 Hi, I'm Dr. David Carell. I'm a research scientist here at MIT CTL, and I'm also your course lead for SC4x, Supply Chain Technology and Systems. I really love this course because we get to see how all of the lessons that you've learned in your previous SCX courses are applied in contemporary practice. That, and we get to explore some new hot topics and current trends, I think we're going to have a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to going on this adventure with you. A little about me, I'm originally from Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is an agricultural region in the center of the United States. Before coming to MIT CTL, I worked as an economist for the US Department of Energy as a private consultant to oil and gas companies working in Russia in the Caspian Sea region, and I taught operations and supply chain management at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive education levels. My PhD and my research interests are around sustainable supply chain design for agricultural and bio-economy applications. I'm especially interested in biodiesel and bio-oil technologies. In my free time, I love music. I try to listen to it all day, every day I can. And I love to play music too. My favorite instruments is the guitar, but I'll gladly make noise on any instrument that anyone hands me. Seen here is a little accordion from Russia that I'm playing for a group of very unimpressed cows. You can find me by my edX user named David H.C. Carell. I look forward to getting to know all of you. Thank you so much for being a part of the MicroMasters program, and congratulations on making it to SC4X. Let's get to work. Hello, everyone. My name is Ahmed Bilal, and I'll be your teaching assistant for this course. Here at MIT, I'm pursuing an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a master's of science degree in engineering from MIT School of Engineering. I am from Islamabad, Pakistan, and my undergraduate is in electrical engineering. Previously, I have TE at SC3X and SC4X, and SC4X has been one of my favorite course. I'm really excited about analytics and machine learning, and that's why I'm glad to be part of this course. I will strongly recommend you to participate in the discussion forum to get the most out of this course. I look forward to being your teaching assistant. You can find me by username Ahmed Bilal, MIT. Welcome to the course, and I hope you have a lot of fun.