15.871  Introduction to System Dynamics (H1)

System Dynamics summer internship at the VA

I hope you are enjoying Spring Break.

See below a summer internship opportunity for an MIT-affiliated student using System Dynamics with the Department of Veterans Affairs. If you are interested, please email Tom Rust at the VA (tom.rust@va.gov) or me (dkeith@mit.edu).

Cheers,
David.

------------------

The internal systems-improvement consulting center where I work is starting a new project to evaluate the effects (intended and unintended) of key VA policies. This is part of a national effort to overhaul the entire VA policy creation and rescission process. Our hope is to show, over the next year, how system dynamics and other methods for analyzing alternative scenarios can help policy makers craft more effective policies. Hopefully we will be able to convince VA policy makers to incorporate system simulation into the policy making process going forward.

Our plan is to demo the SD modeling process with one or two existing policies over the summer, hopefully starting in May. If that goes well, then we will be looking for more support of the next fiscal year.

At this stage, we’re open to almost any type of support: from advising for a few hours each month to <20hours a week working with VA groups building models to illustrate policy impacts. The one caveat is that they have to be affiliated with MIT, where we currently have a contract – we couldn’t pay them otherwise.

If you have questions, please email me.

Thanks,
TOM

Announced on 25 March 2015  12:49  p.m. by David R. Keith

Reminder: Peer Assessment

A final reminder to please complete the evaluation of your team members for 15.871 ASAP if you have not already done so: https://survey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6A7HtEpoesKFONn.

Thanks,
David.

Announced on 16 March 2015  8:56  a.m. by David R. Keith

Half-Term Surveys

As we get to the end of H1 tomorrow, there are some simple survey tasks I request that you complete by the end of Friday:

1. Your grade for 15.871 includes 15% for evaluation from your teammates, as described in the Syllabus. Every team is expected to complete the assessment. Click the link below and follow the instructions carefully: https://survey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6A7HtEpoesKFONn

2. Please complete the online Subject Evaluation for 15.871 following the link sent to you by the Sloan Office of Faculty Support. Your feedback, and in particular your written comments, are very important to me.

3. I would appreciate if you could complete a very brief exit survey to help me and the other System Dynamics faculty schedule future classes, by following this link:
https://survey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d4LxLfY7AlC5s33

I will also provide time at the end of tomorrow's lectures to complete the surveys, so please bring your laptop to class.

Many thanks,
David.

Announced on 11 March 2015  8:12  p.m. by David R. Keith

People Express

Just a quick reminder that we will be studying the case of People Express tomorrow, and it is critical that you have read the case prior to class. You can obtain the case from Study.net, following the link available on Stellar -> Materials.

Also, for Assignment 5 and the recitation on Friday we will be using a management flight simulator of People Express that allows you to test your own management strategies. Instructions for how to install the software (PC only) are provided with Assignment 5. We recommend you install the software if you have a PC or a Mac with Fusion/Windows installed. Otherwise, you can access the software through a web browser by logging in to the Sloan Remote Lab.

Cheers,
David.

Announced on 04 March 2015  1:40  p.m. by David R. Keith

Assignment 4: Unable to open the file VCR data.vdf

Announced on 28 February 2015  9:34  p.m. by Florian Heinemann