Very sad news: Our friend and colleague Bill Mitchell, Professor at MIT and one of the co-founders and a very strong supporter and intellectual stimulus of the MIT Smart Customization Group, among many other initiatives, died last Friday, much to early, in the age of 65.
Bill really influenced my thinking and work on mass customization in many respects. He was among the first to see how mass customization thinking can be applied to much larger systems like homes, infrastructures, electric cars, and especially the city itself. His work on product grammers, sustainability, and personalization extended the methods and approaches of mass customization. Luckily, he inspired many students and colleagues, so his thoughts and ideas will live and will be used in the future.
Bill also enabled us to host the MCPC 2007 Conference at the MIT Campus and to start the MIT Smart Customization Group as a research group within the Design Lab that Bill founded in the 2000s at MIT.
My thoughts and wishes are with his family and his close colleagues and students at MIT.
Bill, we all really will miss you!
The official obituary is at the MIT Homepage. A memorial service will be held at MIT at the new Media Lab Complex, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA, on Wednesday, June 16 at 10 a.m.
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