Building the Tools of the Next Manufacturing Revolution

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

To be sure, “It’s not that 3-D printing will replace all of manufacturing or even a tenth of it in the near future,” Hart says. “It is the cornerstone of a digital transformation in the way we go about designing, producing, and servicing products in a responsive, market-driven manner.” 

As these new technologies become more widely used, the resulting changes in industrial manufacturing processes could have profound implications for the workers of the future, and for their training and education. Hart is deeply engaged with those questions, too.

“We also like to think at the system level, in terms of economic modeling of new manufacturing technologies including 3-D printing, and understanding how companies work and what transformations may be needed in product-development processes and in the skills of their employees,” he says.

That research has been inspired by Hart’s involvement in MIT’s Work of the Future initiative, for which he’s assembled a team to examine how demands on workers across the product life cycle — from the designer to the engineer to the production worker — will be influenced by the rise of automation and digitization.

Hart’s own workflow has become ever more diverse, in pace with the rapid developments in the field. But his teaching, research, and work with industry all go hand in hand, he says. “It’s all symbiotic. All these activities and interests feed to and from one another. We also have a prime responsibility to consider the sustainability of the manufacturing technologies that we develop, and the implications of more flexible manufacturing — both positive and negative — on the resource pressures of the planet.”

In addition to his own experience as an entrepreneur — and becoming co-inventor of more than 50 pending and issued patents — Hart gains insights and energy from teaching industry professionals and students alike.

He’s a recipient of the prestigious Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching at MIT, as well as the MIT Keenan Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, for his work teaching MIT’s flagship undergraduate manufacturing course 2.008 (Design and Manufacturing) and its equivalent as an open online course on edX. As the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s “Maker Czar,” he oversees the design and manufacturing shops used by hundreds of students, working with instructors and various department leaders to make sure facilities have state-of-the-art equipment and capabilities and that students become proficient with both established and emerging technologies.

He also created and leads an online MITxPro course for professionals, “Additive Manufacturing for Innovative Design and Production,” which has enrolled over 2,500 participants from around the world who have sought to learn the fundamentals and applications of 3-D printing and apply this knowledge to their jobs. 

“The experience of teaching and developing courses for industry, both in person and digitally, has been incredibly helpful in shaping my perspective of how we at MIT can contribute to the future of manufacturing,” Hart says.

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