Date: Saturday, March 14, 2026
Location: MIT Samberg Conference Center, 6th floor (for both daytime and evening)
50 Memorial Drive, MIT Building E52, 6th floor
Coffee and Tea
Speakers:
Tom Magnanti
Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kathy Hawkes
Senior Associate Dean of School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anantha Chandrakasan
Provost, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Retsef Levi
Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joline Uichanco
Associate Professor, New York University
Lennart Baardman
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Manuel Moran-Pelaez
Assistant Professor, IE University
10:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Break
Light snacks and refreshments
11:00 - 12:00 p.m.
Mentorship and Scholarship
Speakers:
Elaine Chew
Professor, King's College London
Maxime Cohen
Professor, McGill University
Guillaume Roels
Professor, INSEAD
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Impact on Industry and Teaching
Panel I: Bridging Research and Practice
Panelists:
Maureen Canellas
Associate Chief Medical Officer, UMass Memorial Medical Center
Lien Le
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Tampa General Hospital
Pavithra Harsha
Principal Research Scientist, IBM
Wei Sun
Senior Research Scientist, IBM / MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
Kiran Panchamgam
Senior Manager, Oracle
Moderator:
Omar Skali Lami
Vice President, Machinify
Panel II: Teaching and Educational Leadership
Panelists:
Johanna Hising DiFabio
Assistant Dean of Executive Programs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Victoria Bousis
Director & Creative Technologist, UME Studios
Kosta Ligris
XEIR/Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Founder, Ligris
Marielena Prokopiou
Founder, Delos Navigation Ltd.
Moderator:
Retsef Levi
Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2:00 - 2:20 p.m.
Break
Light snacks and refreshments
2:20 - 3:50 p.m.
Perspectives from Colleagues
Speakers:
Hamsa Bastani
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Mor Armony
Vice Dean for Faculty and Research, New York University
Saurabh Amin
Co-Director of Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Asu Ozdaglar
Deputy Dean of College of Computing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dan Huttenlocher
Dean of College of Computing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3:50 - 4:00 p.m.
Closing Remarks
Speakers:
Angela Lin
Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Joyce Luo
Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Leann Thayaparan
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Emily Zhang
Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: MIT Samberg Conference Center, 6th floor
50 Memorial Drive, MIT Building E52, 6th floor
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Cocktail Hour and Reception
6:30 - 10:00 p.m.
Dinner and Birthday Celebration
Toasts, games, cake and more!