Enter the basement in one of MIT's iconic buildings and you'll find students hammering on anvils and forging red-hot metal into blades. This hands-on lesson in metallurgy is captured in the documentary "That Creative Spark," which won an Emmy Award for the Education/Schools category at the 48th annual Boston/New England Emmy Awards Ceremony held in Boston in June.
"It's wonderful to be recognized for the work that we do," says Clayton Hainsworth, director of MIT Video Productions at MIT Open Learning. "We're lucky to have incredible people who have decided to bring their outstanding talents here in order to tell MIT's stories."
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Boston/New England Chapter recently honored Hainsworth, the documentary's executive producer; Joe McMaster, director/producer; and Wesley Richardson, cinematographer.
"That Creative Spark" spotlights a series of 2024 Independent Activities Period (IAP) classes about bladesmithing, guest-taught by Bob Kramer, a world-renowned maker of hand-forged knives. In just one week, students learned how to grind, forge, and temper blocks of steel into knives sharp enough to slice through a sheet of paper without resistance.
"It's an incredibly physical task of making something out of metal," says McMaster, senior producer for MIT Video Productions. He says this tangible example of hands-on learning "epitomized the MIT motto of 'mens et manus' ['mind and hand']."
Video: MIT Video Productions
The IAP Bladesmithing with Bob Kramer course allowed students to see concepts and techniques like conductivity and pattern welding in action. Abhi Ratna Sharda, a PhD student at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), still recalls the feeling of metal changing as he worked on it.
"Those are things that you can be informed about through readings and textbooks, but the actual experience of doing them leaves an intuition you're not quick to forget," Sharda says.
Filming in the forge - the Merton C. Flemings Materials Processing Laboratory - is not an experience the MIT Video Productions team will be quick to forget, either. Richardson, field production videographer at MIT Video Productions, held the camera just six feet away from red-hot blades being dipped into tubs of oil, creating minor fireballs and plumes of smoke.
"It's intriguing to see the dexterity that the students have around working with their hands with very dangerous objects in close proximity to each other," says Richardson. "Students were able to get down to these really precise knives at the end of the class."
Some people may be surprised to learn that MIT has a working forge, but metalworking is a long tradition at the Institute. In the documentary, Yet-Ming Chiang, Kyocera Professor of Ceramics at DMSE, points out a clue hidden in plain sight: "If you look at the MIT logo, there's a blacksmith, and 'mens et manus' - 'mind and hand,'" says Chiang, referring to the Institute's official seal, adopted in 1894. "So the teaching and the practice of working with metals has been an important part of our department for a long time."
Chiang invited Kramer to be a guest instructor and lecturer for two reasons: Kramer is an industry expert, and he achieved success through hands-on learning - an integral part of an MIT education. After dropping out of college and joining the circus , Kramer later gained practical experience in service-industry kitchens and eventually became one of just 120 Master Bladesmiths in the United States today.
"This nontraditional journey of Bob's inspires students to think about projects and problems in different ways," Hainsworth says.
Sharda, for example, is applying the pattern welding process he learned from Kramer in both his PhD program and his recreational jewelry making. The effect creates striking visuals - from starbursts to swirls looking like agate geodes, and more - that extend all the way through the steel, not just the surface of the blade.
"A lot of my research has to do with bonding metals and bonding dissimilar metals, which is the foundation for pattern welding," Sharda says, adding how this technique has many potential industrial applications. He compares it to the mokume-gane technique used with precious metals, a practice he encountered while researching solid-state welding methods.
"Seeing that executed in a space where it's very difficult to achieve that level of precision - it inspired me to polish all the tightest nooks and crannies of the pieces I make, and make sure everything is as flawless as possible," Sharda adds.
In the documentary, Kramer reflects on his month of teaching experience: "When you give someone the opportunity and guide them to actually make something with their hands, there's very few things that are as satisfying as that."
In addition to highlighting MIT's hands-on approach to teaching, "That Creative Spark" showcases the depth of its unique learning experiences.
"There are many sides to MIT in terms of what the students are actually given access to and able to do," says Richardson. "There is no one face of MIT, because they're highly gifted, highly talented, and often those talents and gifts extend beyond their courses of study."
That message resonates with Chiang, who says the class underscores the importance of hands-on, experimental research in higher education.
"What I think is a real benefit in experimental research is the physical understanding of how objects and forces relate to each other," he says. "This kind of class helps students - especially students who've never had that experience, never had a job that requires real hands-on work - gain an understanding of those relationships."
Hainsworth says it's wonderful to collaborate with his team to tell stories about the spirit and generosity of Institute faculty, guest speakers, and students. The documentary was made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of A. Neil Pappalardo '64 and Jane Pappalardo.
"It really is a joy to come in every day and collaborate with people who care deeply about the work they do," Hainsworth says. "And to be recognized with an Emmy, that is very rewarding."
Jason Sparapani contributed to this story.
