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ANJALI SASTRY: I've been
teaching at MIT since 2001.

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And I've taught all
kinds of classes.

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But the innovation I'm excited
to be talking about today is

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a new set of linked projects
that I helped our mid-career

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executive students--
the Sloan Fellow MBAs--

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on this past year.

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So I hung up my
shingle and asked

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students who had a passion
for linking technology

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with social impact in some
way to come and talk to me.

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And I created with
them a set of projects

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which allowed the students to
really dig into areas that they

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came to MIT passionate
about, but also

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to link it to their coursework
and their degree program.

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SARAH HANSEN: Could
you talk a little bit

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about some of the specific
projects that students did?

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ANJALI SASTRY: The
project students

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did ranged greatly
but all had as a theme

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using what they
were learning here

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and tapping into emerging or
existing technology in new ways

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to find solutions to
problems that face many.

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That's the social
impact aspect of it.

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And it took with each
student some effort

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to really map out a good enough
and focused enough question

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that was doable as
an independent study

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project and that was deep enough
to allow me to really bring

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to bear the educational goals
that I had for the projects.

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So one student,
Doreen, was really

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interested in the problem of
creating agricultural products

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in Africa using crops
and products that are

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grown right there in Africa.

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Why is Africa importing a
lot of consumer products

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when the continent has a
lot of agricultural assets?

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So she was really interested
in understanding--

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what are the business models,
what are the constraints, what

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are the opportunities
when it comes to finding

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new ways to create locally
sourced products that could

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actually serve
beauty, nutrition,

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or other needs in
her native Zimbabwe

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or elsewhere in Africa.

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I'll tell you about
another project.

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Idoia, a student who came
to me after deep experience

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at the World Bank, was really
interested in a challenge

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that traditional governmental
organizations really

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wrestle with.

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How do we tap into
entrepreneurship

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when we're trying to
serve the public good?

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There seems to be a challenge
in linking the entrepreneur

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and the public sector.

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And we know that there are
all kinds of innovations

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that play in this sphere.

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From ridesharing and
regulated industries,

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all the way through to providing
in a better way the services

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that governments are
already on the hook for.

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So they're either
regulated or they

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are substitutes for
improvements of services

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that governments provide.

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And sometimes they're
also missing services.

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What are the barriers to this?

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Where are the opportunities?

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What are the trends?

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And can we actually
map out where

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we think this field could go,
of mixing entrepreneurship

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and the public sector?

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One of my students, Aline,
came to MIT completely on fire

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with this idea of tapping
into analytics and AI

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to solve what she saw
as a major challenge

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when it came to bringing finance
to small holder and small scale

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farmers.

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She's an expert on
agricultural finance.

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And she realized that, in her
native Brazil and elsewhere,

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people who didn't have good
credit standing and good credit

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records--

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farmers who didn't
have those assets--

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couldn't get loans and
were forever locked out.

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So there's a big dichotomy
between the people who have

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access to finance
and those who don't.

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Could she break down
that barrier in some way?

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Could new forms of data and
technology help do that?

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So instead of relying only
on somebody's credit record,

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could you look at the weather,
their farming choices,

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their behaviors,
and physical data,

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and use it to come
up with a better

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assessment of the riskiness of
a given farmer from the lender's

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point of view?

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Slightly technical area.

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But it actually has
huge implications

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because it could open the
door to all kinds of folks

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who are excluded from
traditional finance

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by providing other
methods of sorting out

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their riskiness and
their credit worthiness.

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SARAH HANSEN: So how did
it all work logistically?

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How did you manage to create
all these different individual

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projects?

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ANJALI SASTRY: So that's the
downside of this approach.

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Each project was customized.

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It's kind of a boutique
learning experience in a sense.

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And one of the
things I've learned

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about trying to innovate
when it comes to teaching

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is you have to be
willing to invest

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a lot the first few rounds--

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the first few years
you do something.

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And then over
time, you learn how

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to make it a little more
efficient, streamlined,

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and maybe scalable, and
more cost effective.

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But this year was
definitely a labor of love.

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So students came to me
with all kinds of ideas.

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And I had open office hours.

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I have a wiki page
where students

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can sign up to meet with
me in 20 minute increments.

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And I would just set up hours
of these meetings every week

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and sit and talk to
students about their ideas,

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try to formulate some
reasonable next steps,

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really push them to
think about how they're

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using their coursework here
and their presence on campus

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to craft something they
couldn't do anywhere else

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and that spoke to
everything else

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they had access to
while they were here.

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So that process took a
lot of back and forth.

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Usually, I would meet
with students once a week.

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I opened a shared
folder with each of them

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and would shoot materials
that I found into the folder

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and have them load their drafts,
work plans, and other work

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in progress there.

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And then I also got
into a very quick habit

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of sending any interesting
reading, news article,

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conference notice
directly to the students.

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So some of them would be getting
10 emails from me a week.

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But that really got
us going because they

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could see I was thinking about
it all week, and they were too.

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I learned I had to keep a
whiteboard up in my office with

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each project and each person,
because I had over a dozen

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running, to keep them straight
and try to remember who's doing

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what so that when I saw it--
when I came into the office--

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that person would be on
my mind, or that project

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would be on my mind.

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SARAH HANSEN: Do you
see this as something

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that is potentially
scalable in the future?

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ANJALI SASTRY: I do.

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One question I've been
thinking about a lot

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is how you could also use peers.

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Could we craft project clusters?

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So could we link the themes?

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But could we also have students
helping each other, coaching

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each other a little bit?

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Could we use group meetings
as a way to surface a helpful

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discussion about what's
working and what isn't?

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I think that that's
the next step.

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So I think that will
get to some scalability.

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I do think-- mundane
as it sounds--

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I think it's also important to
have good forms and paperwork.

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Having people really
articulate in writing briefly

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what they want to do and having
a structured kind of update

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process really helps.

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Keep the momentum,
and build the focus.

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SARAH HANSEN: How do you measure
success in projects like this?

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ANJALI SASTRY: That's
a great question

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because students who are
following their passions really

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get into it.

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You give them enough freedom,
they will have a good time.

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But part of our challenge
as their teachers

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is to help make sure that we're
embedding into their approach

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enough rigor, that we're looking
at the data and the evidence,

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and that it's being linked
to the content we're

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teaching here.

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So a passion project by itself
may or may not be academic.

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So there's a bit
of tension there

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of us having to remind students
of the need to keep making

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all of these connections.

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So I would really
view success as when

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we're able to get the students
to not only pull out, develop,

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polish a great new idea, but
also to link it to what they've

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been learning here and test
their ideas with a level

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of attention to the data--

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even if it's qualitative--

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that really we can
all stand behind.

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SARAH HANSEN: And how did you
do that in these projects?

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ANJALI SASTRY: So part
of the requirement

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is to really make sure
that if a student--

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there's actually
quite a lot of work

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in trying to unpack the logic,
the thinking behind a new idea.

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And I would spend a lot of
time trying to help figure out,

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where is it we need to drill
down to backup this idea?

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Where is it that we use the
literature and the research,

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where you're going to do
desk research to shore up

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one leg of what you're doing?

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And where is it
that you're going

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to gather new information--

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whether it's by observation, by
interviews, by other methods--

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that you can bring to bear?

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So I really was
looking for both.

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Where's the link to other
people's work to the research

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and the literature?

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Where's the link to
something new that you've

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uncovered using methods
that you were going

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to describe systematically?

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SARAH HANSEN: I see.

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ANJALI SASTRY: The
great thing about this

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is that it helps me to learn.

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So part of what I think the
huge value in teaching this way

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is that you, as the
instructor, have

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this gift of hearing new
ideas that aren't necessarily

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embedded into the
academic structure yet.

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So I discovered there
really is a need

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to build a better
theory and framework

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around public entrepreneurship.

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That's really interesting.

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That helps me think about
my own research goals

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and where I might build
new collaborations here

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on campus with other
faculty and researchers.

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SARAH HANSEN: And speaking
of collaborations,

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what was the role of networking
in this experience for Fellows?

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ANJALI SASTRY: So
students coming here

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have varying predilections
for networking

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and connecting with others.

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And many of them really benefit
from having a focus to that.

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So very often we
tell students-- you

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have this gift of being
here on campus for a while.

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Make the most of it.

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But if you're just
trying to meet

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people to fill up your Rolodex,
it's rather self-serving.

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And it's awkward.

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And there's no reason to meet.

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But if you can articulate a
really interesting question,

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this gives students a
reason to contact people.

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So I really view
the two as linked.

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Develop a great problem
statement or research question.

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Use that to look at what you
have access to on campus.

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That might include faculty,
postdocs, research teams.

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That might include alumni.

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It includes folks within
the MIT ecosystems.

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You might head over to an
incubator or some other--

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a venue, an event
where people are.

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And then because we get a lot
of people passing through--

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as well as invitations
to meetings, conferences,

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and events, globally--

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I would shoot those
to my students.

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So say, so-and-so is
coming to campus next week.

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See if you can get
on their agenda.

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And that would often work.

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SARAH HANSEN: How
are you looking

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to tweak this experience
the next time you teach it?

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ANJALI SASTRY: So I
think having the steps

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in the process a
little bit clearer

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and having the motivating
question of each step

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in a project like this--

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really central.

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So early stages, here's what
you should be thinking about.

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Here's the questions
you need to answer.

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Middle stages, late-- so if
I have a better framework

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for the steps in
the work, I think

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that would be a big benefit.

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Another is to realize not
every student who comes in

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with their passion project is
necessarily going to want to--

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or should-- turn it
into an in-depth study.

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So I've learned that you
can't convert everyone.

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And that's OK.

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Because this is an offering
of a new learning experience.

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It's very much driven by
the students' interest.

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You need to really
be able to allow

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the students to self select in.

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It's hard to offer something
like this as a requirement.

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So that's another piece is
striking the right balance

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between opening the
door and inviting people

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in versus cracking the whip
and following up on them.

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Students get really busy.

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So one downside of an
unstructured course

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is that it can
fall by the wayside

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because they have their
structured requirements

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and course meetings for all
their other classes and this

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begins to feel like
something on the side.

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So how you maintain the
momentum and make sure

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that enough investment is
going in is really important.

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So better sourcing
and screening.

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Better process.

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And having regular
meetings are all really

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important ingredients.

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SARAH HANSEN: Is
there anything else

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you'd like to share
about facilitating

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an experience like this that
we haven't touched on yet?

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ANJALI SASTRY: I think
one of the challenges

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that an instructor
has to balance

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is, how far am I
willing to go outside

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of my domain of expertise?

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How much do I know
about the blockchain?

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That's not an area
of my research.

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So how far do I want to
go down a set of projects

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that take that on.

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I need to be able to
figure it out for myself

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and then also be very
clear with the students.

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I'm interested in this topic.

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I'll learn with you.

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But my domain of expertise
relates to these areas.

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We can apply it
to your questions.

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We can apply systems thinking,
or organizational change,

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or business models to the
questions you're articulating.

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But I am not the technical
expert on this domain.

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So you'll need to work
with someone else on that.

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And different instructors
have different interests

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in stepping out of
their comfort zone.

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So I think that's
really important.

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Another big question
is, how willing are you

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as an instructor to have a
mishmash of projects that

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take on very different domains?

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Or would you like them to be
geographically or thematically

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linked?

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I suspect that I'm going
to evolve a little more

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towards clustered projects.

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And I've seen some
of my colleagues

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use such clusters of
projects over time

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to build their own
research insights.

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So I think that's
really exciting.

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The idea of encouraging
students to take

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on projects that motivate
them but that also speak

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to an ongoing research
program and on which you

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can start to build more
knowledge and evidence.

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SARAH HANSEN: Do
you have any words

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of advice to your colleagues
out in the world who might

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want to try something similar?

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ANJALI SASTRY: Teaching this
way is incredibly rewarding

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and also really scary.

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You'll often be invited
into domains where

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you don't have the expertise.

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And it's quite
hard to predict how

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a given session or a
conversation will go.

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It's not like running a case
where you know the story

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and you know what you're going
to say at each moment in class,

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or you at least
got a sense of what

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that might look like because
very often students will

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come in and say, I've
totally changed my mind.

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And you have to deal with that.

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So there's both the
personal journey

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of learning that's
less predictable

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and the domain part
that's less predictable.

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But you, as the
instructor, get to set

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some of those parameters.

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By, for instance,
requiring a written update

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before a meeting, you can
manage the conversation better.

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And by specifying
the types of projects

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that you would really
want to take on,

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you can also ensure
that they're clustered

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in areas that are relevant
to your own expertise.

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For me, one of the challenges--

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I have to tell
you-- is branding.

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What do I call this?

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Is it something
different than just doing

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a bunch of independent studies?

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I think it's a work in progress.

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00:18:02,020 --> 00:18:03,910
So I think the
first few times you

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00:18:03,910 --> 00:18:06,070
try out something like
this, it doesn't yet

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00:18:06,070 --> 00:18:08,950
have a fully distinct identity.

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And then, as I
hone it, I'm going

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to give it a clearer name.

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But I've been using terms
that link to social impact,

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that link to technology,
and that also frame--

355
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perhaps because it's
focusing on the students

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I'm teaching-- but the idea
of thinking strategically,

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00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,920
thinking as a leader,
and really putting

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yourselves in the shoes of an
entrepreneur or an executive.

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So I want them to not simply
make general arguments

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about what should
happen, but to think

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about what they could do as
a leader, an entrepreneur,

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an executive.

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00:18:48,130 --> 00:18:49,930
So, yeah, come up
with a great name.

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I'm still working on mine.

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All suggestions are welcome.

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I put in there terms
like new executive

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thinking for social impact or
technology for social impact.

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00:19:02,210 --> 00:19:04,330
So we'll see how that plays out.

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00:19:04,330 --> 00:19:06,137
Check back later.

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SARAH HANSEN: Thank you so much.

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ANJALI SASTRY: Sure.

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You're welcome.