Startups

Forbes reporter Bruce Rogers profiles the work of Professor Tom Leighton, from his days teaching as an MIT professor to his work co-founding Akamai and serving as the company’s CEO. 

Hollie Slade of Forbes writes about ProtonMail, a new secure email service started by MIT and Harvard alumni.

Doug Saffir reports for Boston.com on ProtonMail a new, high-security email service started by five alumni of MIT and Harvard. ProtonMail is incorporated in Switzerland and subject to strict governmental privacy protections, features encrypted data, and a self-destruct feature that deletes sent emails.

Laura Baverman writes about MaKey MaKey, a manufacturing kit for children developed by MIT researchers, in a piece for USA Today. The kit allows children to develop musical instruments and electronics.

In an article for CNN, Thom Patterson reports on how MIT startup Altaeros Energies has developed an airborne wind turbine that they hope can deliver power to the roughly 1 billion people in rural areas without electricity.

Martin LaMonica of The Boston Globe writes about two MIT startups that are aiming to solve long-standing problems with the production of nuclear power. Transatomic Power and UPower Technologies are looking for ways to make efficient use of radioactive waste and develop smaller, cheaper plants, respectively.

MIT alumnus James Lee’s company has invented an armrest with a double-decker design that allows it to be shared comfortably, WCVB reports.

NPR’s Chris Arnold reports on Quanttus, an MIT startup that is developing wearable devices aimed at quantifying human health.

CNN Money reporter Lauren Everitt interviews MIT graduate Amrita Siagal, who co-founded Saathi, a social enterprise startup that provides low-cost sanitary napkins and jobs to women in rural India. Saathi was recently selected as the winner of the Harvard New Venture Competition.

WBUR’s Andrea Shea visits the offices of MIT startup Echo Nest, which develops recommendation platforms for music streaming sites. The company was recently acquired by Spotify.

CNBC reporter Paul Einstein writes about MIT spinoff Terrafugia, which is working on developing a flying car.  “The four-seater would be capable of vertical takeoffs and landings,” writes Epstein.

“A series of three studies reveals that investors prefer pitches from male entrepreneurs over those from female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitches is identical,” writes Carmen Nobel of Forbes on the findings of a new paper co-authored by Professor Fiona Murray.

Writing for Forbes, Leo King reports that an autonomous robotic submarine developed by MIT startup Bluefin Robotics is being deployed in the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.

The Daily Beast reporter Mike Miesen looks at Sanergy, a company founded by MIT students that manufactures and distributes toilets designed for urban environments with poor sewage infrastructure. The model could improve sanitation in dense urban areas without adequate waste removal.

Ryan Grenoble writes for The Huffington Post about Altaeros Energies, a wind energy company founded at MIT.  The company is poised to break the record for highest wind turbine ever, with plans to float an electric-generating device 1,000 feet above a site in Alaska.