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Although our 15.990 projects will be with companies and organizations in greater Boston, there's scope for some students to enroll in both GLab and 15.990.  For most 15.990 student projects with locally-based hosts, this will be realatively easy to arrange; with the special 15.990-GLab projects, we'll work together to ensure that students can collaborate and work with their host organizations both in the Fall and in the Spring.

GLab students conduct an analysis and make recommendations -- possibly developing a business plan, market analysis, or new-market-entry strategy for a foreign firm.  While interaction is clearly centralto central to GLab projects, because of their nature, this is essentially a consultative approach , where whereby GLab projects are scoped such that all work for the host may be completed by the end of IAP.  During Spring H1, GLab students deliver final presentations to their professors and peers, reflect on their learning, and speculate on the potential impact of their recommendations (if their hosts follow through).  During   In contrast, during Spring H1, all 15.990 students remain intimately closely engaged with their host companies. They develop and execute additional mini-experiments, and make a strategic hand-off, so that hosts take ownership of student work, and take it to the next level.

Another point of contrast is that most of the classroom instruction for GLab addresses topics connected to entrepreneurship in a global setting, whereas in 15.990, the focus is on the topics relevant to getting things done -- being effective as a manager . -- that are most closely connected to the project work you are carrying out.

Can you tell me what a 15.990 project might look like?

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•       Be substantial enough to support  the the collaborative work of a team of at least four students (please note that teams will be formed in the class);
•       Involve interactions with multiple stakeholders within a host organization;
•       Center on a problem that cannot be solved simply by research, analysis, or application of off-the-shelf frameworks;  
•       Depend on the design and execution of "mini experiments" that test hypotheses and gather data to advance learning;
•       Depend on innovation---your mini-experiments should represent a new, untested strategy for your host, helping them move beyond the limits of preexisting infrastructure.

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Teams will be formed in the class, ; be prepared to work in a novel team.  

How do I sign up?

Please email Ashley Chiampo to apply for the course.  We are accepting students on a rolling basis. Please send the following:

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