"Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT"
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Editor: Debbie Levey
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New logistics in Spain

        The MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics has signed a multi-year agreement with the government of Aragón, Spain, to help create an international education and research program in the logistics of goods and services.
        The MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program is part of a massive initiative to develop the Aragón region of Spain, around its capital city of Zaragoza, into a significant logistics center in Europe. In the heart of Spain's northeastern quadrant, Zaragoza is a natural gateway to Europe from Spain and Portugal. Its location within 300 km (186 mi) of southwestern Europe's most prosperous regions, together with its impressive infrastructure, makes it a natural axis for economic and logistic activity.
        To leverage these advantages, the government of Aragón helped to create a state-of-the-art logistics park near Zaragoza, complete with distribution centers, warehouses, transportation, dry port and intermodal services, to be run by a dedicated firm called PLAZA (Plataforma Logística de Zaragoza). The PLAZA logistics park is located southwest of the city near the international trade fair facility, the high-speed railway/ highway exchange and the airport.
        In the midst of the logistics park, the government is also creating the Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), an international center for education and research in logistics and supply chain management. The board of directors of the new Center will include representatives of MIT, the University of Zaragoza, the government of Aragón and the companies in the logistics park.
The MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program will be the Center's flagship effort. It will conduct cutting-edge research, using PLAZA as a working laboratory for international logistics practice. "Instead of putting a laboratory in a university, this program puts the university within a large-scale laboratory," said Prof. Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. "PLAZA companies will work with researchers at the ZLC and at MIT to experiment with new logistics processes, concepts and technologies developed at the Center."
        The ZLC will offer graduate and executive education in logistics to students from around the world. The offerings will include a master's degree modeled on MIT's Master of Engineering in Logistics (MLOG), a nine-month professional program preparing graduates for careers in logistics and supply chain management, a doctorate degree, and a set of executive education courses leading to certificates in various logistics-related disciplines. The curricula will be taught by professors in the new center; the first courses will be offered in the fall of 2004.