After nearly a decade in the Netherlands modeling data for aerospace and semiconductor companies, Ignacio Vazquez wanted his work to reach beyond code and computation. 'I was solving technical problems, but they didn't connect to the people behind the systems,' he says. 'I wanted to understand how decisions were made, and how ideas moved from research to impact.' That goal led him to MIT's System Design and Management (SDM) program, which offers enrollees a joint master's degree in the School of Engineering and the MIT Sloan School of Management. The experience broadened his perspective and set the stage for the role he would soon take on at the Institute.Today, as industry and certificate director of MIT's SDM program, Vazquez helps build collaborations that connect MIT faculty and students with global companies tackling complex challenges. In this role, he faces a new kind of complexity: Instead of analyzing systems, he helps design them ' linking people and ideas to move...
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