15.879  Research Seminar in System Dynamics

See below:

Professor Sterman,
 
I left a message on your VM last week and I’m following up by email. 
 
I’m David Kiser, alum of MIT (Class of ’69) and a good friend of Laura and Dave Peterson.  I’m also the Chairman of the Audit Committee of a large engineering firm here in the Boston area that is dealing with some complex contingent cash flow issues that we believe should be modeled using System Dynamics so that we can understand various scenarios better.
 
Do you have a grad student who would benefit from a good summer project and whom you’d recommend highly?  We’d pay a fair price, no traveling would be involved, and this is a great group of folks with whom to work.  We’d seek output ASAP, preferably before September.
 
If you can help us, we’d be very appreciative.  If no one comes to mind, please let me know that also along with any suggestions you may have for where we might turn next.
 
Thank you!
 
Very truly yours,
 
 
 
David Kiser
Director, Venture Development
Sage Partners
www.sagepartners.net
781-893-4912 (o)
617-823-0445 (c)
 
 
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Summer 2009 Employment Opportunity for MIT System Dynamics Grad Student

A large, highly-regarded Boston-based engineering and environmental consulting firm is seeking a skilled practitioner of system dynamics to prepare an SD model of the firm’s cash flows that will enable the evaluation of multiple scenarios over the next 7-10 years.  Several required elements of these scenarios present interesting modeling challenges that lie beyond the stock and flow of normal operations, including: 
•    possible receipt of a large contingent note at an uncertain future date
•    anticipated discontinuous improvements in the cost of operations due to the application of lean
•    numerous expected ownership transition transactions at varying dates at a stock price that is based upon a formula that considers both book value and earnings
•    the management of several large investments that will need to be monetized during the period under study
•    timing and magnitude of investment in several new initiatives
•    conversion of the firm’s demand line of credit to a fixed line with explicit loan covenants that are interdependent with several of the above elements
•    effects of the firm’s tax strategy on the above

We expect to pay a fair price for this work and would seek to have the work completed by September, 2009

I posted pdf copies of slides that I have used in class on the STELLAR website under the topic "slides."  I also added an .mp3 file of the Scott Page interview on WNYC that we started listening to yesterday.  Under the "notes" topic I added a scanned copy of my notes on the Cournot Duopoly game (sorry for the poor handwriting). 

If there are any other materials that you would like to see added, just let me know.  There are additional slides available on my website www.mit.edu/~pjl under the "Teaching" tab.

The scanned copy of the Axlerod readings for next week has been posted, "Axlerod: Complexity of Cooperation."  Enjoy!
PJ

Shortly you should be receiving an email from me responding to your reading response for last week.  I just wanted to get back to you since we didn't have a chance for a discussion in class. 
Have a good weekend!
PJ

Also - don't forget no class next week.