Let’s “Make in Detroit”

On Monday, I joined Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Congressman Hansen Clarke and other local leaders in Detroit to launch the “Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2)” initiative. Detroit is one of six pilot cities to partner with the Federal government in strengthening its capacity to achieve an economic growth strategy fueled, in part, through new public and private sector partnerships.

In support of this effort, technology and innovation leaders from across the Federal government have volunteered to support technical assistance teams organized for each of the pilot cities. These innovators will work to enhance local efforts already underway or launched on account of this call to action. For Detroit, I’ve asked Dr. Grace Bochenek, TARDEC Director, and Peter Appel, RITA Administrator, to share expertise and best practices from our open innovation framework.

I saw the potential in such a collaboration during a town hall meeting later that afternoon where I joined a non-profit network, Michigan Corps, in announcing the launch of “Make in Detroit”, a comprehensive resource platform specifically designed to spur innovation in the manufacturing sector. “Make in Detroit” launched with an initial roster of 15 organizations including an online intellectual property marketplace, a non-profit robotics innovation center in partnership with the US Army, and a “Tech Shop” designed to transform ideas into crowd-sourced prototypes.

This initiative complements the President’s vision for strengthening the American manufacturing sector through technology and innovation, as described in his recent remarks at Carnegie Mellon University where he unveiled the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.

To the good people of Detroit and the other pilot communities, we look forward to collaborating in support of your leaders’ economic vision. To others interested in the program, please respond to our request for information on how to design a challenge where you might compete for participation.

Aneesh Chopra is US Chief Technology Officer