Innovation at Harvard

This video was developed to celebrate the innovative ideas and solutions that Harvard students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae are working on every day across disciplines and around the globe. It highlights innovation at Harvard today and throughout history, including discoveries in: Health and Medicine Science Humanities Arts Harvard's History Below you will find the different segments of the film broken out by topic for easier viewing. We hope it gives you a vivid sense of the groundbreaking work of students and faculty at Harvard today. Enjoy!

The roots of innovation at Harvard can often be found in its students. Putting an imaginative twist on a class project, Windsor Hanger AB '10, together with classmates Elizabeth Nowak AB '10 and Tina (Yongtian) Tan AB '10, created VertiGrow, a modular planter that can be stacked vertically in crowded urban spaces. This system allows people to grow food on the roofs and walls of their houses, all while reinforcing the structure of the building and helping to fight malnutrition.

Bringing electricity to remote areas in developing countries is a challenge Harvard graduates Jessica Matthews AB '10 and Julia Silverman AB '10 are tackling head on. As students, they developed sOccket, a soccer--ball--shaped device that harnesses the kinetic energy generated as users kick, dribble, or throw it around. Once the energy is stored, small electrical devices such as LED lights can be plugged into sOccket. Matthews and Silverman are now working with organizations serving resource-poor communities to distribute the ball on a larger scale.

Working at the intersection of art and science, Harvard conservators are giving new life to the rare texts, photographs, and materials in the special collections at the Harvard Library. Brenda Bernier, acting head of the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard Library and the Paul M. and Harriet L. Weissman Senior Photograph Conservator, and her team use innovative technologies to protect and preserve these vital materials, ensuring that they are available for generations to come.

What can termites teach us about building complex computer systems? Radhika Nagpal, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, explores the power of robust collective systems in nature—used by bees, fish, and even termites—and applies these principles to the design of robots and computer networks.

In lecture halls, laboratories, and spaces across Harvard, dedicated teachers including Kevin Kit Parker, Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and major in the U.S. Army, are creating fertile environments for innovation, championing bold ideas and encouraging students to think in new ways. They push their students to achieve extraordinary things—in the classroom and beyond.

Students from all disciplines flock to Computer Science 1, or "CS50," one of the most popular offerings at Harvard. Taught by David Malan, senior lecturer on computer science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the course gives participants the opportunity to become savvy programmers, creating apps and tackling new and unfamiliar problems across a wide spectrum. It culminates in the CS50 fair, where students showcase their efforts for the entire Harvard community.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus, the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is seeking new ways to redefine and reimagine theater for the Harvard community and beyond. As professor of the practice of theatre in the Faculty of Arts and Science's Department of English, she pursues a goal of giving every Harvard student a truly transformative experience of theater.

Medicine, business, politics....You never know where the spark of innovation may originate at Harvard. George Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, and Joseph B. Lassiter III, MBA Class of 1954 Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School and Co-Faculty Chair of the Harvard innovation lab, reflect on Harvard's role as in incubator of innovation.

Harvard researchers and clinicians collaborate across disciplines and around the globe to craft solutions to the world's toughest health challenges. They're promoting the well-being of disadvantaged children worldwide; turning the human body into a laboratory to more effectively study cells; and advocating for a more proactive approach to medicine. Together, they drive advances from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside. Hear remarks from these Harvard faculty at the cutting edge: Paula Johnson, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School Jennifer Leaning, director, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights; Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School Andrew Ellner, director, Program in Global Primary Care and Social Change; interim co-director, Center for Primary Care; instructor in medicine, Harvard Medical School David Mooney,