Joseph DeSimone: Real Innovation is Multidisciplinary

If you look around and you look at, there are so many opportunities, actually so many needs for big breakthroughs and big ideas, whether you're thinking about new ways of storing energy, new ways of curing diseases, new ways of protecting information and cyber security or national security and the opportunities for making an impact and in particular, being here at a university. And I love quotes. You'll see different quotes coming up. But this quote here from Henry Rosofsky, who was the dean at Harvard, one of my favorite research is an expression of faith and a possibility of progress. The drive that leads scholars to study a topic has to include the belief that new things can be discovered, that newer can be better, and that a greater depth of understanding is achievable. Research, especially academic research, is a form of optimism about the human condition. And I love the actual poeticness of that statement and that perspective. And it's what really drives me. And historically, my students over the years, and what Steve was, has done so well. And you think about what Apple has done, and you think about the intersection of great hardware and great software, but really thinking about how it changes society, how we interact with one another, how we think. And what that really is is the convergence of disciplines. And I had the privilege of chairing a National Academy study on convergence and its impact in driving innovation. And historically, the word convergence and its meaning has often implied the convergence of the physical sciences, engineering and medicine. In fact, that's the way MIT has classically referred to convergence. But I think what it really means is bringing together disciplines in maybe not so obvious ways and thinking about what emerges from that. But I think more broadly, and what Apple has done is I think you have to think about extending this to the social sciences, the humanities, and perhaps even the performing arts. Thinking about tech and the humanities and the liberal arts is an important aspect. And as part of that, I think a lot of people believe that convergence itself is actually a blueprint for innovation.