The next wave of tech innovation is set against a backdrop of unprecedented disruption. Digital machines foster autonomy, artificial intelligence, and people analytics. Material machines change the fundamental characteristics of fabrics and fibers. Hybrid machines combine hardware, software, and sensors to create powerful mini factories. This event brings together MIT’s hottest startups, newest entrepreneurship efforts (Sandbox, The Engine, STEX25 accelerator), and leading technology thinkers to explore new innovations in machines.
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Karl Koster is the Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations. MIT Corporate Relations includes the MIT Industrial Liaison Program and MIT Startup Exchange.
In that capacity, Koster and his staff work with the leadership of MIT and senior corporate executives to design and implement strategies for fostering corporate partnerships with the Institute. Koster and his team have also worked to identify and design a number of major international programs for MIT, which have been characterized by the establishment of strong, programmatic linkages among universities, industry, and governments. Most recently these efforts have been extended to engage the surrounding innovation ecosystem, including its vibrant startup and small company community, into MIT's global corporate and university networks.
Koster is also the Director of Alliance Management in the Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer (OSATT). OSATT was launched in Fall 2019 as part of a plan to reinvent MIT’s research administration infrastructure. OSATT develops agreements that facilitate MIT projects, programs and consortia with industrial, nonprofit, and international sponsors, partners and collaborators.
He is past chairman of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP), an organization that seeks to enhance the value of collaborative partnerships between universities and corporations.
He graduated from Brown University with a BA in geology and economics, and received an MS from MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to returning to MIT, Koster worked as a management consultant in Europe, Latin America, and the United States on projects for private and public sector organizations.
Trond heads up the Startup Initiative at MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), facilitating productive relationships between industry and MIT’s startup ecosystem. He is a former Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Trond is a serial entrepreneur with Scandinavian roots, and is currently the Founder of Yegii, Inc., the insight network, and Managing Director of Tautec Consulting.
Trond is a leading expert on technology development across industries such as IT, Energy, and Healthcare. His knowledge spans entrepreneurship, strategy frameworks, policy making, action learning, virtual teamwork, knowledge management, standardization, and e-government. He wrote the book Leadership From Below (2008). Trond speaks six languages and is a frequent public speaker on business, technology, and wine.
Trond was a Strategy/business development executive at Oracle Corp. (2008-12), and a policy maker in the EU (2004-8) where he built the ePractice.eu web platform with 120,000 members. He has worked with multinational companies, with mid-caps and startups in Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Norway, the UK, and the US. He has a PhD in Multidisciplinary Technology Studies from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Marcus Dahllöf leads MIT Startup Exchange, which facilitates connections between MIT-connected startups and corporate members of the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP). Dahllöf manages networking events, workshops, the STEX25 accelerator, opportunity postings, and helps define the strategic direction of MIT Startup Exchange. He is a two-time tech entrepreneur (one exit in cybersecurity), and has previously held roles in finance, software engineering, corporate strategy, and business development at emerging tech companies and Fortune 100 corporations in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. Marcus was a member of the Swedish national rowing team and he is a mentor at the MIT Venture Mentoring Service.
Dean, MIT School of Engineering MIT Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Vannevar Bush Professor, MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Anantha P. Chandrakasan is dean of the MIT School of Engineering, MIT’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He serves as chair of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and the MIT AI Hardware Program, and co-chair of the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT-Takeda Program, and the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology.
He earned his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1990), and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the MIT faculty in 1994 and was the director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 2006 to 2011. From July 2011 through June 2017, he served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), a position that concluded with his appointment as dean in July 2017.
As dean of engineering since 2017, Chandrakasan has implemented various interdisciplinary programs, creating new models for how academia and industry can work together to accelerate the pace of research. This has resulted in the launch of initiatives including the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT-Takeda Program, the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative, the MIT Mobility Initiative, the MIT Quest for Intelligence, the MIT AI Hardware Program, the MIT-Northpond Program, the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative, and the MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellows Program.
Responsible for an amazingly talented team of 300+ engineers responsible for the backend services that support our services, physical infrastructure (DC, Network, Supply Chain, Hardware), Security (product security, infrastructure security and abuse prevention) and the desktop, mobile and web clients.
These teams are responsible for making sure we deliver reliable and secure services to 500M+ users and also enable product engineering teams to iterate and launch new features.
Scott Kirsner is a journalist who writes about innovation and entrepreneurship. His “Innovation Economy” column appears Sundays in the Boston Globe, and he is also editor of the site Innovation Leader (www.innovationleader.com), which focuses on R&D, product development, corporate venturing, and new initiatives within large companies. Scott has been a regular contributor to Fast Company, BusinessWeek, Variety, and Wired. His books include Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age, a technological history of Hollywood. He can be reached at scott@innovationleader.com and his Twitter handle is @ScottKirsner.
Yida joined NEA in 2015 as an Associate focused on investments in the technology sector. Prior to joining NEA, Yida was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Investment Banking team at Morgan Stanley in New York City where he helped execute over $15Bn in aggregate deal volume. Prior to MS, Yida held research positions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management under professor Paul Asquith and at McKinsey & Company in Boston. Topics of research, among others, included landscaping the high tech enterprise verticals to identify pockets of likely consolidation and testing IPO theories using reverse mergers.
Yida graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science and was a varsity pole vaulter.
Colette Matthews, Ph.D. is the Global Innovation Director for Whirlpool Corp. Colette is an experienced marketing and product development professional with over a decade of experience in both the CPG and Durable goods industry. In her current role, Colette oversees all aspects of consumer-centric disruptive innovation, Open Innovation and Trends & Foresight at the world's leading manufacturer of major home appliances.
In her previous role previous roles at Whirlpool, Colette has led both the Connectivity & Smart Home, as well as, Consumer Insights & Strategy teams where she was instrumental in helping shape brand positioning, consumer understanding and build innovation roadmaps within Whirlpool Corporation to drive product and brand leadership.
She kicked off her career at Procter & Gamble with product development roles in both the Global Beauty (China and developing markets) and Health Care business units. Later she accepted a position at Newell Rubbermaid, Beauty & Style Business Unit, where she helped drive consumer driven innovation with assignments in both Brand Management and Consumer Insights. Matthews has led the development and/or worked on a broad array of brands, including Olay, Old Spice, Goody, Solano, the entire portfolio of Whirlpool Corp. brands.
Colette holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Bachelors of Biochemistry from North Carolina State.
Katie is the CEO & Managing Partner of Engine Ventures. She serves as a Board Member for The Engine Funds’ portfolio companies Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Form Energy, Boston Metal, and Sublime Systems. Katie has over 10 years of experience as an investor and 25 years as a tech executive, helping build Boston into a thriving tech hub. She has invested in nearly 100 companies and advised hundreds of founders from early-stage formation to scale-up. Key investments include Pillpack (acquired by Amazon for $1 billion in 2018), Flywire, Moon, and GrabCAD. Katie has experience in managing startup accelerators and business-innovation programs — she was a Managing Director of Techstars Boston. She was also a co-founder and Managing Director at Project 11 Ventures. In addition to her extensive investing career, she has over 20 years of experience in product development, management & operations including holding management positions at Microsoft, Eons, AltaVista, RagingBull, Zip2, and Mirror Worlds. Katie holds an MBA from Yale and a BA in Biology from Oberlin College. Katie co-founded the Equity Summit, which convenes leading General Partners and Asset Managers of diversity across the venture capital industry.
Reflections on the speed, scale, and dynamics of the logic of simultaneous digital, material, and hybrid breakthroughs in emerging tech innovation and discussing the ways industry, academia, and startups are dealing with and profiting from those innovations: what are the characteristics of exciting startups? How to distill and nurture true novelty?
Ben is the CEO and Founder of Gamalon. He was previously the co-founder and CEO of Lyric Semiconductor, the first microprocessor architectures for statistical machine learning, growing out of Ben’s PhD at MIT. Lyric was acquired by Analog Devices, and Lyric’s technology is deployed in leading smartphones and consumer electronics, medical devices, wireless base stations, and automobiles. He has authored over 120 patents and academic publications, and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, EE Times, Scientific American, Wired, TechCrunch, and other media.
Ben has been an Intel Student Fellow, Kavli Foundation/National Academy of Sciences Fellow, served on the DARPA Information Science and Technology (ISAT) steering committee, and has held research appointments at MIT, Hewlett Packard, Mitsubishi, and the Santa Fe Institute. He also co-founded Design That Matters, a not-for-profit that for the past decade has helped solve engineering and design problems in underserved communities and has saved thousands of infant lives by developing low-cost, easy-to-use medical technology such as infant incubators, UV therapy, pulse oximeters, and IV drip systems that have been fielded in 20 countries.
Dan is a CEO of Lexumo who started his career during the mini-computer boom of the early 80's. He blends a mix of technical, marketing and business savvy and has become a top executive and active board member across a variety of industries including networking, storage, information security and virtualization. He holds a BS, Engineering Computer Science Software/Hardware from the University of Connecticut.
John has spent the last two decades helping retailers, distributors, and brands optimize their omni-channel strategies and operations. Prior to Celect, John was VP of Product Management & Strategy for Oracle Commerce, coming to Oracle via the Endeca acquisition where John was VP of Marketing & Product Management. John started his career within Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice. John holds a BA in Economics and Computer Science from Boston College and received his master’s degree from the Harvard Business School.
About Celect Celect is a cloud-based, predictive analytics SaaS platform that helps retailers optimize their overall inventory portfolios in stores and across the supply chain, resulting in double-digit percentage revenue increases. This groundbreaking advance in machine learning and optimization allows retailers to understand how an individual customer shopping in store or online chooses from an assortment of products, revealing true demand. The technology builds on a fundamental advance in customer choice modeling called by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory one of the 50 greatest innovations it has ever produced.
Alan Ringvald is a 2-time founder, former Googler, and graduate of MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is the co-founder and CEO of Relativity6, a machine learning start-up based on his MIT Master's Thesis.
• Taking Machine Intelligence Beyond Deep Learning, Ben Vigoda, Gamalon • Cybersecurity for Open Source Software, Dan McCall, Lexumo • Bringing Science to the Art of Retail, John Andrews, Celect • Activate Lapsed Customers, Alan Ringvald, Relativity6
Louis Perna is a co-founder of Accion Systems where he focuses on research, testing, product development, and manufacturing. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics where he specialized in space propulsion, specifically microsystems design and manufacturing for electrospray thrusters. Louis has supported various NASA centers both academically and professionally where he has investigated operating modes of an ion engine; aided in the design, test, and assembly of planetary exploration robotics systems; and performed program- and vehicle-level technical and programmatic risk estimation for manned spaceflight systems.
Charles Fracchia is founder and CEO at BioBright, a company building smart laboratory tools to improve reproducibility in biomedical research. BioBright has been featured in Scientific American, the innovators under 35 in MIT Tech Review, BioIT World, and SLAS. Fracchia did his graduate work between the MIT Media Lab and Harvard Medical School and obtained his BSc from Imperial College London.
Fracchia has presented his work at venues including the White House, MIT Sloan, NASA Ames, IBM Research, Airbus, O'Reilly and SciFoo. Over the years, the work has been sponsored by DARPA, NSF, Alphabet's X (formerly Google X), Knight Foundation, and Templeton Foundation.
Dr. Anurag Bajpayee is the co-founder and CEO of Gradiant Corporation. Gradiant is a Technology-driven Water Services Company with a suite of proprietary technologies to enable efficient, economical industrial water treatment and recycling currently focused on the oil & gas, mining, and power sectors. Anurag earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where he worked on desalination and water treatment, with a core focus on treatment of oil & gas produced water. His doctoral work on Directional Solvent Extraction (DSE) desalination was recognized by the Scientific American as a top 10 world changing idea and is now part of Gradiant’s technology portfolio. Anurag has co-authored 5 peer reviewed journal publications and holds 7 issued or pending patents in the field of water treatment. He earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri and a Masters degree from MIT.
Poly6 is catalyzing a global materials revolution in which energy intensive, toxic, and waste producing material chemistries are replaced with new, simple, bio-based, high-performing chemistries. Keith Hearon is the inventor of Citrene™ and is a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Robert Langer’s group at MIT. Hearon has 8 patents granted/pending in materials science.
• Revolutionary Propulsion for Satellites, Louis Perna, Accion systems • Augmented Reality for the Scientist, Charles Fracchia, Biobright • Tech Driven Water Treatment, Anurag Bajpayee, Gradiant Corporation • Industrial Grade Materials from Lemon Peel, Keith Hearon, Poly6
Julie Allen is a partner in the Corporate Department and a co-head of the Capital Markets Group.
Julie’s practice focuses on general corporate and securities matters. She represents both underwriters and issuers in initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings. Her experience also includes Rule 144A debt offerings, both as counsel to issuers and to initial purchasers. Julie's practice also includes mergers and acquisitions, particularly transactions involving public companies. She represents buyers and sellers, activist stockholders, boards of directors and financial advisors in mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations and tender offers. Julie also regularly counsels public companies and their affiliates regarding disclosure, governance, Sarbanes-Oxley and other securities law and compliance issues.
Julie serves as the Co-Chair of Proskauer's New Business Committee and Chair of its Corporate Department Opinion and Audit Letter Committees.
Alexander Slocum is the Walter and Hazel May Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. He has 130+ patents and has helped develop 12 products that have received R&D 100 awards for “one of the one hundred best new technical products of the year”. He has helped start several successful precision manufacturing equipment companies and has a passion for working with industry to solve real problems and identify fundamental research topics. For the past decade his prime focus has been on renewable energy systems.
Dr. Knezevic, from Perth, Western Australia, is the CTO of Akselos. In this role, he has coordinated the delivery of simulation frameworks to the Power Systems and Mining industries. He holds a Ph.D. from Oxford (Rhodes scholar) and was a post-doc at MIT where he worked on Akselos' core technology. He was a Lecturer at Harvard University for three years before joining Akselos full time.
In 2015 David has represented Akselos at numerous prestigious conferences, like the ASME TurboExpo 2015, and the ‘Analysis, Simulation, and Systems Engineering Software Summit (ASSESS)’, where he’s part of the Initiative Advisory Committee Meeting. He has access to a vast network of leaders and practitioners who play a role in shaping the future of the field.
David is a co-author (with colleagues from MIT) of the patent "Methods and apparatus for constructing and analyzing component-based models of engineering systems" that is one of the foundations of Akselos' technology.
In September 2011, Dr. Knezevic was part of the team that won the largest Deshpande innovation grant at MIT, which led to the launch of Akselos.
Ramiro Almeida has been appointed Professor and Director of The Innovation Lab at MDC. He recently spent three years conducting research at the intersection of innovation, social transformation, technology and entrepreneurship at the MIT Media Lab. Prior to his appointment at MIT, he was a Fellow at Harvard University. He was awarded the prestigious Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design. During his tenure he published the book A Line in The Andes, as part of a research studio that aimed at detailing the potential for urban design solutions required to meet the transportation challenges in developing a city’s first subway line. As an entrepreneur, he invested in early stage startups including the publication of the first Spanish version of Wired magazine in 1999, where he was first exposed to disruptive technologies. He later invested in Libri Mundi in 2006, the most prestigious bookstore and publishing company in Ecuador, which was acquired by La Favorita, the largest retail corporation in the country. As part of an alternative creative process, he explores publishing and film production. During his residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab in 2013, Mr. Almeida started the project to produce a feature animation film about technology, life and evolution. With MIT colleagues, he is working on designing self driving vehicle systems.
Jon Garrity is the cofounder and CEO of Tagup Inc., a technology company using AI to make the equipment that powers the world safer, more reliable, and more efficient. Prior to founding Tagup, he was a Product Manager at GE Energy, developing and deploying analytics technology to improve the reliability of electrical infrastructure. Jon has broad experience in clean energy technologies and served on the Board of Directors at Greentown Labs. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an S.B. in Physics and in Economics from MIT.
David Mindell is an engineer and historian. An expert in human relationships with robotics and autonomous systems, he has led or participated in more than 25 oceanographic expeditions. From 2005 to 2011 he was Director of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He is the author of five books and co-founder of Humatics Corporation, which develops technologies to transform how robots and autonomous systems work in human environments.
As one of the founders of Wise Systems, a system developed to encourage safe, open, and secure environments through crime reporting, Chazz now spends most of his time building the platform and volunteering with the on-campus ministry Cru. In June of 2013 Chazz Sims received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. He now holds a Masters of Engineering in Computer Science from MIT. Throughout his undergraduate career, Chazz worked with a variety of startups in areas such as healthcare, entertainment, even the restaurant industry in Argentina, most often as the sole iOS Developer. After a summer working at Goldman Sachs, Chazz found that he was most passionate about startups and spent the next year as a CODE2040 fellow, working at Rockmelt. Recently, Chazz worked with two other developers to build a game for MIT’s first iOS Games Competition and won a sponsor’s award from Electronic Arts.
Natan Linder is co-founder of manufacturing technology company, Tulip. Drawing from over 15 years of experience and accomplished careers at companies like Samsung, Sun Microsystems, and Rethink Robotics. Linder holds a depth of expertise in computer science, product design, and entrepreneurship. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Formlabs, the pioneer and industry leader in professional desktop 3D printing. Prior to starting Formlabs and Tulip, Linder was co-founder and general manager of Samsung Electronic?s R&D Center in Israel, spearheading the group?s innovation efforts in mobile and shipping multiple products to the global market. He?s served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Jerusalem Venture Partners, the leading Israeli venture capital firm. Linder graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel and a S.M. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Currently a PhD candidate (on leave) at the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group, Linder's work aims to fuse design and engineering to create novel human experiences.
• Simulation Software for Super-sized Projects, David Knezevic, Akselos. • Self-driving Cars, Ramiro Almeida, Optimus Ride • Industrial Internet of Things Platforms, Jon Garrity, TagUp • Microlocation as the Glue Between People, Places and Things, David Mindell, Humatics • Real-time Delivery Software for Transportation Fleets, Chazz Sims, Wise systems • Transforming the Factory Floor by Sensor Tech, Natan Linder, Tulip Interfaces
Swamy Kotagiri was named Chief Technology Officer of Magna International in January 2014. In this role, Kotagiri is globally responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s innovation and new product strategy and development, at a corporate level as well as in conjunction with Magna’s operating units. In early 2013, Swamy was appointed as Executive Vice President of corporate engineering and research & development functions.
Kotagiri has more than 22 years of industry experience and previously served in various engineering leadership positions at Cosma International, a Magna operating unit. He was responsible for innovation strategy development as well as the launch and execution of new technologies in Cosma’s manufacturing divisions while serving as Executive Vice President of global engineering and R&D starting in 2008 and Director of R&D prior to that.
Before joining Cosma, Kotagiri was a structural engineer at General Motors.
Kotagiri has a Master’s Degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University with a specialization in materials and structural engineering. He has more than 12 patents to his credit in automotive product and process design, and has memberships with the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Engineering Society of Detroit.
Executive Director, MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program
Jinane Abounadi is Executive Director of the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program. She brings a unique combination of experiences, from academic research to senior operational and strategic roles in start-up companies and large businesses. After completing her graduate work, she worked as a research scientist at BBN and as a postdoctoral lecturer at MIT, and advised undergraduate and graduate students. She held leadership roles in two of the most successful local Boston area start-ups, ITA Software and Kayak, where she gained deep knowledge about the travel technology sector. Most recently, she ran a global portfolio of 3rd party products for Travelport, giving her the opportunity to establish partnerships with companies across the globe and to advise and evaluate a number of start-ups in the travel sector.
Abounadi earned her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, a BS in electrical engineering from Caltech, and a BA from Bryn Mawr College. She has several publications in the fields of machine learning and communication networks and is passionate about teaching and working with college students. As a long-time housemaster at MIT, she has gained extensive experience in student life. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and three children. Outside of her professional life, she volunteers at her children’s schools. She served on the Board of trustees of Shady Hill School for six years, served on the founding school committee of the Center of Arabic Culture, and spends her free time cheering and supporting her children’s sports team.
Kevin leads startup innovation for P&G’s Global Business Development organization. In 20+ years with P&G, he has worked in a variety of different roles and businesses including consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and social marketing startup Tremor. In his current work, Kevin is one of the principle architects of The Signal Accelerator, P&G’s startup innovation engine focused on identifying and piloting solutions to business needs in the eBusiness, eCommerce, and brand building space. Based in San Francisco, Kevin coordinates innovation outposts in key markets globally including US, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and China.
Stephen Romine is Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Bose Corporation of Framingham, Massachusetts. Bose is a privately held company with annual sales in excess of $3.5 billion, twenty subsidiary companies and over 10,000 employees worldwide. Steve joined Bose in 2005 and oversees the Intellectual Property Department at Bose, which is responsible for all patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, IP litigation, and licensing matters for Bose worldwide. Prior to Bose, Steve was in private practice at Fish & Richardson P.C. in Boston. Steve serves on the board of directors of Boystown New England, which provides an array of services to abused and neglected children and their families. Steve is also a former JAG officer in the United States Air Force. Steve received a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and a Juris Doctorate from Duke University.