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ALINE PEZENTE: So, my
name is Aline Pezente.

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I was a Sloan Fellows
'18 graduate student.

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I was working with Anjali
at an independent study

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for farmer's economy and
the usage of technology.

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So, there is an ever increasing
need to invest in agriculture.

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And one of the biggest
challenge for that

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is the credit, access for
affordable loans for farmers.

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And we have been
discussing with Anjali

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about how we can use
technology to solve this issue.

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And what is the design
of this technology

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that we can use for
farmers that they can

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have better access to credit?

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But not only that, how we can
help the lenders to access

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those farmers, which
are mostly remote areas,

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and they lack data.

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So we have been
working with Anjali

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on thinking on as
in these problems,

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and also restructuring
the right questions

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that we should think about
to find the proper solutions.

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We thought it was more
design thinking, and design

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of thinking about the process,
and how is the clients,

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and how are--

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not the clients, but the
farmers' and the lenders'

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perspective, with their lenses,
what are the main questions

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that they do while they
are in the credit process?

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And what are the
status quo today--

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what are the failures
of these status quo?

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And where we find
the technologies

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that have a compelling user
case to deliver solutions

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for lack of data and connection
between farmers and lenders.

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So it was a very systematic
approach that we been opting

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and how we think of all those
technologies and innovation,

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and deployed this
to this problem.

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So, I manage my time with
weekly meetings with Anjali

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for a period of time.

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We set up very
narrow deliverables.

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And between the process,
we were iterating

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with some of the professors
and some of the resources

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that I needed.

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And I took the discipline to
having that in my schedule

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so we could deliver and
have fruitful discussions

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every meeting that
we had together.

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And what I learned,
though, in this process

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with her was how to--

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we systematically
think or how we make--

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we make the right questions.

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And from the right
questions, we start

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to find the solutions which
derives to the right questions.

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And where do we
find the resources?

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And it's a system
dynamic way of doing--

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of formulating your
problem statement,

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which was very helpful
for me in this process

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of working in the project.

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Anjali was super relevant
to help us to think, OK,

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to solve this for
this challenge,

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we need an expert
in different areas.

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Who are the experts?

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And she connected us with those
experts that eventually came

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up and help us to contribute.

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And also, she connected us
with many interpreters and also

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companies outside
the scope of MIT.

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For example, she connected
us with a guy from India

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from one of--

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the largest solar
panel companies

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who also in certain sense
is still in contact with us

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on thinking about contribution,
with Tata Center who also will

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contribute with our research.

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I think that that's
the environment

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that MIT brings to you.

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It's quite unique,
right, this possibility

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that help us to
connect with people

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from different backgrounds.

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Not only that, they
are the experts

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in the background in the world.

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They are the most renowned
faculty members, scientists.

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They will add you a
different perspective.

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There is this ocean of
think of different ideas,

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different perspective that
helps you to build up your own.

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This is something
that is unique at MIT.

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Also the capacity
of the connection,

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right, because the
world expands to you

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and it opens because
you're at MIT.

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So there is nothing equal like
that at all in any other place.

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All the feedbacks
that I was iterating

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through the connections
that we establish

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through the process in this
course were quite valuable.

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Actually, every
feedback, every iteration

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shaped somehow the process
of what we are doing now.

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And that's the valuable
thing of this course

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is also to have the possibility
to hear other opinions.

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Not only-- if you
stay on your own path,

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you're blind to what
is new or outside.

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And that prevents you
somehow to make innovation,

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which is not the case here.

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You see so many different
things sometimes that you never

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thought before.

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And that changes.

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And that improves
what you are doing.

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I guess the biggest
challenge in this process

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is still having the
discipline to find a proper--

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to having the discipline
in this structure

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to find a solution because
there are so many elements

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because you learn how to think.

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And seeing the whole
world and to try

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to grasp the answers in a
systematic and organized way

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was, for me, a challenge
in the beginning.

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But I learned how to navigate
that eventually later.

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So it's now-- it's an
interesting process

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that you learned how to
deal with so many variables

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in making the puzzles to
deliver to a whole-- a clear and

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transparent picture.

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Well, this project one, there
is two branches of that.

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One is a startup that I'm
doing, which we already

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are creating the fintech,
which is exclusively

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dedicated to the
agricultural market, which

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is the first in the market
where we use data analytics.

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And we designed the
process in this course

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to improve and deliver
better financial solutions

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to both lenders and
farmers so we allow

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them to have affordable loans.

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And on top of that,
there is also--

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because this is so unique
and so new in the world,

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we are doing
research with Anjali

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and other professors, senior
faculty members at MIT

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with support from
the data center

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as well to study the economic
behavior of farmers and lenders

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with more data.

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This data will help to solve
for the problems of sustainable

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financing.

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Or in economy-- in
conclusion, we don't know.

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So that's one of
the investigations

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that we are doing.

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That's one of the
next challenge,

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and again, some of the
answers that we are trying

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to find for this question.