Prof. Neil Gershenfeld

Roadmap to Replicators

Prof. Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, where his unique laboratory is breaking down boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, from pioneering quantum computing to digital fabrication to the Internet of Things. He’s the founder of a global network of over two thousand fab labs in 125 countries, chairs the Fab Foundation, and leads the Fab Academy.

Ronald Rael

Muddy Robots

Professor Ronald Rael is the Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California Berkeley. He is an architect, author, and thought leader in additive manufacturing, borderwall studies, and earthen architecture. He is the co-founder of Emerging Objects, a creatively-driven design consultancy specializing in innovations in 3D printing architecture, building components, environments, and products; and FORUST, a company focused on 3D printing wood, and his new initiative is, Muddy Robots, is a new paradigm in building construction, coupling humankind’s oldest building material with advanced additive manufacturing technology to create housing that can save the planet.

His work is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco, the Cooper Hewitt, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery has acquired their series, Bad Ombres v.2. Rael has authored several books, including Printing Architecture: Innovative Recipes for 3D Printing and Earth Architecture. 

He has also presented a TED talk on ‘Borderwall as Architecture’ and has been the subject of several documentary films including those produced by The Museum of Modern Art, KQED, The New Yorker, and Mud Frontier: Architecture at the Borderlands  bythe Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.