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2005 Innovation Forum

Daniel DiLorenzo '88, SM'88, SM '99, PhD '99 Amy Smith '84, SM '95, ENG '95 James McLurkin '94, SM '04, PhD '08 David Berry '00, PhD '05 Dick Gordon: March 8, 2005; Running Time: 1:05:59

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

Although their interests and paths diverge sharply, these young inventors share a passion to improve lives. Daniel DiLorenzo was bent from the start on shepherding his biomedical creations successfully to market. “Even in early graduate school, I was making a spreadsheet with every venture capitalist I’d ever met, their background, email—the list was enormous….If you’re a lab guy working with rats, no one will notice you unless you network and you’ll have no impact on society.” Amy Smith, a 2004 MacArthur Fellow, arrived at grad school barefoot after four years in the Peace Corps. Her experience in Botswana led her to believe that “simple things can make a big difference in people’s lives.” One example: An easily constructed device for chlorinating a village water supply. To Smith, success would mean “people all over the world copying an invention and not even knowing who I was.”
James McLurkin says his “path started with designing better toys.” He now hopes to make “profoundly stupid robots get smarter,” so they can do real tasks in the world. He’s happy to labor in academia, free from the burdens of patenting and commercial life. At his lab, people are encouraged “to think crazy thoughts and be bolder than the week before.” The latest Lemelson Winner, David Berry, travels with a large portfolio of ideas, undaunted by experiments that fail. He currently has seven patents in various stages of process. One recent project involved addressing the fossil fuel crisis by engineering bacteria to produce hydrogen. He’s focused now on finding ways to solve diseases by regulating cell processes. For Berry, the itch to invent “all goes back to Lego….People fall into inventing. Some people who liked to play with Legos might like to end up playing with robots or proteins.”

Lecture Details

Location: MIT Museum

“I don’t see patents coming into my work. We want as much infringement as we can possibly get. My definition of a successful project would be people all over the world copying an invention and not even knowing who I was. ”

Amy Smith

About the Speakers

Daniel DiLorenzo '88, SM'88, SM '99, PhD '99

1999 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner

DiLorenzo has devoted much of his work to designing and building implantable microelectrodes to facilitate sensory feedback in prosthetic limbs. He hopes to aid disabled people by providing a more natural feeling for prosthetic limbs.
In 2002, DiLorenzo founded NeuroBionics, a venture devoted to the development of advanced technology in the neurological market.
DiLorenzo earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer sciences from MIT (1987), a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT (1999), an M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (1999), and an M.S. in the management of technology from MIT (1999).

Amy Smith '84, SM '95, ENG '95

Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering
2004 MacArthur Fellow; Founder, MIT IDEAS Competition, Edgerton Center

The first female Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winner, Amy Smith received a B.S. (1984) and an S.M. (1995) in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and is currently working toward a M.S. in Technology and Policy. She also won the National Inventor's Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Competition (1999). In 2001 Smith helped start the MIT IDEAS Competition to promote student innovation and inventiveness for community needs, which she currently directs.

James McLurkin '94, SM '04, PhD '08

2003 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner

James McLurkin returned to MIT to begin work on a Ph.D. in Computer Science focusing on robotics and artificial intelligence, after completing an M.S. in electrical engineering at U.C. Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at MIT. Currently, he is a Lead Research Scientist with iRobot, where he is developing programming techniques for swarms of autonomous robots.
McLurkin taught in both MIT's Interphase and Integrated Studies programs, and mentored in the Black Graduate Engineering and Science Students program at U.C. Berkeley and MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Also, he is one of the co-founders of Black 6, a support organization for students of color in the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science program at MIT, and a member of the Black Student Union and National Society of Black Engineers.

David Berry '00, PhD '05

Principal, Flagship Ventures

David Berry joined Flagship in 2005 while completing his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Berry was previously awarded a Ph.D. through the MIT Biological Engineering Division, where he studied the biological effects of complex sugars with advisors Ram Sasisekharan and Robert Langer. Berry also did his undergraduate work at MIT, with a degree in brain and cognitive sciences. He was named as a member of the MIT Corporation - its Board of Trustees - in 2006.

Berry's work has led to 11 peer-reviewed publications, over 20 patents and applications, as well as more than 25 awards and honors including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2005 for for inventing a new protein to treat stroke patients. Berry was also named as the Innovator of the Year by Technology Review in its 2007 TR35 list of world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35. Berry is also looking into new ways to use sugar biology and bacteria to develop hydrogen gas inexpensively.

Dick Gordon

Host, The Connection, WBUR-FM

Before joining The Connection, Dick Gordon was senior correspondent, back-up host and reporter for the CBC national current affairs radio show, This Morning. He has served as Parliamentary reporter, Moscow correspondent and South Asia correspondent for both radio and television. During the last decade, Gordon has covered conflicts in Bosnia, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as well as the unrest in South Africa, Mozambique, Pakistan, India and the Middle East. Gordon has received two Gabriel Awards, two National Journalism Awards and has been nominated twice for the Actra Award for excellence in reporting. He graduated from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1977, and the Kent School, Kent, Connecticut in 1973.

About the Host