A Lifetime of Knowledge

I really enjoyed the "Organizing for Innovative Product Development" class taught by Tom Allen. Tom is one of the foremost authorities in organizational structures and designs. His ground-breaking studies of communication patterns among engineers have produced often-quoted principles like the Allen Curve: the frequency of communication between engineers drops off exponentially as the distance between them increases. After about 50 m, there's very little communication between groups of engineers. His research studies have led to new organizational structures and building designs. The class was a bit slow; we could've probably finished it in 3 or 4 sessions. The advantage of having a professor like Allen is that he could give us a lifetime of learning in a nice, concise module. Not many professors can summarize their teachings so well. Tom did. And I feel fortunate to have had him as a professor (not least because this may be the last class he'll teach before retiring - which made me think of this picture I took in the spring: the young blossoming tree next to the old perennial).

Oh, and yes, he did answer my question regarding the concentration of biotech firms near MIT. Biotech is one of the industries that feeds directly on science and converts it to marketable products (unlike other industries where science needs to be converted to technology/engineering and then to a product). And were would you find the best scientists? At MIT of course.