MIT TinyTech is an institute-wide student organization which aims to advance understanding of emerging micro-through-nanoscale technologies, to serve researchers from throughout MIT through events and activities, and to build links between interested science, engineering, and business communities at and beyond the Institute. Through the schedule of events, we are specifically focused on advancing MIT’s Triad of Activities – Research, Education, and Community, as well as the promotion of entrepreneurship and the innovation of new scientific and commercial ideas.
Emerging Tiny Technology Wavefront – Tiny Technologies are a broad emerging area of research activity at MIT, and correspondingly, a major arena for discovery, innovation, & entrepreneurship. The “Tiny” term derives from MIT Engineering Dean Magnanti’s goal of fueling research into systems & structures along an increasingly fine length-scale spanning several orders of magnitude from millimeter through angstrom. Furthermore, such research cuts across many of the classic science & engineering disciplines, such as chemistry, EE, MechE, and Materials Science, to name a few. Progress may well result in both the reinvention of classic disciplines and the creation of entirely new ones. Applications and consequences of such research include microstructures, smart materials, MEMS, BioMEMS, CombiChem Chips, cellular robotics, synthetic biology, nanoprobes, nanotubes, and much more. Such technological innovations promise to change practically all things around us, from simple artifacts through the most complex of space systems.
MIT Emerging Technology Matrix – To place the TinyTech activity at MIT in the broadest possible Institute context, you might consider the MIT Matrix which maps MIT’s major strategic research thrusts to the MIT Triad -- Research, Education, and Community as defined by the MIT Task Force on Student Life & Learning – basically the main things MIT does. The MIT Matrix is online: http://web.media.mit.edu/~davet/notes/emerging-tech-mit.html
Research – Many labs & departments at MIT are pursuing different aspects & approaches to Tiny Technology. In the School of Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology each have faculty seeking fundamental understanding of atomic interactions, natural & novel molecules & polymers, and increasingly complex chemical, biochemical, and molecular biological reactions & chemical-systems. In the School of Engineering, Mechanical Engineers, Materials Scientists, Electrical Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Biological Engineers, and more, are building ultra-precise position & measurement systems, nanomechanical test probes, nanostructured materials, and more. MIT Labs actively involved in this domain include MTL, RLE, MicroPhotonics, Active Materials, NanoStructures, MPC, the NanoMechanical Test Facility, and the new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, and more.
Education – Several classes are potentially relevant to aspiring science, engineering, and business folks. Certainly all undergraduates at MIT benefit from the core curriculum of physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics. These form the educational foundation for understanding the deeper elective offerings in virtually all disciplines. Furthermore, an increasing number of cross-electives, especially School-wide and Institute-wide offerings, are emerging, as faculty seek to draw together and serve an interdisciplinary group of students. The core MEMS class, for example, is 6.777 Design & Fabrication of MEMS Devices ( http://web.mit.edu/6.777/www/ ). Many classes cater to more specific interests in nanocatalysis, silicon biology, smart materials, optical imaging methods, nanomechanics, and much, much more. The premier MIT Sloan School offering, for those interesting in TinyTech commercialization and innovation strategy, is Technology & Entrepreneurial Strategy ( http://courses.media.mit.edu/2002fall/tes/ ).
Entrepreneurship – Many MIT students & alumni have founded or are founding & building companies to commercialize Tiny Technologies. Established firms such as Ray Stata’s (MIT EE ‘57) Analog Devices ( http://www.analog.com/ ) is a pioneer in MEMS accelerometers, the triggering device in most automobile Airbags; Cecil Green’s (MIT EE ’23) Texas Instruments ( http://www.ti.com/ ) has totally changed the videobeamer industry with its Digital Light Processor (DLP) technology. Emerging companies, such as Carmichael Roberts’ (MIT MBA ’00) SurfaceLogix ( http://www.surfacelogix.com/ ) is seeking to commercialize “soft lithographic” methods of fast-fabrication to revolutionize bioassays and the drug-discovery process; John Santini’s (MIT ChemE ’99) MicroCHIPS ( http://www.mchips.com/ ) is employing MEMS fabrication methods to build digital drug delivery microchips. In the past couple years alone, some dozen entries in the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition have proposed commercializing Tiny Technologies, including the 2001 Grand Prize Winner, AngstroMedica ( http://www.angstromedica.com/ ).