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 modelling of new manufacturing
technologies including 3-D printing, and
understanding how companies work and what
transformations may be needed in productdevelopment
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 digitisation.
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
At the Hart of it: John Hart
reimagines the future
Credit: MIT
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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