13 minute read
DIGITAL FABRICATION/MAKING
2 THEME | DIGITAL FABRICATION/MAKING
LAUNCHPAD | THINKTANK “Digital Fabrication Changes Industries” | MIT Accelerate and MIT partnered to deliver a ThinkTank with Italian/Spanish/Scottish shoe manufacturers and tannery owners, who were on a four day immersion visit to MIT and Harvard. The goal was for them to explore how digital fabrication is disrupting their industries and how they could develop new strategies in a competitive market.
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The session was curated with industry representatives, faculty and students from different disciplines and groups developed ideas around processes, new material choices, fabrication, and sustainability.
LAUNCHPAD | THINKTANK “Future of Making”
In partnership with Autodesk and MassRobotic and as part of Wentworth’s presidential inauguration the ThinkTank focused on making and digital fabrication and how to activate neighborhoods and all generations.
The Wentworth Committee responsible for the agenda of the day included Nakisa Alborz, Erik Cote, Monique Fuchs, Dan Holzer, David Mareira, Joe Schnackertz.
For this ThinkTank the video format will evolve from previous ThinkTanks and we will produce a documentary around “Makers” showcasing craftmanship and making in the 21st century. The proposed launch date is 2020.
BENCHMARKS DIGITAL FABRICATION
71 Total engaged
21 Students representing 8 disciplines 12 Faculty Members representing 9 disciplines 11 Community Leaders 36 Industry Representatives
SPILL OVER INTO ACADEMICS
Exploration of Organic Materials + Built Environment MArch student connected with a Danish self-taught scientist/designer, also an MIT Fellow. She shared experimentations around organic materials that could replace materials in the built environment, fashion industry etc as we know it. Focus was on sustainability and [digital] fabrication.
VISIBILITY FOR WENTWORTH
- Media Coverage in La Conceria for MIT partnership - Boston Innovation Training https://bit.ly/3b2sByi - Talk at BSA/SCUP University and College Roundtable discussing making in the context of the Gen Z generation. Over 70 professionals from the built environment participated. - ThinkTank booklet and documentary in the works - Led Hubweek panel on “Makers Shaping Tangible Futures” - Collaboration requests from organizations focusing on multigenerational makerspaces, maker ecosystems, turning ideas into products. - Conducted workshops for middle/high schools, bridge and after school programs around making, digital fabrication, and turning an idea from concept into prototype [see pipeline section].
FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES A proposal articulating the activation of the first floor of the CEIS building from Accelerate to the Additive Manufacturing Center as a for-profit entity to demonstrate the pathway from ideation-to-product was shared and is an opportunity to explore further as long as the energy around the new building is still high with internal and external stakeholders. In addition, there is much opportunity to activate the space for pipeline work, community and industry engagement.
3 ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMMING
STARTUP CHALLENGE It was necessary to adjust programming around the startup challenge in 2019 until the two full-time roles were re-hired. The goal was to sustain student interest, remain visible on campus, and provide student team support.
18 student teams with a total of 44 students participated in the HotSeat mentoring event to showcase their ideas and receive feedback from external mentors. In addition, ten teams showcased to Trustees/University Advisors.
WORKBAR PARTNERSHIP A partnership with Workbar was established in 2018 to provide an opportunity for students and recent alumni to experience a co-working environment, connect with other startups, and Wentworth with a platform to run public facing events such as the HotSeat mentoring event and the PitchRounds to new audiences in a setting within the Boston ecosystem. The partnership agreement closed in summer 2019. EXTERNAL PARTNERS 52 Launch is a product-to-market company supporting local entrepreneurs. Accelerate collaborated with them on two pitch events to showcase their portfolio companies as well as WIT student startup ideas.
Empire Group supports entrepreneurs from napkin to product and collaborated with Accelerate on workshops and mentoring.
One of the Accelerate students accepted a co-op position with MassChallenge, which continued to solidify Wentworth’s relationship with MC. propel their ideas forward. In addition, it provided
Each year, Wentworth sends a student startup team to the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Beantown Throwdown, where teams across Massachusetts universities and colleges compete.
PDB ENTREPRENEURSHIP CO-OP In 2017 collaboration started among Co-op + Careers, Business Management, and Accelerate to re-launch an entrepreneurship co-op. Accelerate had employed three between 2014-2015 and shared concept and learnings. In 2019 the PDB Entrepreneurship Co-op was established, which has proven impactful for students.
BENCHMARKS ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMMING
220 Participants in the Startup Challenge from 19 disciplines
111 Teams submitted startup ideas
44% New teams in 2019
56% Repeat teams in 2019
12 Student coaches working with startup teams
4 PIPELINE WORK
MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
MASS TLC | Technovations Award Ceremony
Since 2017 Accelerate partners every year with MassTLC on their Technovations programming. It attracts each year around 100 female students from Massachusetts between 8 and 18 for six months and supports them around projects in coding and programming. Corporate partners such as Microsoft are lead supporters and each year the program culminates in an awards ceremony at Wentworth to which teachers and families attend with a total of 250-300 attendees.
Tours + Immersions
Multiple engagements took place with bridge, after-school, and middle/high school classes over the course of 2019.
Possible Project: Accelerate students mentored high school student teams working on startup ideas. Sociedad Latina: Summer workshops around ideation and prototyping BoSTEM: Part of STEM week in October, Accelerate ran multiple workshops for Boston schools RAMP: Each year Accelerate provides programming to RAMP students around ideation and prototyping
Exploring Collaborations Co-op + Careers and Accelerate met with Hack.Diversity, a non-profit focused on increasing internship and matchmaking opportunities for high school students and companies, to determine opportunities for future collaborations.
BENCHMARKS PIPELINE WORK
308 Total engaged
216 Students reached from Boston/MA schools 82 Teachers from BPS/Charter Schools/MA schools engaged 23 Industry/Government leaders focused on pipeline work
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
BPS/Autodesk Externships
In 2019 BPS partnered with Autodesk for a two week teacher externship. 25 teachers across Boston participated and were placed into companies to collaborate on STEM related work. Wentworth partnered on the Externship Award Ceremony, where teachers, companies, city officials came together to celebrate the program.
School Retool | Innovation Programing with Stanford D.School and IDEO
Based on our work with the ThinkTanks and Startup Challenge, we partnered with BPS in 2019 to deliver innovation programing. School Retool is a spin off from the Stanford D.School and IDEO and facilitated 39 teachers to re-envision schools.
VISIBILITY FOR WENTWORTH - BoSTEM/United Way Advisory Council Member - MassTLC Ed Tech + Technovations Judge - Some of the schools we had touch points with either through student engagement or teacher development work included: Tech Boston Academy, Commonwealth Leadership Academy, English High School,
Mather Elementary, Fenway High, Madison Park, Eliot Innovation School, Cristo Rey High School, New
Mission High, Boston Day and Evening Academy
FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
- Credentialing of Teacher Externships through CPCE certification and potential partnership with Woodrow
Wilson. - Mentorship program opportunity between BPS teachers and Wentworth faculty. - Monthly immersions with Boston schools through BoSTEM/United Way - Connection and potential collaboration with Northeastern on their foundation year/13th high school year - Interest for tours/workshops received from Conservatory Lab Charter, Pope John Paul Charter, Boston
English, BC High School, Eliot Church, Louis D Brown Peace Institute. - Leveraging existing programs, such as Hack.Diversity and building strong partnerships
Overall we have an opportunity to map existing relationships with middle/high schools across campus - from co-curricular engagement to the work academic departments are conducting in this area. This can help us to be more orchestrated and deliberate about our outreach and more mindful on how we can maximize our resources.
5 PARTNERSHIPS
The following listing represents a range of engagements in 2019. Some relationships were nurtured over years, others were new touch points created in 2019.
INDUSTRY
Autodesk MassTLC MassChallenge MassRobotics Fable Vision CITIXL/NL Sasaki Sasaki Foundation Suffolk Construction AARP Signify [former Philips Lighting] Design Museum Boston MBBJ Boston Luxe Real Estate Leupold Brown Goldback Architects Business Innovation Factory EPAM Continuum Workbar Future In Sight McKinsey CSpace Optum Essential Design Formlabs Draper Stantec Boston Children’s Museum MassBio Bose Shell TechWorks INDUSTRY
Urban Culture Institute Cengage Learning The Partnership Inc. Jan Gleysteen Architects Castle Group CIC | Cambridge Innovation Center AGENCY @CIC GE Society of Grownups IHS MarkIT Neurxsystem LimeLaw Boston Cyclist Union Jewish Family and Children’s Services Mass Gerontology Associations Leers Weinzapfel Associates Navy Yard Consulting DiMella Shaffer Memory.co Okol MassMedic CTIA Goddard House UG2 Solutions STERIS Cake Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative i2i Experience IDEO Institute for Human Centered Design Breegi LabCentral Harvard/Hebrew Senior Life Gingko Bioworks Good Growth Capital Cast.org
INDUSTRY
MIT Tech Review Stanley, Black & Decker BostonApp Deloitte Launch 52 Empire Group GrabCAT Fisher Unitech IRobot James Dyson Foundation JCJ Architecture Knoll Boston Society of Landscape Architects Little Pink Maker Particle Validity Sketch GitHub BSA/SCUP JFK Library Foundation Teradyne LL Bean First Repulic Bank Venture Cafe MIT Enterprise Forum Franklin Park Zoo Bequall Handy Cane Boston Children’s Hospital ChileMass Rendever Blue Cross Blue Shield Bond Dragon Innovation Microsoft COMMUNITY
Greater Mattapan Council Ideal Mixer Co-working Grace Communion International Eliot Church Hero Nurturing Center Woodrow Neighborhood Association Coalition Dorchester Synergy Partnership Greater Four Corners Action Coalition Bowdoin Geneva Mainstreets Redefining our Community Neighborhood Assoc Speak for the Trees
GOVERNMENT
Boston City Council Andrea Campbell’s Office/District 4 Embassy + Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Gemeente Amsterdam MAHA, Massachusetts Housing Authority Department of Neighborhood Development iLab Housing/Mayor’s Office Age Strong/Commissioner’s Office Commonwealth of Massachusetts Swissnex Office of State Representative Dan Cullinane New Urban Mechanics Senator Dan Cullinan’s Office
PIPELINE
Youth Build MassTLC Sociedad Latina BoSTEM/United Way Hack.Diversity BPS Central Office BPS Innovation Incubator Tech Boston Academy Commonwealth Leadership Academy English High School Mather Elementary Fenway High Madison Park Eliot Innovation School Cristo Rey High School New Mission High Boston Day and Evening Academy Boston Arts Academy Boston Collaborative High School Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers Boston Community Leadership Academy Greater Egelston High School John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and
Sciences Boston Adult Technical Academy Boston International Newcomers Academy Charlestown High School Snowden International School at Copley Jackson-Mann K-8 Young Achievers Science & Math K-8 Brighton High Excel High Lyndon K-8 School ACADEMIA
MIT Media Lab MIT Sloan School MIT/Urban Planning MIT/Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Science Northeastern/College Arts, Media, Design Northeastern Native + Indigineous Affinity Group Boston University Boston College Curry College Holy Cross College Harvard School of Public Health MCPHS Emmanuel UMASS Boston Emerson Drexel University University of Applied Sciences Lucerne Olin College D’Youville College MassArt Harvard Medical School Berkley School of Music Stanford D.School Oxford University ITH Delft SERC Ireland
WENTWORTH FACULTY [42]
Nakisa Alborz, Interdisciplinary Engineering Derek Cascio, Industrial Design Abby Charest, Civil Engineering Steve Chomyszak, Mechanical Engineering Robert Cowherd, Architecture Ed Cuoco, Business Management Manuel Delgado, Architecture Len Delosh, Business Management Meliti Dikeos, Architecture Douglas Dow, Electrical Engineering Jack Duggan, Civil Engineering John Ellis, Architecture Antonio Furgiele, Architecture Jody Gordon, Humanities + Social Sciences Chuck Hotchkiss, CADCM Ella Howard, Humanities + Social Sciences Kelly Hutzell, Architecture Ali Kiapour, Biomedical Engineering James Kostaras, Architecture Shankar Krishnan, Biomedical David Mareira, Business Management Joe Martel-Foley, Biomedical Engineering Jim McCusker, Electrical Engineering Mark Mulligan, Architecture Memo Ergezer, Computer Science Michael Mozill, Business Management Derek Pajaczkowski, Architecture Charlie Pham, Computer Science David Rosenberg, Computer Science Kristin Rosero, Humanities + Social Sciences Anne-Catrin Schultz, Architecture David Simpson, Biological Engineering Ingrid Strong, Architecture Rick Trilling, Business Management Rob Trumbour, Architecture Santiago Umaschi, Business Management John Vecchio, Mechanical Engineering Cynthia Williams, Humanities + Social Sciences Simon Williamson, Industrial Design Charlie Wiseman, Computer Science + Networking Deborah Wright, CPCE Yugu Yang-Keathley, Electrical Engineering
WENTWORTH STAFF [19]
Faith Bade, Co-op+Careers Ryan Babanowski, Engineering Robbin Beauchamp, Co-op+Careers Megan Bouchard, Student Engagement Alex Cabal, Center Diversity + Social Justice Erik Cote, President’s Office Beth Curtis, IA Rebecca Drossman, CLP Lori Friedman, IA Jer Jurma, Co-op+Careers Kevin Kidd, Library Alex McGillivray, Student Engagement Erik Miller, CLP Ricky Meinke, Diversity + Social Justice Brian Quigley, Student Engagement/WOW Erik Roe, Alumni Engagement Chris Scanlon, Student Leadership Don Tracia, LIT Jac van Loon, Industrial Design
6 OPERATIONS + MAKERSPACE
STAFFING
In January 2019 two full-time positions were vacated. A committee worked through the Director applications and made finalist recommendations. An offer was accepted and start date of the new Director will be March 2020. The second full-time role will be posted. In addition, Accelerate lost a temporary full-time role in January 2019, which was focused on coordination/communications.
MOVE + OPENING + UTILIZATION OF MAKERSPACE
In January 2019 Accelerate moved into the new CEIS building with a focus on the following: - Ordering and placing equipment - Establish and produce safety procedures, protocols and documentation - Develop intake forms and processes for requests related to project support, equipment usage, tours - Piloting sign in technology at front desk
ACTIVATION WITH STUDENT CLUBS
Accelerate pro-actively recruited student clubs to utilize the Makerspace as their home base, which contributes to a more diverse student body utilizing the space and at the same time promotes work across disciplines. 9 student clubs became resident clubs in 2019 including the Costume Club, IdeaHackers, Product Design + Development Collaborative [PDDC], Robotics Club, Virtual Reality Club, SME Club, Computer Science Society of ACM, CROWNS.
BENCHMARKS OPERATIONS
2251 Students engaged with Accelerate Makerspace
30 Request for space usage from internal departments and external partners
552 Attendees in internal/external partner events
818 Individuals utilized the equipment for personal/school projects
7 Co-op students supported Accelerate and Makerspace operations
54 Workstudy + 12 student coaches worked with Accelerate
7 ADDITIONAL WORK
A report was produced with extensive input from 26 internal stakeholders from across the university to capture current work in innovation + experiential learning as part of co-curricula and curricula engagements. Ideas were shared for future opportunities and positioning with incoming new President.
INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP IMPACT REPORT FOR AY 2018- 2019
A state of I+E report was created in the summer of 2019 to give a background of I+E activity on campus, how it relates to Wentworth’s future and what the opportunities are. It was submitted to the new President.
MARKETING PLAYBOOK
A marketing playbook was produced to capture opportunities, storytelling, and provide a guideline for how Accelerate can better position internally and externally, how relationships can be nutured through communication and social media, and how we can increase overall Wentworth visibility.
CONCEPT DIGITAL FABRICATION
Provided ideas on how to capitalize on the first floor of the CEIS as an ecosystem showcasing the path from idea to product. In addition, there is an opportunity to articulate the internal campus wide makerspaces/labs and juxtapose them to our overall positioning in the maker/digital fabrication ecosystem in Boston to better differentiate ourselves and provide services that connect to the startup, innovation, and neighborhood communities. Creating a digital fabrication hub on campus to be accessible for each discipline and turning us into a thought leader on how digital fabrication is disrupting the industries we serve.
CASE STUDY WITH MIT SLOAN SCHOOL | WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE
Wentworth’s co-op program was compared to a German university’s dual studies model in a case study
published by MIT Sloan School. The researcher frequently met with Monique Fuchs and also interviewed
Robbin Beauchamp, Chuck Hotchkiss, Cidhinnia Torres-Campos, Fred Driscoll. The case study was
published for the Workforce of the Future and Good Companies Good Jobs initiative.
This report was produced by Monique Fuchs with extensive support from Tory Lam, without whom none
of the benchmarks and formatting would have been possible. Every attempt was made to reflect accurate
and complete information and list every individual/organizations contributing to the campus-wide success
of innovation + entrepreneurship activities. Should there be an individual or project missing, please reach
out, so this report can be updated.
fuchsm@wit.edu
