The 2018 MIT Japan Conference will feature future trends of research at MIT and highlight advances in key areas, including advanced materials, electronics, information technology, chemical engineering, as well as other topics. Attendees will have the opportunity for continued in-depth discussions with faculty speakers during both lunch and an evening networking reception.
Registration Fee ILP Member (Complimentary) Invited Guest (Complimentary) MIT Alumni: ¥33,000
Karl Koster is the Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations. MIT Corporate Relations includes the MIT Industrial Liaison Program and MIT Startup Exchange.
In that capacity, Koster and his staff work with the leadership of MIT and senior corporate executives to design and implement strategies for fostering corporate partnerships with the Institute. Koster and his team have also worked to identify and design a number of major international programs for MIT, which have been characterized by the establishment of strong, programmatic linkages among universities, industry, and governments. Most recently these efforts have been extended to engage the surrounding innovation ecosystem, including its vibrant startup and small company community, into MIT's global corporate and university networks.
Koster is also the Director of Alliance Management in the Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer (OSATT). OSATT was launched in Fall 2019 as part of a plan to reinvent MIT’s research administration infrastructure. OSATT develops agreements that facilitate MIT projects, programs and consortia with industrial, nonprofit, and international sponsors, partners and collaborators.
He is past chairman of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP), an organization that seeks to enhance the value of collaborative partnerships between universities and corporations.
He graduated from Brown University with a BA in geology and economics, and received an MS from MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to returning to MIT, Koster worked as a management consultant in Europe, Latin America, and the United States on projects for private and public sector organizations.
Dugald C Jackson Professor of Computer Science and Engineering MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
From January of 1999 through August of 2004, Professor Guttag served as Head of MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. He served as Associate Department Head from Computer Science from 1993 to 1998. EECS, with approximately 1800 students and 125 faculty members, is the largest department at MIT.
Professor Guttag currently co-heads the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's Networks and Mobile Systems Group. This group studies issues related to computer networks, applications of networked and mobile systems, and advanced software-based medical instrumentation and decision systems.
Professor Guttag has also done research, published, and lectured in the areas of software engineering, mechanical theorem proving, hardware verification, compilation, and software radios.
In addition to his academic activities, Professor Guttag has had long-term consulting relationships with a number of industrial research and advanced development organizations. He has also worked for many years as a consultant specializing in the analysis of information systems related business opportunities and risks. He currently serves on the technical advisory boards of Vanu, Inc., on the Board of Directors of Empirix, Inc., and on the Board of Trustees of the MGH Institute of Health Professions. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the ACM.
Professor Guttag earned an A.B. in English and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto.
Many poor healthcare outcomes and the majority of wasted healthcare spending can be attributed to bad decision making. It is widely accepted that decision support systems are needed to address this issue, and that machine learning has a key role to play in constructing such systems. However, learning to predict the impact of care decisions is made challenging by the need to scale out to complex populations being managed for complex diseases across complex care networks. We will present some recent work that addresses these challenges.
Wojciech Matusik is a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and leads the Computational Fabrication Group at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research interests are in computer graphics, computational design and fabrication, computer vision, robotics and human-computer interaction. Before coming to MIT, he worked at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Adobe Systems and Disney Research Zurich. He has received a Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching, a DARPA Young Faculty Award and a Sloan Foundation fellowship. He has been named one of the world's top 100 young innovators by MIT Technology Review and received a Significant New Researcher Award from ACM Siggraph. He earned a PhD in computer graphics at MIT.
We are in the process of transitioning to a new economy where highly complex, custom products are manufactured on demand by automated manufacturing systems. For example, 3D printers are revolutionizing production of metal parts in aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. Manufacturing electronics on flexible substrates opens the door to a whole new range of products for consumer electronics and medical diagnostics. In this talk, I will show that computation is an integral component of modern design and manufacturing. I will demonstrate how computational tools allow creating digital materials with precisely controlled physical properties and how these digital materials are used to automatically synthesize product designs with desired specifications. I will also show how computational tools enable real-time, closed-feedback loop in additive manufacturing systems to improve their reliability and to fabricate complex products with integrated electronics.
JR East Adjunct Professor of Engineering Associate Director, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) Director, Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC) MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center
Ali Jadbabaie is Director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC). Jadbabaie will also serve as interim associate director designate of a new organization at MIT devoted to understanding and managing complex societal and technical systems, and to new programs in 21st-century statistics. He is a recognized expert in the fields of network science, decision and control theory, and multi-agent coordination.
Through his highly-cited and influential research, Jadbabaie has made fundamental contributions in optimization-based control, multi-agent coordination and consensus, network science, and network economics. He has won several prestigious awards, and his students and postdoctoral scholars have become professors within electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering departments in top universities and in eminent business schools.
Jadbabaie received his B.S. from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, his M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of New Mexico, and his Ph.D. in control and dynamical systems from the California Institute of Technology. He was a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University before joining the faculty at Penn, where he is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Network Science in the department of electrical and systems engineering, in July 2002. He has secondary appointments in computer and information science and operations and information management in the Wharton School.
A member of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab at Penn, Jadbabaie is also the cofounder and director of the Raj and Neera Singh Program in Networked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS), a new undergraduate interdisciplinary degree program focused on network science and engineering, operations research, computer science, and social sciences. He is also a faculty member of the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences at Penn and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition at Penn's law school. He is a lead of a Department of Defense-funded Multidisciplinary Research Initiative (MURI) titled, The Evolution of Cultural Norms and Dynamics of Sociopolitical Change, which involves MIT faculty from LIDS and the departments of Political Science and Economics, as well as faculty from Penn, Stanford, and Cornell.
Jadbabaie is the inaugural editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, a new interdisciplinary journal sponsored by several IEEE societies. He is a recipient of an National Science Foundation Career Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Automatic Control Council, and the George S. Axelby Best Paper Award from the IEEE Control Systems Society. He is an IEEE Fellow.
His current research interests include the interplay of dynamic systems and networks with specific emphasis on multi-agent coordination and control, distributed optimization, network science, and network economics.
In this talk, I will present an overview of my research in the past decade on large scale optimization for machine learning and collective behavior in networked,natural, engineering, and social systems. These collective phenomena include social aggregation phenomena as well as emergence of consensus, swarming, and synchronization in complex network of interacting dynamic systems such as mobile robots and sensors. A common underlying theme in this line of study is to understand how a desired global behavior can emerge from purely local interactions. The evolution of these ideas into social systems has lead to development of a new theory of collective decision making among people and organizations. Examples include participation decisions in uprisings, social cascades, investment decisions in public goods, and decision making in large organizations. I will investigate distributed strategies for information aggregation, social learning and detection problems in networked systems where heterogeneous agents with different observations (with varying quality and precision) coordinate to learn a true state (e.g., finding aggregate statistics or detecting faults and failure modes in spatially distributed wireless sensor networks, or deciding suitability of a political candidate, quality of a product, and forming opinions on social issues of the day in social networks) using a stream of private observations and interaction with neighboring agents. I will end the talk with a a new vision for research and graduate education at the interface of information and decision systems, data science and social sciences.
David Odell is the Director of Business Development at NetVirta, a mobile app based 3D scanning company facilitating the adoption of personalization and mass customization. David holds a Master and Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Matteo Lai is the co-founder and CEO of Empatica, a company focused on wearable computing for the medical space, based in Cambridge, MA and Milan, Italy. Matteo studied Engineering and trained as an Architect, holds a Double MSc degree in Architecture and a Master in Innovation Management.
Cory Kidd is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a patient care management company. The company develops a hardware and software platform that uses a combination of psychology and artificial intelligence to engage patients through interactive conversations. These conversations happen through mobile, web, and interactive robotic interfaces; together these interfaces create a relationship that can reach patients at any time they need support. The data reported back through the system gives Catalia Health’s customers valuable information to understand the daily activities and needs of their patients.
Kidd is a serial entrepreneur who has been working in healthcare technology for nearly two decades. He received his MS and PhD at the MIT Media Lab in human-robot interaction and his BS in computer science at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jonah Myerberg is a Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Desktop Metal, a company committed to accelerating the transformation of manufacturing with end-to-end metal 3D printing solutions. As CTO, Myerberg is responsible for leading the vision and direction of Desktop Metal’s 3D printing solutions. His duties include translating the technology behind the company’s metal 3D printing systems into reliable parts for customers, and identifying opportunities to expand manufacturing capabilities through additive manufacturing.
Prior to joining Desktop Metal in 2015, Myerberg held senior positions with a variety of organizations focused on battery development and performance, including Renovo Motors and Boston Impact, which he founded, and A123Systems. At A123Systems, Myerberg established a new business unit focused on the development of high performance batteries. His team designed a new high performance cell for Formula One, as well as number of automotive partners. Additionally, he helped launch Gradiant Corp., where he managed the deployment and operation of large scale water desalination plants that converted fracking water into fresh water. Myerberg also held engineering and product development roles at both Bose and Black & Decker.
Myerberg earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing from Johns Hopkins University.
John Polo is responsible for the operational leadership of Top Flight. He has held senior management and IT leadership positions at $400m to $31b manufacturing, consumer products, and IT management consulting/product companies worldwide. Polo has 35 years of expertise leading companies such as Gartner Group, Kraft Foods North America, and Perkin-Elmer (The Hubble Space Telescope). In addition, he has been instrumental leading eight investor-led IT and high-tech global start-ups as President, COO, VP/Business Strategy, and Founder. Polo received his Bachelor’s degree in business management and IT from the University of Connecticut.
Rony Kubat is the cofounder and CTO of Tulip Interfaces. He is a PhD graduate from MIT with a research focus on applied machine learning. He was the first employee at Bluefin (acquired by Twitter). Before graduate studies, Rony was a science and technology advisor for Hollywood film productions. Rony has been described by Wired Magazine as having a “steady low voice that could pacify a riot.” He is a playwright and is a member of the Junkyard Wars team, the Geeks (3rd Place, US Season three).
Tom Okada is an experienced executive with expertise in building and managing global teams and global accounts in the technology industry. His career includes leadership roles in engineering and business development, EV automotive electronics, mobile devices, hardware, semiconductors, and embedded application software. Tom has a strong global business network in the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Japan.
Tom served as a board member of Motorola Japan, Aplix IP Holdings Corporation in Japan and Ecrio Inc. in Silicon Valley. He has managed R&D teams in mobile handset and technology development, and subsequently led business development and sales with major telecom operators, OEMs, and automotive carmakers and Tier1 suppliers.
Tom is now responsible for business development for Japan and western US region for WiTricity, primarily focused on enabling wireless charging for Electric Vehicles and Industrial automation.
Tom has been involved in various technology communities in Silicon Valley, such as robotics, AI, and automotive applications, which makes him best suited for driving WiTricity’s EV wireless charging solutions. WiTricity technology is an essential part of the future of autonomy.
Tom serves as a mentor for startup companies through Japan’s NEDO TCP program and Next Innovator program sponsored by Japan’s METI. Tom holds B.S. Electrical Engineering Degree from Arizona State University and holds 4 US patents in wireless communication and logic design. Born and raised in Japan and later educated in the US, he lives with his family in San Francisco Bay area.
Kit McDonnell is a member of the Creative Team at Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company using the most advanced technology on the planet–biology–to grow products instead of manufacturing them. At Ginkgo Bioworks, she specializes in marketing, corporate strategy, and futures-driven business development to create sustainable opportunities for innovation and novel technologies, with a particular focus on entrepreneurial biotechnologies and global creative industries.
Kit's most formative years were spent among the 30 million specimens in the collections of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. She received her B.S. in Biology from Tufts University, where she founded TEDxTufts and the Tufts Venture Lab, a co-working space and accelerator. Kit has conducted research on myriad organisms, from the microbiomes of Vermont cheeses and Costa Rican ants, malaria in Neotropical birds, to Chinese pu-erh tea, hermit crabs, and Malawian mammal phylogenentics. She caught the biodesign bug during her time studying at The University of Hong Kong and hasn’t looked back.
MIT Startup Exchange actively promotes collaboration and partnerships between MIT-connected startups and industry. Qualified startups are those founded and/or led by MIT faculty, staff, or alumni, or are based on MIT-licensed technology. Industry participants are principally members of MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP).
MIT Startup Exchange maintains a propriety database of over 1,500 MIT-connected startups with roots across MIT departments, labs and centers; it hosts a robust schedule of startup workshops and showcases, and facilitates networking and introductions between startups and corporate executives.
STEX25 is a startup accelerator within MIT Startup Exchange, featuring 25 “industry ready” startups that have proven to be exceptional with early use cases, clients, demos, or partnerships, and are poised for significant growth. STEX25 startups receive promotion, travel, and advisory support, and are prioritized for meetings with ILP’s 230 member companies.
MIT Startup Exchange and ILP are integrated programs of MIT Corporate Relations.
2018 Startups - "The use cases for an accurate 3D body-shape scanning app," David Odell, Director, Business Development, Netvirta - "How we designed an affordable, medical-grade wearable," Matteo Lai, co-founder & CEO, Empatica - "Healthcare robotics for personal health & aging," Cory D. Kidd, co-founder & CEO, Catalia Health (STEX25) - "The world’s first affordable, office-friendly metal 3D printing system," Jonah Myerberg, co-founder & CTO, Desktop Metal (STEX25) - "Hybrid energy power systems that extend flight times & allow heavier payloads for commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)," John Polo, co-founder & COO, Top Flight - "Digitizing the factory floor: app platform for manufacturers," Rony Kubat, co-founder, Tulip Interfaces (STEX25) - "Wireless electricity for consumers & industry," Tom Okada, Executive Director, WiTricity (STEX25) - "Designing custom microbes for customers in food & beverage, agriculture, & cosmetics," Katherine "Kit" McDonnell, Special Projects, Ginkgo Bioworks (STEX25)
Netvirta - Empatica - Catalia Health - Desktop Metal - Top Flight - Tulip Interfaces - WiTricity - Ginkgo Bioworks
Timothy M. Swager is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry the Department of Chemistry at MIT and the Faculty Director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. In this latter role, Professor Swager works with the Center’s Executive Director to define the Center’s strategy for fostering innovation, assists with the commercialization of MIT technologies, and plays a key role in the grant selection process. Professor Swager also serves as the Center’s liaison to the MIT academic community, and senior leadership, sitting on faculty and academic committees. Following Professor Swager’s postdoctoral appointment at MIT, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, returning to MIT in 1996 as a Professor of Chemistry, and served as the Head of Chemistry from 2005-2010. Professor Swager’s research interests are in design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, high-strength and liquid crystalline materials. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and more than 80 issued/pending patents. Professor Swager is the founder of four companies (DyNuPol, Iptyx, PolyJoule, and C2Sense) and has served on a number of corporate and government boards.He received a B.S. from Montana State University in 1983 and a Ph.D., from the California Institute of Technology in 1988.
This lecture will detail the creation of ultrasensitive sensors based on electronically active conjugated polymers (CPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Conceptually a single nano- or molecular-wire spanning between two electrodes would create an exceptional sensor if binding of a molecule of interest to it would block all electronic transport. Nanowire networks of CNTs modified chemically or in composites with polymers provide for a practical approximation to the single nanowire scheme. Creating chemiresistive and FET based sensors that have selectivity and accuracy requires the development of new methods. I will discuss covalent and non-covalent medication of CNTs with groups that impart selectivity for target analytes. This can involve reactions at the CNT sidewalls and rapping of the CNTs with CPs. Highly specific chemical processes orthogonal responses can be produced for mixtures of analytes through careful integration of chemical functionality. A prevailing problem in all chemiresistive schemes, which is seldom highlighted by researchers, is drift. This is intrinsic for systems that need to interface with their surroundings and changes in the position of ions of small changes in the organization of the CNTs relative to each other, the electrodes, or their surroundings can change the base resistance. I will detail different methods designed to lock the CNT networks in place. These novel compositions are also designed to accommodate functionality and I will demonstrate how we can use a diversity of transition metals to create selective responses to gases. We will also show that this scheme creates CNT networks that are robust enough for solution sensing and demonstrate chemiresistive based glucose sensing. I will also briefly discuss the successful use of CNT based gas sensors for the detection of ethylene and other gases relevant to agricultural and food production/storage/transportation and integrated systems that increase production, manage inventories, and minimize losses.
Dr. Thomenius is currently a Research Scientist in the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. Previously he has held senior R&D leadership positions in industry, most recently as the Chief Technologist and a Coolidge Fellow at General Electric’s Global Research facility in New York. Dr. Thomenius’ research focus is in medical imaging in general and medical ultrasound in particular. Currently he is working at MIT on problems involving wave propagation in heterogeneous media and the impact such challenges have on image formation and, perhaps more importantly, how such variations can be used for diagnostic purposes. Previously Dr. Thomenius’ has focused on the potential of acoustic bioeffects, methods of ultrasound beamformation, and the miniaturization of ultrasound scanners.
Dr. Thomenius’ academic background is in electrical engineering and physiology. His degrees are from Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and its current recipient of the Joseph H. Holmes Pioneer Award.
In June of this year, MIT will complete the construction of the MIT.nano, an 18,000 sq.m. facility in the middle of the campus for MIT’s nanotechnology-related activities. This facility is, in effect, an acknowledgement of the nanotech’s importance today. Within MIT.nano, SENSE.nano is its first Center of Excellence. The impetus for SENSE.nano is the recognition that novel sensors and sensing systems are bound to provide previously unimaginable insight into the condition of individuals, as well as the built and natural world, to positively impact people, machines, and environment. Advances in nano-sciences and nano-technologies, pursued by many researchers at MIT, now offer unprecedented opportunities to realize designs for, and at-scale manufacturing of, unique sensors and sensing systems, while leveraging data-science and IoT infrastructure.
Michael Short joined the faculty in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering in July, 2013. He brings 15 years of research experience in the field of nuclear materials, microstructural characterization, and alloy development. His group’s research is a mixture of large-scale experiments, micro/nanoscale characterization, and multiphysics modeling & simulation. The main areas of Short’s research focus on 1) Non-contact, non-destructive measurement of irradiated material properties using transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) more, 2) Preventing the deposition of deleterious phases, such as CRUD in nuclear reactors, as fouling deposits in energy systems more, and 3) Quantification of radiation damage by stored energy fingerprints more. This last project was recently selected for an NSF CAREER award.
The impact of energy production in our lives stands in stark contrast to the speed, or lack thereof, in solving the most expensive and pervasive issues in energy production. Examples range from the continuing prevalence of fouling, which drains 0.25% of the GDP of developed countries, to the lack of ways to quantify damage to materials. The Mesoscale Nuclear Materials group at MIT (MIT-MNM) focuses on science-based solutions to these "dirty issues," combining branches of physics and engineering to produce industry-ready solutions in years, not decades. We will focus on three issues facing the nuclear industry as well as others: (1) The formation and prevention of CRUD in reactors, (2) rapid qualification of new materials during irradiation, and (3) the stored energy fingerprints of radiation damage as a new way to quantify damage to materials.
Thomas Lord Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Jennifer Rupp is the Thomas Lord Assistant Professor of Electrochemical Materials in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Before she came to MIT, Prof. Rupp was a non-tenure-track assistant professor at ETH Zurich Switzerland where she held two prestigious, externally-funded career grants: an ERC Starting Grant (SNSF) and a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) professorship from 2012 on.
She previously was a visiting and senior scientist at MIT (2011-2012) and at the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba Japan (2011), and worked as a postdoc at ETH Zurich (2006-2010). Professor Rupp team's current research interests are on solid-state material design and tuning of structure-property relations for novel energy and information devices and operation schemes. This ranges from alternative energy storage via batteries or catalytic convertor systems processed by smart material design for solar light and CO2 to renewable synthetic fuels, or novel types of neuromorphic memories and computing logic entities for data storage and transfer beyond transistors. Her team at MIT works on material design, creating novel processing techniques, and making ceramics, cermets, and glass-type ceramic structures. Her team also works on device prototypes, specifically their operation and characteristics.
She has published more than 70 papers, holds 4 patents, and enjoys actively discussing material tech trends on the theme of energy with the public, economists and policy makers. She is a frequent speaker and member of the World Economic Forum (2015-2017), and contirbutes to CNN and other television programs.
Professor Rupp and her team received several honors and awards such as the keynote lecture at the Nature Energy Conference 2016, "Top 40 international scientist under the age of 40" by World Economic Forum in 2015, Spark Award for the most innovative and economically important invention of the year at ETH Zurich, and Gordon Research lecture in 2014, the Kepler award for “new materials in energy technology” by the European Academy of Science in 2012, and the Young Scientist Award by the Solid State Ionic Society.
The next generation of energy storage, sensors and neuromorphic computer logics in electronics rely largely on solving fundamental questions of mass and charge transport of ionic carriers and defects in materials and their structures. Here, understanding the defect kinetics in the solid state material building blocks and their interfaces with respect to lattice, charge carrier types and interfacial strains are the prerequisite to design novel energy storage, sensing and computing functions. Through this presentation basic theory and model experiments for solid state oxides their impedances and memristance, electro-chemo-mechanics and lattice strain modulations is being discussed as a new route for engineering material and properties on the examples of solid state batteries, environmental CO2 sensors and memristors for memory and neuromorphic computing chips. Central are the making of new oxide film materials components, and manipulation of the charge carrier transfer and defect chemistry (based on ionic and electronic carriers), which alter directly the device performances and new operation metrics.
Dr. Ornatowski is currently a Senior Director in the Office of Corporate Relations (OCR) at MIT and the Director, MIT-ILP, Japan. He works with various companies in the automotive, electronics and materials industries. Prior to joining MIT, he worked as a consultant in the Boston area with Standard and Poor's DRI and Harbor Research.
Previously he spent nine years with General Electric, where he held various management positions in business development, strategic planning and marketing in the U.S. and Asia and worked with several of GE's technology-focused businesses. Dr. Ornatowski began his professional career as a management consultant working with the Tokyo office of the Boston Consulting Group.
In addition to his corporate experience, Dr. Ornatowski has taught at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Boston University, and Trinity College. He has also published articles in the Sloan Management Review, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, and the Journal of Socio-Economics. He is fluent in Japanese, having lived and worked in Japan a total of 12 years, and has worked extensively with Asian and European companies as well.