IAP 2016 – Lorraine

22 Feb 16

Lorraine Pasqual

It was a great opportunity and an amazing experience to be able to participate in the 2016 IAP. The IAP organizers made an effort to ensure that we managed to meet and interact with as many students as possible. We were broken up into groups of 4 for various activities. This allowed us to interact and work together with participants from the different MIT scale centres. We were able to meet students from different working backgrounds, countries and cultures. When we were not working on our group tasks, we would chat and exchange views and experiences which was very enjoyable. I found the Fresh Connection simulation game a highly fun way to get involved in and apply the supply chain skills we have learnt to manage the performance of a company, which we would not necessarily get the opportunity to do in real life.

We also had the opportunity to attend seminars given by MIT lecturers on their research areas. These seminars were extremely interesting and thought provoking giving us a glimpse of new trends and of what the future might look like. In addition to the lecturers, there were also numerous industry leaders who came in to share their organization’s supply chain challenges and new initiatives in an ever increasingly competitive business environment. These leaders also shared their personal experiences and advice on career advancement which I found very useful. In summary, the IAP experience was invaluable in terms of the learning process, knowledge gained and networking.