{"id":8282,"date":"2016-04-03T06:32:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T06:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=8282"},"modified":"2016-04-03T06:32:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T06:32:40","slug":"new-institute-will-accelerate-innovations-in-fibers-and-fabrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/new-institute-will-accelerate-innovations-in-fibers-and-fabrics\/","title":{"rendered":"New institute will accelerate innovations in fibers and fabrics"},"content":{"rendered":"

National public-private consortium led by MIT will involve manufacturers, universities, agencies, companies.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/a>
Professor Yoel Fink, director of MIT\u2019s Research Laboratory of Electronics
Photo: M. Scott Brauer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.)<\/strong> — An independent nonprofit founded by MIT has been selected to run a new, $317 million public-private partnership announced by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The partnership, named the Advanced Functional Fibers of America (AFFOA) Institute, has won a national competition for federal funding to create the latest Manufacturing Innovation Institute. It is designed to accelerate innovation in high-tech, U.S.-based manufacturing involving fibers and textiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposal for the institute was led by Professor Yoel Fink, director of MIT\u2019s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). The partnership includes 32 universities, 16 industry members, 72 manufacturing entities, and 26 startup incubators, spread across 27 states and Puerto Rico.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the eighth\u00a0Manufacturing Innovation Institute<\/span><\/a>\u00a0established to date, and the first to be headquartered in New England. The headquarters will be established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in proximity to the MIT campus and its U.S. Army-funded Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, as well as the Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]As explained in the original call for proposals to create this institute, the aim is to ensure \u201cthat America leads in the manufacturing of new products from leading edge innovations in fiber science, commercializing fibers and textiles with extraordinary properties.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

This unique partnership, Fink says, has the potential to create a whole new industry, based on breakthroughs in fiber materials and manufacturing. These new fibers and the fabrics made from them will have the ability to see, hear, and sense their surroundings; communicate; store and convert energy; monitor health; control temperature; and change their color.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new initiative will receive $75 million in federal funding out of a total of $317 million though cost sharing among the Department of Defense, industrial partners, venture capitalists, universities, nonprofits, and states including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The initial funding will cover a five-year period and will be administered through the new, independent, nonprofit organization set up for the purpose. The partnership, which will focus on both developing new technologies and training the workforce needed to operate and maintain these production systems, also includes a network of community colleges and experts in career and technical education for manufacturing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMassachusetts\u2019s innovation ecosystem is reshaping the way that people interact with the world around them,\u201d says Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. \u201cThis manufacturing innovation institute will be the national leader in developing and commercializing textiles with extraordinary properties. It will extend to an exciting new field our ongoing efforts to nurture emerging industries, and grow them to scale in Massachusetts. And it will serve as a vital piece of innovation infrastructure, to support the development of the next generation of manufacturing technology, and the development of a highly skilled workforce.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this manufacturing innovation institute, Massachusetts researchers and Massachusetts employers will collaborate to unlock new advances in military technology, medical care, wearable technology, and fashion,\u201d\u00a0adds Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. \u201cThis, in turn, will help drive business expansion, support the competitiveness of local manufacturers, and create new employment opportunities for residents across the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A new age of fabrics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: M. Scott Brauer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For thousands of years, humans have used fabrics in much the same way, to provide basic warmth and aesthetics. Clothing represents \u201cone of the most ancient forms of human expression,\u201d Fink says, but one that is now, for the first time, poised to undergo a profound transformation \u2014 the dawn of a \u201cfabric revolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this point in time different? The answer is research,\u201d Fink says: Objects that serve many complex functions are always made of multiple materials, whereas single-material objects, such as a drinking glass, usually have just a single, simple function. But now, new technology \u2014 some of it developed in Fink\u2019s own laboratory \u2014 is changing all that, making it possible to integrate many materials and complex functional structures into a fabric\u2019s very fibers, and to create fiber-based devices and functional fabric systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

The semiconductor industry has shown how to combine millions of transistors into an integrated circuit that functions as a system; as described by \u201cMoore\u2019s law,\u201d the number of devices and functions has doubled in computer chips every couple of years. Fink says the team envisions that the number of functions in a fiber will grow with similar speed, paving the way for highly functional fabrics.<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge now is to execute this vision, Fink says. While many textile and apparel companies and universities have figured out pieces of this puzzle, no single one has figured it all out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out there is no company or university in the world that knows how to do all of this,\u201d Fink says. \u201cInstead of creating a single brick-and-mortar center, we set out to assemble and organize companies and universities that have manufacturing and \u2018making\u2019 capabilities into a network \u2014 a \u2018distributed foundry\u2019 capable of addressing the manufacturing challenges. To date, 72 manufacturing entities have signed up to be part of our network.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith a capable manufacturing network in place,\u201d Fink adds, \u201cthe question becomes: How do we encourage and foster product innovation in this new area?\u201d The answer, he says, lies at the core of AFFOA\u2019s activities: Innovators across the country will be invited to execute \u201cadvanced fabric\u201d products on prototyping and pilot scales. Moreover, the center will link these innovators with funding from large companies and venture capital investors, to execute their ideas through the manufacturing stage. The center will thus lower the barrier to innovation and unleash product creativity in this new domain, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Promoting leadership in manufacturing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The federal selection process for the new institute was administered by the U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s Manufacturing Technology Program and the U.S. Army\u2019s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center and Contracting Command in New Jersey. Retired Gen. Paul J. Kern will serve as chairman of the AFFOA Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

As explained in the original call for proposals to create this institute, the aim is to ensure \u201cthat America leads in the manufacturing of new products from leading edge innovations in fiber science, commercializing fibers and textiles with extraordinary properties. Known as technical textiles, these modern day fabrics and fibers boast novel properties ranging from being incredibly lightweight and flame resistant, to having exceptional strength. Technical textiles have wide-ranging applications, from advancing capabilities of protective gear allowing fire fighters to battle the hottest flames, to ensuring that a wounded soldier is effectively treated with an antimicrobial compression bandage and returned safely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Fink, the new partnership will include Tom Kochan, the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT\u2019s Sloan School of Management, who will serve as chief workforce officer coordinating the nationwide education and workforce development (EWD) plan. Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering Alexander Slocum will be the EWD deputy for education innovation. Other key MIT participants will include professors Krystyn Van Vliet from the Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering departments; Peko Hosoi and Kripa Varanasi from the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Gregory Rutledge from the Department of Chemical Engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the industry partners who will be members of the partnership are companies such as Dupont, Warwick Mills, NextFlex, Dupont, Steelcase, and Corning. Among the academic partners are Drexel University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Texas at Austin.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a presentation last fall about the proposed partnership, MIT President L. Rafael Reif said, \u201cWe believe that partnerships \u2014 with industry and government and across academia \u2014 are critical to our capacity to create positive change.\u201d He added, \u201cOur nation has no shortage of smart, ambitious people with brilliant new ideas. But if we want a thriving economy, producing more and better jobs, we need more of those ideas to get to market faster.\u201d Accelerating such implementation is at the heart of the new partnership\u2019s goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connecting skills, workers, and jobs<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This partnership, Reif said, will be \u201ca system that connects universities and colleges with motivated companies and with far-sighted government agencies, so we can learn from each other and work with each other. A system that connects workers with skills, and skilled workers with jobs. And a system that connects advanced technology ideas to the marketplace or to those who can get them to market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the power of this new collaboration, Fink says, is combining the particular skills and resources of the different partners so that they \u201cadd up to something that\u2019s more than the sum of the parts.\u201d Existing large companies can contribute both funding and expertise, smaller startup companies can provide their creative new ideas, and the academic institutions can push the research boundaries to open up new technological possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMIT recognizes that advancing manufacturing is vital to our innovation process, as we explored in our Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) study,\u201d says MIT Provost Martin Schmidt. \u201cAFFOA will connect our campus even more closely with industries (large and small), with educational organizations that will develop the skilled workers, and with government at the state and federal level \u2014 all of whom are necessary to advance this new technology. AFFOA is an exciting example of the public-private partnerships that were envisioned in the recommendation of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince MIT\u2019s start, there has always been an emphasis on \u2018mens et manus,\u2019 using our minds and hands to make inventions useful at scales that impact the nation and the world,\u201d adds Van Vliet, the director of manufacturing innovation for MIT\u2019s Innovation Initiative, who has served as the faculty lead in coordinating MIT\u2019s response to manufacturing initiatives that result from the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. \u201cWhat makes this new partnership very exciting is, this is for the first time a manufacturing institute headquartered in our region that connects our students and our faculty with local and national industrial partners, to really scale up production of many new fiber and textile technologies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParticipating in this group of visionaries from government, academia, and industry \u2014 who are all motivated by the goal of advancing a new model of American textile manufacturing and helping to develop new products for the public and defense sectors \u2014 has been an exciting process,\u201d says Aleister Saunders, Drexel University\u2019s senior vice provost for research and a leader of its functional fabrics center. \u201cSeeing the success we\u2019ve already had in recruiting partners at the local level leads me to believe that on a national level, these centers of innovation will be able to leverage intellectual capital and regional manufacturing expertise to drive forward new ideas and new applications that will revolutionize textile manufacturing across the nation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A wide range of industries are expected to benefit from these revolutionary fibers and textiles, including apparel, consumer products, automotive, medical devices, and consumer electronics. \u201cFibers and fabrics are ubiquitous,\u201d Fink says. \u201cOur institute will go everywhere a fiber and fabric goes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An independent nonprofit founded by MIT has been selected to run a new, $317 million public-private partnership announced by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",448,299,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MIT-AFFOA-Fink-2.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Culture<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}