Cybersecurity Factory, an accelerator founded by two MIT graduate students and Highland Capital, recently announced the winning teams who have been accepted into the pilot program, reports Janelle Nanos for BetaBoston. Nanos explains that the goal of Cybersecurity Factory is to “help founders overcome the myriad challenges they often face as they try to get cybersecurity companies off the ground.”
BetaBoston reporter Dan Adams speaks with Yoel Fink, director of RLE, about the Translational Fellows Program, an initiative that provides postdocs an opportunity to commercialize technologies they developed at MIT. Fink explains that the goal of the program is to empower postdocs, “not just to find a job in an industry, but to create an industry.”
A group of MIT graduates has launched a new startup dedicated to making it easier for people to donate to charity, reports Lauren Landry for Boston Magazine. “We’re making it easier to donate to charity,” says alumnus Charles Huang. “You shouldn’t have to think about how to do it, just why.”
Team Raptor Maps received the top prize in MIT’s annual $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. Founded by three MIT students, Raptor Maps “proposes to use camera-carrying drones to survey farmland and pinpoint damage before pests and diseases can decimate crops.”
OptiBit, a startup that aims to make data centers more energy efficient, won this year’s MIT Clean Energy Prize, reports Vijee Venkatraman for BetaBoston. The OptiBit team explains that their technology offers “10 times more throughput, two times lower latency, and 95 percent less energy use” compared to copper-based chips.
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman writes about the history of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. Subbaraman writes that the competition “pioneered the college pitch contest, a style that now dominates the startup landscape.”
Lindsay Kalter writes for The Boston Herald about PicnicHealth, a California-based startup founded by MIT alumnus Troy Astorino that allows patients to store all their medical records in one spot. One day “patients will really have ownership of their own medical info and have it all in one place,” said Astorino.
Jon Christian of The Boston Globe reports that MIT startup Accion Systems has developed a thruster technology that will allow satellites to adjust their orbits. “Eventually, we hope to be able to scale up the performance to address the really large, school bus-size satellites,” explains Accion co-founder and MIT alumna Natalya Brikner.
In an article for BetaBoston, Janelle Nanos writes about Jana, an MIT startup that allows mobile phone users in developing countries to access the Internet for free. “We’re empowering people with connectivity and we’re not limiting how they’re using that connectivity,” explains Jana founder and MIT alumnus Nathan Eagle.
In an article for Bloomberg Businessweek about batteries, Christopher Martin highlights how Prof. Donald Sadoway’s liquid metal battery will be deployed this year. The batteries, which are being commercialized by Sadoway’s startup Ambri, will power solar and wind farms and store surplus energy for a power company in Manhattan.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for The Boston Globe about Grove Labs, an MIT startup aimed at enabling people to grow vegetables at home year-round. The founders fine-tuned their idea at MIT’s Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator for a “high-tech indoor garden.”
Jillian Eugenios writes for CNN Money about Evaptainers, a startup conceptualized in an MIT course that has developed a refrigerator that runs on water and sunlight. The refrigerator was created in an effort to improve the food production and storage process in developing countries by cutting down on spoilage.
Graduate students Jean Yang and Frank Wang have partnered with Highland Capital to launch a new bootcamp aimed at helping researchers commercialize their cybersecurity research, reports Janelle Nanos for BetaBoston. “A lot of university PhD students have all these great cybersecurity ideas that could solve a lot of real-life problems,” explains Wang.
Researchers from MIT and Northwestern have developed an online networking tool aimed at aiding people with anxiety and depression, reports Katie Collins for Wired. The tool, “allows people to build online support communities and practice therapeutic techniques among one another.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Dominic Basulto reports on how the synthetic biology work at MIT startup Ginkgo Bioworks has been inspired by computer programming. “Ginkgo is essentially programming organisms, getting them to behave the same way as one might a piece of computer code,” explains Basulto.