Exporting technology
MIT Media Lab turns to Taiwan -- and a new approach -- after suffering setbacks with its ventures in India and Ireland
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | June 27, 2005
But with its new alliance with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, known as ITRI, the Media Lab is experimenting with a different collaboration model. Rather than open its own satellite research sites, as it sought to do in India and Ireland, the Media Lab will set up new versions of its cutting-edge research programs, from tangible media to human-machine interaction, at ITRI's labs in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Working there will be members of what is being called the NEXT consortium, modeled after the research consortia in the Media Lab. It will be made up of Taiwanese companies, mostly manufacturers of everything from motorcycles and bicycles to plumbing and specialized glass. They will be seeking to learn new ways of thinking and applying to their businesses the Media Lab's distinct mix of functionality and style.
In addition, ITRI, which is pumping almost $2 million a year into the collaboration, will fund 10 research fellows who will be based at the Media Lab. They will travel to Hsinchu during summer vacations or winter breaks to share their work with ITRI scientists and participate in the research being done by the NEXT consortium.
''This is the first time we're running an international consortium that's living in two places at once," said Walter Bender, executive director of the MIT Media Lab. ''The idea is to have a collision of cultures, of points of view. The world is facing a lot of problems, and applying innovation to these problems is a good thing for everyone."
The collaboration with ITRI underscores the Media Lab's continued commitment to expanding globally and evangelizing its visionary ideas, rapid prototyping, risk-taking, and innovation at the intersection of technology and culture. Media Lab cofounder and chairman Nicholas Negroponte, a leading exponent of the digital age, launched an ambitious effort early this decade to extend the Media Lab brand worldwide. But its initial forays, Media Lab Asia in Bangalore, India, and Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland, suffered setbacks.
Clashing with India's minister of information over its focus and organization, MIT pulled out of the Bangalore lab in 2003.
Then, early this year, the Dublin lab was shuttered after MIT failed to agree with the Irish government on funding. A cultural rift figured into the dissolution of Media Lab Europe, with some Irish academics grumbling about their government funding the Media Lab and some European administrators complaining about its undirected research.
An internal report by managers of Media Lab Europe characterized its climate at one point as ''chaos" and ''inmates running the asylum."
... its climate at one point as ''chaos" and ''inmates running the asylum."
Bender said politics came into play in both cases, and acknowledged the difficulty of collaborations in which governments play a role. In its new partnership, the Media Lab will be paired with a private research lab with deep connections to Taiwan's industrial base. ITRI, a Taiwanese cross between Bell Labs and the SRI research organization, is a research powerhouse that receives about 1,000 patents a year in such fields as communications, nanotechnology, energy, and biomedical technologies. It has spun off many of Taiwan's leading companies, from computer vendor Acer to Taiwan Semiconductor, and is credited with catapulting Taiwan into the high-technology field in the 1980s.
Walter Bender, executive director of the MIT Media Lab, the ITRI president, who earned a business degree from the University of Chicago and attended a Harvard Business School executive program, said the main thing he wants his engineers to learn from their MIT counterparts is how to think more creatively.
Johnsee Lee, the ITRI president, who earned a business degree from the University of Chicago and attended a Harvard Business School executive program, said the main thing he wants his engineers to learn from their MIT counterparts is how to think more creatively.
''It's a change of thinking for ITRI and for Taiwan in general," Lee said, noting that Taiwan seeks to move up the technology food chain to higher-value activities as other Asian countries expand into low-cost production. ''Most of our history has been manufacturing. Now we need to be more open-minded and innovative in our thinking. It's a big challenge to change people from followers to entrepreneurs."
MIT's Media Lab isn't the only US research organization to expand its footprint overseas. Global conglomerates like IBM, GE, and Microsoft have set up extensive worldwide research networks, noted Adrian J. Slywotzky, managing director at Mercer Management Consulting in Boston, but their goal is to do better and less costly research within their corporate systems. Slywotzky said the Media Lab is rare in that an explicit goal is to spread a US style of innovation.
''There's a faster metabolism rate and more of a risk-taking orientation here because windows open and close very quickly," said Slywotzky, citing the role of venture capital in pushing technology into the market. ''Over the past decade, there's also been a tremendous investment in time and energy in this country to create a conversation between the technologists and the marketers. That increases the odds the technology is relevant and someone will pay a premium for it."
ITRI was a sponsor of Media Lab research for much of the 1990s and a member of the lab's digital life consortia. The lab, which works on everything from nanoscale sensing to building karaoke machines, exemplifies the kind of free-wheeling entrepreneurial environment lacking in Taiwan's conservative engineering culture.
''That's the problem," Lee said. ''Our engineers are too square."
Bender said much of the Media Lab's research focus in the coming decade will be on technology for ''human augmentation," helping people overcome limitations. One example is the biomechatronics research being led by assistant professor Hugh Herr to create mechanical devices that resemble the body's musculoskeletal design. Another is research scientist Kent Larson's PlaceLab, a living research lab experimenting with home technologies to improve everything from cooking to opening windows to flushing toilets.
Lee said ITRI is also interested in the Media Lab's research into emotion machines that could, for instance, let you control the speed of a juice blender by raising or lowering your voice. By linking technology to lifestyle, Taiwanese companies can make advances in the home, in elder care, even in fields such as security and energy, he suggested.
''I cannot predict the outcome, but I can see a lot of passion in it," Lee said. ''We're working together in a very untraditional way."