Inside Real Innovation

Despite all the data to the contrary, many still cling to a linear model of innovation, starting with inspiration and marching inexorably towards profit. Experience reveals a very different model of innovation, an iterative process that challenges individuals and organizations alike and capitalizes equally on success and failure. Examining cases from AT&T Bell Labs, MIT, and the start up community provides lessons for would-be innovators across industries seeking to move beyond models and have impact in the real world.

Eugene A. Fitzgerald is the the Merton C. Flemings – Singapore MIT Alliance Professor of Materials Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Building upon his early experience at AT&T Bell Labs which included the invention of high mobility strained silicon, he has created fundamental innovations in stages from early technology to final implementation in the market. He is founder, co-founder or founding team member of AmberWave Systems Corporation, Contour Semiconductor, 4Power LLC, Paradigm Research LLC, and The Water Initiative.  He is Lead Principle Investigator of the Low Energy Electronic Systems (LEES) $40M center in MIT's research center in Singapore (SMART). He is co-author of “Inside Real Innovation”, published internationally in January of 2011. “Inside Real Innovation” is in its second printing and has been contracted for a second edition.  Fitzgerald is the recipient of the IEEE 2011 Andrew S. Grove Award, the IEEE 2004 EDS George Smith Award, and the TMS 1994 Robert Lansing Hardy Medal Award.  He is a member of MIT President’s Committee for the MIT Innovation Initiative, as well as a member of MIT President’s Committee for The Future of MIT Education. He received a BS degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 1985 from MIT and his PhD in the same discipline from Cornell University in 1989.