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| Charles Iheagwara SDM ’10 |
MIT’s System Design and
Management Program (SDM) attracts many students with master’s degrees, but
perhaps no one has entered with more academic credentials than Charles
Iheagwara, who joined the 2010 cohort with four advanced degrees—including a
PhD in computer science.
The founder and chief
technology officer of Unatek Inc., a US government information technology
contractor, Iheagwara has also taught at the university level and has 40
published works to his name. Nevertheless, he said that studying at SDM has
been “fantastic.”
“Going to MIT is the dream of
every engineer,” he said. “The coursework and the curriculum [at SDM] are the
best that anyone could imagine.”
Iheagwara said he is
particularly benefiting from the management portions of the curriculum. “I
haven’t had any formal management education. So this is the opportunity for me
to learn about the theoretical and practical aspects of management and
leadership,” he said. “In today’s corporate world, technology is an
indispensable tool .... [SDM] demonstrates how effective management can lead to
better utilization of technology to enhance the bottom line.”
He said he is already putting
his new SDM skills to use on the job—particularly the lessons he learned about
forging alliances in SDM’s course in technology strategy. “I don’t think in the
past I was able to do that so well at Unatek. But immediately after [taking the
course] I was able to strengthen areas where I was weak,” he said.
Never one to do things by
halves, Iheagwara is not just working and going to school full time. He is also
organizing SDM’s speaker series as a member of the program’s Industrial
Relations Committee, a student-led group that works to forge links between SDM
and the business community.
As both an executive and an
academic, Iheagwara said he felt a responsibility to put his resources to use
for the benefit of the SDM program. “I thought I could tap contacts I had to
help promote the program,” he said, noting that he had organized several big
conferences at Unatek. “I believe that if you are part of an organization, you
should work to advance the interests of that organization.”
The first series of talks
organized by Iheagwara took place this past summer. Highlights were a keynote
address on entrepreneurship and leadership by Mamoon Yunus (MIT ’93, ’95),
president and CEO of Crosscheck Networks, and a panel discussion among Ajay
Mishra, global head of innovations management at Nokia Siemens Networks; Rob
Kramer, chief of applications development and operations at the Washington
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; and Darren Hammell, co-founder and
executive vice president for business development at Princeton Power Systems.
“I like the panel sessions
because, if nothing else, they make it possible to have more speakers from a diverse
spectrum of the work force,” Iheagwara said, noting that the series has three
main goals:
1) To
give the SDM cohort the opportunity to learn directly from high-caliber
professionals on the front lines of industry.
2) To
disseminate information about the program to the speakers themselves, who come
to MIT from different companies and organizations.
3) To
promote the program more generally. “Each time we invite speakers and have
speaker events, it generates some sound bites that can help promote the program,”
Iheagwara said.
Typically, the SDM speaker
series is open only to members of the SDM community, allowing SDM students to
meet with speakers in small groups and to ask questions during presentations
and afterward. Iheagwara and others on the Industrial Relations Committee have
been working to line up other speakers for the fall and have a commitment from
Luwanda Jenkins, Maryland’s special secretary of minority affairs. They’re also
reaching out to many chief technology officers and entrepreneurs and expect to
have an exciting program lined up, Iheagwara said “We think the fall and spring
will be very busy with events,” he said.
For current SDM event
information, go to sdm.mit.edu and esd.mit.edu.
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