The MIT Startup Exchange Lightning Talks and Startup Exhibit listed below are part of the full agenda for 2023 MIT AI and Autonomy Conference.
Autonomous systems such as robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles are increasingly becoming a common element of human society. However, how to make autonomous systems more intelligent, more efficient, safer, and better aligned with human values remains to be a big challenge. The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing invests in new artificial intelligence, data science, and computer science research to advance the state of the art in autonomous systems. The 2023 MIT AI and Autonomy Conference will showcase the most recent developments in areas including networked robotics, human level perception, reinforcement learning, and computational cognitive science. Presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program, you will hear insights from MIT faculty, MIT Startup Exchange entrepreneurs, and industry executives from presentations, lightning talks, exhibitions, and a panel discussion.
Program Manager, MIT Startup Exchange
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 and CEO, Leela AI
Dr. Cyrus Shaoul obtained his BSc in Cognitive Science from MIT in 1993, and his PhD from the University of Alberta in 2012. While at MIT he was an undergraduate researcher at the Media Lab. He co-founded one of the first Internet technology companies in Japan in 1994, called Digital Garage. Cyrus is a co-founder and the CEO of Leela AI. He and his team are laser-focused on building a scalable solution to the problem of building a new, more powerful kind of visual intelligence. Cyrus speaks Japanese, French and Spanish.
Co-Founder and EVP R&D, Inkbit
Javier Ramos is a Co-Founder at Inkbit, a Boston company that develops industrial additive manufacturing systems for a variety of application areas including robotics, fluidics, and aerospace. At Inkbit, he is involved in technology and application development. Previously, he was a research engineer and a graduate student at the MIT Computational Fabrication Group where he developed metrology systems for in-situ inspection and closed-feedback correction of 3D printed parts. The technology developed at MIT served as the technical basis for Inkbit. He holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from MIT.
CEO, Ubicept
Sebastian Bauer is the CEO of ubicept which provides new imaging solutions in challenging environments, such as seeing motion in the dark at unprecedented quality. He has spent his career exploring new kinds of imaging, focusing on signal processing and information extraction. He holds BS/MS/Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Director, Product Marketing and Strategy, Vecna Robotics
Matthew Cherewka serves as Director of Product Marketing and Strategy at Vecna Robotics, where he leads strategic go-to-market, product, and growth initiatives. Prior to this, he led Business Development for the logistics vertical, and helped spin out Vecna Robotics from an R&D lab into a venture-backed independent startup.
Matt is an avid evangelist for Industry 4.0, and has spent over a decade in the robotics and autonomy industries consulting for leading global enterprises on automation strategies and working with startups to commercialize new robotics technologies. He is an alumni of Bucknell University with degrees in mechanical engineering and business management, and brings a diverse set of experiences across product development, applications engineering, enterprise solutions sales, management consulting, and marketing strategy to help bridge the gap between developers and users of automation technology.
Outside of work, Matt enjoys spending time with his family, friends and pets, and plays fiddle with several bands across Greater Boston and New England.
Co-Founder & CEO, Navier
Sampriti Bhattacharyya is the co-founder and CEO of Navier, a bay area startup building the next generation maritime company. She is a roboticist and received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Robotics and Control Theory from MIT (2017) along with a minor in business. At MIT, Sampriti worked on underwater drones and mathematical modeling of nonlinear dynamical systems which formed the foundation of the project Hydroswarm. Prior to MIT, Sampriti earned a MS in Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University and worked on Intelligent Flight Control Systems at NASA Ames. Sampriti's recent work has been extensively focussed on understanding of technology explosion in the maritime space, market opportunities, and she has given many talks both in academic and industry-related conferences like Forbes Under 30, CERAWeek, TTI Vanguard, Oceans Conference, Techcrunch, and others. As a masters student, Sampriti worked with Fermilab, a DOE High Energy Physics Lab in Chicago on a new kind of innovative nuclear reactor: Accelerator Driven Subcritical Reactor for producing energy out of radioactive waste. She was also a Research Fellow at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), one of India’s top research organizations. She completed her bachelors in Electrical Engineering in India and worked on several renewable energy projects funded by the Indian Department of Science and Technology. Her interdisciplinary background enables her to address large complex problems in frontier tech like robotics, AI, large data-driven systems, and those at the intersection of policy, security and technology. She has received many accolades from being recognized as one of the Forbes 30 under 30 (2016), Robohub’s 25 Women in Robotics, MassChallenge Gold Prize Winner among many others. Her invention, the Hydrone has been lauded at the Senate Invention Caucus and is now on display in the Victoria & Albert Design Museum in London as one of the top 100 projects shaping the future. She is an active advocate for women in STEM fields and was also awarded MIT’s most outstanding mentor award, 2016.
Co-Founder & CEO, Aviant
Lars Erik's first encounter with startups was at the age of 21 when his first startup, Gobi, raised a round from American investors, and he dropped out of college to continue the pursuit in Palo Alto, California. The startup is currently valued at 20 $million, but Lars Erik sold his shares to pursue more advanced technology. After two internships at Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto and one internship at Palantir in London, he met the co-founders of Aviant while studying at MIT. Since then, his sole focus is with the company, which has grown very quickly and currently operates three commercial contracts for hospitals in Scandinavia.
Founder and CEO, Rotor
Hector is the CEO of Rotor, a 25-person startup based in the Boston area building a teleoperations system that makes flying helicopters safer and more economical -- Rotor's helicopters are being used to fight wildfires as soon as later this year. Hector obtained his PhD at the Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment in the MIT AeroAstro department and continues to contribute to research shaping the future of aviation and sustainability.
Co-Founder & CEO, AdaViv
Ian founded AdaViv while holding a Postdoctoral Associate position at MIT and his background and interests bridge plant science, agriculture, image processing and data science. As an entrepreneur and technologist at heart, Ian is guiding AdaViv's mission to help every indoor farm become highly profitable and sustainable through enhanced Plant-Intelligence and Lean Cultivation tools.
Co-Founder & CEO, Ikigai Labs
Vinayak Ramesh is the CEO and co-founder of the MIT startup, Ikigai Labs, a platform for building AI Apps. Previously, he co-founded and was CTO of Wellframe, a digital health company focused on AI to help payors better manage their patient populations (acquired by Blackstone). He received his S.B./M. Eng degrees from MIT and is Forbes 30 under 30.
CEO, Sparkdit
Fadi Micaelian, founder and CEO of Sparkdit, is an entrepreneur with a seasoned background in enterprise software. He served over the past three decades in several executive positions at industry leaders like Oracle, BroadVision, Intellectual Ventures, ViewStar (now OpenText), DataBeam (now IBM) and Element Data. Most prominently, he was the founder of Auguri Corporation where he served as its CEO for 13 years, leading it to a successful acquisition.
Fadi is also a distinguished scholar and an inventor, who has been repeatedly published, and was awarded several patents by the USPTO, in AI/ML, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics, Decision and IoT. Author of early inventions in the field of AI/ML, his patents, considered essential, rated 90-100 percentile are highly cited by Google, Microsoft, eBay, Oracle, EMC, Yahoo, GE, etc.
He is passionate about Technology, Physics and Track and Field. Fadi holds a BS of Physics, a BE of Engineering, and obtained an MS in Engineering from MIT, and an MBA from INSEAD.
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.