Axios reporter Joann Muller spotlights Rivian, an electric-vehicle startup founded by MIT graduate RJ Scaringe. “If Rivian succeeds, the sharing of its technology could be one of the biggest reasons,” writes Muller. “Imagine companies like Amazon, Starbucks or Apple launching their own mobility fleets on top of a generic platform.”
A new video from MIT spinout Boston Dynamics shows their Atlas robot effortlessly jumping over logs and leaping onto ascending boxes, writes Andy McDonald for HuffPost. “From heavy lifting in factories or warehouses to search and rescue operations to missions on the battlefield, these robots can potentially do things that humans can’t or shouldn’t do,” writes McDonald.
As part of Wired’s 25 anniversary festival, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, leads a conversation with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman about “blitzscaling,” which encourages new companies to prioritize speed over efficiency. Ito points out that blitzscaling technology “accelerates you in the direction you are already going,” making it hard to correct any issues that arise early on.
CBS News reporter Kate Gibson writes that Atlas, the robot developed by MIT spinoff Boston Dynamics, can now tackle a parkour-style obstacle course. “The robot's control software uses its whole body -- legs, arms and torso -- to jump over a log and then leap up steps more than a foot high each, all without breaking pace,” Gibson explains.
TechCrunch reporter Kate Clark spotlights Prof. Tim Berners-Lee’s quest to decentralize the web and provide people with power over their personal data through his new startup inrupt. Clark explains that inrupt is expanding the platform Berners-Lee developed that allows users to “keep their data wherever they choose, rather than being forced to store it on centralized servers.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, has announced the launch of his new company Inrupt. The startup will use an open-source project called Solid, which Berners-Lee developed with colleagues at MIT, to “reshape the web and ‘restore the power and agency of the individuals’ using it,” writes Jason Evangelho for Forbes.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee discusses his new startup Inrupt, which is “the first major commercial venture built off of Solid, a decentralized web platform he and others at MIT have spent years building,” writes Katrina Brooker for Fast Company. Inrupt’s mission is “to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it,” says Brooker.
Forbes reporter Amy Feldman highlights Desktop Metal, a company started by MIT graduate Ric Fulop and a number of MIT researchers, that has developed 3-D metal printers that are intended to “print fast enough and at a low enough cost to replace casting and CNC machining for numerous metal parts.”
MIT spinout Affectiva Inc. has developed a new system that can study a driver’s face to help assess their mental state, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Bray explains that the system “analyzes facial expressions to determine if a driver is distracted, angry, scared, sleepy, or drunk.”
Robotic furniture produced by MIT spinout Ori, which created a furniture system that reconfigures itself with the push of a button or voice commands, could be the solution to living in small spaces, writes Candace Jackson for The New York Times.
As part of the InCube entrepreneurial challenge, a team of MIT students is living in a glass cube for five days as they work on developing a better ambulance, reports Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. Gene Keselman, executive director of the MIT Innovation Initiative, explains that the glass cube offers passersby a glimpse at what “the entrepreneurial journey looks like.”
In an article for The New York Times about the most effective ways to supply aid to impoverished populations in developing countries, Marc Gunther highlights GiveDirectly, a nonprofit co-founded by graduate students from MIT and Harvard. Gunther explains that GiveDirectly aims to “reshape international giving by using cash as a kind of ‘index fund’ of development against which actively managed interventions can be measured.”
Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine, speaks with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang about tough tech and why The Engine is committed to fostering startups focused on the world’s biggest problems. Rae explains that The Engine invests in companies that often “need time to be nurtured, time to work out technical risk, but the results can be transformational to the world.”
MIT startup Skydio has launched a platform that allows users to create custom software that can be applied to the company’s autonomous drone, reports Nick Statt for The Verge. The platform will let “app makers and drone enthusiasts develop custom software that takes advantage of the device’s bevy of cameras and sensors, as well as its sophisticated computer vision software and machine learning algorithms.”
MIT alumnus You Wu has spent six years perfecting robots that can travel through pipes to identify water leaks, writes Anne Quito for Quartz. “Over 240,000 water pipes burst in the US each year, with each incident costing an average of $200,000 in infrastructure damage,” notes Quito.