Table Of ContentDoes America Need More Innovators?
Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation
Joyce Bedi, Arthur Daemmrich, and Arthur P. Molella, general editors
Arthur P. Molella and Joyce Bedi, editors, Inventing for the Environment
Paul E. Ceruzzi, Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945–2 005
Robert H. Kargon and Arthur P. Molella, Invented Edens: Techno-C ities of the Twentieth
Century
Kurt W. Beyer, Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age
Michael Brian Schiffer, Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical
Electricity before Edison
Regina Lee Blaszczyk, The Color Revolution
Sarah Kate Gillespie, The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-C urrents in Art and
Technology
Matthew Wisnioski, Eric S. Hintz, and Marie Stettler Kleine, editors, Does America
Need More Innovators?
Does America Need More Innovators?
Matthew Wisnioski, Eric S. Hintz, and Marie Stettler Kleine, editors
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2019 Smithsonian Institution
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone Serif by Westchester Publishing Services. Printed and
bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available.
Names: Wisnioski, Matthew H., 1978– editor. | Hintz, Eric S., editor. |
Kleine, Marie Stettler, editor.
Title: Does Amer i ca need more innovators? / edited by Matthew Wisnioski,
Eric S. Hintz, and Marie Stettler Kleine.
Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2019] | Series: Lemelson center
studies in invention and innovation series | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018034415 | ISBN 9780262536738 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Engineering and state—U nited States. | Technological
innovations— United States.
Classification: LCC T21 .D637 2019 | DDC 338.973/06—d c23 LC rec ord available
at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2018034415
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 The Innovator Imperative 1
Matthew Wisnioski
I Champions
2 Introduction 17
3 An Innovators’ Movement 25
Humera Fasihuddin and Leticia Britos Cavagnaro
4 Building High- Performance Teams for
Collaborative Innovation 51
Mickey McManus and Dutch MacDonald
5 Raising the NSF Innovation Corps 69
Errol Arkilic
6 Making Innovators, Building Regions 83
Maryann Feldman
7 Innovation for Every American 105
Jenn Gustetic
II Critics
8 Introduction 133
9 How Innovation Evolved from a Heretical Act
to a Heroic Imperative 141
Benoît Godin
vi Contents
10 Failed Inventor Initiatives, from the Franklin Institute
to Quirky 165
Eric S. Hintz
11 Building Global Innovation Hubs: The MIT Model
in Three Start- Up Universities 191
Sebastian Pfotenhauer
12 The Innovation Gap in Pink and Black 221
Lisa D. Cook
13 Make Maintainers: Engineering Education
and an Ethics of Care 249
Andrew L. Russell and Lee Vinsel
III Reformers
14 Introduction 273
15 Designing Learning Environments That Engage
Young People as Creators 281
Natalie Rusk
16 Using the Past to Make Innovators 299
W. Bernard Carlson
17 Confronting the Absence of Women
in Technology Innovation 323
Lucinda M. Sanders and Catherine Ashcraft
18 Making Responsible Innovators 345
Erik Fisher, David Guston, and Brenda Trinidad
19 Remaking the Innovator Imperative 367
Matthew Wisnioski, Eric S. Hintz, and Marie Stettler Kleine
Contributors 375
Index 379
Series Foreword
Is it possible to go an entire day in our interconnected, technology-m ediated
world without hearing the word “innovation” at least once? Used for every-
thing from marketing gimmicks to truly game- changing breakthroughs,
innovation has simultaneously become a goal, a measure of success, and
a compulsion for many individuals and corporations. We are urged to be
innovative at work and in our personal lives, and to help our children be
innovative as well. What are the pros and cons of this mandate to inno-
vate? This volume begins to answer that question by putting champions
of innovation in conversation with those who question the imperative
to innovate, as well as those who trust in the imperative but see ways to
improve it. The result is a richly textured picture of the ubiquity of innova-
tion in American life.
Invention and innovation have long been recognized as transforma-
tional forces in American history, not only in technological realms but also
in politics, society, and culture, and they are arguably more important than
previously thought in other societies as well. Innovation especially has
become a universal watchword of the twenty-f irst century, so much so that
nations are banking their futures on its economic and social effects.
Since 1995, the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center has been investigating
the history of invention and innovation from broad interdisciplinary per-
spectives. Books in the Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innova-
tion continue this work to enhance public understanding of humanity’s
inventive impulse. Authors in the series raise new questions about the work
of inventors and the technologies they create, while stimulating cross-
disciplinary dialogue. By opening channels of communication between
the various disciplines and sectors of society concerned with technological
viii Series Foreword
innovation, the Lemelson Center Studies advance scholarship in the his-
tory of technology, engineering, science, architecture, the arts, and related
fields and disseminate it to a general interest audience.
Joyce Bedi, Arthur Daemmrich, and Arthur P. Molella
Series editors, Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation
Acknowledgments
Engaging in dialogue with those from different communities and differ-
ing points of view requires commitment and generosity. We are grateful
to the many contributors who gave us both as they submitted their ideas
about innovation for testing in this multidisciplinary project, especially as
debates about innovation’s relative merits grow increasingly heated.
The volume emerged from a workshop jointly held at Virginia Tech’s
Arlington Research Center and the Lemelson Center for the Study of Inven-
tion and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American
History. For financial support, we are thankful to the National Science
Foundation (SES 1354121); the Lemelson Center; Virginia Tech’s Institute
for Creativity, Arts, and Technology; the Virginia Tech Department of Sci-
ence, Technology, and Society; and Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts
and Human Sciences. The arguments in the volume were sharpened greatly
by conference participants including Janet Abbate, David Kirsch, Benjamin
Knapp, Doreen Lorenzo, Sonja Schmid, Timothy Sands, Monica Smith,
Walter Valdivia, and Kari Zacharias.
The volume would not have been possible without the hard work of a
large supporting cast. This has included Audra Wolfe, Doris Shelor, Karen
Snider, Chris Gauthier, Sanjay Raman, Paula Byron, Joyce Bedi, and Katie
Helke. Finally, we thank Cindy Rosenbaum, Emma Hintz, and Kaleb Kleine
for tolerating this ongoing dialogue over many weeks and months.
