“Virtual Teams in Engineering Projects”: Managing Complexities, Expectations and Cultural Factors Successfully”

Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEM)

Have you adopted the use of distributed teams for your projects? Are you in the business of providing engineering services to clients virtually? Are you managing or part of established global engineering centers? Do you see a tendency to overemphasize technical skills? Are non-technical issues going unresolved while technical issues are being obsessed over?

Engineering projects are one of the largest adopters of virtual teams. Companies have been adopters of the use of distributed teams or workshare, as often referred to, for their projects over the past couple of decades.

One of the most interesting and challenging key requirements for the success of an engineering project involving Virtual Teams is its early stage structural formation and its executive sponsorship. But what happens next? Is it a guaranteed success? Would the project take off and meet all its goals or just some of them? Who declares the project either as a success or failure? What is controllable and what is not?

Our TEM Society meeting is focused on learning and sharing how to successfully lead an engineering project based on the experiences of professionals who have managed the nuances of several virtual engineering projects in real life.

It will focus on how a professional engineering manager can manage a project successfully, irrespective of his basic engineering training in traditional fields or other modern inter-disciplinary fields like Bio-medical engineering, etc., through applying effective techniques, soft skills, and management knowledge and tools. You will also learn how these practical tips have worked for successful professional engineering managers.

The speaker panel is composed of executives who have led successful virtual projects across their careers. Hear from people who have been senior executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs with experience delivering seminars, webinars and workshops to guide company executives to success.

Join us to gain insights and more with our speakers who will share their experiences in what promises to be an enlightening discussion with networking opportunity as well.

Dr. Daniel McGrath, Chief Engineer, BAE Systems

Dr. Daniel McGrath, Chief Engineer for Low-Level-Imaging at BAE Systems, has spent 35+ variously as an individual contributor and technical manager in the area of image sensor design and technology. This work has spanned large companies including Texas Instruments, Polaroid, and Eastman Kodak and smaller companies including a start-up.

A common thread is that each has involved teams working across distance and time differences that has been key to their technology development and their successful integration of products. The experience included organizing remotely-located team members, managing remotely-located reports, working for internationally-distant bosses, and collaborating with remote suppliers and remote customers. Dan has also had the experience of working with remote collaborators and organizing international conferences. He has come out of this with a feeling that it not only can work, but also be a positive. He will share from this experience his personal guidelines for success and a few concerns for the wary.

Apparao Karri, CEO and Co-Founder of Cintell

With 20+ years of cross functional experience building sales and marketing SaaS solutions for the enterprise, Apparao is an entrepreneurial product leader. His experience includes product leadership roles at NetProspex, Lionbridge, and Avention (formerly OneSource). Apparao holds an MBA from Babson College and lives outside of Boston, MA where he is an adventurous dad and avid volleyballer.

Apparao is an experienced Business & Technology Management Professional with proven ability to deliver results in different types of business settings,. Experienced in providing visionary guidance as well as hands on leadership for products / services initiatives in the Information / Business Technology space. Innovative thinking balanced with results driven process orientation is my key strength.

Specialties: Leadership, General Management, Entrepreneurship, Product Marketing & Management, Pre-Sales, Services Delivery & Management, Project & Program Management, Software Architecture, Social Media, Crowd Sourcing, Cloud Computing, Global eCommerce, SaaS, Data Management, Analytics.He has Masters in Software Systems from BITS Pilani and an MBA from Babson.

About: At TEM Society our aim is to provide knowledge to make strategic and critical decisions. We draw upon real-life scenarios from across the spectrum of engineering specialties. We expect our meetings will serve those looking to Lead Engineering Programs, Projects and Technologies. You can learn from leaders, get mentored by experts, share experiences and network with accomplished professionals.
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Meeting Location: Community Center, 39 Marrett Road, Room #237 Lexington, MA 02421

Admission: Free to TEM Society Members and Non-Members

Registration: To register for this meeting (no charge), please send below info via e-mail, to: karthik.ganesan@ieee.com
Name, Affiliation, Telephone, E-Mail

Limited Numbers for this meeting will be restricted so early registration is recommended.