MIT today launched its Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), an Institute-wide effort to reinfuse U.S. industrial production with leading-edge technologies, bolster crucial U.S. economic sectors, and ignite job creation. The initiative will encompass advanced research, innovative education programs, and partnership with companies across many sectors, in a bid to help transform manufacturing and elevate its impact. “We want to work with firms big and small, in cities, small towns and everywhere in between, to help them adopt new approaches for increased productivity,” MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth wrote in a letter to the Institute community this morning. “We want to deliberately design high-quality, human-centered manufacturing jobs that bring new life to communities across the country.” Kornbluth added: “Helping America build a future of new manufacturing is a perfect job for MIT — and I’m convinced that there is no more important work we can do to meet the moment and serve the nation now.” The Initiative for New Manufacturing also announced its first six founding industry consortium members: Amgen, Flex, GE Vernova, PTC, Sanofi, and Siemens. Participants in the INM Industry Consortium will support seed projects proposed by MIT researchers, initially in the area of artificial intelligence for manufacturing. INM joins the ranks of MIT’s other presidential initiatives — including The Climate Project at MIT; MITHIC, which supports the human-centered disciplines; MIT HEALS, centered on the life sciences and health; and MGAIC, the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium. “There is tremendous opportunity to bring together a vibrant community working across every scale — from nanotechnology to large-scale manufacturing — and across a wide-range of applications including semiconductors, medical devices, automotive, energy systems, and biotechnology,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer and dean of engineering, who is part of the initiative’s leadership team. “MIT is uniquely positioned to harness the transformative power of digital tools and AI to shape future of manufacturing. I’m truly excited about what we can build together and the synergies this creates with other cross-cutting initiatives across the Institute.” The initiative is just the latest MIT-centered effort in recent decades aiming to expand American manufacturing. A faculty research group wrote the 1989 bestseller “Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge,” advocating for a renewal of manufacturing; another MIT project, called Production in the Innovation Economy, called for expanded manufacturing in the early 2010s. In 2016, MIT also founded The Engine, a venture fund investing in hardware-based “tough tech” start-ups including many with potential to became substantial manufacturing firms. As developed, the MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing is based around four major themes: Reimagining manufacturing technologies and systems: realizing breakthrough technologies and system-level approaches to advance energy production, health care, computing, transportation, consumer products, and more; Elevating the productivity and experience of manufacturing: developing and deploying new digitally driven methods and tools to amplify productivity and improve the human experience of manufacturing; Scaling new manufacturing: accelerating the scaling of manufacturing companies and transforming supply chains to maximize efficiency and resilience, fostering product innovation and business growth; and Transforming the manufacturing base: driving the deployment of a sustainable global manufacturing ecosystem that provides compelling opportunities to workers, with major efforts focused on the U.S. The initiative has mapped out many concrete activities and programs, which will include an Institute-wide research program on emerging technologies and other major topics; workforce and education programs; and industry engagement and participation. INM also aims to establish new labs for developing manufacturing tools and techniques; a “factory observatory” program which immerses students in manufacturing through visits to production sites; and key “pillars” focusing on areas from semiconductors and biomanufacturing to defense and aviation. The workforce and education element of INM will include TechAMP, an MIT-created program that works with community colleges to bridge the gap between technicians and engineers; AI-driven teaching tools; professional education; and an effort to expand manufacturing education on campus in collaboration with MIT departments and degree programs. INM’s leadership team has three faculty co-directors: John Hart, the Class of 1922 Professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Suzanne Berger, Institute Professor at MIT and a political scientist who has conducted influential empirical studies of manufacturing; and Chris Love, the Raymond A. and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering. The initiative’s executive director is Julie Diop. The initiative is in the process of forming a faculty steering committee with representation from across the Institute, as well as an external advisory board. INM stems partly from the work of the Manufacturing@MIT working group, formed in 2022 to assess many of these issues. The launch of the new initiative was previewed at a daylong MIT symposium on May 7, titled “A Vision for New Manufacturing.” The event, held before a capacity audience in MIT’s Wong Auditorium, featured over 30 speakers from a wide range of manufacturing sectors. “The rationale for growing and transforming U.S. manufacturing has never been more urgent than it is today,” Berger said at the event. “What we are trying to build at MIT now is not just another research project. … Together, with people in this room and outside this room, we’re trying to change what’s happening in our country.” “We need to think about the importance of manufacturing again, because it is what brings product ideas to people,” Love told MIT News. “For instance, in biotechnology, new life-saving medicines can’t reach patients without manufacturing. There is a real urgency about this issue for both economic prosperity and creating jobs. We have seen the impact for our country when we have lost our lead in manufacturing in some sectors. Biotechnology, where the U.S. has been the global leader for more than 40 years, offers the potential to promote new robust economies here, but we need to advance our capabilities in biomanufacturing to maintain our advantage in this area.” Hart adds: “While manufacturing feels very timely today, it is of enduring importance. Manufactured products enable our daily lives and manufacturing is critical to advancing the frontiers of technology and society. Our efforts leading up to launch of the initiative revealed great excitement

Ahead of Intelligent Health (13-14 September 2023, Basel, Switzerland), we asked Yurii Kryvoborodov, Head of AI & Data Consulting, Unicsoft, his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   Generative AI is just a part of the disruptive impact of all AI tech on the healthcare industry. It allows to dramatically reduce time efforts, costs and chances of mistakes. Generative AI and LLMs are applied to automating clinical documentation, drug discovery, tailoring of treatment plans to individual patients, real-time clinical decision support and health monitoring, extracting valuable insights from unstructured clinical records, streamlining administrative tasks like billing and claims processing, providing instant access to comprehensive medical knowledge. And this list continues.

We sat with Benjamin von Deschwanden, Co-Founder and CPO at Acodis AG, to ask him his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   I think that the strength of Generative AI lies in making huge amounts of information accessible without needing to manually sift through the source material. Being able to quickly answer any questions is going to be transformative for everyone working with increasingly bigger data sets.The challenge will be to ensure that the information we get by means of Generative AI is correct and complete – especially in healthcare – as the consequences of wrong data can be fatal. We at Acodis are actively working on practical applications of Generative AI inside our Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Platform for Life Science and Pharma clients to drive efficiency and accelerate time to market, whilst controlling the risks.

Intelligent Health 2024 returns to Basel, Switzerland on 11th–12th September. We’ve got prominent speakers. An extensive programme. Groundbreaking advancements in #HealthTech. And much, much more. Our incredible 2024 programme will dive deeper than ever before. From sharing the latest innovation insights to exploring use cases of AI application in clinical settings from around the world. All through our industry-renowned talks, limitless networking opportunities, and much-loved, hands-on workshops. Read on to discover what themes await at the world’s largest AI and healthcare summit. 

We sat down with Margrietha H. (Greet) Vink, Erasmus MC’s Director of Research Development Office and Smart Health Tech Center, to ask her for her thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   The integration of Generative AI and LLMs into the healthcare industry holds the potential to revolutionise various aspects of patient care, from diagnostics and treatment to administrative tasks and drug development. However, this transformation will require careful consideration of ethical, legal, and practical challenges to ensure that the benefits are realised in a responsible and equitable manner.