Neil Gershenfeld

Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms

Bits, Atoms and Disruptive Technology: Digital Fabrication and the Future of Business and Society

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Neil Gershenfeld is one of the most innovative scientists in America. Co-founder and Director of MIT's famed Center for Bits and Atoms, he is a leader in the development of technologies, particularly those that merge the physical world of atoms with the new world of digital bits, and those that will soon allow anyone to create products from their own designs.

In his groundbreaking book, FAB, Gershenfeld takes us into a world he's helped cultivate -- the world of Personal Fabrication. Put simply, Personal Fabrication will give citizens the unprecedented ability to design and then produce their own customized products. This will be done in their homes using a machine that combines consumer electronics with industrial tools. Gershenfeld contends that Personal Fabricators (PF's) are about to revolutionize the world just as personal computers did a generation ago. PF's will bring the programmability of the digital world to the rest of the world, by being able to make almost anything -- including new Personal Fabricators.

His presentation "Bits, Atoms and Disruptive Technology" takes you on a journey to the technologies which are already being used and embraced around the world and are changing the very nature of our lives and the economy. Gershenfeld is a witty and insightful speaker, perfect for any audience who wants a "real" look into our future.

With MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, Gershenfeld has gathered an intellectual community whose research resources cut across traditional divisions of inquiry by disciplines and length. Their goal is to bring together the best features of the bits of new digital worlds with the atoms of the physical world. Gershenfeld has led the Media Lab's "Things That Think" industrial research consortium, which brought computation out of conventional computers and into the rest of the world. He has also worked with Media Lab Asia on appropriate advanced technology for global development.

Gershenfeld's work was featured by the White House as well as The Smithsonian Institution in their Millennium celebrations. He has been profiled in The New York Times and The Economist, and on CNN and PBS. Beyond his many papers and patents, Gershenfeld is the also author of the popular book When Things Start To Think, as well as more technical texts like The Nature of Mathematical Modeling and The Physics of Information Technology. Dr. Gershenfeld has a B.A. in Physics with High Honors from Swarthmore College, was a member of the research staff at Bell Labs where he studied laser interactions with atomic and nuclear systems, and received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University.

LINKS

The Center for Bits and Atoms

BOOKS

Fab

When Things Start to Think

All Speakers > Neil Gershenfeld

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