[Em]Powering the Future: Transforming Ideas into Reality
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While 2025 presented challenges and uncertainty, it also opened the door to new opportunities. Navigating this landscape with insight allows us to turn obstacles into growth. MIT offers a space for thoughtful engagement, networking, and collaboration where leaders from industry, academia, and the public sector come together to better understand the forces shaping our world and to prepare for what lies ahead.
This is our flagship event of the year, featuring keynote talks, technical tracks, startup presentations, and moderated discussions with industry leaders—designed to encourage learning and connection.
Day 1 will open with researchers and practitioners examining global drivers of change, focusing on AI, the future of work, advanced manufacturing, robotics, national security, and the dynamics of scarcity and geopolitics. The day will also include lightning talks from 10 startups from MIT Startup Exchange.
On Day 2, attendees can choose from six concurrent tracks covering developments in entrepreneurship, sustainable energy, space technology, cybersecurity and data analytics, advanced materials, and life sciences.
MIT campus tours will also be available, with sign-ups for post-conference tours at the registration desk on the morning of Day 2.
*Current MIT Community: In-person seating is currently at capacity. Livestream registration must be completed with an mit.edu email address.
**STEX Community: please email ocrevents@mit.edu for complimentary access.
***Cancellation Policy: You may cancel your registration for a full refund through November 11. Refunds will be issued to the original form of payment. From November 12 to November 18, partial refunds will be available, minus a service fee ($300 for in-person registrations and $100 for virtual). No refunds will be issued after November 18. To cancel, please email ocrevents@mit.edu.
MIT Alum, Sloan Exec Ed, and Professional Education Member: Please email ocrevents@mit.edu for a 70% discount code.
Dr. Srinivasan is a distinguished scientist who received her PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2004, where she contributed to the discovery of the 22nd amino acid, Pyrrolysine (2002). She first came to MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Tom Rajbhandary’s lab, where her research focused on understanding protein synthesis mechanisms in Archaea.
Dr. Srinivasan subsequently moved into the business development and technology licensing space, serving in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office, where she helped commercialize technologies in medical devices and alternative energies. She then moved to UMass Medical School’s Office of Technology Management in 2009 and to Emory University in Atlanta in 2014 as the Director of Public and Private Partnerships for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. In 2019, Dr. Srinivasan joined Emory’s Office of Corporate Relations as Executive Director, and in 2021, she led the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.
Director, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics Director, MIT Supply Chain Management Program Professor, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor, MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems, MIT
Dr. Yossi Sheffi is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he serves as Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (MIT CTL). He is an expert in systems optimization, risk analysis, and supply chain management, which are the subjects he teaches and researches at MIT. He is the author of many scientific publications and nine books:
Under his leadership, MIT CTL launched many new educational, research, and industry/government outreach programs, leading to substantial growth. He founded the MITx MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management. He is the founder and the Director of MIT's Master of Supply Chain Management degree. He also led the international expansion of MIT CTL by launching the Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) global network of academic centers of education and research. The network includes centers modeled after MIT CTL in Zaragoza, Spain; Bogota, Colombia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
From 2007 to 2011 he served as the Director of the MIT Engineering Systems Division, where he set a strategy, revamped the PhD program, and set the division for future growth.
Outside the university Professor Sheffi has consulted with governments and leading manufacturing, retail and transportation enterprises all over the world. He is also an active entrepreneur, having founded and co-founded five successful companies:
Dr. Sheffi was recognized in numerous ways in academic and industry forums and was on the cover of Purchasing Magazine and Transportation and Distribution Magazine. In 1997 he won the most prestigious recognition given by the Council of Logistics Management—the Distinguished Service Award. In 2006 he won the Aragón International Prize. In 2010 he became an honorary Doctor (Doctor Honoris Causa) of the University of Zaragoza in Spain and in 2011 he was awarded the Salzberg Medal and Award for "outstanding leadership and innovations in Supply Chain management" by the University of Syracuse. He is also a life fellow of Cambridge University's Clare Hall College. View a complete list of awards here.
He obtained his B.Sc. from the Technion in Israel in 1975, his S.M. from MIT in 1977, and Ph.D. from MIT in 1978. He now resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
A discussion of the mechanism by which jobs are lost or modified, based on history and recent developments (supply-chain perspective)
Rear Adm. Pete Small is a native of Tabernacle, New Jersey. He was commissioned from the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) at the University of Virginia where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in mechanical engineering. He also has Naval Engineer and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT and a Master of Science in operations research from Columbia University. He is a Professional Engineer in Virginia.
As a submarine officer, Small served aboard USS L. Mendel Rivers (SSN 686) and then as assistant professor of naval science at the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College and Fordham University NROTC.
After a lateral transfer to the Engineering Duty Officer (EDO) community, Small served across all phases of ship and submarine design and construction. He oversaw Virginia-class submarine construction and Los Angeles-class submarine repair at Supervisor of Shipbuilding (SUPSHIP) Newport News, Virginia, and later served as the Program Manager’s Representative for Virginia-class submarine construction at SUPSHIP Groton, Conn.
In 2010, Rear Adm. Small was appointed Associate Professor of the Practice in the mechanical engineering department at MIT and taught ship and submarine design in the graduate Naval Construction and Engineering (Course 2N) curriculum. He continues to teach submarine design in the MIT Professional Summer program.
In NAVSEA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Small served in the Advanced Undersea Systems program office, Columbia-class submarine program office, and AUKUS nuclear powered submarine consultation team.
Rear Adm. Small served as Major Program Manager of the Unmanned Maritime Systems program and later stood up the New Attack Submarine (SSN(X)) program. In 2024, he was promoted to Flag rank and assigned as the Chief Engineer and Deputy Commander for Naval Systems Engineering of the Naval Sea Systems Command. In May 2025, he assumed command of the Naval Surface and Undersea Warfare Centers and continues to serve in both roles.
Small’s personal decorations include the Legion of Merit (third award), Meritorious Service Medal (fourth award), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (fourth award), and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (fourth award).
“The way we fight today will not be the way we fight tomorrow. We will relentlessly innovate, adapt, and accelerate the integration of cutting-edge technologies—artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems, resilient command and control networks, hypersonic weapons, advanced manufacturing, and quantum-enabled sensing. The way we fight tomorrow becomes reality with our future fleet design—a design that will be tightly coupled to the Navy warfighting concept, a newly developed Navy deterrence concept, and aligned to the department’s investment priorities.” – Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle
The U.S. shipbuilding industry has seen a decline in design and manufacturing capabilities, driven by reduced demand for commercial vessels and long, low-rate production of naval platforms. As a result, design standards and tools have fallen behind modern technology. Yet, the U.S. Navy faces a resurgent demand for technologies designed to empower a modernized fleet - new and diverse ship types, a growing imperative for unmanned platforms, and engineering capabilities that enable increasingly complex missions. This presentation will examine how the U.S. Navy can harness emerging technologies to revitalize ship design and construction. Specifically, it will explore the critical need for intelligent design tools that optimize both performance and manufacturability. It will also highlight opportunities to modernize specifications by integrating innovations such as robotic welding and AI-driven non-destructive testing (NDT). Advancing these capabilities is essential to building a more lethal, resilient, and cost-effective fleet—one capable of maintaining maritime dominance in an increasingly contested global environment.
Manager, Business Development and Marketing, MIT Professional Education
John Hart is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He is also the Director of the MIT Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity and the Center for Advanced Production Technologies. John’s. John’s research group focuses on the science and technology of production, including work on additive manufacturing, materials processing, automation, and computational methods. John has been recognized by awards from the United States NSF, ONR, AFOSR, DARPA, SME, and ASME, along with two R&D 100 awards. He has also received the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching in Mechanical Engineering and the MIT Keenan Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, for his leadership in undergraduate manufacturing education using new pedagogical models and digital resources. John is a co-founder of Desktop Metal and VulcanForms, and a Board Member of Carpenter Technology Corporation.
Ariadna Rodenstein is a Program Manager at MIT Startup Exchange. She joined MIT Corporate Relations as an Events Leader in September 2019 and is responsible for designing and executing startup events, including content development, coaching and hosting, and logistics. Ms. Rodenstein works closely with the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) in promoting collaboration and partnerships between MIT-connected startups and industry, as well as with other areas around the MIT innovation ecosystem and beyond.
Prior to working for MIT Corporate Relations, she worked for over a decade at Credit Suisse Group in New York and London, in a few different roles in event management and as Director of Client Strategy. Ms. Rodenstein has combined her experience in the private sector with work at non-profits as a Consultant and Development Director at New York Immigration Coalition, Immigrant Defense Project, and Americas Society/Council of the Americas. She also served as an Officer on the Board of Directors of the Riverside Clay Tennis Association in New York for several years. Additionally, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Communications from New York University, with coursework at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City, and her M.A. in Sociology from the City University of New York.
Co-Founder & CTO, Diffraqtion
Dr. Christine Wang is Co-Founder and CTO of Diffraqtion, a deeptech startup developing the next generation of machine vision sensors and processors that deliver ultra-sharp imaging, high inference speed, and strong energy efficiency. She has more than 20 years of R&D experience in the field of optics and photonics, especially quantum sensors, imaging system,s and photonic integrated circuits. Before Diffraqtion, she was the Director of Optics and Photonics at Riverside Research, and prior to that, a Principal Scientist at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.
She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University and was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and EPFL in Lausanne.
Founder and CEO, Aperture Space
Dr. Zachary Kabelac is a two-time Founder and CEO of Aperture. He received his Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD from MIT in electrical engineering, specializing in radar and analytics. He’s spent the last 5 years building satellite systems and hydrology models to advance agricultural and irrigation practices with farmers. Before that, he successfully co-founded and bootstrapped his first company, Emerald Innovations, which sells a radar and insights platform for long-term health monitoring. With no external funding, it generates over $5 million in annual revenue with a team of 30. He presented Emerald to President Obama in the White House, has a Big Bang Theory episode, TedTalk, and received a Forbes 30 under 30.
Head of Engineering, Nominal
Founder & CEO, DiploAI
Baptiste Bouvier is the founder and CEO of DiploAI, an AI-powered platform that is revolutionizing the way manufacturers manage legal and regulatory compliance. Recognizing the challenges companies face in navigating complex regulatory landscapes, Baptiste launched DiploAI to streamline the discovery, analysis, and distribution of critical legal and regulatory changes, empowering organizations to stay ahead of compliance requirements with unmatched efficiency. As CEO, Baptiste is dedicated to transforming regulatory risk management through advanced AI and real-time analytics. DiploAI has become a trusted partner for businesses seeking to simplify compliance processes and enhance operational decision-making.
Baptiste earned his Computer Science degree from MIT and further enriched his expertise by studying Public Policy at Oxford, seamlessly bridging technical innovation with regulatory insight. Prior to founding DiploAI, he worked at organizations such as McKinsey, Microsoft, Facebook, and JP Morgan. Baptiste is based in New York.
Co-Founder & CEO, Fluent Metal
Peter Schmitt, PhD, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fluent Metal, a startup developing an innovative metal deposition technology designed to expand the possibilities of manufacturing with metals. Prior to Fluent Metal, Peter was the first employee and Chief Designer at Desktop Metal, a leading company in metal 3D printing. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and brings over 15 years of experience in additive manufacturing, encompassing prototyping, product development, and scaling technologies for diverse applications. Peter also holds several patents in the field.
Co-Founder & CEO, BlueShift
Deep Patel is the Co-Founder & CEO at BlueShift, a venture-backed mining processor building electrochemical systems to unlock resilient, cost-effective, scalable critical mineral supply chains and carbon removal. They are integrating technology from Harvard, Michigan, & ARPA-E and recently raised a $2.1M pre-seed round. Deep left his nuclear engineering PhD program at the University of Michigan to join Amazon as a Senior Technical Product Manager. He went on to lead Amazon Lab126’s large-scale DAC business before founding BlueShift.
Chief Operating Officer (COO), The Surpluss
Khalisah Stevens is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at The Surpluss, a multi-award-winning, certified B-Corp climate-tech company that helps businesses unlock hidden value by trading their excess resources — materials, assets, and space — through a US-patented, AI-powered platform.
Khalisah acts as the strategic project manager and one of the commercial faces of The Surpluss. She also spearheads The Surpluss business operations in Malaysia.
She brings extensive experience from Dubai’s tech startup scene (Namshi.com, Seera Group, web team at Dubai Economy and Tourism) and has a proven track record of supporting global clients in sustainable tourism, notably managing sustainability assessments for major Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) in Europe and Asia. She has delivered a TEDx talk on aligning destinations with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and excels in project management, sustainability standards, and stakeholder engagement. Khalisah holds a Master's in Sustainable Tourism and Natural Resource Management from EAE Business School in Barcelona and is based in the UAE.
Founder, Lab0
David McCalib has spent his career at the intersection of engineering, product innovation, and business leadership, consistently turning ambitious ideas into scalable, market-shaping realities. An MIT-trained engineer and prolific inventor, he holds more than 20 patents across robotics, advanced manufacturing, AR/VR, medical devices, and logistics automation.
McCalib first made his mark inside some of the world’s most innovative companies. At Amazon, he led the development of machine-learning–powered inspection systems (VBI) that transformed robotic fulfillment accuracy, drove RFID/IoT adoption across the supply chain, and helped scale global programs in Amazon Fulfillment. Most notably, he played a pivotal role in Amazon’s integration of Kiva Robotics in 2013, a move that became the backbone of the company’s automated fulfillment network. These experiences not only honed his leadership of global engineering teams but also gave him a front-row seat in scaling technologies that reshaped entire industries.
Today, McCalib is the founder of Lab0. There, McCalib has spearheaded the development of RoboFlow, an Dual arm industrial humanoid system that fully automates inbound warehouse operations—from container unloading to sorting and palletizing. Already adopted by a $30 billion retailer and a major global package delivery company, RoboFlow’s patented dual-arm robotics and AI-driven vision system, Percept0, represents the next evolution of supply chain automation. Lab0 Operates out of Washington State and Genoa, Italy.
Co-Founder & CEO/CTO, American Boronite Corporation
Dr. Pavel Bystricky is a leading global expert in advanced materials with in-depth knowledge of nanotube-based nanotechnology, composites, metals, and smart materials. He is founder and CEO/CTO of American Boronite Corporation, where he has raised over $14mn in contracts to fund development of nanotube-based materials and applications. Together with a talented team of PhDs, engineers, and technicians, Dr. Bystricky has developed state-of-the-art automated production systems for nanotube fabrics and continuous nanotube fibers. The Boronite team belongs to a select group of researchers and companies working on the synthesis and characterization of carbon and boron nitride nanotubes and their structural, mechanical, and electrical properties.
Over his career, Dr. Bystricky founded the startup Mat-IQ, directed and worked in advanced materials R&D at multiple corporations, and researched advanced materials in academia. Prior to Boronite, he held the position of Director of Advanced Materials at KaZaK Composites where he technically managed over $10mn in development contracts for advanced composite manufacturing. He was also a research scientist at École des Mines and Électricité de France (EDF), where he developed a general quantitative model of stress corrosion cracking in nuclear power plant cooling systems, and at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, where he designed a water purification system for a neutrino detector. Dr. Bystricky earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT and holds 9 composites and nanomaterials-related patents. He has presented his work at numerous conferences around the world, including at the Twenty-Fourth International Conference on the Science and Applications of Nanotubes and Low-Dimensional Materials, which took place at MIT in June 2024.
Co-Founder & CEO, Zifino
Sanjay Manandhar is a Cambridge, MA-based tech entrepreneur who brought the Internet to Nepal in 1994, where he remains actively involved in entrepreneurship and promotion of the arts.
Currently, Sanjay is CEO and co-founder of Zifino (zifino.com), a cybersecurity company that uses AI to assess, prioritize, and offer remediation guidance for cybersecurity vulnerabilities in an increasingly diffused and expanding attack surface. Prior to Zifino, Sanjay co-founded and was CEO of Wicket (wicketsoft.com), a computer vision company for opt-in-based facial biometrics for access control, payments, and ticketing.
Sanjay was founder and CEO of Aerva (aerva.com), a enterprise software platform that managed content on 10,000 digital displays in 6 countries, for advertising, employee communications or entertainment, from Times Square billboards to thousands of Anheuser-Busch 7-foot digital cooler doors, displays in 33+ US Naval bases, universities, convention centers, airports and transit hubs. Sanjay founded, grew, and sold Aerva in 2015 without raising any outside capital.
From 1996 to 1999, Sanjay picked technology stocks in London for a fund with GBP 12 billion under management. Sanjay’s early career as a software engineer was at Sun Microsystems and Olivetti in Silicon Valley, NYNEX and Siemens in Cambridge, MA, USA.
Sanjay has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and Master’s from MIT Media Lab, and an MBA from INSEAD. He holds four patents in computer vision and one patent in a content management system.
Sanjay serves on the Advancement Committee of UWC in New Mexico and is also an avid mountain biker and a trekker in the Himalayas and around the world.
Director, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Dr. Melissa G. Choi is the director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a multidisciplinary federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) run by MIT for the Department of Defense. As director, she is responsible for the Laboratory's strategic direction and overall technical and administrative operations.
The Laboratory focuses on advanced technology development and system prototyping for national security needs. Laboratory-sponsored programs include work for the military services and other government agencies, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Prior to her appointment as director in 2024, Choi served as an assistant director of the Laboratory from 2019 to 2024, with oversight of five of the Laboratory’s nine technical divisions as well as its Air Force–sponsored programs. Choi served for six years on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, with a term as vice chair. She contributed strategic leadership to the expansion of the Laboratory’s civil space portfolio through the formation of a new Civil Space Systems and Technology Office. In 2023, she was appointed a member of the National Defense Science Board’s Permanent Subcommittee on Threat Reduction.
She previously led the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division, which supports the nation’s security by innovating technology and architectures to help prevent terrorist attacks within the United States and to facilitate recovery from either man-made or natural disasters through sensor development, architecture studies, and prototypes for disaster response.
Before leading the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division, she was appointed an assistant head of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Tactical Systems Division after serving as the leader of the Active Optical Systems Group.
Choi joined Lincoln Laboratory in 1999 as a member of the technical staff in the Advanced System Concepts Group, where she focused on systems analysis for ISR and tactical applications related to surface surveillance. Her work included mission analyses at scales ranging from small team operations to theater conflicts against peer competitors, and sensor projects ranging from unattended ground sensors and small unmanned aerial vehicles to large aircraft and constellations of space-based assets. In 2006, she became an assistant leader of the group before transitioning to become an assistant leader and then the leader of the Systems and Analysis Group, which provides technical analysis to U.S. Air Force leadership on air vehicle survivability and the potential capabilities and limitations of ISR and tactical systems. In this role, she led new analysis and test efforts focused on U.S. platform, payload, and electronic attack options.
Choi completed her undergraduate work at Ithaca College, majoring in mathematics. She received a PhD degree in applied mathematics from North Carolina State University, where she modeled radio-frequency bonding of adhesives in composites for use in the automotive industry.
Commercial innovation is a key component of U.S. national security strategy, but the specialized needs of national security often make harnessing this innovation difficult. As the Department of Defense’s largest Federally Funded Research and Development Center, MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory's mission is to close this gap and spark disruptive solutions. This talk will highlight how Lincoln Laboratory 1) works with the DoD to analyze its most pressing problems; 2) develops advanced technology or harnesses commercial capabilities to make new solutions possible; 3) creates prototypes to validate solutions or address urgent needs; and 4) efficiently transitions prototypes to the private sector for commercial development. These four overlapping capabilities are the fundamental building blocks of the Laboratory’s innovation engine for national security. We will feature examples of significant technologies that have moved out of the lab and into the military and marketplace for real-world impact.
Professor, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
The classical approach to AI was to design systems that were rational at run-time: they had explicit representations of beliefs, goals, and plans, and ran inference algorithms online to select actions. More recently, relatively unstructured, data-driven end-to-end approaches have achieved great success across a wide range of domains and have begun to seem like a plausible path to general-purpose intelligent robots. However, we are now seeing the limits of pure behavior learning, and many practitioners are reintegrating forms of search and explicit reasoning into their approaches.
Leslie Kaelbling will revisit the rational-agent approach to designing intelligent robots from the perspectives of engineering effort, computational efficiency, cognitive modeling, and interpretability. She will present current research aimed at understanding the role of learning in runtime-rational agents, with the ultimate goal of constructing general-purpose, human-level intelligent robots.
Editor at Large, MIT Technology Review
David Rotman is the Editor at Large at MIT Technology Review. A science and business journalist, he has written extensively on the economic and social impacts of emerging technologies. He joined MIT Technology Review in January 1998 as a senior editor covering nanotechnology. From 2005 to 2018, he was the Editor of MIT Tech Review, supervising the online and print editorial. Since becoming Editor at Large, he has spent most of his time reporting and writing about how artificial intelligence and other advanced digital tools are changing the economy and how we work, including their impact on R&D and innovation.
Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
Yasheng Huang is a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School and also holds the Epoch Foundation (时代基金会）Professorship of Global Economics and Management. From 2013 to 2017, he served as an Associate Dean in charge of MIT Sloan’s Global Partnership programs and its Action Learning initiatives. His previous appointments include faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School.
Huang is the author of 11 books in both English and Chinese and of many academic papers (such as on regulatory transparency, historical autocracy, statistical falsifications, tax, financing, sectoral and regulatory biases, history of reforms and strategy, political economy of controls, etc.) His book, The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline, will be published in paperback by Yale University Press in 2025. The book was a 2023 Best Book of the Year by Foreign Affairs magazine. He is collaborating with other scholars on a book project, Reframing the Needham Question, based on a comprehensive database of Chinese historical inventions (under contract with Princeton University Press). His book, Statism with Chinese Characteristics (under contract at Cambridge University Press), examines economic reforms and economic performance of China since 1978. Huang was a co-principal investigator in a large-scale multi-disciplinary research project on food safety in China.
Outside of his academic research, Huang has written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, Caixin, and Caijing. He is working on several policy projects related to US-China relations. He was one of the coauthors of MIT’s report, “University Engagement with China: An MIT Approach,” and he is a co-chair of an implementation committee of that report. He is a member of a task force at Asia Society on US-China policy and a member of the Brookings-CSIS Advisory Council on Advancing US-China collaboration. During 2023-4, he is a visiting fellow at the Kissinger Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
Huang founded and runs China Lab, ASEAN Lab, and India Lab, which have provided low-cost consulting services to hundreds of small and medium enterprises in these countries. From 2015 to 2018, he ran a program in Yunnan province to train women entrepreneurs (funded by Goldman Sachs Foundation). He has held or received prestigious fellowships such as the National Fellowship at Stanford University and the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Fellowship. The National Asia Research Program named him one of the most outstanding scholars in the United States, conducting research on issues of policy importance to the United States. He has served as a consultant at the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the OECD, and serves on advisory and corporate boards of non-profit and for-profit organizations. He is a founding member and serves as the president of the Asian American Scholar Forum, an NGO dedicated to open science, protection of rights, and the well-being of Asian American scholars.
Director, MIT Materials Systems Laboratory (MSL)
Rich Roth is the director of the Materials Systems Laboratory, a research group at MIT that studies the strategic implications of materials and materials processing choices. Our research seeks to understand the competitive position of materials in specific applications, such as assessment of different candidate materials, assessment of process technologies, and evaluation of both the economic and non-economic consequences of each alternative. We also evaluate the promise and limits of materials, processes and designs; identify specific areas of improvement for each alternative that will improve its competitiveness; and determine the “best case” scenario for each option.
Fellow & Managing Director, Analog Garage at Analog Devices Inc.
As Managing Director of the Analog Garage at Analog Devices (ADI), Gina Aquilano leads an advanced R&D organization that pioneers breakthrough technology to unlock new revenue streams for long-term growth. The Garage focuses on high-risk / high-reward impactful initiatives that are aligned with megatrends ripe for technological change, such as: Health of Human, Health of Planet, and Autonomy & Intelligence.
In addition to her role leading the Analog Garage, Gina is part of the Technology Strategy Board at ADI that works closely with the Executive Leadership team and Business Leaders to define and test our technology strategy. Gina also sits on the Investment Committee and Advisory board for ADVentures, ADI's new corporate venture capital fund.
Gina joined ADI as a new college graduate with a background in communications systems. Over her career, she has worked in numerous roles, including product engineer, system architect, and team leader of advanced technology teams. Gina became an ADI Fellow in 2022 for her system leadership and innovations on the wireless Battery Management System.
Gina holds a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a MSEE from Tufts University. She also completed the MIT System Design & Management program in 2017 and MIT’s Enterprise Leadership program in 2021.
CTO & Co-Founder, Phoenix Tailings
Dr. Tomás Villalón Jr. is a materials scientist and engineer, currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Phoenix Tailings, where he has played a pivotal role in developing innovative technologies for extracting value from mining tailings in an economically sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Previously, at Digital Alloys, Dr. Villalón contributed to research in additive manufacturing, leading projects on novel microstructures and thermophysical properties. Holding a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Boston University and a BSc from MIT, his academic journey includes research on electrochemical refinement of reactive metal oxides into pure metals. Dr. Villalón's multifaceted expertise, coupled with his leadership roles and academic achievements, underscores his desire to impact the realms of materials engineering and metals processing.
Rapid and unpredictable shifts in geopolitics, especially those affecting supply, are changing how we invent and innovate. It is critical in making decisions about tomorrow's technologies that we understand these changes, including how they are making many key resources scarce. The panel will explore some of the most important geopolitical trends underway today and how they are affecting innovation, manufacturing, supply chains, and corporate strategy. The panel's experts will discuss if and how companies can survive and thrive in a time of geopolitical uncertainties and the scarcities in resources that often come with those uncertainties.
Executive Director, MIT Technology Licensing Office
Lesley Millar-Nicholson is the Executive Director of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office (TLO) and was part of the Founding Leadership team of MIT Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer (OSATT) formed in 2019. As TLO Executive Director, she leads a team of technology transfer professionals. Together, they manage MIT’s intellectual assets and technology transfer process involving over 11,000 unique pending and issued US and foreign patents, and hundreds of copyright and open source assets. The team engages broadly with stakeholders to facilitate engagements leading to licenses for qualified third parties to deliver on the TLO mission to have impact through technology commercialization.
Prior to arriving in Cambridge Ms. Millar-Nicholson had served for ten years as Director of the Office of Technology Management (OTM) at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.
Ms. Millar-Nicholson is a past President Board of Governors of Certified Licensing Professionals Inc, a member of AUTM and the Licensing Executive Society, and a past Board Member of Cambridge Enterprise, UK. A native of Scotland, Ms. Millar-Nicholson has a B.Ed., M.Ed., MBA and is a Certified Licensing Professional.
Reflecting on the MIT’s TLO activities and engagement over the past years, the Executive Director will provide insights and anecdotes about how technology transfer offices, supporting some of the world’s great research institutions, actually work. The high points and low points, the successes and stressors, the fiction and the reality. You will walk away we hope with some useful facts and information to help understand the role of academic institutions in the creation of new ideas/inventions and their practical translation into products/services and new industries.
Executive Editor, MIT Technology Review
Amy Nordrum is an executive editor at MIT Technology Review. She produces the publication’s annual lists of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, and 35 Innovators Under 35. Amy previously worked as news manager for IEEE Spectrum. For six years, she was a regular contributor to the popular radio show Science Friday. Amy has a master’s degree in Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting from New York University and an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Artificial intelligence is a core topic of coverage for the newsroom at MIT Technology Review, and the journalists who work there are always looking ahead to what’s coming next. That’s especially challenging for the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence, where it can be particularly difficult to distinguish hype from reality. Executive editor Amy Nordrum will share the major developments and recent advances that the newsroom is watching closely, touching on topics like generative search, AI agents, AI in gaming, small language models, AI companions, and more. Consider this your primer on which areas of AI are most important to know about and worth watching in the months ahead.
Explore how groundbreaking science and technology translate into market-ready solutions and drive corporate growth. Learn to identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities, understand pathways to commercialization and innovation strategies, and see how your company can benefit from university-industry partnerships through real-world examples. Walk away with actionable insights to drive progress and growth within your organization.
Catarina has been working with the Cambridge/Boston startup ecosystem for over 10 years and joined Corporate Relations with a solid network in the innovation and entrepreneurial community. Prior to MIT, she was part of the team that designed and launched the startup accelerator IUL MIT Portugal, which was later rebranded as Building Global Innovators. She was based in Lisbon and worked in direct relation with the Cambridge team. She held positions including Operations Coordinator, Program Manager, and Business Developer. The accelerator soon achieved steady growth in large part due to the partnerships that Catarina led with regional and global startup ecosystems. After that, she worked at NECEC, leading a program that connects cleantech startups and industry. In this role, she developed and built a pipeline of startups and forged strong relationships with both domestic and European companies. She has also held positions in Portugal and France, including at Saboaria e Perfumaria Confiança and L’Oréal as Technical Director and Pharmacist. Catarina earned her bachelor's in chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences in Portugal. She went on to earn her Master of Engineering for Health and Medicines in France.
Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Paul Cheek is a serial tech entrepreneur, entrepreneurship educator, software engineer, author, and patented inventor. He is the Executive Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship: Startup Tactics. Paul was MIT’s first Hacker in Residence and has since taught, mentored, and advised thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. Paul was named to Forbes 30 Under 30, the definitive list of young people changing the world. Paul is a co-founder of Oceanworks, a for-profit company with a mission to end plastic pollution, and previously co-founded Work Today, a venture-backed digital staffing and recruiting company. Paul advises startups and both speaks and consults with Fortune 500 companies and universities globally to advance entrepreneurship.
This session unveils the rise of artificial-intelligence-driven enterprises (AIDEs) that fuse the global ambition of innovation-driven startups with the lean efficiency of SMEs. We’ll examine how founders wield generative AI across R&D, go-to-market, and operations to slash innovation debt, reach $100M+ ARR with <50 people, and open pathways for regions with limited venture capital to compete globally. Attendees will leave with a framework for building, funding, and scaling their own AIDE internal ventures—and insights into what this shift means for talent, policy, and the future of corporate R&D.
General Partner, The Engine Ventures
As a General Partner, Michael spends his time working to accelerate the deployment of new technologies to solve some of the world's greatest challenges, with a particular focus on Climate Change mitigation. He serves as a Board Member for Addis Energy, AtmosZero, Blue Energy, Mantel, Osmoses, Pascal, Sora Fuel, and VEIR, and as a Board Observer for Copernic and Terragia.
Michael's career spans the intersection of finance, research and entrepreneurship. Michael began on the entrepreneurship side, helping launch Ambri, a grid-scale energy storage startup where he led market and business development efforts in the early days of the energy storage industry, working with customers in electric power across the United States.
Michael joined Engine Ventures after a stint in academia, as the Executive Director of the MIT Roosevelt Project, an interdisciplinary project on energy transition pathways to accelerate progress toward a clean energy economy. Michael's research areas focused on energy and innovation economics and policy and entrepreneurial strategy and has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Research Policy, Strategy Science, National Bureau of Economic Research Innovation Policy and the Economy, and the New England Journal of Medicine, among others.
From Innovation to Impact: Entrepreneurship in 2025. Michael Kearney, General Partner of Engine Ventures, will discuss progress in the MIT innovation ecosystem since the inception of the Engine system in 2017, how the innovative landscape has evolved during that time, and how entrepreneurs and investors are managing through today's economic uncertainties.
Cook Career Development Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT
Ariel L. Furst is the Cook Career Development Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her lab combines biological, chemical, and materials engineering to solve challenges in human health and environmental sustainability. They develop technologies for implementation in low-resource settings to ensure equitable access to technology. She completed her Ph.D. in the lab of Prof. Jacqueline K. Barton at the California Institute of Technology, developing new cancer diagnostic strategies based on DNA charge transport. She was an A. O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Matthew Francis at UC, Berkeley, developing sensors to monitor environmental pollutants. She is the recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and the Sloan Fellowship. She is the cofounder of three startups: Seia Bio, Helix Carbon, and Ouroloop. She is passionate about STEM outreach and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.
Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Venturing, Idemitsu Americas Holdings Corporation
Kei Honda is the SVP and the Head of Corporate Venturing at Idemitsu Americas Holdings. With his more than 20 years of extensive experience in the energy industry, he leads open innovation and corporate venturing activities for Idemitsu Group, focusing on investments and business engagements with startups, investors, and corporates in the United States. The key focus areas are energy transition, circular economy, and carbon offset solutions. He holds a Bachelor’s in Social Relations from Rikkyo University and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine.
How can cutting-edge university research make its way into real-world applications? What does it take to build partnerships that go beyond traditional industry-academic relationships? In this fireside chat, MIT’s Furst Lab and Idemitsu, a leading global company and ILP member, share insights from their ongoing collaboration, as well as broader principles that apply across sectors. This session offers a candid look at how structured partnerships can accelerate technology translation, de-risk innovation, and create meaningful pathways from lab to market. Learn how forward-thinking collaborations can lay the foundation for new ventures co-developed with industry partners.
Global electricity demand is projected to nearly double by 2050, driven by the rapid electrification of buildings, transportation, and manufacturing. Compounding this pressure is the exponential growth of AI. While AI offers transformative potential across industries, it is also emerging as a significant energy consumer. Data centers, the digital engines powering AI, have more than doubled their electricity consumption since 2018 and now account for 4.4% of global demand. In the U.S., they are expected to consume up to 12% of total electricity by 2028.
This track will explore how the world can meet rising energy needs through the rapid expansion of sustainable energy production. From fusion and next-generation nuclear to renewables, grid-scale storage, decentralized systems, and forward-looking policies, we will examine the innovations and frameworks critical to building a resilient, low-carbon energy future. Addressing this challenge will require a bold vision, accelerated technological advancement, and unprecedented global collaboration.
Klaus Schleicher joined the Office of Corporate Relations in 2013. He has a Global Operations and Technology background that has delivered rapid profitable growth in the imaging systems, speech recognition, IT security and consulting, digital printing & media industries. He has executive experience in Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Strategy and Business Development and has held senior positions at Universal Wilde, Presstek Inc., Consul Risk Management B.V. (IBM), Lernout & Hauspie (Nuance), Agfa (Bayer Corp.) and Honeywell Inc. He holds a Master Degree in Computer Science and Engineering, from the Technical University of Giessen in Germany.
Principal Research Scientist, MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Dr. Charles Forsberg directed the MIT Nuclear Fuel Cycle Study and is the principal investigator for the MIT Fluoride Salt-Cooled High-Temperature Reactor Project to build a salt loop at the MIT reactor. Before joining MIT, he was a Corporate Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Forsberg received the 2002 ANS Special Award for Innovative Nuclear Reactors (Fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactors and PIUS-BWR), and in 2005, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Robert E. Wilson Award in recognition of chemical engineering contributions to nuclear energy, including his work on reprocessing, waste management, repositories, and production of liquid fuels using nuclear energy. He received the 2014 Seaborg Award from the ANS for advancements in nuclear energy. He was recently a Director of the American Nuclear Society (2019-2022). Dr. Forsberg holds 12 patents and has published more than 300 papers. Two of his technologies are now being commercialized by startup companies.
Building on Principal Research Scientist Charles Forsberg’s research in advanced reactors and high-temperature energy systems, this talk highlights base-load nuclear reactors replacing the gas turbine to provide dispatchable electricity and heat to industry. There are two strategies. The first strategy stores heat from the reactor when low demand for dispatchable heat to industry or dispatchable electricity. Heat storage may exceed 200 hours. The second strategy converts low-price electricity into high-temperature (1700 °C) heat stored in firebrick. Air flows through the firebrick to provide hot air to industry or thermodynamic topping cycles for nuclear reactors, so that peak power is more than twice the base-load electricity output. Both options are enabled by recent inventions and developments.
Deputy Director, MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy Senior Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative
Dr. Sergey Paltsev is a Deputy Director of the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy and a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.
He is the lead modeler in charge of the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model of the world economy. His research covers a wide range of topics, including energy economics, climate policy, taxation, advanced energy technologies, and international trade. Sergey is an Advisory Board Member for the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Consortium and a Member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC). Dr. Paltsev is an author of more than 140 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and books.
Sergey Paltsev is a recipient of the 2012 Pyke Johnson Award (by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, USA, for the best paper in the area of planning and environment), the Best Policy Analysis Paper of 2012 by Environmental Science and Technology Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Best 2004 Research Award by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Japan. Sergey was a Lead Author of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Earlier at MIT, Dr. Paltsev was a Director of the Energy-at-Scale Center and a Deputy Director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which, together with the MIT Center for Global Change Science, was succeeded by the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy to produce leading-edge research to help guide societal transitions toward a more sustainable future.
Before joining MIT in 2002, Sergey Paltsev worked as a Consultant for International Management and Communication Corporation and The World Bank, and as an Executive Director of the Program in Economics and Management of Technology at Belarusian State University. He received a Diploma in Radiophysics and Electronics from Belarusian State University and a PhD in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Sergey Paltsev will explore the future of sustainable energy in a “power-hungry” world, focusing on the interplay between global energy systems, economic forces, and climate policy. Drawing on integrated global economic modeling, his talk will examine pathways for decarbonization, technology deployment, and policy interventions that can balance energy demand, environmental constraints, and economic growth. Attendees will gain insights into how strategic decisions at the intersection of technology, policy, and economics can shape a sustainable energy future.
Professor, MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
A recognized leader in fusion research, especially in the magnetic confinement of plasmas, Whyte has paved an innovative and faster path to producing fusion energy. He leads the fusion project, SPARC — a compact, high-field, net fusion energy fusion device — in collaboration with private fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). The core of the SPARC project was formed over eight years ago during a design course led by Whyte to challenge assumptions in fusion. Many of the ideas underpinning the high-field approach — including the use of HTS for high-field, demountable magnets, liquid blankets, and ARC (a fusion power plant concept) — have been conceived of or significantly advanced in his design courses. Whyte has over 300 publications, is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and has served on panels for the National Academies, the United States government, and the Royal Society. In 2018, Whyte received The Fusion Power Associates (FPA) Board of Directors Leadership Award, which is given annually to individuals who have shown outstanding leadership qualities in accelerating the development of fusion. Whyte earned a BS from the University of Saskatchewan, and an MS and PhD from Université du Québec.
In this dynamic talk, Prof. Dennis Whyte, MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, presents a compelling vision for fusion energy as the transformative solution to global energy and climate challenges. He explains how fusion—mimicking the power of stars—offers a carbon-free, virtually limitless, and safe energy source that can scale globally. Prof. Whyte highlights recent breakthroughs at MIT, including the development of high-temperature superconducting magnets that drastically reduce the size and cost of fusion reactors. These innovations have led to the creation of SPARC, a compact fusion experiment, and the spinout of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, aimed at commercializing fusion by the early 2030s. Emphasizing fusion's potential to decarbonize not just electricity, but also heavy industry and fuel production, Whyte outlines a clear, science-driven pathway to realizing practical, scalable fusion power within this decade.
This session explores the transformative dynamics of the New Space era, where commercial innovation, rapid development cycles, and expanded access to space are redefining what’s possible. Presenters will highlight emerging technologies, novel mission approaches, and cross-sector collaborations driving this shift. Topics may include advances in Earth observation and sensing, the proliferation of small satellite platforms, and research in space physiology to support human spaceflight. Whether technological, scientific, or entrepreneurial, these developments exemplify how New Space is reshaping the space ecosystem and opening new frontiers for exploration, application, and impact.
Program Director, MIT Industrial Liaison Program
Mr. David Martin joined Corporate Relations on August 15, 2018, as Program Director for the ILP. Over time, Martin will take on more ILP members in the Middle East. Martin comes to OCR with deep and broad knowledge and expertise in program management, innovation, commercial and government contracting, and strategic planning. In his most recent position at Altran (Burlington, MA) as the VP Programs, Dave had many major accomplishments, including leading an innovation team to develop new technology in the beverage-filling industry and managing client-facing relations supporting sales and execution of projects. Before that, he was at Windmill International as VP, Product Development, R&D. There, he spearheaded the move into new markets for an innovative satellite communications product, including through the SBIR program, where he secured funding and sponsorship. Martin also leveraged other government programs, collaborating with the DoD and congressional contacts. He began his career in the US Air Force as an Active Duty Captain and served for 10 years as an Acquisition Manager, Scientist, Test Director, and finally as Executive Officer in the Executive Office for Command, Control, and Communications Systems in the Pentagon. Martin also served in the US Air Force Reserve before joining Windmill. Mr. Martin earned his B.S., Physics from MIT and his M.S., Systems Management from the University of Denver. He also earned a Certificate in Information Systems at the University of Denver.
Associate Department Head, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets
Olivier de Weck is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is the Associate Department Head of Aero Astro. His research is in Systems Engineering with a focus on how complex technological systems are designed and how they evolve over time. He is a Fellow of INCOSE and AIAA and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. His textbook “Technology Roadmapping and Development” received a most promising textbook of 2024 award.
The new space economy is currently experiencing a rapid expansion, with a compound annual growth rate estimated between 7% and 11%. This significant growth encompasses an increasing number of launches, with projections indicating daily launches to space by 2027, as well as a substantial rise in the number of operational satellites. This presentation will provide an overview of the new space economy and elaborate on its co-existence with the traditional government-driven space enterprise. One of the direct consequences of this growth is an increase in the resident space object (RSO) population, underscoring the critical need for enhanced and improved Space Situational Awareness. We will demonstrate how the integration of ground-based radar and optical observations with on-orbit optical sensing can lead to more effective decision-making for collision avoidance maneuvers and other crucial operational considerations.
Boeing Assistant Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Daniel Varon is an atmospheric scientist specializing in greenhouse gases, air pollution, and satellite remote sensing. His work focuses on using satellite observations of atmospheric composition to better understand human impacts on the environment and identify opportunities to mitigate them. A major focus of his research has been quantifying atmospheric methane emissions and trends across a range of scales. More recently, he has begun investigating new methods for observing nitrogen oxide air pollution from space.
He received his PhD in atmospheric chemistry from Harvard University in 2020, along with an MSc in applied mathematics. He continued as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard and held a visiting postdoctoral fellowship at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs from 2021 to 2023.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas emitted from a wide range of human activities including oil and gas production, coal mining, waste management, and agriculture. Satellites have unique capabilities to quantify and attribute methane emissions worldwide. In this talk, I will discuss recent advances in satellite remote sensing of methane emissions, including targeted observation of individual point sources, global mapping of large emitters with land-imaging satellites, real-time tracking of extreme releases from geostationary orbit, and continuous monitoring of total regional emissions from oil and gas fields.
Sheila Evans Widnall (1960) Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Kerri L. Cahoy, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, received her B.S. (2000) in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and her M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. (2008) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, working with the Radio Science Team on Mars Global Surveyor. From 2006 to 2008, she was a Senior Payload and Communication Sciences Engineer at Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto, CA. From 2008 to 2010, Dr. Cahoy was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in Exoplanet Exploration at NASA Ames Research Center. From 2010 to 2011, she was a Radio Science research scientist on the MIT Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar mission team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Prof. Cahoy currently holds the Rockwell International Career Development Chair.
Growing satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit are taking advantage of the lower cost of launch and commercial electronics and components. They leverage intersatellite connectivity and increased onboard compute capability to improve communications and Earth observations. We discuss overcoming the challenges of the space environment and enabling technologies for the future, such as laser communications, dynamic tasking algorithms, direct to cellular, and in-space robotic assembly.
The next wave of innovation is being shaped by AI systems that don’t just respond; they act. From agentic AI that collaborates and makes decisions autonomously to decentralized architectures that push intelligence to the edge, MIT researchers are leading the charge. They are reimagining how organizations secure, interpret, and operationalize data.
This track brings together thought leaders from across MIT to explore the strategic, organizational, and human implications of AI at scale. Topics will include quantum-safe infrastructure, explainable AI, cyber-physical resilience, agent-based platforms, and the role of trust, transparency, and ethics in intelligent systems.
For enterprises navigating an era defined by autonomy, agility, and risk, this track connects frontier research with real-world impact.
Before MIT, Jim was the assistant dean of research business development at the UMass Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences. Jim founded, built, and sold multiple technology companies in fintech and online media. He has bootstrapped startups and closed venture capital, angel, and private equity funding rounds. Jim also served as the Chief Operating Officer of a public company and a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes. He began his career at AT&T as a software developer, hardware engineer, and national account manager. Jim has authored patents and wrote one of the first books on Java programming. Out of all the roles he's held, Jim's favorite job title by far is dedicated dad of four. He earned a BS from Manhattan College and an MBA with concentrations in finance and international business from New York University.
Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab
Ramesh Raskar is an Associate Professor at MIT Media Lab and directs the Camera Culture research group. His focus is on Machine Learning and Imaging for health and sustainability. They span research in physical (e.g., sensors, health-tech), digital (e.g., automated and privacy-aware machine learning), and global (e.g., geomaps, autonomous mobility) domains.
At MIT, his co-inventions include a camera to see around corners, femto-photography, automated machine learning (auto-ML), private ML (split-learning), low-cost eye care devices (Netra, Catra, EyeSelfie), a novel CAT-Scan machine, motion capture (Prakash), long-distance barcodes (Bokode), 3D interaction displays (BiDi screen), new theoretical models to augment light fields (ALF) to represent wave phenomena, and algebraic rank constraints for 3D displays(HR3D).
In his recent role at Facebook, he launched and led innovation teams in Digital Health, Health-tech, Satellite Imaging, TV, and Bluetooth bandwidth for Connectivity, VR/AR, and the 'Emerging Worlds' initiative for FB.
Before MIT, he co-invented techniques for AR, Computational Photography, Shader Lamps (projector-AR), composite RFID (RFIG), a multi-flash non-photorealistic camera for depth edge detection, and quadric transfer methods for multi-projector curved displays.
He received the Lemelson Award 2016 and ACM SIGGRAPH Achievement Award 2017, Technology Review TR100 award 2004 (which recognizes top young innovators under the age of 35), Global Indus Technovator Award (top 20 Indian technology innovators worldwide) 2003, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship award 2009, and DARPA Young Faculty award 2010. Other awards include the Marr Prize honorable mention 2009, LAUNCH Health Innovation Award, presented by NASA, USAID, US State Dept+ NIKE, 2010, and the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Award (first place) 2011.
His work has appeared in NYTimes, CNN, BBC, NewScientist, TechnologyReview and several technology news websites.
His invited and keynote talks include TED, Wired, TEDMED, DARPA Wait What, MIT Technology Review, Google SolveForX, and several TEDx venues.
His co-authored books include Spatial Augmented Reality, Computational Photography, and 3D Imaging (under preparation).
He has worked on special research projects at Google [X], Facebook, Apple, and co-founded/advised several startups. He launched REDX.io, a platform for young innovators to explore AI-for-Impact. He frequently consults for dynamic organizations to conduct 'SpotProbing' exercises to spot opportunities and probe solutions.
The Agentic Web holds transformative promise for the democratization of AI, serve as antidote to AGI and unlock trillions of dollars of economic benefits. But it faces threats of fragmentation and centralization as the Internet of AI Agents evolves. Universal interoperability, permissionless innovation, and user sovereignty over data and agents will require transparent protocols and rapid advances to reconcile the needs of a diverse field.
Networked AI Agents in Decentralized Architecture (NANDA) at MIT offers a three-phase roadmap for this emerging landscape. Phase 1 establishes foundation elements—secure agent identity, discovery indices, and interoperability—via open protocols designed to support trust and accountable governance. Phase 2 introduces economic structures such as knowledge pricing, decentralized marketplaces, and reputation-based transactions, enabling agents to coordinate and exchange value at scale. Phase 3 aims for the emergence of agent societies, fostering large-scale co-learning, adaptive population models, and collaborative networks to tackle complex real-world tasks.
This framework is informed by academic work from the Raskar Lab, including algorithmic advances in Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) tailored for distributed health data, split learning for privacy-preserving model training, formal methods for dynamic knowledge valuation, and techniques for co-learning and collaborator selection in decentralized settings. Ensuring the agentic web remains open, safe, and transparent, NANDA’s development builds upon open standards, participatory governance, and research-driven safeguards.
Principal Research Scientist and a Senior Manager, AI Models Science, IBM Research
Dan Gutfreund is a principal investigator at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and a manager of the AI Models Science department. Before he moved to the Cambridge research lab, Gutfreund was at the Haifa Research Lab, where he held several managerial and technical leadership positions. In his last role, Gutfreund was the manager in charge of IBM Project Debater. In 2005, he received a PhD in computer science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Before joining IBM in 2009, he was a postdoctoral fellow and a lecturer at Harvard University and MIT.
Gutfreund’s research interests are in machine learning with applications to natural language processing and computer vision. Previously, he worked on problems in theoretical computer science in the areas of computational complexity and foundations of cryptography.
Generative programming is a paradigm that takes decades of theoretical research and practical experience in algorithms and software engineering and applies it to the way we interact with LLMs. Instead of developing prompts by trial and error, which usually results in long and complex prompts, generative programs combine known and well-tested control flows and design patterns, such as divide and conquer, with short, consumable prompts. I will describe Mellea, an open-source library for writing generative programs, replacing brittle prompts with structured, maintainable, robust, and efficient AI workflows. I will then discuss some challenges and proposed solutions for efficiently handling multiple models and LLMs’ internal memory management within a generative program.
As AI becomes increasingly autonomous and decentralized, global enterprises must rethink how intelligence is built, governed, and scaled. This closing discussion brings together corporate, academic, research, and entrepreneurial perspectives to explore practical strategies for integrating agentic and distributed AI systems across complex organizations. Attendees will gain insight into how leading thinkers are addressing questions of trust, transparency, and control, balancing innovation with accountability to create resilient, adaptive, and competitive enterprises in a future defined by intelligent autonomy.
The future of materials science lies in the seamless integration of molecular precision, functional performance, and nanoscale understanding. This session brings together leading MIT researchers whose work spans the full spectrum of advanced materials innovation—from the bottom-up design of molecular architectures to the real-world deployment of materials and the tools that reveal their behavior at the atomic scale.
Dr. Peter Lohse joined the Office of Corporate Relations (OCR) in October 2018 as Program Director.
Lohse comes to OCR with deep and broad knowledge and expertise in the pharma, biotech, and other life sciences-driven industries including agro, nutrition, chemical, and consumer products. As a scientist and entrepreneur, he has an extensive background developing business and managing partnerships with large corporations, early-stage companies, academia, and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Lohse was V.P, Operations and Business Development for InnovaTID Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. Before that, he was a Strategy Consultant for Eutropics Pharmaceuticals, an emerging biotech company in Cambridge.
Prior to this, Dr. Lohse was Director, Scientific Operations & Innovation Program Director for Eli-Lilly’s open innovation platform, InnoCentive, Inc. in Waltham. Earlier in his career, he held positions with increasing responsibility at ArQule of Woburn, Phylos in Lexington, and Novartis Pharma in Switzerland.
Lohse earned his M.S., Chemistry & Applied Sciences and his Ph.D., Organic Chemistry at Federal institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland. He earned his M.B.A., Strategy, Finance, Marketing as a Sloan Fellow at MIT. He also held the position Research Fellow, Molecular Biology at Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (with Professor J. Szostak, Nobel Prize 2009), This was a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship -- In vitro selection of functional RNAs.
Paul M. Cook Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Professor Macfarlane earned a BA in biochemistry at Willamette University in 2004 and an MS in chemistry at Yale University in 2006. In 2013, he earned a PhD in chemistry at Northwestern University, where he developed design rules for the DNA-programmed assembly of nanoparticle superlattices. After finishing his doctorate in 2013, he was awarded the Kavli Nanoscience Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. There, he developed self-assembly and processing methods to synthesize bottlebrush polymer photonic crystals. In 2015, he joined DMSE, where he has merged the assembly techniques he developed to establish novel synthesis, assembly, and processing routes for scalable, compositionally versatile, and hierarchically organized nanocomposites.
A fundamental tenet underlying all materials science is that "structure dictates properties"--thus, better control over material structure enables finer control of material performance. Most materials achieve this control via "top-down" approaches like lithography, molding, or casting, where an external force dictates material form. Such approaches are versatile but often exhibit an intrinsic trade-off between structural complexity and the time and cost of fabrication. Our lab aims to build materials from the bottom up by designing nanoscale building blocks that are pre-programmed to spontaneously organize into complex structures, circumventing the limitations of conventional fabrication approaches. Here we will provide examples of materials with novel optical, chemical, and mechanical properties that are enabled by self-assembly's ability to control material structure across the nano- to macroscopic size regimes.
TDK Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, MIT Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Frances M. Ross is a faculty member at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, USA. She received her B.A. in Physics and Ph.D. in Materials Science from Cambridge University, UK, and along the way became an enthusiast of electron microscopy. She extended her interests to include in situ microscopy during her postdoc at A.T.&T. Bell Laboratories, then as a Staff Scientist at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and finally as a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, before joining MIT. Her research is based on the development of in situ electron microscopy techniques to help understand crystal growth, epitaxy, self-assembly, and electrochemical and other liquid phase processes.
Modern-day transmission electron microscopes show us the position and nature of the individual atoms within a material. But better still, we can record movies that show how atoms are rearranged during chemical reactions. This is especially relevant to energy-related materials, where energy storage is often accompanied by changes in atomic configuration; in microelectronics, where processing must create precisely defined nanostructures; in structural materials such as cement during hydration, and in quantum materials, where the details of atomic structure determine how well a qubit will work. Through these and other examples, I will show how time-resolved electron microscopy helps us develop new materials and optimize the performance of materials we already know.
POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy, MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering Director, MIT Materials Research Laboratory
Professor Tasan is the POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy. He earned his BS and MS in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at METU, Middle East Technical University, in Ankara, Turkey. He carried out his PhD work in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He then moved to Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Germany, where he was appointed first as a postdoc, and then as a group leader. He joined DMSE as a faculty member in 2016 and was granted tenure in 2022.
Metal design is key in solving engineering problems across numerous sectors that rely on material performance. Our group develops novel methods to observe metal microstructures at work. Based on these unique insights, we identify new design concepts for steels, titanium alloys, high entropy alloys, and beyond. In this talk, several case studies will be presented to demonstrate the strength of this approach in solving various industrial problems.
Life sciences are no longer confined to the realm of biology—they have evolved into a multidisciplinary frontier. This session examines the dynamic intersection of biology, engineering, and computational science, where bold ideas give rise to transformative innovation. By integrating AI, advanced technologies, and foundational biological research, the session will highlight how cross-disciplinary collaboration accelerates the path from scientific discovery to real-world application at MIT. Emphasizing the translation of visionary research into impactful solutions, this track invites participants to reimagine what becomes possible when disciplines converge to shape the future.
Program Director, MIT Corporate Relations
Dr. Najung “Natalie” Kim is a Program Director at the MIT Industrial Liaison Program. She brings to the Office of Corporate Relations (OCR) expertise in strategic collaboration in life sciences and biotech industries, including cell and gene therapy and AI/ML analytics. Kim comes to OCR from Adjuvant Partners where she has been serving as Senior Consultant, Strategic Partnering, working to connect industry, startups, and academic leaders in the cell and gene therapy sector. Before Adjuvant, Natalie worked at Ajinomoto, where she was Manager of the Research & Innovation Center, facilitating collaborations on preclinical and clinical development of biologics, diagnostics, and cell therapy ancillary products in Asia, Europe, and North America. Prior to Ajinomoto, Kim was a business development manager at Medipost, where she led strategic partnerships in mesenchymal stem cell therapeutics in orthopedic and neurodegenerative applications. Kim also went through her postdoctoral training at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine as a Department of Defense Research Fellow working on translational gene therapy in tissue engineering programs.
Kim earned her B.S. Bioscience and Food Engineering at Handong Global University, her M.S. Medicine at Seoul National University in South Korea, and her Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering at the University of Iowa.
Underwood-Prescott Career Development Professor, MIT Biological Engineering
Prof. Jessica Stark received her B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University. After graduation, she worked at Genentech, Inc. in process development and research and development roles. Jessica then went on to complete her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering with Prof. Michael Jewett at Northwestern University. Here, she developed cell-free technologies for protein therapeutic and vaccine production that promise to enable portable and personalized medicine. As a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi at Stanford University, Jessica’s work focused on identifying and targeting glycans that act as immune checkpoints for next-generation cancer immunotherapy. Jessica joined the faculty at MIT as an Assistant Professor in the departments of Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering and as an intramural member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research in Jan 2024. The Stark Lab is developing biological technologies to realize the largely untapped potential of glycans for immunological discovery and immunotherapy.
Despite the curative potential of cancer immunotherapy, many patients do not benefit from existing treatments. Glyco-immune checkpoints – interactions of cancer glycans with inhibitory glycan-binding receptors called lectins – have emerged as prominent mechanisms of resistance to molecular and cellular immunotherapies. I will describe the development of antibody-lectin chimeras: a biologic framework for glyco-immune checkpoint blockade that is now moving toward the clinic.
Raymond A. (1921) And Helen E. St. Laurent Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
J. Christopher Love, Raymond A. (1921) and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering, is a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He is also an Associate Member at both the Broad Institute and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. Love earned a BS in chemistry from the University of Virginia and a PhD in physical chemistry at Harvard University under the supervision of George Whitesides. He extended his research into immunology at Harvard Medical School with Hidde Ploegh from 2004-2005, and at the Immune Disease Institute from 2005-2007. Love has been named a W.M. Keck Distinguished Young Scholar for Medical Research (2009), a Dana Scholar for Human Immunology (2009), and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. Love served as a Distinguished Engineer in Residence at Biogen from 2015-2016. He has co-authored more than 100 manuscripts and is an inventor on multiple patents related to single-cell analysis and biomanufacturing. Professor Love is co-founder of OneCyte Biotechnologies, HoneyComb Biotechnologies, and Sunflower Therapeutics. He also serves as an advisor to Repligen, QuantumCyte, and Alloy Therapeutics.
A. Thomas Guertin Professor of Chemistry, MIT Department of Chemistry
Prof. Johnson is the A. Thomas Geurtin Professor of Chemistry and Associate Head of the Department of Chemistry at MIT. He conducted undergraduate research with Prof. Karen L. Wooley at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving a B.S. in biomedical engineering with a second major in chemistry. He received a PhD in chemistry from Columbia University working with Prof. Nicholas J. Turro and Prof. Jeffrey T. Koberstein. In 2011, following a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship at California Institute of Technology with Professors David A. Tirrell and Robert H. Grubbs, he began his independent career as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. He is currently a member of the MIT Program for Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM), the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. He is Co-Founder of Window Therapeutics Inc. and Elementium Innovations Inc., both of which are based on technologies (co)developed in his laboratory at MIT. Prof. Johnson received a 2019 ACS Cope Scholar Award, the 2018 Macromolecules-Biomacromolecules Young Investigator Award, the 2018 Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the Air Force Young Investigator Award, the Thieme Journal Award for Young Faculty, the DuPont Young Professor Award, the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award, and an NSF CAREER award. In 2019 and 2023 he was named a Finalist for the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists. In 2020 and 2023, bottlebrush prodrugs from his laboratory were awarded the Assay Cascade Award from the Nanoparticle Characterization Laboratory of the National Cancer Institute. He was awarded the 2018 MIT School of Science Undergraduate Teaching Prize. The Johnson Group invents methods and strategies for the synthesis of functional (macro)molecules that address fundamental scientific questions and contribute solutions to global challenges including renewable energy storage, chemical sustainability, and human health.
Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are the gold standard for targeted drug delivery systems, but their chemical design imposes constraints that, if addressed, could enable a new generation of cancer therapeutics and imaging modalities. For example, due to bioconjugation limitations, the payload scope of ADCs is restricted to highly potent payloads with inherently unselective mechanisms of action, leading to narrow therapeutic windows and resistance. This seminar will introduce a new platform called Antibody–Bottlebrush prodrug Conjugates (ABCs) that can potentially address these challenges. ABCs feature a modular design that allows drug-to-antibody ratios (DARs) from ~1–135 while maintaining strong target binding, efficient cellular uptake, and favorable pharmacokinetics and biodistribution. Leveraging their capability to access very high DARs, ABCs can carry payloads (e.g., 10-fold less potent than existing ADC payloads) that are insufficiently potent to be used in traditional ADCs, thereby enabling new mechanisms-of-action. Moreover, ABCs are readily amenable to using various payload combinations, release mechanisms, and non-drug (e.g., imaging) agents. ABCs display efficacies on par with or superior to clinical ADCs in preclinical tumor models at clinically relevant payload doses, motivating their further clinical translation.
On day two, after lunch at 1:15 PM, join the ILP for a unique opportunity to explore MIT through concurrent tours, each providing an in-depth look at the institute’s innovation ecosystem. Sign-up boards will be available at the registration desk starting in the morning.
Take a guided tour of our dynamic campus and experience firsthand how MIT is making a better world. From cutting edge research to innovation, from world-renowned architecture to rich community life, the MIT campus is a treasure to explore. MIT is also the heart of the vibrant innovation district of Kendall Square, the most innovative square mile in the world – come see how academics, entrepreneurs, corporations and non-profits make it all happen.
Participants will be introduced to provocative exhibitions on CRISPR and AI, the magical kinetic sculptures of Arthur Ganson and Andy Cavatora, and countless unexpected treasures from the museum collection of more than a million artifacts.
Set in the heart of campus, MIT.nano is the Institute’s 200,000 sf center for nanoscale science and engineering research. Take a behind the scenes tour of key research spaces, hear about the progress MIT.nano has made since its launch in 2018, and learn how this remarkable building is helping researchers from every corner of MIT explore the dawn of the Nano Age.
Join a group of fellow participants for a special walking tour of The Innovation Trail, a walking route that highlights the past, present, and future of science, technology, and innovation in the Boston-Cambridge area. We'll cover everything from NASA to candy-making to Google to MIT's tradition of "hacks" or student pranks. Tour begins in the lobby of the Marriott, lasts 90 minutes, and ends with an easy walk back to the hotel. Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.