John Hart is Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies, and Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity, at MIT. John’s research group at MIT, the Mechanosynthesis Group, aims to accelerate the science and technology of production via advancements in additive manufacturing, nanostructured materials, and precision machine design. In 2017 and 2018, respectively, he received the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching in Mechanical Engineering and the MIT Keenan Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. John has co-authored >175 journal publications, is a co-inventor on >50 pending or issued patents, and is a co-founder of startup companies Desktop Metal and VulcanForms, and a Board Member of Carpenter Technology Corporation.

Areas of expertise: manufacturing, nanostructered materials, mechanical design

John Liu is the Principal Investigator of the MIT Learning Engineering and Practice (LEAP) Group, which applies design and systems principles to solving challenges in learning and develops learning experiences to better meet the increasing demand for STEM skills in tomorrow’s workforce. He is a Lecturer in MIT's Mechanical Engineering department and Scientist of the MITx Digital Learning Laboratory. As the former Director of the Principles of Manufacturing MicroMasters program, he facilitated a team of faculty and instructors to develop content and innovate manufacturing education at MIT using digital technology.

His work includes engineering education, mixed reality and haptic experiences, workforce solutions to address the nation-wide manufacturing skills gap, open-ended assessments for scalable education settings, and instructional design theory for massively open online courses. He earned his B.S. in Applied Physics from Caltech and S.M. and Ph.D. and S.M. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, under an MIT-SUTD fellowship and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Timothy Gutowski received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. Currently he is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a member of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity (LMP). He was the director of LMP from 1994 to 2004, and the associate department head for mechanical engineering from 2001 to 2005. From 1999 to 2001, he was the chairman of the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy panel on Environmentally Benign Manufacturing. He has over 150 technical publications and seven patents and patent applications. He is the editor of the book Advanced Composites Manufacturing, published by John Wiley in 1997. Professor Gutowski’s research over the past 15 years has focused on the environmental issues associated with manufacturing including processes, products, and systems. His work on manufacturing processes is extensive, including the analysis (energy and materials) of such processes as machining; grinding, casting, forming and injection molding, advanced machining processes such as abrasive waterjet and electrical discharge machining, semiconductor and MEMS processes, nano-materials manufacturing processes, and other new technologies. In addition, he has worked extensively on recycling processes, systems, and product design for recycling, as well as on product remanufacturing and energy savings. His work also includes the energy payback analysis for new energy systems during growth, and LCA applied to personal life styles called “Environmental Life Style Analysis.”