The MIT Startup Exchange Lightning Talks and Startup Exhibit listed below are part of the full agenda for 2022 MIT Build.nano Conference, running from 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, EST.
Nano technology is all around us – in the buildings, infrastructure, and transportation systems we rely on every day. But nano’s impacts on the built environment are accelerating, helping make cities more sustainable, efficient, smarter, and healthier. Please join us as we present, discuss, and explore nano-enhanced cities and how the world is evolving from the nano-scale up. We’ll help redefine your understanding of what nano technology is and how it is reinventing the built environment as we know it.
This event is brought to you through a collaboration of the Center for Real Estate, MIT.nano, and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program.
Steve Weikal is a lecturer, researcher, and Industry Chair of the Real Estate Technology Initiative at the MIT Center for Real Estate, focused on innovative new technology and business models that are reinventing the traditional ways of developing, transacting and managing real estate. He is also a General Partner at the MET Frontier Fund, an early-stage investor in startups that have an MIT connection and focus on solutions for the built environment.
Steve is a member of the Global Insights Panel for MIT Technology Review, a member of the CREtech Climate Leadership Board, and sits on the advisory boards of six real estate and technology companies. He was the Founder of MIT Real Disruption, a successful series of conferences discussing the impact of emerging technology on the real estate industry that is now part of the global CREtech media platform. Steve speaks extensively about real estate technology for corporate clients around the world and at conferences for AFIRE, AsRES, BOMA, CCIM, CoreNet, CREW, ICSC, IREM, NAIOP, PERE, SIOR, and ULI. He has been quoted by numerous media outlets, including BuzzFeed, TechInsider, Medium, USA Today, CP Executive, Harvard Real Estate Review, the Boston Globe, GlobeSt. the Real Reporter, Travel Weekly, IPE Real Assets Europe and Anuario Inmobiliario LatinoAmerica.
Steve holds a Master’s of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) and Master’s in City Planning (MCP) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from Suffolk University Law School.
Catarina Madeira joined Corporate Relations in May 2021 as Program Director, Startup Exchange.
Madeira has been working with the Cambridge/Boston startup ecosystem for the past 10 years and joins Corporate Relations with a solid network in the innovation and entrepreneurial community. In 2010, she joined the startup accelerator IUL MIT Portugal working in Lisbon and working with the Cambridge team on all aspects related to the accelerator’s launch. 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. Most recently 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 L’Oréal and Saboaria e Perfumaria Confiança as Pharmacist and Technical Director.
Madeira earned her Bachelor in Chemistry at the University of Porto and her Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. She went on to earn her Master of Engineering for Health and Medicines at University Lyon 1 and EM Lyon in France.
Scott Tudman is Sweetwater Energy Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Tudman is responsible for the overseeing all science and engineering related to all of Sweetwater’s development and projects. Prior to Sweetwater, Mr. Tudman was the Director of Project Management at Environmental Credit Corp. where he led corporate-wide project management and engineering activities for greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy initiatives. He also previously cofounded and operated the world’s first person to person lending platform focused on the supply of renewable/clean energy products to those in need in the developing world as the Chief Executive Officer at Energy In Common. Mr. Tudman also served as Project Engineer for Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. where he consulted on biological/chemical process design, pollution reduction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency projects. Mr. Tudman has his Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics and Mathematics from State University of New York at Geneseo, and his Masters of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University.
Hunter McDaniel is Founder and CEO of UbiQD, an eight-year-old advanced materials company powering sustainability through nanomaterials innovation. Hunter earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, before joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Chemistry Division. Since he founded UbiQD, Inc. in 2014, the company has raised more than $8M and employs 25 full time. The company’s first product, UbiGro, is a quantum dot film that uses fluorescence to help plants get more from the sun in a greenhouse, and the glass version enables electricity generation. Hunter fundamentally believes that materials innovation has underpinned every major technology advancement since the dawn of mankind, and quantum dots are becoming another great example of that.
Norhan is a Post Doctoral Fellow at MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative and Research Assistant in the Urban Metabolism group. She received her BSc. In Architecture from Cairo University, MSc in Building Technology from MIT in 2017 and Ph.D from the same program in 2021. Norhan‘s research is focused on the role of AI in addressing Climate change challenges in cities. In 2021, Norhan co-founded Lamarr.AI with Tarek Rakha and John E. Fernandez, which is spin off from a research collaboration between Georgia Tech and MIT and funded by the US. Department of Energy. Lamarr.AI fuses AI with building science to develop solutions for improving the performance of the built environment.
Ross brings broad design experience from his background in aerospace. A graduate of GE Aviation’s Edison Engineering Development program, Ross has domain expertise in systems architecture, fluids, and heat transfer. Ross earned his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University and a Master in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. His thesis work on novel energy efficient desiccant-based air conditioning systems brings valuable perspective to the team.
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.