Engineers, who know systems and processes, are generally separated from operators, who are often only trained on specific machines. New manufacturing technologies, whether in robotics or digital production, are transforming factory floors. Advanced manufacturing requires workers with a technician’s practical know-how and an engineer’s comprehension of processes and systems. Companies that want to move into advanced manufacturing often struggle to find people who know how to integrate technologies to optimize the whole system, manage technological advances, and drive innovation. We call this worker the “technologist.” As advanced technological manufacturing progresses, technologists will be essential in the adoption of next-generation factory systems. We believe that training programs for technologists can empower both incumbent and aspiring workers to be knowledgeable, productive, and adaptable contributors to a more robust US manufacturing economy (Liu & Bonvillian, 2024). MIT is excited to provide pathways for employees to advance in their careers, create training that allows companies to fill key roles, and build a workforce that will strengthen America’s industrial base.
Philip Budden
Structural biopolymers are materials engineered by Nature as building blocks of living matter. These materials have unique and compelling properties that allow for their assembly and degradation with minimal energy requirements as well as their performance at the biotic/abiotic interface. By combining basic material principles with advanced fabrication techniques, it is possible to define new strategies to drive the assembly of structural biopolymers in advanced materials with unconventional forms and functions such as edible coating for perishable food, inkjet prints of silk fibroin that change in color in the presence of bacteria, three dimensional monoliths that can be heated by exposure to infrared light and flexible keratin-made photonic crystals.
An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that there is a direct correlation between global warming and the release of heavy metals into drinking and crop water supplies, and water security remains a pressing sustainability challenge in developing nations. We present a pathway to obtain ultra-stable nanofibers assembled from small molecules in water which rival the mechanical properties of nature's stiffest materials. We then decorate the surface of these nanofibers with efficient heavy metal chelators and demonstrate orders of magnitude improvement over macroscopic alternatives in use today, offering a way to miniaturize water treatment while overcoming several complications of existing strategies.
Fonterra is a global dairy nutrition co-operative owned by 10,000 farmers and their families. As part of its strategy Fonterra puts sustainability at the heart of everything it does. Fonterra is working with MIT and Professor Ian Hunter, to look at new ways it can fundamentally transform its sustainability foot print from grass (on farm robots) to glass ( sustainable packaging). This work includes the goal of reducing and repurposing cow methane from a pollutant to an energy source while simultaneously leveraging other interlinked breakthroughs. Carl MacInnes, the Director Sales & Marketing Disruption will outline some of the ideas and approaches that are being considered.
Empowered by ubiquitous information technology, the generation that has come of age in the digital era has learned a very different consumer experience than their parents. From media and financial services to hospitality and transportation, Millennials expect flexibility and responsiveness across sectors to customize their transactions to fit their needs as individuals. Those expectations may only grow as the exchange of data between consumers and sellers continues expanding, fostering even greater personalization through the emergence of bioproducts.