MIT’s innovation initiative

The conference on Friday also focused on ideas for manufacturing’s future that go beyond its current path.Sanjay Sarma, a member of the PIE commission who is also the director of the MIT Office of Digital Learning and the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, gave a presentation on what he referred to as “distributed virtual factories.

“Smaller manufacturers could bid on jobs, use online designs, and produce goods locally, potentially leading to greener and more efficient supply chains.Reif stated that further developing this strategy will assist in forming one of the four components of MIT’s innovation initiative.

Policy-relevant research would be a second component;Reif said he would use the “convening power of MIT” to get people talking about the topic.