Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT
- Conference
- Location
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Atlanta, Georgia
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2013
- Start Date
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June 22, 2013
- End Date
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June 22, 2013
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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ASEE International Forum
- Page Count
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8
- Page Numbers
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21.63.1 - 21.63.8
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--17268
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/17268
- Download Count
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589
Paper Authors
Amos G Winter V MIT
Amos Winter is the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on the marriage of mechanical design theory and user-centered product design to create simple, elegant technological solutions for use in highly constrained environments. His work includes design for emerging markets and developing countries, biomimetic design, fluid/solid/granular mechanics, biomechanics, and the design of ocean systems. Prof. Winter is the principal inventor of the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC), an all-terrain wheelchair designed for developing countries that was a winner of a 2010 R&D 100 award and was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s top innovations in 2011. His Ph.D. work focused on adapting the burrowing mechanisms of razor clams to create compact, low power, and reversible burrowing systems for subsea applications such as anchoring, oil recovery, and cable installation. Prof. Winter is a founder of Global Research Innovation and Technology (GRIT). He was the recipient of the 2010 Tufts University Young Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2010 MIT School of Engineering Graduate Student Extraordinary Teaching and Mentoring Award, and the 2012 ASME/Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal.
Robert James Stoner Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert Stoner is the Associate Director of the MIT Energy Initiative, and co-Director of the Tata Center for Technology and Design. He has worked in academia and industry throughout his career, having started and managed successful businesses in the US and Europe. He holds patents in the fields of acoustics, optics, electronics and IT. Stoner earned his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics at Brown University.
Charles H Fine MIT Sloan School of Management
Professor Charles Fine teaches operations strategy and supply chain management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and directs the roadmapping activities in MIT’s Communications Futures Program (http://cfp.mit.edu/). He also serves as co-director of the new Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT His research focuses on supply chain strategy and value chain roadmapping, with a particular focus on fast-clockspeed manufacturing and service industries. His work has supported design and improvement of supply chain operations and relationships for companies in electronics, automotive, aerospace, communications, construction, energy, and consumer products. His current research examines supply chain relationships, value chain roadmapping, operations for entrepreneurs, and innovation for extreme affordability.
Abstract
This paper describes the activities offered under the MIT-‐Tata Center for Technology and Design, a new program aimed at creating high-‐impact, sustainable, and scalable technical solutions in developing and emerging markets through the rigorous application of applied engineering science. The program is funded by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and is based at MIT; in the coming years, a sister campus and collection of researchers will also be established in India. The Center acts as a matchmaker between MIT researchers and compelling social/technical problems by offering research grants and graduate fellowships. Funded projects must be rooted in real-‐life technical challenges related to developing countries and emerging markets. Each graduate student sponsored by the Center is required to spend every January and a portion of each summer in India collaborating with stakeholders, in order to drive projects towards tractable, scalable solutions. A core tenet of the Center is collaboration with stakeholders who represent each link in the chain from inception of an idea to implementation in the real world. This of course means extensive interaction, co-‐creation, and participatory development with end users. The Center also strives to partner with local industry, particularly companies that have a deep understanding of target markets and a track record of scalable, sustainable success. Students are taught how to engage the entire stakeholder hierarchy behind a technical challenge, from executives to engineers to manufacturers to distributors to end users, in order to understand the unique constraints and requirements each imposes on a solution. This paper includes descriptions of two representative Center projects: creating low-‐pressure, low-‐power, off-‐grid drip irrigation systems for small-‐scale farmers in partnership with Jain Irrigation, the second largest micro irrigation firm in the world; and redesigning the Jaipur Foot prosthetic foot for mass manufacture, quality control, and to conform with international standards in collaboration with Dow Chemical, undergraduate project teams at Penn State University and Arizona State University, and Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), the largest disability organization in the world in terms of assistive devices.
Winter, A. G., & Stoner, R. J., & Fine, C. H. (2013, June), Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT Paper presented at 2013 ASEE International Forum, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--17268
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