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MIT to send students, faculty to Mongolia to help spur innovation

MIT to send students, faculty to Mongolia to help spur innovation

MIT will launch a pilot program that will send MIT students and faculty to Mongolia to further entrepreneurship, innovation, urban planning, and university faculty development.

Gantumar Luvsannyam, the Mongolian minister of education, culture, and science, signed an agreement with MIT President L. Rafael Reif last Wednesday, giving the program his blessing.

MIT will select staff from the Teaching and Learning Laboratory to travel to Mongolia to conduct workshops that will be open to faculty from all Mongolian universities and colleges.

A faculty member from a Mongolian university will similarly have the opportunity to spend a semester at MIT.

Stephen C. Graves, a professor of management and mechanical engineering, has been appointed as the program’s faculty lead.

Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin ’09, the first Mongolian citizen to attend MIT as a graduate student, will coordinate several of the program’s activities.

A team of students from the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, and a faculty member, will spend two months in Mongolia to map the entrepreneurial landscape and to recommend steps to strengthen the entrepreneurial environment.

A separate student team from MIT’s Global Startup Labs will spend six to eight weeks in Mongolia teaching student entrepreneurs about mobile app development.

—Anshuman Pandey