MIT Center Inaugurates Global Logistics Grad Program

Recognizing the global nature of logistics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) late last year helped launch the Zaragoza Logistics Center, an international center for research and education in logistics and supply-chain management located in Spain. The effort to globalize logistics reaches another milestone later this month as the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program inaugurates its graduate education program on Aug. 30. The MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program is a research and educational partnership involving the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL), the University of Zaragoza in the Spanish province of Aragon, and the government of Aragon. The nine-month master's program teaches leadership and analytical skills geared toward the global marketplace, according to MIT. It will operate from a facility located in the PLAZA logistics park in Zaragoza, providing a "real-life" setting for education. "Instead of putting a laboratory in a university, this initiative puts the university within a large-scale laboratory," explains CTL Director Yossi Sheffi. The logistics program also has launched a broad research agenda. Its first initiative is Supply Chain 2020, a multiyear project that maps successful supply chains into the future as far as 2020. Sponsor companies support the research agenda. Some 22 students representing 12 countries comprise the first class of the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program.