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The Lean Post / Articles / Engineering for the Future: A Conversation with MIT D-Lab Founder Amy Smith

WLEI podcast: A Conversation with MIT D-Lab Founder Amy Smith

Product & Process Development

Engineering for the Future: A Conversation with MIT D-Lab Founder Amy Smith

By Lex Schroeder and Amy Smith

March 20, 2025

Amy Smith shares how the D-Lab’s unique approach to design, knowledge sharing, and community partnership drives meaningful innovation in international development.

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In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Amy Smith, Founding Director of MIT’s D-Lab, an innovative university-based program in international development and a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

The conversation explores: 

  • The D-Lab’s approach to design and how this differs from other design methodologies
  • What it means for engineers to truly work in partnership with local communities and listen to their needs
  • How the D-Lab measures the success and impact of its projects
  • Lean product and process development and how the D-Lab thinks about knowledge capture/sharing (to ensure that learnings from one project are leveraged in future initiatives)
  • Amy Smith’s advice for engineering students who want to solve really tough problems
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Designing the Future Using Lean Product and Process Development

Learn how to reduce time to market, improve quality, and drive innovation in a hands-on, coach-led experience that applies Lean Product and Process Development across your value stream.

Written by:

Lex Schroeder
|Amy Smith

About Lex Schroeder

Lex Schroeder is a strategy and operations leader/writer breaking open new conversations about the future of work. A longtime editor in the systems thinking community, she has led strategic initiatives at The Lean Enterprise Institute and The Berkana Institute. In 2015, she served as Founding Editor and Co-Lead of The…

Read more about Lex Schroeder

About Amy Smith

Founding Director of MIT’s D-Lab. Senior Lecturer Mechanical Engineering.

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