IAP 2016 – Loh

22 Feb 16

Dream Come True for a Working Adult

Some time in Jul 2014, I chanced upon MISI’s website which offers Part-Time MIT’s Masters in Supply Chain Management curriculum taught by MIT faculty in Malaysia, at a fraction of the US tuition fees. So, it was a no brainer – I signed up immediately.

Soon I learnt that a couple of part-time students were invited to join MIT’s IAP program in Jan 2015, given their outstanding results. I was exhilarated by the opportunity to go to MIT – my dream university during my younger days. And I was motivated to follow their footsteps.

Months of hard work followed, and I was fortunate to make it in the 2016 IAP part-time students list. The next thing I did was to tell my children I am going back to school, just like them, hoping to motivate them in their study.

Independent Activities Period (IAP) is a special program conducted during January for MIT Global Scale Network students to learn through experiential education. The faculty and staff had painstakingly organized many non-classroom activities, such as:

• Seminars by MIT faculty on latest findings and developments
• Forum with industrial leaders sharing insights in supply chain
• Research teasers of current MIT research works
• Industrial tours to nearby companies
• Thesis poster presentation by students
• Hands on sessions with various Supply Chain Software
• Simulation Game mimicking real life corporate decision making
• Team Competition for Innovation in Forecasting Methods
• Leadership workshops

Human element is always the most importance factor in Supply Chain. I will cherish forever the friendship I established during this IAP with students from MIT , Zaragoza Logistics Center ( ZLOG ) from Spain, Europe and Centre for Latin-American Logistics Innovation ( GCLOG ) from Columbia. South America and fellow course mates from Malaysia Institute of Supply-Chain Innovation ( MISI ).