Lecturer Bill Fischer writes for Forbes after speaking with Prof. Annika Steiber, director of Menlo College’s Silicon Valley RenDanheYi Research Center, about the organizational changes General Electric Appliances (GEA) has made in recent years. “GEA, today, represents what has turned-out to be a successful major organizational turnaround,” writes Fischer.
Prof. Simon Johnson has been working with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s economic advisors to build a plan for Ukraine, reports Daniel Flatley for Bloomberg. “The plan, as Johnson sees it, would leverage the interest that insurance companies and other firms have in facilitating the oil trade and use it to enforce the ban,” explains Flatley.
Katie Spies ’14, founder and CEO of Maev (a company that produces human-grade, raw dog food brand), speaks with Fortune editor Rachel King about what inspired her to start Maev, the company’s development process, and where Spies sees the company expanding in the future. “Among other exciting expansion initiatives, we’re really looking forward to expanding our product portfolio; our goal is to be a trust brand for dog essentials, especially product categories that are currently lacking in healthy, well-made options,” says Spies.
TechCrunch reporter Christine Hall spotlights Anwar Ghauche MS ’10, CEO of Constrafor - a construction procurement platform that streamlines information, payment, and documentation between general contractors and subcontractors. “Subcontractors get hired on the project, and when they finish their first month of work, submit an invoice and then wait an average of 45 to 60 days — even up to 80 days — to get paid,” says Ghauche. “Meanwhile, they are buying equipment and borrowing money to be able to do all of this work. You’re not borrowing at a cheap rate, either, because most banks barely touch them.”
Jake Guglin MBA ’19, Jasper Lienhard PhD ’22, Prof. Chris Schuh and University of California Irvine Prof. Tim Rupert have founded Foundation Alloy, a vertically integrated metal part production platform specializing in manufacturing high performing metal parts, reports Ariyana Griffin for Forbes. “By creating stronger metals, we can make lighter parts for planes, cars [which] will make those existing products greener and more efficient,” says Guglin.
India New England News speaks with MIT MBA alumna Dipali Trivedi about her work as a co-founder and mentor, as well as the importance of encouraging women to pursue leadership roles in the companies they have founded. “I enjoy bringing innovation to a complex domain with the help of next generation technology,” says Trivedi. “Seeing your idea materialized and used by thousands of people is an amazing experience, I enjoy solving challenges of launching new venture ground-up.”
InsideTracker - a personalized-nutrition company founded by scientists from MIT, Harvard, and Tufts University - utilizes blood tests to calculate biological age, reports Betsy Morris for The Wall Street Journal. The company analyzes blood samples for “markers of conditions like inflammation, heart health and liver or kidney disorder,” explains Morris. “Those who test as older than their years get recommendations to adjust diet, exercise and supplements.”
Former MIT research fellow Robert (Bob) Buderi speaks with Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing about his new book, “Where The Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub,” which explores the history of Kendall Square and its innovation ecosystem. “One of the big chapters is about an effort at MIT by former President Susan Hockfield and two professors Sangeeta Bhatia and Nancy Hopkins to increase the opportunity for women faculty… to get into the stream that creates companies,” explains Buderi.
The Boston Globe honored a number of MIT faculty and alumni in their Tech Power Players 50, a list of the “most influential – and interesting – people in the Massachusetts technology scene.” MIT honorees include Professor Yet-Ming Chiang, Senior Lecturer Brian Halligan, Professor Tom Leighton, Professor Silvio Micali, Katie Rae (CEO and managing partner for The Engine), and Professor Daniela Rus (director of CSAIL and deputy dean of research for the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing).
Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman spotlights the work of Prof. Silvio Micali, who has been honored as one of The Boston Globe’s Tech Power Players 50 for his work in computer science and cryptography. “Micali decided to come up with a more elegant version of the underlying [cryptocurrency] technology, the public database of transactions known as the blockchain,” writes Pressman. “He formed a new startup, Algorand, to pursue a blockchain that would go far beyond bitcoin while reducing costs and electricity usage and speeding up transaction processing.”
Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert ’77 has been selected as one of The Boston Globe’s Tech Power Players 50 for his work in artificial intelligence and robotics, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Raibert recalls how his fascination with developing robot legs was cultivated at MIT. “I went to a presentation where someone showed a very slow-moving legged robot,” said Raibert. “I thought, wow, people and animals aren’t anything like that. ... People and animals have such fantastic locomotion. That was a thing to try to emulate and achieve.”
Overjet, co-founded by Wardah Inam SM ’12 PhD ’16, has been awarded landmark clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to use their software aimed at detecting and outlining cavities in patients’ X-rays, reports Alexandra S. Levine for Forbes. “Everybody has had a dental disease,” says Inam. “People have had good and bad experiences. And moving the industry towards making [a] more clinically precise, efficient patient focus is something that will impact every person in the world.”
Boston Metal, an MIT spinout, has created a new manufacturing method that could help engineers reshape the way in which alloy is made, reports Marcello Rossi for The Atlantic. The process is “called ‘molten oxide electrolysis,’ in which a current moves through a cell containing iron ore,” explains Rossi.
Jerry Ting, co-founder and CEO of Evisort, found inspiration for the AI contracts provider company after working with fellow co-founder Amine Anoun SM ’17, reports Alexandra Sternlicht for Forbes. Ting “realized that firms bill hundreds of dollars per hour for lawyers to simply read documents” writes Sternlicht. “And like most startup founders, he imagined a better way.”
A new study co-authored by Prof. Pierre Azoulay finds that immigrants are 80% more likely to start businesses than people born in the U.S., reports Yasmin Amer for WBUR. "[Immigrants] create more firms pretty much in every size bucket," says Azoulay. "They create more small firms, they create more medium sized firms. They create more firms that will grow up to be very large."