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: Startups
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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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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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 […]
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How to deliver a successful ESG strategy
Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More Over the last 20 years, there has been a massive cultural shift in the business world. The elements that have always been considered essential for business success (e.g., a strong value proposition, […]
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Carbon Dioxide Removal: The Tech That’s Polarizing Climate Science
For some scientists, they are the inevitable next stage of staving off the existential threat of climate chaos. For others, they should not even be talked about. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, which provide a means of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, are one of the hottest areas of climate research, but also the […]
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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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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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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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Responding to Ukraine’s “ocean of suffering”
Within 72 hours of the first Russian missiles striking Kyiv, Ukraine, in February 2022, Ian Miller SM ’19 boarded a flight for Poland. Later, he’d say he felt motivated by Kyiv’s “tragic ocean of suffering” and Ukrainian President Zelensky’s pleas for help. But he arrived with little notion of what to do. As he’d anticipated, […]
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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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Banking on the Seaweed Rush
Offshore from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a team hauls up a line laden with meter-long fronds of sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima), a floppy, brown seaweed with crinkled edges. The harvest from Cascadia Seaweed, a kelp farming company founded in 2019, has over the years made its way into a seaweed-enriched “sea spice” condiment mix and […]
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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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How automation can streamline and reduce bias in the funding process
Over time, the route to external financing has become a standardized, inefficient process. Founders will go to venture capitalists or wealthy ‘angels’, map out their vision and ask for funding in return for a stake in the business. Investors will do their own research and deals will always hinge on subjectivity. Entrepreneurs must persuade investors […]
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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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2023 data, ML and AI landscape: ChatGPT, generative AI and more
When we left, the data world was booming in the wake of the gigantic Snowflake IPO with a whole ecosystem of startups organizing around it. Since then, of course, public markets crashed, a recessionary economy appeared and VC funding dried up. A whole generation of data/AI startups has had to adapt to a new reality. […]
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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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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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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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Learning Beautiful brings MIT’s “mind and hand” ethos to early childhood education
People at MIT know “mens et manus,” or “mind and hand,” as the school motto. But it’s also a good framework for early childhood education. Kids often learn best when they’re allowed to explore the environment around them, building models of the world by picking things up and moving them around. Back in 2014, that […]
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