Seminar in Operations Management
MIT Sloan's seminar examines Technology Roadmaps, the planning tools companies and industries use to chart possible development paths for emerging technologies. Students study the data that feeds these roadmaps, including rates of innovation, physical limitations, improvement trendlines, corporate intent, and value chain evolution. The course builds directly on the ongoing MIT Communications Technology Roadmap project and lets students apply the same methods to other domains such as nanotechnology, bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, neurotechnology, or medical imaging and diagnostics. Beyond seminar discussion, the course offers thesis and special project tracks for students who want to develop an original roadmap or extend the MIT project's ongoing work. Materials are published through MIT OpenCourseWare under its standard open license, free to access, with no certificate offered. The seminar format suits students with some background in technology strategy or operations management looking to apply forecasting frameworks to real industries.