The Creative Coast is proud to announce that Professor Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, will speak at Geekend 2014, the innovative conference bringing together cutting-edge tech and creative visionaries for a series of speakers, panels, workshops, networking, and after parties November 13 – 15 throughout Savannah, Georgia.

Professor Gershenfeld is best known as a pioneer in personal fabrication -- small-scale manufacturing enabled by digital technologies, which gives people the tools to build literally anything they can imagine.  Digital fabrication will allow individuals to design and produce tangible objects on demand, wherever and whenever they need them.

Professor Gershenfeld has noted:

“Personal fabrication has been around for years as a science-fiction staple. When the crew of the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation was confronted by a particularly challenging plot development, they could use the onboard replicator to make whatever they needed.

Scientists at a number of labs (including mine) are now working on the real thing, developing processes that can place individual atoms and molecules into whatever structure they want. Unlike 3-d printers today, these will be able to build complete functional systems at once, with no need for parts to be assembled.

The aim is to not only produce the parts for a drone, for example, but build a complete vehicle that can fly right out of the printer.”

- Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2012 

Prof. Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms. His unique laboratory is breaking down boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, from creating molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments. Technology from his lab has been seen and used in settings including rural Indian villages, the White House and the World Economic Forum, inner-city community centers and automobile safety systems, Las Vegas shows and Sami herds. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, has been named one of Scientific American's 50 leaders in science and technology, as one of 40 Modern-Day Leonardos by the Museum of Science and Industry, one of Popular Mechanic's 25 Makers, has been selected as a CNN/Time/Fortune Principal Voice, and by Prospect/Foreign Policy as one of the top 100 public intellectuals.

Professor Gershenfeld joins the creators of OhHeckYeah (Brian Corrigan and Justin Gitlin), TechShop CEO Mark Hatch and True Ventures founder John Burke as keynote speakers at Geekend 2014.

Registration to Geekend is $225, including access to speakers and workshops, lunches and admission to all receptions.  For more information and registration, log onto www.geek-end.com.