Worth Reading
Inside Real Innovation
World Scientific Publishing Company, a leading independent academic and scientific publisher was founded in 1981 and employs more than 400 people at its headquarters in Singapore and offices in New Jersey, London, Geneva, Chennai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin has been recognized by the White House Office of Science and Technology for an upcoming MITx massive open online course (MOOC) entitled 3086x Innovation and commercialisation, as a key resource for bringing innovation to market more effectively. It is a key NGO (non government organisation) contribution of the Materials Geneome Initiative www.whitehouse.gov/mgi , an effort to develop research, policies and infrastructure that can more effectively bring advanced materials to market, as cutting edge products
Once for a change, TextileFuture is providing you with a theme that is of general interest, however not focused on textile. It is worthwhile to discover the mechanics of successful innovation. The course is developed from an innovation approach described in the 2010 book “Inside Real Innovation” and is taught by its authors, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Professor Eugene Fitzgerald and Dr. Andreas Wankerl. The book will also serve as course book. The course and its related book were developed out of Professor Fitzgerald’s years of experience bringing new silicon chip technologies to market and share much of that real world experience.
Professor Fitzgerald stated: “People often think of innovation as a straight line process, from invention to implementation to product to market. In the real world, innovation is much more complicated and requires a deep understanding of technologies, implementation options and potential markets, all at the same time and throughout the process. Effective innovation requires many different attempts to fit these three domains together to bring a product to market successfully.
Eugene Fitzgerald is the Merton C. Flemings SMA Professor of Materials Engineering at MIT and Fellow in the Singapore-MIT Alliance. He is founder and board chairman of Innovation Interface. Building upon his early experience at AT&T Bell Labs, he has created and led a series of fundamental innovations, from early technology to final implementation in the market. He received a BS (Bachelor of Science) degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 1985 from MIT and his PhD in the same discipline from Cornell University in 1989.
Andreas Wankerl is Operations Director of the Innovation Interface. He conceptualized its beginnings and co-founded its precursor, the Business of Science and Technology Initiative at Cornell University. The Innovation Interface works with corporations on innovation processes and innovation projects at the corporate/university interface. He received his BS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell. After four years of managing international sales and customer relations in the semiconductor equipment industry. He returned to Cornell to earn his MBA (Master of Business Administration) and to start what has become the Innovation interface with both Cornell and MIT.
The course provides a new model to help better understand the process of brining developments to market and is intended for inventors, entrepreneurs, corporate decision makers, investors and policy makers. There is a print and an electronic version commercially available.