"... Unfortunately, the university system (engineering, for my experience) is focused on producing well-manned corporate consultants whose main goal is to get an open-end contract, climb the ladder and wait for a bigger paycheck. ..."
Massimo Banzi is a great guy and a true visionary.
Incidently he gave a speech in one of my classes and explained that the purpose of Interaction Design Institute Ivrea was to create an Italian verison of MIT's famous Media Lab.
Typically, he said that when it was recognized for its excellence world wide, Telecom Italia decided to shot it down.
Yet it's the Italian firm http://www.arduino.cc is powering the open source hardware, "Can Open Source Hardware Work?", Clive Thompson ~ http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_open...