Post by Nabil Satria Faradis

Happy 60th Birthday to the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 As I prepare to enter the final year of my PhD this Michaelmas, I find myself reflecting on how fortunate I have been to be part of this remarkable community. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit beside Sir Mike Gregory at a formal dinner. I remember telling him that the IfM is one of the very few institutions in the world that genuinely sits at the intersection of technology, management, and policy—and, in my view, one of the very best at bringing those disciplines together to create real-world impact. Another memorable conversation was with Prof Tim Minshall during a Churchill College, University of Cambridge MCR x SCR formal. What inspires me about the IfM is not only the quality of its research, but also the way its academics communicate ideas beyond academia. They produce rigorous scholarship while making it accessible to industry, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and the wider public. Professor Tim's recent book, Your Life Is Manufactured, is a wonderful example of this. I am also particularly grateful to my supervisor, Prof Chander Velu, for his guidance throughout my PhD. His intellectual rigour, thoughtful feedback, and encouragement to engage with both academic and quantum communities have continually strengthened my research and its wider relevance. Perhaps what I value most, however, is the people. I have met individuals who are exceptionally talented, yet equally humble, kind, and generous with their time and knowledge—a rare combination. I am especially thankful to the friends and colleagues who have made my journey at the IfM so meaningful: Yulisyah Putri Daulay, Florian Urmetzer, Eoin O'Sullivan, Athar Mansoor, PhD, Viktória Döme, Dick Ferieno Firdaus, Andi Kuswoyo, Mohd Ifwat Mohd Ghazali, Yifeng Chen, Yanan Wang, Sara AlMahri, Dev Malya Sarkar, PhD ꜰʀꜱᴀ, Bennet Weiß, Chen Ye, Pengbo Qi, Bernard L., Gloria Simanjuntak, Bang Ming Yong, Nikolai Kazantsev, Lishu Xia, Josephine Tumwesige, PMP®, Carlos López-Gómez, Seth Cortez, Ibshar Oishi, Yuzhen Zhu, Keith Norman, Hamza Khattak, Helen Z., Sudhir Rama Murthy, SungIn Cho, Aukrit Unahalekhaka, Neeti Gupta and many others. Thank you for the conversations, encouragement, collaboration, shared meals, and small acts of kindness that have made the IfM feel like much more than simply a place to study and work. For 60 years, the IfM has built a community that combines academic excellence with real industrial impact, developing leaders who can bridge engineering, business, and policy while tackling complex global challenges. I am grateful to be a small part of that story. Congratulations to everyone who has shaped this community over the past six decades. Here’s to the next 60 years of innovation, collaboration, and impact. #IfM60 #InstituteForManufacturing #UniversityOfCambridge #Manufacturing #Innovation #TechnologyManagement #IndustrialInnovation #PhDLife #Cambridge