MIT's Gershenfeld brings gospel of innovation to E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues

Neil Gershenfeld’s laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has broken down the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. The technology created in his Fab Lab ranges from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments, and it has been seen and used in the world’s most famous art museums, rural Indian villages, the White House, automobile safety systems and Las Vegas shows.

On Tuesday, Oct. 14, he brings his passion for innovation to the Lied Center where he will be a guest speaker in the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues and its “The Creative World” series of lectures that will focus on how creativity can positively change our culture and the world.

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Professor Shane Farritor, who earned Master’s and doctoral degrees from MIT in the 1990s, will give a “pretalk” at 6:30 p.m. in the Lied Center’s Steinhart Room before Gershenfeld’s presentation at 7 p.m. in the main auditorium.

Gershenfeld’s class – “How to Make Almost Anything” – is one of the most popular on the MIT campus and has been a springboard for Gershenfeld’s work to create fabrication laboratories across the world.

Farritor said Gershenfeld’s work is “off-the-charts cool” and said his advocacy of shops that give students access to fabrication machinery and tools is resonating beyond the academic world.

“He’s become sort of an evangelist for these fab labs,” Farritor said. “He’s trying to build them all across the world, take them in to developing countries where he can help people move up the chain to sustain their way.”

Farritor, who was involved in the workshop movement at MIT, is hoping it will catch on at UNL with the construction of the Nebraska Innovation Studio – a maker space on Innovation Campus (in the former 4-H Building).

“They talked to us about Nebraska Innovation Studio, and about how we could connect it to the E.N. Thompson theme for this year,” Farritor said. “We’re building energy around Innovation Studio and I think this is going to help us build on what we’re trying to do over there.”