7th Annual Transportation Showcase, 2017

The MIT Transportation Club is proud to host the 7th annual MIT Transportation Showcase to be held on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 from 6:00-9:00pm at the MIT Museum.

Schedule:

  • 6:00 to 7:00 pm — Keynote Speech: K. Venkatesh Prasad, Ph.D.
  • 7:00 to 9:00 pm — Transportation Career Fair & Research Poster Session

The Showcase is the MIT Transportation Club's flagship event, and is widely attended by the students, alumni, faculty, and professionals that make up the MIT transportation community. The event showcases the transportation research carried out at MIT, strengthening the connections among the MIT transportation community, particularly between industry and academia. The Showcase is also an excellent venue for students and faculty to get advice, feedback and ideas for future research, as well as to connect with possible research collaborators.

CAREERS — Connecting students and employers
RESEARCH — Enabling collaboration
NETWORKING — Forging new connections

Keynote Speech: K. Venkatesh Prasad

Accelerating Auto & Mobility Innovation – Early Observations of Open Source Toolkits and Crowdsourcing Platforms

K. Venkatesh Prasad, Ph.D.
Senior Technical Leader & Member of Ford Technology Advisory Board
Ford Motor Company

Abstract

In a marked departure from an almost exclusively centralized framework for innovation and its resultant economic benefit envisioned by Joseph Schumpeter, there is growing evidence of a new and vast shorefront for innovation that is mostly decentralized, diffuses in a free and open manner and is intensely powered by peer-innovator networks, as documented in the life-long research of Professor Eric von Hippel at the Sloan School. The catalyst for this emergence of decentralized innovation has been the dramatic reduction in the costs of computing and communications that has accelerated development of truly functional and “executable” prototypes or “minimum viable products” not just in the world of “bits” (software) but also in the world of “atoms” (hardware).

In this talk, we will use examples from our numerous collaborations with students, faculty members, and with employees and their networks within Ford Motor Company, and with startups and established firms, to outline some exciting new opportunities for the pedagogy, research, and delivery of automobile and, more broadly, mobility related innovations. We will emphasize the growing importance of employee-driven peer instruction and open-source (hardware and software) toolkits in accelerating the pace of customer-focused new product and service creation.

About the Speaker

K. Venkatesh Prasad is the Senior Technical Leader for Open Innovation and a member of the Ford Technology Advisory Board. Effective January 1, 2017, he is also Ford’s Global Innovation Implementation Leader, Vehicle Components & Systems Engineering. Prasad earned a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rutgers University in 1990, an M.S. from Washington State University, and engineering degrees from IIT-Madras and NIT-Trichy in India. He has more than 25 years of collaborative experience with universities, startups, automotive suppliers and technology firms. He has co-edited three issues of the Proceedings of the IEEE (on Automotive Technologies; Aerospace and Automotive Software and Cyber-Physical Systems). He is current roles spans both the exploratory and the implementation aspects of innovation at Ford. Prior to coming to Dearborn, Michigan, in 1996, Prasad worked in Menlo Park, California (at Ricoh Innovations) and before that in Pasadena, California (at Caltech).

Students - How can you get involved?

  1. Spread the word! Share the date and details of the event with your network within industry, MIT, and other affiliated research institutions. If you have contacts at a company or organization that may want to attend, share their information with the event coordinators at transportation.showcase@mit.edu.

  2. Become a volunteer! Sign up here to help with set-up or clean-up on the day of the event.

  3. Attend the event! You will have the opportunity to connect with companies and learn about transportation-related research done at MIT! Drinks and dinner will be provided. This event is open to the greater MIT community.

Industry - How can you participate?

If your company or organization is interested in participating in the 2017 MIT Transportation Showcase, please fill out this form by Friday, February 10 or contact the Showcase organizers at transportation.showcase@mit.edu.

Sponsor!

Being a sponsor of the Transportation Showcase is a great way to get the most out of the event by engaging directly with future research collaborators and connecting with the rising talent in the MIT transportation community. If your company or organization would like to become more involved and help ensure the long-term success of this annual event, consider one of our three levels of sponsorship. *Any sponsorship automatically covers the participation fee.

Platinum Sponsor

As a platinum sponsor, the company will enjoy all the privileges of a gold sponsor (large logo on.all promotional materials, prominent table and banner space, early access to resume book). In addition, the platinum sponsor will have access to guest parking permits, and a full-page advertisement in the event program and on the event website. The Transportation Club will also work with the platinum sponsor to set up a private lunchtime recruiting event on campus before or after the Showcase.

Gold Sponsor

As a gold sponsor, the company will have a large logo printed on all promotional materials for the event, will have their choice of a large, prominent table and banner space for recruiting, and will have early access to the electronic version of the resume book (for pre-event scouting).

Silver Sponsor

As a silver sponsor, the company will have its logo printed on all promotional materials for the event, a larger and more prominently placed table for recruiting, and day-of access to the electronic version of the resume book.

Attend!

Any alumni, transportation professionals, or companies can come to present their work, discover cutting-edge research, and form lasting connections. Any company that is interested in setting up a promotional table for recruiting or sharing their work at the event must pay a basic registration fee of $150. This covers table space for promotional materials, nametags for company representatives, two printed copies of the resume book to be received on the day of the event, and food and drink for company representatives during the reception. *This participation fee is a single payment and does not scale with the number of representatives attending.

Companies attending in 2017 include: Cambridge Systematics, EDR Group, Hopper, IBI Group, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., MBTA, RSG, Spy Pond Partners, LLC.

Collaborators

While the 7th annual MIT Transportation Showcase is primarily organized by the MIT Transportation Club, the event would not be possible without the funding and support provided by Transportation@MIT, the New England University Transportation Center, and the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. The Career Fair is registered and held in collaboration with the MIT Global Education & Career Development Office. We would also like to thank the MIT Museum and the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education who give us access to a wonderful venue.

→ Information on previous editions of the Showcase: 2016 2015 2014, 2013, 2012, Inaugural (Feb 2012)