015), program director at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow, curator of the 2012 BMW Guggenheim Pavilion in Berlin, and was named Inaugural Innovator in Residence by the Queensland Government. He was the curator of the Future Food District pavilion for the 2015 World Expo in Milan. He is currently serving as Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Future Cities and he has been selected as Special Adviser to the President and Commissioners of the European Commission, in which role he advises on urban innovation.
Day 1 concludes
Thursday, March 31
Breakfast and networking
Welcome
Martin A. Schmidt (+), Provost, MIT
In February 2014, Martin Schmidt was appointed Provost of MIT. Beginning in 2008, he served as Associate Provost, managing the Institute’s space and the renovation/renewal budgets. Since January 2012, he also assumed responsibilities for “all things industry” as the senior administrative officer responsible for MIT’s industrial interactions. In this capacity, the Technology Licensing Office and Office of Corporate Relations report to him. Beyond his regular responsibilities, he also co-led the Institute’s Task Force on the Budget in response to the 2008 financial crisis. He played an active role as MIT’s faculty lead in support of the MIT President’s role as co-chair of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a national effort bringing together the federal government, industry, universities, and other stakeholders to identify and invest in emerging technologies with the potential to create high-quality domestic manufacturing jobs and enhance the global competitiveness of the United States. Schmidt received his BS degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981 and his SM and PhD degrees from MIT in 1983 and 1988, respectively.
The Provost shares responsibility with the President, the Chancellor, and the academic Deans for the supervision of the educational and research programs of MIT. The Provost is the chief academic officer of the Institute with responsibility for budgeting and planning of these programs.
Learning in 02139
A report from speakers at the front lines of experiments in education at the university, secondary, and childhood levels.
Christine Ortiz (+), (Moderator); Dean for Graduate Education; Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
Christine Ortiz is the Dean for Graduate Education and the Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Ortiz obtained her BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MS and PhD from Cornell University, all in the field of materials science and engineering.
On joining the MIT faculty, Ortiz developed a research program that focuses on the multiscale mechanics of musculoskeletal and exoskeletal structural biological materials, with the primary goal being to quantify and understand new mechanisms, phenomena, and design principles and how they determine function, quality, and pathology. She has more than 160 scientific publications 20+ academic journals, including Nature Materials, Science, Nano Letters, Physical Review Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Biophysical Journal, Tissue Engineering, and the Journal of Biomechanics. She has given 130+ invited lectures on her research, more than 35 of which were international, and at nine topically different Gordon Research Conferences. Ortiz has supervised more than 80 students in 10 different academic disciplines, served on the editorial boards of several journals, and received numerous awards and honors. She has served as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Defense.
The Dean for Graduate Education is responsible for the Office of the Dean, the International Students Office, and the Graduate Student Council. In this role, ODGE serves as the central administrative office handling a wide variety of federal, foundation, and corporate sources of graduate financial support. The Dean stewards a broad range of endowed funds in support of graduate tuition and stipends, and manages the appropriate disposition of those resources. She also works to develop strategic initiatives across the units of ODGE, the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education, and the Division of Student Life.
Thomas Magnanti (+), President, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD); Institute Professor, MIT
Thomas Magnanti is the founding President of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Institute Professor and former Dean of Engineering at MIT. His technical expertise is in large-scale optimization and its applications in telecommunications, transportation, production planning and scheduling, and logistics. He is the co-author of two textbooks and numerous research articles.
SUTD has been established in collaboration with more than 100 MIT faculty members. Its mission is to advance knowledge and nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs, through a focus on design and an integrated multi-disciplinary curriculum and multi-disciplinary research.
Magnanti has led several centers and programs at MIT including, as the founding co-director, MIT’s Leaders for Manufacturing and System Design and Management Programs and, as founding director, the Singapore–MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). He has served as president of three major professional societies and as editor of Operations Research. He has also headed one third of the MIT Sloan School of Management and has served on a number of university, corporate and government boards and councils.
Magnanti has received numerous educational and research awards, including four honorary degrees. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Syracuse University and Master’s degrees in statistics and in mathematics, as well as a PhD in operations research, all from Stanford University.
Mitchel Resnick (+), LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab
Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, explores how new technologies can engage people in creative learning experiences. Resnick’s research group developed the “programmable brick” technology that inspired the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, a worldwide network of after-school centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Resnick’s group also developed Scratch, an online community where children program and share interactive stories, games, and animations.
Resnick earned a BA in physics at Princeton University (1978) and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked as a science-technology journalist from 1978 to 1983 and he has consulted throughout the world on creative uses of computers in education. He is author of Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams (1994), co-editor of Constructionism in Practice (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling (2001) and The Official ScratchJr Book (2015, with Marina Umaschi Bers). In 2011, Resnick was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education and in 2013, received the AACE EdMedia Pioneer Award.
Saeed Arida (+), Founder and Chief Excitement Officer, NuVu Studio
Saeed Arida is the Founder and Chief Excitement Officer of NuVu studio, a full time innovation school based in Cambridge, MA. NuVu is paving the way for a new studio education model that nurtures students’ creative and innovative skills through project-based collaborative design. NuVu also works with schools to introduce integrated studio programs through the development of innovative curricula, teacher training, and on the ground pedagogical and technical support. The studio management system developed by NuVu is currently used by thousands of middle, high school, and university students across the globe. The work of NuVu students regularly garnishes national and international media attention through such mainstream and educational outlets as Wired, NPR, Venture Beat, TechCrunch, as well as the White House Science Fair.
Arida received his PhD in Design Computation as a Presidential Fellow at MIT, where his Doctoral research examined the intricacies of the creative process and the nature of creativity. This work, explored how an educational environment can nurture creative learning, formed the pedagogical framework for NuVu. Prior to studying at MIT, he earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Damascus University in Syria.
The Virtual Campus
The future of online learning will be determined by our comprehension of its challenges and opportunities. From lessons learned to ongoing data-driven educational experiments, how are we thinking differently today—now that we know what we know?
Sanjay Sarma (+), (Moderator); Vice President for Open Learning, MIT
Sanjay Sarma is the Vice President for Open Learning at MIT. He also leads the Office of Digital Learning, which oversees MIT OpenCourseWare and supports the development and use of digital technology for on-campus teaching and massive open online courses (MOOCs). In addition, Sarma is the Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
A co-founder of the Auto-ID Center at MIT, Sarma developed many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP) in 2008, and he has worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Berkeley, California.
Currently, Sarma serves on the boards of GS1, EPCglobal, several start-up companies, including Senaya and ESSESS, and edX, the not-for-profit company set up by MIT and Harvard to create and promulgate an open-source platform for the distribution of free online education worldwide. He also advises several national governments and global companies.
Author of more than 75 academic papers in computational geometry, sensing, RFID, automation, and CAD, Sarma is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and research, including the MacVicar Fellowship, the Business Week eBiz Award, and InformationWeek’s Innovators and Influencers Award. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, his Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Susan Singer (+), Division Director, Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation; Laurence McKinley Gould Professor, Biology and Cognitive Science Departments, Carleton College
Susan Singer is Division Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor in the Biology and Cognitive Science Departments at Carleton College. She is a nationally recognized leader in undergraduate education and plant biology. In addition to a PhD in biology from Rensselaer Institute of Technology, she completed a teacher certification program in New York State. A developmental biologist who studies flowering in legumes and also does research on learning genomics, Singer is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow and received both the American Society of Plant Biology teaching award and Botanical Society of America Charles Bessey teaching award. She directed Carleton’s Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, was an NSF program officer in Biology, and is a co-author of the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology report, as well as two introductory biology texts.
Singer has served on numerous boards, including the NSF Education and Human Resources Federal Advisory Committee, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Board, the American Society of Plant Biology Education Foundation, and the Botanical Society board of directors; was a member-at-large for the AAAS Education Section; participates in the Minnesota Next Generation Science Standards team; and was a member of the National Academies’ Board on Science Education. She has participated in six National Academies studies, including chairing the committees that authored America’s Lab Report, Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate Education and Discipline-based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering. Currently she is improving undergraduate education through her leadership at NSF and across federal agencies, implementing the undergraduate goals of the Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics 5-year Strategic Plan.
Paul LeBlanc (+), President, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)
Paul LeBlanc became President of Southern New Hampshire University on July 7, 2003. He previously served as president at Marlboro College (VT) since 1996.
Under LeBlanc’s direction, SNHU has become the first American university to bring online programs into China, has expanded academic programs including a nationally recognized MFA Program featuring writers like Russell Banks and Richards Rhodes, revitalized its campus with new buildings, and become the first carbon-neutral university campus in New Hampshire—and one of the first in the nation.
Prior to joining Marlboro College, LeBlanc was vice president for New Technology at Houghton Mifflin Company. He also served as chair of the Humanities Department at Springfield College (MA) from 1993 to1996. An authority on technology and education, he created the first full degree program in e-commerce, the first Master of Arts in Teaching with Internet Technologies, as well as the Master of Science in Internet Strategy Management, all based at The Graduate Center of Marlboro College.
LeBlanc serves on the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning Board of Directors and serves or has served on the boards of the New England Association for Schools and Colleges Commission on Higher Education, the Council of Independent Colleges, The Derryfield School, NH Campus Compact, The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, NH Junior Achievement, NH Council of Colleges and Universities, and Heritage United Way. He was recently appointed by the governor to serve on the NH Post-Secondary Education Commission.
He was appointed by NH Governor John Lynch to the Governor’s Commission on Latino Affairs and while in VT was appointed by Governor Howard Dean to the stae’s first Commission on Higher Education Funding. He has testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on questions of intellectual property and fair use and consulted with foundations on questions of the liberal arts and technology.
LeBlanc received a PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1990, a Master’s of Arts degree from Boston College in 1982, and a Bachelor of Arts from Framingham State College in 1980.
Anant Agarwal (+), CEO, edX; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Anant Agarwal is the CEO of edX, an online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT. Agarwal taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science. He is a successful serial entrepreneur, having co-founded several companies including Tilera Corporation, which created the Tile multicore processor, and Virtual Machine Works.
Agarwal has received the Maurice Wilkes prize for computer architecture and MIT’s Smullin and Jamieson prizes for teaching. He also holds a Guinness World Record for the largest microphone array and is an author of the textbook, Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. His work on organic computing was selected by Scientific American as one of 10 World-Changing Ideas in 2011 and he was named in the Forbes list of top 15 education innovators in 2012. Agarwal, a pioneer in computer architecture, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the ACM.
He has blogged about reimagining higher education on the Huffington Post. In his spare time, he hacks on WebSim, an online circuits laboratory. Agarwal holds a PhD from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Day 2 concludes
Boxed lunches available following the program