Since 2013, MIT researchers return to Asia every year to scale their research, and explore manufacturing ecosystems to work towards custom and local production everywhere.
⚡ TL;DR:
- What: residency about hacking manufacturing to amplify research impact
- How: by visiting and working with factories (about electronics, textiles, etc), electronic markets, makerspaces, art spaces, etc.
- Who: with partners from academia and industry (2025: AIRS + SUSTech and Seeed + MuRata)
- When: 4 weeks during IAP (Next occurence: January 2026)
- Where: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Kyoto and Tokyo for 2025 (the 2026 plan is in progress)
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📩 Applications will open soon → some anticipations:
1) Topics:
• Past: open hardware, from electronics to textiles (see archives below)
• Next: anything in the broad theme "open design for good"
• Examples: (multiple proposal ideas are OK)
- massive kinetic art installations
- participative musical instruments for crowds
- making a (scientific) tool affordable
- biodegradable manufacturing
- provocative and weird ideas are also very welcome!
2) Sponsorship:
• Commitment: 4-week presence required (it goes really quickly actually)
• Proposal: a realistic and impactful idea by Nov 1st (simple is good)
• Expectations: presentations and open documentation
Prototypes will be appreciated (example), and full completion can be later (example)
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🚀 Note:
If you cannot commit to the 4 weeks program:
• The residency integrates a 1 week symposium that condenses the main part of the residency: ScalableHCI.com (Jan 5-11, 2026)
• There are various ways to get funding for the trip, example: gsc.mit.edu/about/funds/
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🔍 More Context:
In collaboration with leading open hardware industry partners, the program provides invaluable insights into the manufacturing intricacies, but also the local maker networks.
The “Research At Scale” residency hopes to benefit communities in developing countries (as it amplifies financial accessibility to hardware), but it also paves the way for scaling research to unprecedented dimensions and unexplored territories.
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