Skip to main content

Steven D. Eppinger

Headshot of Prof. Steve Eppinger

Biography

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.

Steve’s Books

Product Design and Development

Product Design and Development is designed for university-level courses on product development in a range of disciplines as well as the growing number of interdisciplinary, project-based, design courses.

Design Structure Matrix Methods and Applications

Design structure matrix (DSM) is a straightforward and flexible modeling technique that can be used for designing, developing, and managing complex systems.