As Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, Neil Gershenfeld explores the boundaries between the analog and digital worlds. His famous Fab Labs (fabrication laboratories) use digital technology to build physical objects.
Why you should listen to him:
MIT’s Neil Gershenfeld is re-defining the boundaries between the digital and analog worlds. The digital revolution is over, Gershenfeld says. We won. What comes next? His Center for Bits and Atoms has developed a raft of answers, including Internet 0, a tiny Web server that fits into lightbulbs and doorknobs, networking the physical world in previously unimaginable ways.
But Gershenfeld is best known as a pioneer in personal fabrication -- small-scale manufacturing enabled by digital technologies, which gives people the tools to build literally anything they can imagine. His famous Fab Lab is immensely popular among students at MIT, who crowd Gershenfeld’s classes. But the concept is potentially life-altering in the developing world, where a Fab Lab with just $20,000 worth of laser cutters, milling machines and soldering irons can transform a community, helping people harness their creativity to build the things they need, including tools, replacement parts and essential products unavailable in the local market. Gershenfeld’s latest book is Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop.
"Neil Gershenfeld's celebrated, visionary FabLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology enables anybody to design and execute one-of-a-kind objects complete with brains."The New York Times
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