MIT Startup Exchange is convening a new installment of its quarterly Demo Day on Thursday, September 12 (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.
Please register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
This event is for ILP 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.
Richard Rabbat is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lighty AI.
At the helm of HeronAI, Dr. Daphne Pariser combines her remarkable academic credentials with a passionate entrepreneurial spirit. Daphne's academic journey, distinguished by a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and subsequent postdoctoral work at both Harvard and MIT, laid the foundation for her scientific career. By age 23, she had already embarked on her first entrepreneurial venture, demonstrating her innate leadership and innovative mindset. Her early achievements include developing a pioneering data analytics platform tailored for nonprofits, showcasing her commitment to leveraging technology for meaningful impact. At HeronAI, Daphne continues to drive forward with a vision that melds cutting-edge AI solutions with a dedication to making a positive difference in the world.
Dr. Sam Winslow is the Director of Business Development at Alsym Energy in Woburn, Massachusetts. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015 with a double major in Engineering and Public Policy. During his undergraduate studies, he studied surface tension-induced flows at liquid-liquid interfaces under Robert Tilton and Aditya Khair. Following his time in Pittsburgh, he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2020 under advisors James Swan and William Tisdale. Sam’s thesis leveraged experimental and simulation methods to understand how surface-bound ligands on semiconducting nanocrystals determine their interactions in solution and dictate the superstructures formed when cast into the solid state. Sam previously held multiple engineering, product development, and commercial strategy roles at Arnasi (formerly LiquiGlide) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has consulted with Saint-Gobain, Cabot Corporation, and Merck.
Ammar Alali is a distinguished professional with a PhD in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.S. from the University of Houston. Boasting over 15 years of experience in the energy sector, his career spans significant contributions to industry giants such as Saudi Aramco and Virgin Hyperloop. His leadership was pivotal in the founding of Eden GeoPower in 2017, where he serves as President and a Board member, spearheading the company's operations, international engagement and expansion across multiple sectors, including Geothermal, Geological Hydrogen, Mining, and other energy sources.
In his extensive career, Ammar has demonstrated unparalleled expertise in leading local and international government affairs, significantly influencing clean energy policies across the U.S. and the MENA region. He has been an invaluable advisory member to various high-profile forums and programs, including the NSF Convergence program, MiSk OSGEY forum, UN SDG program, and notably joined the Saudi2030 Leaders program run by the MiSK Foundation, reflecting his commitment to sustainable energy development.
His contributions and thought leadership in geophysics and clean energy have been recognized and featured in multiple prestigious venues, including CNN, New Scientist Journal, Bloomberg, and Yahoo. These accolades complement his impressive roster of awards and recognitions, such as the MiSK Science Fellowship, Leslie & Alan Wong Award, Marathon & Halliburton Award, and membership in the MIT Solve Technical Committee.
Ammar's academic prowess is matched by his participation in esteemed management professional programs, including the Jada –Emerging Manager Program, under the guidance of Stanford Business School professor Robert Siegel. As a co-author of more many journal and conference publications and multiple USPTO patent applications, Ammar stands as a visionary leader and innovator in the global pursuit of sustainable energy solutions.
Ammar is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a geological hydrogen ARAP-E grant, evidencing his leadership in cutting-edge energy research.
Joyce Wang is the CEO of Ontologic, a startup building flexible and intuitive computational infrastructure for life science research. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at MIT in 2023, where she studied inter-region dynamics involved in brain plasticity. While in graduate school, she led student advocacy, volunteer education, and mental health support organizations, for which she was awarded the National Science Foundation graduate student research fellowship, the Angus MacDonald Award for excellence in teaching, and the MIT Graduate Women of Excellence award. As a co-founder, Joyce is passionate about building a supportive work culture and improving scientific rigor, which she believes are mutually reinforcing.
William (Bill) Hall, CEO of Triangulate Labs, co-founded the company in response to family loss from cancer. Under his leadership, Triangulate Labs developed Skinmap™, a patented Total Body Photography (TBP) system that aids dermatologists in detecting skin cancer and monitoring other significant dermatological changes. This system not only documents skin evolution but also promises to facilitate the measurement of response to treatment in remote clinical studies.
Before Triangulate Labs, Bill focused on converting advanced R&D into commercial value. He was the Managing Director of the commercial business unit at Mosaic ATM and Mosaic Data Science from 2009 to 2018, where he led initiatives in aviation technology. From 2005 to 2009, he was the Chief Information Officer at Citation Shares, managing a team of 50 in IT, analytics, and operations research.
Bill’s early career includes co-founding the MIT-Draper Autonomous Helicopter Team, which won the International Aerial Robotics Competition in 1996 by achieving the first autonomous takeoff, flight, and landing of a helicopter. His contributions included a computer vision algorithm that reliably localized all overflown objects of interest without false positives.
Bill holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also contributed as a part-time Lecturer. His professional work has led to several patents, including those underpinning the technologies at TriangulateLabs.
Sami Shalabi is a technology entrepreneur and inventor. He is currently the Founder & CTO of Maven AGI, a Generative AI platform on a mission to reimagine customer experience starting with support. Prior to Maven AGI, Sami led the reinvention of Google News integrating AI and expanding its user base by over a billion users. During his tenure at Google, he co-founded Google Play Newsstand (grew it from zero to over a billion users), Google Play Magazines, Google Currents, and Google Friend Connect. In healthcare, Sami was COO at Outcomes4Me, an AI oncology patient empowerment platform leading the expansion of its footprint to over 25% of breast cancer patients in the U.S. Before joining Google, Sami co-founded several companies including Zingku, a venture-backed mobile social startup that was acquired by Google, and Istikana, the largest SVOD platform focused on Arab Indie films. Sami holds over 55 patents and was awarded the 2009 MIT Young Professional Award. He is a partner at the Mentors Fund and is an advisor and startup mentor with the US State Department, MIT, Harvard, Techstars, Endeavor, and others. Sami received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT and started his career at Lotus / IBM.
Disclaimer: MIT Startup Exchange can make introductions that ideally provide open ended discussions in order to share mutual interests and potentially create common ground that incite the parties to collaborate. MIT Startup Exchange introductions may eventually lead to mutual partnerships, but that is not in any way guaranteed by MIT, MIT Corporate Relations, MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) or MIT Startup Exchange, which takes no responsibility for these outcomes and no formal part in such discussions following our introduction. MIT Startup Exchange and its activities and events are not for purposes of soliciting investment or offering securities.