INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PAGES
Why the Future of Textiles is Collaborative
How-to manual from MIT and the Fashion Institute of Technology codifies
successful textiles partnership between designers, engineers.
Materials Research Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
When MIT and the Fashion Institute of
Technology (FIT) joined forces to ad-
vance textile research and to develop
and employ sustainable fabrics of the
future, they found that their work was
so synergistic that they were com-
pelled to write an instruction manual
about their multi-year partnership so
that other organizations could replicate
their process and benefit from their
work.
“Transdisciplinary Innovation Playbook:
How to build a virtual workshop that
collapses walls between design and
engineering and kick-starts collabora-
tion to solve real world problems” codi-
fies the partnership between MIT, FIT,
and the Advanced Functional Fabrics
of America (AFFOA), which supported
the work, into something of a template
that other institutions can follow in or-
der to develop their own innovative pro-
grams.
The playbook — based around MIT
and FIT’s design and engineering syn-
ergy — is a model for successfully
embarking on innovative partnerships.
The manual offers step-by-step con-
siderations for how to build interdisci-
plinary workshops that prepare stu-
dents to think beyond their specializa-
tions and to tackle real-world problems
together. It covers how to find an in-
dustry partner and what matters in a
successful partnership, how to build
an effective challenge, how to recruit
faculty, how to plan a budget, and how
to create a curriculum. “Use our story
to write your own,” the playbook encour-
ages.
Multiyear partnership
In 2017, after a meeting between FIT
President Joyce F. Brown and MIT
President L. Rafael Reif, JoanneThe MIT-FITTeam Laboratory 56's prototype footwear design enhances lon-
gevity and reduces waste. Image: MIT and FIT
The Transdisciplinary Innovation Playbook developed by MIT and the Fash-
ion Institute of Technology (FIT)
Arbuckle, former deputy to the presi-
dent for industry partnerships and col-
laborative programs at FIT, and Gre-
gory C. Rutledge, the Lammot du Pont
Professor in Chemical Engineering at
MIT, created a plan to build a bridge
NCM-OCTOBER 2021
59between design and engineering — and
to help boost the textile industry along
the way.
How and why might their two missions
merge? MIT scientists are advancing