MIT Innovation Initiative Hosts Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker
The U.S. Commerce Secretary paid a visit to MIT for an exploration of the Institute’s latest efforts in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Terri Park | MIT Innovation Initiative
October 19, 2015
Last month, the MIT Innovation Initiative (MITii) welcomed United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to the MIT campus for an exploration of the Institute’s latest efforts in innovation and entrepreneurship. Secretary Pritzker toured MIT’s Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), where she met with three research groups in the areas of photonics and fiber-based technologies; engaged in a roundtable conversation with thought leaders from MIT faculty, state government, risk capital, industry and entrepreneurs about building innovation ecosystems that support physical, digital and hybrid solutions to challenging global problems; offered public remarks outlining a path forward for America’s innovation leadership, and sat down with President Rafael Reif for an armchair discussion of issues critical to the US innovation economy.
During her remarks, Priztker emphasized to the nearly 150 people in attendance, the importance of innovation for economic growth. She cautioned that “America should always remain on the cutting edge of the next revolutionary inventions” and stressed the importance of continued investment in basic research as well as immigration reform to fuel sustained innovation in the US. Her message comes at an auspicious moment for MIT as it bolsters its own footprint in this area through MITii—an Institute-wide initiative to educate the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs and support the MIT community’s aspirations to translate ideas to impact more effectively.
As part of the tour, MITii’s Lab for Innovation Science and Policy convened thought leaders to meet with Secretary Pritzker and share their findings from research and observations from practice regarding the factors that shape outcomes within innovation ecosystems and the specific challenges that hard-science start-ups coming out of MIT face in translating their ideas beyond the research bench to wide-scale impact. Read the briefing from the discussion here.
Secretary Pritkzer’s visit dovetails a series of recent engagements with government officials hosted by the MIT Innovation Initiative to share insights, convene stakeholders, and catalyze action around accelerating ideas to impact. Last spring, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick served as the Initiative’s inaugural visiting innovation fellow, engaging with students, faculty and others, and joining with MITii’s Laboratory for Innovation Science and Policy to present a “Challenges of the Innovation Economy” seminar series on building a more inclusive innovation economy. In July, Singaporean President Tony Tan welcomed MIT faculty from MITii’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP) to his country in connection with a three-day workshop with eight cohorts from around the world and worked to develop strategies, build action plans and gain a systematic view into how to foster an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem that advances economic and social progress. Earlier this month, MITii hosted judges from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for a tour of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and reception with MIT faculty and students, introducing members of the court to innovation research and practice at MIT.