MIT Startup Exchange is convening a new installment of its quarterly Demo Day on Wednesday, March 13 (12 PM – 1:15 PM ET). The event will feature several exciting industry-ready startups in brief lightning talks, and Q&A. Breakout rooms will follow at the end of the event.
This event is for ILP members. You can confirm your company's ILP membership here: https://ilp.mit.edu/search/members.
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.
Thomas Cashman serves as the VP of Engineering at GPR where he brings decades of product development experience. At GPR, Tom leads the engineering team in technology development, overseeing both hardware and software development to harness GPR’s ultra-wideband radar for mapping and precision vehicle localization. Prior to joining GPR, Tom was Chief Engineer at ClearMotion where he led the product development of their active suspension system for passenger vehicles. He has also led technology development in Bose’s research, new ventures, and automotive divisions. Thomas holds a BS from Northeastern University. When not at work, Tom enjoys most outdoor activities and spending time with his two Miniature Schnauzers. With his proven experience driving the development of innovative products and passion for building successful teams, Tom is driving GPR’s technology and mission of scalable and safe autonomous mobility.
Ben is the Chief Commercial Officer at Rotor, and leads the company's commercial and regulatory approach to accelerate the adoption of autonomy in VTOL flight. Prior to Rotor, he founded two companies focused on aviation software, which brought modern automation to flight operations and supply chain/MRO. Before that, he worked at McKinsey & Company as a consultant to aerospace and defense companies and airlines, with a focus on helicopters. Ben holds a Bachelor's degree from MIT in Aerospace Engineering. Ben is also a private helicopter and fixed-wing pilot.
Mr. K-C Tran is the Co-Founder and CEO of MAAT Energy. He built the world’s first industrial-scale CO2 to methanol plant in the world as co-founder and CEO of Carbon Recycling International, pioneering the decarbonization path of power to X. He studied management and engineering at MIT, Dartmouth College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a visiting scientist at the MIT Plasma and Fusion Center.
Steve Golter, CEO of Doradus Labs, is a creative and hardworking young professional focused on connecting the fields of machine learning software development and strategic business decisions. He is passionate about leadership and executing strategic decisions for any type of business.
Steve’s work history and technical experiences started in the early 1990s, working at his father’s local internet service provider in Grand Junction. From there, he moved to Silicon Valley to work for an electrical engineering firm as an IT technician, learning all about the new technologies of the “dot-com” era. After the “dot-com” crashed, he moved to New York City to apply his newly learned technical skills to the financial industry as a technical project manager. After exploring the big apple, Steve moved to Denver and started working at the casinos. From there, he moved up the corporate ladder from Systems Analysis to Director of IT. In this time, he learned the casino business and technical side in and out and then started his own technology firm called Doradus Labs. Started in 2012, Doradus Labs has contracted with many different casinos in the Black Hawk, Central City and Las Vegas markets. The technology and services Doradus Labs offers range from building casino management systems from the ground up to machine learning and surveillance-integrated software programs that give casino owners better tools to make business decisions.
Corina Negron is an MIT Sloan graduate, having completed the MBA program in June 2023. She has more than 5 years of experience in sales and business development within pharma and medtech. She is from Venezuela and came to the US in 2012 to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University. After graduating, she joined medtech startup Parsagen as the 5th employee and remained with the company until its successful exit to the biotech giant QIAGEN in 2018. Within Parsagen, she was responsible for selling a novel preterm labor test into 35 countries, with a special focus on LatAm. She also developed the US go-to-market strategy and launch plan for this preterm labor test. She later worked as a Health Economics Director at Scientist.com, leading the fastest growing category at the largest AI-powered platform that connects pharma companies with labs to outsource research and speed up timelines for drug discovery. She has also been exposed to positions within VC, PE, and interned at BCG. While at MIT Sloan, she was awarded the Deans’s Fellowship and selected as a Legatum Fellow alongside a cohort of 20 entrepreneurs dedicated to scaling and building impactful ventures.
Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari obtained his BS and MEng degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and 2003. He received his PhD degree in biomedical engineering from the Harvard Medical School-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology in 2008.
Upon completion of his PhD, Dr. Ghaffari co-founded MC10 Inc. and served as its Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Dr. Ghaffari led the development and launch of the BioStamp® and the My UV Patch wearable products. His contributions in soft bioelectronics, micro/nano-scale systems, and neuroscience have been recognized with the Helen Carr Peake PhD Research Prize (2008), the MIT-100K Grand Prize (2008), the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Grand Prize (2008), MIT Technology Review Magazine's Top 35 Innovators Under 35 (2013), IEEE Emerging Technology Award (2016), and TEDx Gateway invited speaker (2016).
Jose Amich is the Founder and CEO of Zeta Surgical. He is a graduate of Harvard University, where he majored in molecular biology and studied cancer cell biology under the direction of Professor Joan Brugge. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 lister and the author of over 20 peer-reviewed articles and patents.