MSEM Alumni Gather for Lively Discussion on New Product Strategies

loT and ubiquitous machine vision represent new frontiers

More than 60 M.S. in Engineering Management alumni from nearly 20 different class years enjoyed a night of socializing and a lively discussion on new strategies in product R&D. The event, sponsored by global innovation and engineering firm Altran, was held on January 26th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington, MA.

View all photos from the event on flickr!

Jim Nash, Tufts Gordon Institute Lecturer and Technical Director at Altran kicked off the event with opening remarks on emergent strategies transforming product development. Nash spoke about using agile models in non-software disciplines; having open product platforms to encourage third parties to create systems components adding value; and moving R&D centers to local target markets.

MSEM 2015 Alumnus and Product Manager of loT at GlobalSign, Nisarg Desai, then presented on how the Power of loT – the Internet of Things – will cause a paradigm shift in every industry. To emphasize the growth of the industry, Desai cited data from several sources including McKinsey which predicts the potential economic impact of loT will be any where from $3.9 to $11 trillion a year by 2025. Desai also highlighted several case studies including a smart connected circuit breaker by Eaton and predictive maintenance applications using cloud platforms for turbines by GE Power. He wrapped up his talk by emphasizing the important of security being built into all these applications.

The final presentation, “A New Era in Machine Vision” was given by Ari Berman, Technical Director at Altran. Berman discussed how the incredible advances in the performance of image sensors, computer vision and advanced robotics, represent a new frontier in industrial automation. An early application of machine vision was the semiconductor manufacturing process and more recently new applications include the Keurig coffee maker and self-driving cars.

The evening wrapped up with an interactive discussion where alumni shared insights and asked additional questions to the presenters.