A new MIT Bootcamp brought 48 experienced and emerging innovators from six continents to campus as they learned how to scale their ventures. The Venture Advancement Program, which ended on May 12, was organized by MIT Open Learning and delivered a mix of lectures, workshops, and mentoring sessions from leading MIT academics and startup veterans. […]
Read MoreTag: Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E)
Bringing safe surgery to patients everywhere
In March, two vans filled with doctors and medical supplies crossed the Polish border into Ukraine and made their way to Kyiv as part of a humanitarian mission. Both vans were packed with traditional medical supplies the country is in desperate need of, such as tourniquets, bandages, and suture kits. But one van also carried […]
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Will the charging networks arrive in time?
For many owners of electric vehicles (EVs), or for prospective EV owners, a thorny problem is where to charge them. Even as legacy automakers increasingly invest in manufacturing more all-electric cars and trucks, there is not a dense network of charging stations serving many types of vehicles, which would make EVs more convenient to use. […]
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Solve at MIT 2023: Collaboration and climate efforts are at the forefront of social impact
“The scale, complexity, the global nature of the problems we’re dealing with are so big that no single institution, industry, or country can deal with them alone,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth stated in her first remarks to the Solve community. Over 300 social impact leaders from around the world convened on MIT’s campus for Solve […]
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New MIT-Denmark collaboration to expand opportunities for global impact
The MIT-Denmark program has received a grant of DKK 10.3 million (over US$1.5 million) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to support its expansion. MIT-Denmark provides MIT students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in Danish companies, startups, and research institutions. The program aims to bolster innovation in key research and technology areas in Denmark and […]
Read MoreSuccess at the intersection of technology and finance
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin had some free advice for an at-capacity crowd of MIT students at the Wong Auditorium during a campus visit in April. “If you find yourself in a career where you’re not learning,” he told them, “it’s time to change jobs. In this world, if you’re not learning, you can […]
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Demystifying startup life
Plenty of students are interested in entrepreneurship at MIT. But there aren’t a lot of opportunities to work at startups because of their small size and limited resources. That can make startups feel like a black box to students unsure if they would like the environment. Since 2016, the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship […]
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President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea visits MIT
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea visited MIT on Friday, participating in a roundtable discussion with Institute leaders and faculty about biomedical research and discussing the fundamentals of technology-driven innovation clusters. South Korea, Yoon noted in his remarks, has highly regarded educational institutions, hospitals, and research facilities, along with robust legal and business systems. […]
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MIT Solve names Hala Hanna as new executive director
MIT Solve has announced Hala Hanna as its new executive director. Solve is a marketplace for social impact innovation with a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges. Hanna has more than 15 years of experience working across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, with the purpose of creating a more equitable and sustainable […]
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Learner in Afghanistan reaches beyond barriers to pursue career in data science
Tahmina S. was a junior studying computer engineering at a top university in Afghanistan when a new government policy banned women from pursuing education. In August 2021, the Taliban prohibited girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade. While women were initially allowed to continue to attend universities, by October 2021, an order from the […]
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Making property assessments as simple as snapping a picture
Property assessments sit at the center of home appraisals, insurance claims, renovation projects, and a number of other important processes. Inaccurate or delayed assessments can set projects back and stick consumers with higher costs. Now, a platform first developed at MIT makes creating detailed property assessments as easy as snapping a few pictures. The alumni-founded […]
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3 Questions: New MIT major and its role in fighting climate change
Launched this month, MIT’s new Bachelor of Science in climate system science and engineering is jointly offered by the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). As part of MIT’s commitment to aid the global response to climate change, the new degree program is designed to train the […]
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MIT Energy Conference grapples with geopolitics
As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, this year’s MIT Energy Conference spotlighted the role of geopolitics in the world’s efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Each year, the student-run conference, which its organizers say is the largest of its kind, brings together leaders from around the […]
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Taking the guesswork out of the architecture business
Managing a building or renovation project really means managing a series of disparate, interconnected tasks. Something as small as a kitchen renovation might involve half a dozen subcontractors including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and painters. The complexity makes cost and time overruns common. On the other hand, “Architecture is a passion business,” says Moe Amaya MA […]
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Greening roofs to boost climate resilience
When the historic cities of Europe were built hundreds of years ago, there were open green spaces all around them. But today’s city centers can be a 30-minute drive or more to the vast open greenery that earlier Europeans took for granted. That’s what the startup Roofscapes is trying to change. The company, founded by […]
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Clothing brand helps give survivors of sexual violence a path forward
When Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, Milain Fayulu SM ’22 was filled with pride in his home country. He eagerly set an alarm from Miami to wake up in the early hours and watch Mukwege’s speech in Norway. In the speech, Mukwege discussed his experience caring […]
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Boosting passenger experience and increasing connectivity at the Hong Kong International Airport
Recently, a cohort of 36 students from MIT and universities across Hong Kong came together for the MIT Entrepreneurship and Maker Skills Integrator (MEMSI), an intense two-week startup boot camp hosted at the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node. “We’re very excited to be in Hong Kong,” said Professor Charles Sodini, LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering […]
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Coding for health equity
Choosing a major was a long process for Mercy Oladipo. Coming into MIT, she was interested in both computer science and medicine, but a plan for how those passions would intersect took some time to coalesce. Oladipo finally settled on a joint major in computer science and molecular biology, which allowed her to dive into […]
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Giving refugees design education — and newfound hope
They come by foot and by boat. Desperate, many bring nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They seek asylum and hope. Since 2015, more than a million refugees have flooded into Greece. Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, and Kurds, they’ve been uprooted from their home countries by violence and oppression. Political gridlock traps them in […]
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Fiber “barcodes” can make clothing labels that last
In the United States, an estimated 15 million tons of textiles end up in landfills or are burned every year. This waste, amounting to 85 percent of the textiles produced in a year, is a growing environmental problem. In 2022, Massachusetts became the first state to enact a law banning the disposal of textiles in […]
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MIT affiliates honored with 2023 Optica awards and medals
MIT Professor Marin Soljačić and four additional MIT alumni — Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato PhD ’87, Turan Erdogan ’87, Harold Metcalf ’62, and Andrew Weiner ’79, SM ’81, ScD ’84 — are among 17 recipients of the 2023 Optica Awards. Optica, formerly known as OSA, announced the awards, which celebrate those in the optics and photonics field […]
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Titanic robots make farming more sustainable
There’s a lot riding on farmers’ ability to fight weeds, which can strangle crops and destroy yields. To protect crops, farmers have two options: They can spray herbicides that pollute the environment and harm human health, or they can hire more workers. Unfortunately, both choices are becoming less tenable. Herbicide resistance is a growing problem […]
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3 Questions: Daniel Auguste on why “successful entrepreneurs don’t fall from the sky”
A lack of access to critical resources has prevented many middle- and low-income entrepreneurs from starting successful businesses, economic sociologist Daniel Auguste told an MIT audience in a Feb. 9 presentation on barriers to entrepreneurship in under-resourced communities of America. That’s a fundamental problem because entrepreneurship is one of society’s most significant pathways to economic […]
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In visit to MIT, FedEx founder Frederick Smith shares thoughts on innovation
On Jan. 26, the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) hosted FedEx founder and executive chair Frederick W. Smith for an intimate, one-on-one conversation with Yossi Sheffi, director of CTL and professor of civil and environmental engineering. Their talk, titled “50 Years of Delivering Innovation,” centered on the evolution of the supply chain and […]
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Helping companies deploy AI models more responsibly
Companies today are incorporating artificial intelligence into every corner of their business. The trend is expected to continue until machine-learning models are incorporated into most of the products and services we interact with every day. As those models become a bigger part of our lives, ensuring their integrity becomes more important. That’s the mission of […]
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A new educational program for scientists working on substance use disorder
Despite increased awareness and substantial media coverage, the addiction and overdose crisis continues across the United States. According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 46.3 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD). Among people aged 12 or older in 2021, only 4.1 million (or 1.5 percent) […]
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3 Questions: Cullen Buie on a new era for cell therapies
Genetic engineering and personalized cell therapies could transform health care. In recent years, stem cells and gene-editing tools like CRISPR have been making headlines for the possibilities they offer to treat diseases, including cancer. But engineering cells is a slow, labor-intensive process, making it difficult to produce personalized therapies at scale. The startup Kytopen, co-founded […]
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Toward new, computationally designed cybersteels
What do the Apple watch and the Raptor engine of the SpaceX Starship have in common? Answer: Both are made, in part, from advanced materials developed over only a few years — as opposed to the usual decades — with the help of computers in a field pioneered at MIT. Now eight MIT professors — […]
Read MoreMIT Solve announces 2023 global challenges and Indigenous Communities Fellowship
MIT Solve, an MIT initiative with a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges, announced today the 2023 Global Challenges and the Indigenous Communities Fellowship. Solve invites anyone from anywhere in the world to submit a solution to this year’s challenges by 12 p.m. EST on May 9. The 40 innovators — including eight […]
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Startups led by MIT mechanical engineers offer health care solutions
Health care has always been ripe for innovation. Whether it’s increasing safety in operating rooms, developing systems to reduce patient wait times, or improving drug delivery, there are endless opportunities to improve the efficacy and efficiency of health care. The Covid-19 pandemic made the need for these solutions all the more pressing. “There were a […]
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Using robotics to supercharge health care
Since its founding in 1998, Vecna Technologies has developed a number of ways to help hospitals care for patients. The company has produced intake systems to respond to Covid-19 patient surges, prediction systems to manage health complications in maternity wards, and telepresence robots that have allowed sick people to stay connected with friends and loved […]
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