Steven Eppinger

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Steven Eppinger

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Steven Eppinger is Professor of Management Science and Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management where he holds the General Motors Leaders for Global Operations Chair

Eppinger teaches interdisciplinary courses online and on campus at both the Master's and executive levels in product design and innovation, engineering project management, and product management. Notably, he has created an interdisciplinary product development course in which graduate students from engineering, management, and industrial design programs collaborate to develop new products.

He is coauthor of the textbook Product Design and Development (McGraw-Hill). Now in its seventh edition, the text has been translated into several languages and used by hundreds of universities and hundreds of thousands of students. 

Eppinger's research is applied to improving complex technical project management. Recent work has focused on application of agile software development methods to a range of other industries. Prior research is the basis of the book titled Design Structure Matrix Methods and Applications (MIT Press). His research contributes to fields ranging from project management and systems engineering to product development and product management. He is one of the most widely cited scholars in the engineering design and technical management disciplines. 

Eppinger has served as Deputy Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and has chaired many of MIT’s interdisciplinary masters degree programs (System Design and Management - SDM, Integrated Design and Management - IDM, Leaders for Global Operations - LGO, and Leaders for Manufacturing - LFM). He has also held a joint appointment at MIT in the Engineering Systems Division and was codirector of the Center for Innovation in Product Development. 

He received SB, SM, and ScD degrees from MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering before joining the MIT faculty in 1988. He has received many awards and honors including MIT's Graduate Student Council Teaching Award, the MIT Sloan School's Award for Innovation and Excellence in Management Education, ASME Best Paper Award in Design Theory and Methodology (twice), INFORMS Technology, Innovation Management, and Entrepreneurship Distinguished Speaker Award, PICMET Medal of Excellence Award, Wickham Skinner Best Paper Award, and POMS College of Product Innovation and Technology Management Distinguished Fellow Award.

Honors

Eppinger delivers distinguished lecture

November 7, 2024

Eppinger named Design Society Fellow

August 16, 2023

Steven Eppinger wins PICMET Medal of Excellence

Steven Eppinger recognized for paper

Steven Eppinger named distinguished speaker

Eppinger lectures in Denmark

Publications

"Translating Agile Management Practices into a Traditional Industry Context."

Kreye, Melanie E., Tabea Ramirez Hernandez, and Steven D. Eppinger. Journal of Product Innovation Management. Forthcoming.

"Faster and Faster: Automating the Hardware Engineering Process."

Michael S. Peters and Steven D. Eppinger. In Proceedings of NordDesign 2024, edited by F. Byström, J. Malmqvist, M. Candi, O. Isaksson, and R.J. Sæmundsson. Reykjavik, Iceland: August 2024.

"Adjusting Scaled Agile for Systems Engineering."

Jake Farlon Drutchas and Steven Eppinger. In Proceedings of the Design Society, Volume 3: ICED23, Cambridge, UK: July 2023. Download Paper.

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