The Innovation Institute: from Creative Inquiry Through Real-World Impact at MIT
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The Innovation Institute: From Creative Inquiry Through Real-World Impact at MIT by Joost Paul Bonsen S.B. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, MIT, 1990 Submitted to the MIT Sloan School of Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of ARCHIVES Master of Science in the Management of Technology MASAHSET ISIIf MASSACHUS•ETS INSTIT•f at the OF TECHNOLOGY Massachusetts Institute of Technology AUG 3 1 2006 June 2006 LIBRARIES © 2006 Joost Paul Bonsen. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part. Signature of Author: - I- --I I - / IVfl~T~loaVSchool of Management T gSloaSchool of Management May 12, 2006 Certified by: Alex (Sandy) Pentland Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Supervisor /F"/ , I /--, Accepted by: SStephen Sacca Director, MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership The Innovation Institute: From Creative Inquiry Through Real-World Impact at MIT by Joost Paul Bonsen Submitted to the MIT Sloan School of Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in the Management of Technology Abstract This document is an exploration into the past, present, and emerging future of MIT from the perspective of a participant-in and observer-of Institute life and learning, and seeks to better understand how creative inquiry at the Institute leads to real-world impact. We explore the Institute's history, mission, and creative ethos. We survey MIT's links to industry, highlight the inner-connections between the triad of research, education and extracurriculars, and explore the rich entrepreneurial ecosystem, how the Institute formally and informally educates and inspires new generations of founders, builders, and leaders. We conclude by observing how distributed initiative, inquiry, and leadership enable organizational reinvention and survey a few of MIT's emergent future frontiers. Thesis Supervisor: Alex (Sandy) Pentland Title: Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Contents Acknowledgments 4 Introduction & Overview 5 Part I -- Mens et Manus 6 Part II -- Real-World Relevance 18 Part III -- Orchestrating Innovation 31 Part IV -- MIT Entrepreneurial Ecosystem 58 Part V -- Relentless Renewal 79 Part VI-- Future Frontiers 93 Conclusion 106 Bibliography 108 Acknowledgments I would like to thank many people for their direct and indirect inspiration, encouragement and support. Any mistakes in this document are mine alone. Special thanks to my parents Pieter and Janny Bonsen. Deep thanks to my advisor Professor Alex (Sandy) Pentland for being a provocative and supportive mentor and colleague. Many thanks to faculty, administrators, alums, friends and other influencers, including, but by no means limited to: Bob Simha, David Weber, Dan Ariely, Joe Jacobson, Charlie Fine, Rod Brooks, Rebecca Henderson, Joe Hadzima, Bob Metcalfe, Carl Marci, John Sterman, Don Lessard, Steve Eppinger, Paul Gray, Glenn Strehle, Allan Bufferd, Michael Cusumano, John Preston, John van Maanen, Mary Rowe, Ralph Katz, Michael Schrage, Hal Abelson, Joel Moses, Lydia Snover, Phil Rotner, Brian Hughes, Lissa Martinez, Stephen Sacca, Ed Roberts, Tom Allen, Alex Slocum, Alice Gast, Tom Knight, Drew Endy, Eric von Hippel, Jared Curhan, Marty Schmidt, Rafael Reif, Chuck Vest, Bob Brown, Fiona Murray, Diane Burton, Noubar Afeyan, Ed Crawley, Anjali Sastry, Ted Selker, Leigh Firn, Alex d'Arbeloff, Jay Forrester, Bob Gibbons, Ben Grosof, Steve Immerman, Andy Lo, Sandi Simester, Duncan Simester, Tom Magnanti, Charlie Cooney, Dan Nyhart, Bill Pounds, Drazen Prelec, Jim Utterback, Nelson Repenning, Antoinette Schoar, Eleanor Westney, Wanda Orlikowski, Ken Zolot, Alec Dingee, Sherwin Greenblatt, Jack Turner, Steve Brown, Lori Pressman, David Lazar, Iqbal Quadir, Joe Haldeman, Neil Gershenfeld, Karim Lakhani, Yonald Chery, Tim Rowe, Julianne Zimmerman, Saul Griffith, Nitin Sawhney, Owen Johnson, Serena Cheng, Amy Salzhauer, Rob Poor, Mark Lundstrom, Barbara Mack, Andrew Collins, Kristen Collins, Cory Kidd, Emilie Slaby, Barun Singh, Mike Folkert, Sanith Wijesinghe, Luis Ortiz, Brian Schneider, Erich Caulfield, Ryan Kershner, John Mills, John Lock, Monica Rixman, Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, Nick Cassimatis, Han Huang, Raymie Stata, Alex Wissner-Gross, Ed Boyden, Robert Wickham, Henry Houh, Stan Reiss, Jono Goldstein, Jamie Goldstein, David Grosof, Peter Mui, Alex Laats, Daniel Rosenberg, Tim Panagos, Mike Lohse, Nathan Eagle, Mike Sung, Anmol Madan, Juan Carlos Barahona, Hector Hernandez, Jim Matheson, David Berry, Steve Whittaker, Dianne Goldin, Beth Garvin, Christine Tempesta, Maria Sterk, Marie Eiter, Trish Fleming, Ann Chaney, Antoinette Mueller, Greg Wymer, Krisztina Holly, Mick Bass, Tom O'Donnell, Tony French, Alex Slawsby, Amy McCreath, Trish Weinmann, Sally Susnowitz, Amy Smith, Pascal Marmier, Rick LeVine, Bob Donahue, Mann Shoffner, Steve Derezinski, Karen Donoghue, Mark Halliday, David Tames, Tony Briggs, Nina Dudnik, Fleming Ray, Adrian Fay, Adriana Guzman, John Peery, Richard Shyduroff, Doug Ling, Mike Osofsky, Justin Cook, Joe Contrada, Jaco Pretorius, Karen Willcox, Ben Koo, Dave Danielson, Nol Browne, Anil Dharni, Omer Ceder, Hans Tung, Neil DeSilva, Leif Lundaas, Jin Yi, Othman Laraki, Elad Gil, Sheila Kanode, David Brock, Debbie Berechman, Jennifer Mapes, Rod Garcia, Liz Hartnett, Launa Johnston, Tecla Ris, Janice Gardner, Rochelle Weichman, Al Essa, Lillian Paratore, David Woodruff, Alex Chisholm, Mert Flemings, Alex Moukas, Basar Arioglu, Deniz Yuret, Pam Lipson, Pawan Sinha, Anthony Ives, Warren Seamans, Tod Machover, Cynthia Breazeal, Keith Johnson, Walter Owen, Kay Stratton, Julie McClellan, Charles Hrbek, Beryl Rosenthal, Deb Douglas, Stu Schmill, Gordon Hamilton, Mike Parduhn, Thad Starner, Dan Frey, Conor Walsh, Dave Merrill, Marshall van Alstyne, Hank Taylor, Bill Aulet, Susan Hockfield, Harel Williams, Matt McGann, Karl Ruping, Andy Olmsted, Bob Buderi, Jose Pacheco, Ellen Brockley, Bob Hefty, Bill Hecht... R.I.P. David Berray, Push Singh, Bhuwan Singh, Hermann Haus If I did not mention you, I probably should have. Introduction & Overview MIT is one of the world's great epicenters of innovation and extraordinary impact. It is worth studying, documenting, and understanding better how creative work is organized, what happens on a daily basis, and its history and future outlook if only to improve upon the current state of affairs and perhaps to draw lessons worth sharing elsewhere. In any case, MIT is a fantastic and fascinating object of attention. This document is an exploration into the past, present, and emerging future of MIT from the perspective of a participant-in and observer-of Institute life and learning, one affiliated with MIT for nearly (or merely) two decades as student, alumnus, employee, minion, volunteer, and often protagonist of new initiatives. * Part I explores Mens et Manus, MIT's core mission, historic emergence, and creative ethos pervading the place. * Part IIsurveys how MIT has been an historic Engine of the Innovation Economy by engaging industry, continually evolving, and maintaining Real-World Relevance. * Part III looks at the rich interrelationship between the MIT Triad of Research, Education and Extracurriculars and how the Institute operates, at its best, to maximally Orchestrate Innovation * Part IV explores the MIT Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, how the Institute formally and informally educates and inspires new generations of founders, builders, and leaders. * Part V observes how distributed initiative and faculty-driven inquiry and leadership enable organizational reinvention and drive Relentless Renewal. * Part VI surveys MIT's emergent Future Frontiers, research themes which cut across Institutional lines and exemplify new directions of inquiry. This thesis attempts, therefore, to shed light on how Creative Inquiry leads to Real- World Impact at this remarkable Innovation Institute. Part I Mens et Manus: the Core Mission, Historic Emergence, and Creative Ethos of MIT MIT founder William Barton Rogers sought to prepare technical personnel for the challenges of the newly-industrializing, enlightenment society blossoming around him. With the support of far-sighted fellow Bostonians and other supporters, he persevered to found MIT in the mid 1800s as a place which would take a very practical, hands-on approach to learning and the arts. He envisioned training young men in ways relevant to their professional ambitions and the demands of business. Indeed, the founding charter emphasizes that MIT should pursue "practical application of science in connection with...commerce."' Learning in the new Rogers polytechnical institution would be substantially by doing -- through actually making things -- a pedagogy today known as constructionism. 2 At the time, the dominant university mode in the US was that of received-learning represented by Harvard and its ivy-league. Over the Institute's nearly 150 year lifespan, its overall mission has remained to perform excellent and enduring research and education for the maximum betterment of humanity.3 Throughout this period, MIT has undergone many substantial shifts in the underlying strategic and tactical instantiations of this overarching mission, at times drawing closer to industry, then government, then back, all while starting new initiatives and even periodically restructuring itself rather dramatically. Persistent throughout MIT's growth and emergence,