Sanjay Sarma, the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed MIT’s first Director of Digital Learning. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur with his B Tech in 1989 and received his Masters from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1995. Dr. Sarma began his career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996, after working for Schlumberger, Inc. and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories.

In 1999, along with Kevin Ashton, Dr. David Brock and Professor Sunny Siu, he co-founded The Auto-ID Center at MIT, which developed many of the technical concepts and standards prevalent in the RFID industry today. The center has now grown to 6 labs worldwide, including the University of Cambridge, Adelaide University, Keio University and Fudan University.

Dr. Sarma currently serves on the Boards of Governors for EPCglobal. He helped found OATSystems during his leave of absence from MIT 2004-2006. OATSystems was acquired by Checkpoint Systems (NYSE:CKP) in 2008.  He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Career Initiation Grant, the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair at MIT, the Den Hartog Teaching Excellence Award, and the Joseph H. Keenan Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. Dr. Sarma is a MacVicar Fellow at MIT.

Sarma talked to Lokvani about his work and vision for Digital Learning at MIT.

While my work in the field of RFID and other areas has received a lot of attention, I am very partial to some of my early work in the area of Computer Aided Manufacturing. This was an exciting piece of research where we created a technique for utilizing a computer system to generate tool paths for the computer aided machining (CAM) in at least four axis of a selected work piece or part, particularly a complex part having hidden surfaces. Unfortunately due to various circumstances we did not pursue that further. 

My work in the area of RFID of course has had significant impact.  We have been successful in defining and developing many of the standards and technologies that form the foundation of the commercial RFID industry. I am very pleased that the protocols that were developed are now being used widely. RFID work was also a massive community exercise where hundreds of people came together and worked based on clear and long term vision writing standardization protocols on a massive scale. That was an exciting effort. Now it is entering a number of new areas – for example, we may see our protocols being used in toll passes.

The RFID work made it clear that there was great need for software applications that could leverage RFID.  My student Prasad originally started it. Later I joined the team.  The company has now been acquired by Checkpoint and I serve in an advisory role. Across the value chain, enterprises are increasingly relying on a variety of systems to monitor, manage, and improve operational processes. OATSystems solutions deliver real-time, actionable visibility to these systems, leveraging IT investments and existing business processes.

Low-value manufacturing is unlikely to return to the US except n special cases. We need to re-invent manufacturing. There are already many interesting efforts on the way. There are new materials being created. New technologies such as meta-materials and 3-D printing will soon be game changers. When the cycle of innovation is faster than the shipping time, it no longer will be worth off-shoring manufacturing. Government can play a big role in this effort. It can fund research. It can organize local eco-systems like a local “Maker Space” which people can use to create things. 

I think I am a sympathetic teacher. When I came to MIT the first course that I taught was on Mechanics, a topic I had not studied in a long time. As I was relearning the topic, I understood the issues that would confuse students and also realized the struggles they would go through while learning certain topics. Understanding how the learner learns is key to good teaching.   A teacher needs to do three things in my view: Inspire, Instill and Anchor.  A teacher needs to show why it is important to learn a topic. Then he should teach the topics and identify the key topics and ensure they are clearly understood.  I am fortunate to work with MIT students who are really smart, wonderful and funny. I have a warm relationship with my students and that really helps. 

I have been involved in several online learning efforts at MIT. I lead the alliance between MIT and Singapore University of Technology and Design, which has a big digital component.  I was involved with the Open Course Ware initiative. While one aspect of the online effort has been to extend the reach of the MIT’s course offerings to places around the world, I am very interested in learning how we can use online tools to enhance MIT students’ on-campus educational experience. Many MIT faculty members are doing very interesting work on using tools that can integrate teaching and research.  A great example is one by neuroscience professor, Sebastian Seung whose project EyeWire.org, mobilizes volunteers to map the retinal connectome.   This tool is a unique use of gaming software for teaching and research.  It is my hope to leverage such work to allow students to gain much deeper understanding of materials in manner that only technology can allow.

Interactive content development especially training in the corporate space has a lot of opportunity. 

The UID number used in the Aadhar card came from whitepaper I wrote for Nandan Nilekani.  I think India offers a lot of interesting opportunities for frugal innovation. I have worked on interesting low cost products like a baby Incubator. In general people in India think differently and want different products. For example a phone with a dual Sim card is a very common need in India, but rare here. Developing products to address specific needs can be very innovative and those innovations can influence products in the rest of the world.  Education is also a huge opportunity in India that I am very interested in. Online education is a form of frugal education.

 

You wear so many hats. You are a researcher, teacher, entrepreneur and your wife has a very busy and successful career of her own. How do you manage so many priorities that include family and career?

I am a big believer in having a great team. My family is my favorite team. My work teams are very dear to me as well. That has been key to helping me manage my priorities. 

Thank you