Crawley’s research focuses on the domain of architecture, design and decision support in complex technical systems. He is currently engaged with NASA on the design of its lunar and Earth observing systems, and with BP on oil exploration system designs.

Crawley is a former head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was a finalist in the NASA astronaut selection in 1980. He received an SB (1976) and an SM (1978) in aeronautics and astronautics, and an ScD (1981) in aerospace structures from MIT. Crawley is a fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), and is a member of three national academies of engineering: the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering, and the US National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by Chalmers University, Sweden in 2006.

William A. Lucas is participating in the design, collection and analysis of data to gain a better understanding of the processes of education development of engineering leadership for the Gordon program, and the related evaluation of the Project Centered Learning freshman courses and other programs at MIT. He is also engaged in the assessment of the Kauffman Campus Initiative, studying a $25 million effort to transform university campus cultures to support entrepreneurship; and conducting evaluation research for the University of Edinburgh to inform education program design and national policies that are fostering the emergence of new, high technology companies in informatics to strengthen the Scottish economy.

 

Much of his current research began while he was first Deputy Director, and then Executive Director, of the Cambridge — MIT Institute, a $140 million, eight year partnership between the University of Cambridge and MIT, bringing together leading researchers at Cambridge University and MIT, and launching new educational programs. While CMI was closed in 2008, he continues his work with the Education and High Growth (EHGI) group in Britain, conducting research on the cognitive processes of nascent entrepreneurship, formal models of self-efficacy and career intention in engineering and entrepreneurship. He is also continuing his research on technology management including the identification of best practices for companies contracting for university research.

 

Dr. Lucas began his career as Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and then Director of the Political Science Program at the U.S. National Science Foundation. He joined The Rand Corporation to conduct research on the effectiveness of various Federal programs and applications of new communications systems, and later led a four year field experiment using two-way. interactive cable television to offer education programs.

 

He was then appointed Associate Administrator of the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration, serving as senior Federal official for communications applications in the public sector. His programs included the most successful minority enterprise program in the Administration, doubling the number of minority-owned broadcasting outlets, and he chaired an Inter-Agency Committee that worked with the Appalachian Regional Commission and NASA to use an experimental communications satellite to provide educational programming to that region. That initiative with further support became The Learning Channel, carrying educational programming to 50 million U.S. homes at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

 

In the private sector he has been an executive in three venture capital start-ups and a management acquisition and turn-around of a telecommunications equipment company. In his last company, he was the founder and president of a start-up firm offering e-mail directory services and products. He left industry to be Visiting Professor of Public Administration and Management at George Washington University, before he joined MIT as Executive Director of the International Center for Research on the Management of Technology in the Sloan School of Management.

 

He holds a B.S. in physics from N.C. State University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His primary teaching fields are the management of innovation and applied research methods in the social sciences.

Leo McGonagle recently transitioned from a career of service to the nation spending nearly 21 years as a leader in the US Army Corps of Engineers and achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He earned a commission as an Army officer through the ROTC where he was a Distinguished Military Graduate.

 

Leo's passion is developing leaders. Among his key leadership positions in the Army were as Department Chair and Professor of Military Science and Leadership of the Army ROTC Program at MIT, Executive Officer of a 600-soldier engineer construction battalion in Iraq, Commander of a 100-soldier mechanized engineer company in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and as Platoon Leader of a 30-soldier engineer platoon in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during the Persian Gulf War.

 

Leo spent six years of his military career on college campuses, directly involved in administering leadership development programs and in counseling, mentoring, and coaching emerging leader students. In his three-year assignment as Department Chair of the MIT Army ROTC program, he was responsible for leadership development of students from MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Salem State, Endicott, Gordon, and Wellesley College. He also served for three years as a commander /mentor at The United States Military Academy (West Point), facilitating and overseeing student academic, military, physical, moral-ethical, and leadership development.

 

Leo has led soldiers in combat during contingency operations including the Persian Gulf War in Iraq (Operation Desert Storm) and during Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as during peace enforcement operations in Bosnia-Herzegovnia. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal (three awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (five awards), the Army Commendation Medal (three awards), the Army Engineer Association de Fleury Medal for outstanding support to the Army Engineer Regiment, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals, and the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Liberation Medals. Leo is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and has earned the Army Aviator Badge and the Air Assault Badge. He is a parachutist and an Army Ranger.

 

Leo holds a Master of Science degree in leadership development and counseling from Long Island University and a bachelor's degree from Boston University.

Joel Schindall rejoined the MIT faculty in June 2002 after a 35-year career in the defense, aerospace and telecommunications industries. His research includes the invention and development of a nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor which holds the promise of being  superior to electrochemical batteries as a means of efficient regenerative electrical energy storage, and he has also supervised research on dynamic simulation and reliability analysis of complex  safety-critical systems.

As co-director of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program, Schindall is working to enhance MIT's development of engineering leaders by expanding, focusing and disseminating the teaching of innovative engineering design and engineering leadership within the MIT School of Engineering. Prior to joining MIT, Schindall was VP and chief technology officer of Loral Space and Communications (a manufacturer and operator of commercial satellites), senior VP and chief engineer for Globalstar (a 48-satellite LEO mobile-phone system), and president of Loral Conic (a manufacturer of telemetry systems for missiles and satellites). Schindall received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 1963, 1964 and 1967.

Dr. Soderholm earned a Ph.D. in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation from Syracuse University in 1991, a M.Ed. in Special Education from Boston University, and a B.S. in Special Education/Elementary Education from SUNY Geneseo.

 

Dr. Soderholm has been at MIT for 10 years, first with the Center for Innovation in Product Development, then within the Aero/Astro department working on educational initiatives such as CDIO (Conceive Design Implement Operate - www.cdio.org), an innovative educational framework for producing the next generation of engineers, CMI (Cambridge-MIT Institute), as an educational affiliate with the Teaching and Learning Lab, and currently with the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.

 

Prior to MIT, Dr. Soderholm designed training and managed projects for Fortune 1000 companies through Information Mapping, Inc., collaborated with faculty to design distance courses at University of Maryland University College, designed, developed and evaluated all types of educational and training projects at Syracuse University, including SU's inaugural residential TA training program, directed the training and technical assistance program for the Coalition of Juvenile Justice in Washington, D.C., and was a special education teacher in Rochester, NY.

 

Dr. Soderholm's current interests are engineering leadership, engineering education, course design and development, curriculum design, instructional materials design and development, faculty resource materials, active learning, and diffusion of educational innovations.

J. Kim Vandiver is MIT's Dean for Undergraduate Research, Director of the Edgerton Center and Director of MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which involves 80% of MIT's undergraduate students in research projects with MIT research staff and faculty. In 1992 he founded the Edgerton Center at MIT, which provides resources for MIT students engaged in hands-on educational projects. The Center also runs a K-12 outreach program for local teachers and their classrooms.

Throughout his teaching career, Prof. Vandiver has stressed the importance of hands-on learning. He has worked to enliven the mainstream curriculum, incorporating more and earlier opportunities for students to solve real-life problems, engage in research, and develop relationships with faculty. In 1998 he was the recipient of the MIT President's Award for Community Service for the Edgerton Center's work with the Cambridge Public Schools. In 2001 he was honored as a MacVicar Fellow for excellence in teaching. In 2005, he received the Offshore Technology Conference Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals. In 2006, he received the ASME A. Lubinski Best Paper Award for the Offshore Technology Conference. In 2011, he was honored with the Arthur C. Smith Award for meaningful contributions and devotion to undergraduate student life at MIT, and in 2012 he was honored with the MIT Gordon Y. Billard Award for special service of outstanding merit.

 

A member of the Ocean Engineering Department, now Mechanical Engineering, faculty since 1975, Prof. Vandiver chaired MIT's faculty from 1991 until 1993. His research focuses on the dynamics of offshore structures and flow-induced vibration. He teaches dynamics and mechanical vibration at the graduate and undergraduate level. Prof. Vandiver received his bachelor's degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering, his master's degree in Ocean Engineering from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Oceanographic Engineering from the MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. He is a Registered Mechanical Engineer in the state of Massachusetts and is an active consultant in structural dynamics with the offshore engineering industry. He is also a certified flight instructor for gliders.