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The ISN's mission is complex and difficult—and it won't
be solved by cutting-edge nanoscience alone. MIT has two key
partners who share not only a passion for the ISN mission, but
responsbility for achieving it.
U.S. Army
The Army is not only a sponsor, but a key partner. The ISN is
sponsored through the U.S.
Army Research Office (ARO), located in Durham, North Carolina.
MIT scientists work closely with scientists from the ARO and
other science and technology communities within the DoD to exchange
ideas and share experience with what does and doesn't work.
The Army also keeps the ISN in contact with the customer—the
individual soldier. Several times a year, MIT researchers travel
to Army bases to observe soldiers in training, talk with them
one-on-one, and see how current equipment works. It's also a
chance to get a first-hand taste of the soldier's challenges,
by wearing bulky night-vision goggles or carrying a 40-pound
rucksack for an hour. The ISN went on one such field excursion
to Ft.
Polk, Louisiana, in January 2003.
Industry
A second key ISN partner is private industry. Turning laboratory
innovations into real products, and scaling them up for affordable
manufacture in the hundreds of thousands, requires the special
expertise of companies both big and small. The ISN has three
founding industrial partners—Raytheon, DuPont, and
Partners Healthcare—and is recruiting additional partners
who share its vision for the soldier. Membership in the ISN
Industry Consortium is open to companies who provide a critical
core competency for ISN research and an appropriate level of
cost-sharing.
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