Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Program, MV 603.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
label: Collection Inventor
content: Massie, Thomas
label: Collection Inventor
content: McLurkin, James
setName: label: See more items in
content: Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Presentation and Interviews
label: See more items in
content: Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Presentation and Interviews / Series 2: Master Videos
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1995-10-27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Massie/McLurkin Innovative Lives Program

TRT: 60:00

Begins with students shouting "attitude is altitude." Introductory remarks by Art Molella, Director of the Lemelson Center. Welcome to Thomas Massie and James McLurkin, both from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). McLurkin opens the program by explaining his microrobots and robotic communities. The idea is to get the robots to work like ants communicating with each other and having complex behaviors. Students join McLurkin at work tables to have the "ants" move forward, move toward the light, and move from a bump. The objective is to get the ants to move through checkpoints using a flash light and blocks. The applications for these microrobots are: surgical, use in nuclear piping to check for cracks, and as cameras for the Central Intelligence Agency.  Massie begins his presentation telling students to think about inventors and inventions that surround us.  Shows a videotape of how he got interested in inventing.  Massie and McLurkin assisted the students in an exercise to take apart a radio and find certain parts. The students are asked what else they might invent with these parts. Students join Massie and learn to use the Phantom.