In the face of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we need a new radical humanism, says Tim Leberecht. For the self-described "business romantic," this means designing organizations and workplaces that celebrate authenticity instead of efficiency and questions instead of answers. Leberecht proposes four (admittedly subjective) principles for building beautiful organizations.

Students are introduced to the engineering design process, focusing on the concept of brainstorming design alternatives. They learn that engineering is about designing creative ways to improve existing artifacts, technologies or processes, or developing new inventions that benefit society. Students come to realize that they can be engineers and use the design process themselves to create tomorrow's innovations.

Toy Product Design is a MIT Public Service Center service learning design course offered in the Spring semester. This course, previously listed as SP.778, is an introduction to the product design process with a focus on designing for play and entertainment.
In this course, students work in small teams of 5-6 members to design and prototype new toys. Students work closely with a local sponsor, an elementary school, and experienced mentors on a themed toy design project. Students will be introduced to the product development process, including determining customer needs; brainstorming; estimation; sketching; sketch modeling; concept development; design aesthetics; detailed design; prototyping; and written, visual, and oral communication.
At the end of the course, students present their toy products at the Playsentations to toy designers, engineers, elementary school children and the MIT community.
For more information about this course, see the 2.00B Web site.

What is economics and why should you spend your time learning it? After all, there are other disciplines you could be studying, and other ways you could be spending your time. As the Bring it Home feature just mentioned, making choices is at the heart of what economists study, and your decision to take this course is as much an economic decision as anything else.

Economics is probably not what you think it is. It is not primarily about money or finance. It is not primarily about business. It is not mathematics. What is it then? It is both a subject area and a way of viewing the world.

15.975 U-Lab: Leading Profound Innovation for a More Sustainable World is an interactive and experiential class about leading profound innovation for pioneering a more sustainable economy and society. The class is organized around personal reflection practices, relational practices, and societal practices. It focuses on the intertwined relationship between the evolution of capitalism, multi-stakeholder innovation, and presencing.

Over the last 40 years, new managerial technologies in Western democratic societies have emerged to dominate our perceived and lived reality. Demands for autonomy and a creative life, which have been the touchstones for artistic endeavors, have been readily absorbed into management philosophies, becoming normative values for self-management and entrepreneurial innovation. Is this art’s triumph or demise? Can we imagine other worlds beyond our managed reality and propose forms of living not yet captured by the rationality of network capitalism? We will explore the “creative” figure and how it can shape renewed critical expressions in fields such as technology, design, science, philosophy, etc.

Does your business need a make-over? Are you unsure how to start?

Having an innovative business model is key for a profitable business and growth. In this business and management course, you will learn how to design, test and implement new business models for sustainable success.

This course introduces you to the main topics of business model innovation. You will learn what drives business model innovation and why it is valuable to you and your business. You will apply practical tools to (re)design and test a business model.

Be inspired by real-life business model examples from fellow entrepreneurs and learn from leading experts who design business model innovations. By the end of this course, you will be able to structure your thinking and communicate your business model ideas and learn how to improve your own business.

In 2004, the Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight captured the public’s imagination and revolutionized an industry, leveraging a $10M prize purse into over $100M in innovation. Building from that success, the X PRIZE Foundation is now developing new prizes to focus innovation around “Grand Challenge” themes, including genomics, energy, healthcare, and education.
This course will examine the intersection of incentives and innovation, drawing on economic models, historic examples, and recent experience of the X PRIZE Foundation to help develop a future prize in Energy Storage Technologies.