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.
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, Lighty AI
Richard Rabbat is a product management executive, advisor, mentor and angel investor. He is the founder and CEO of Lighty AI, a startup building an AI to help improve workforce productivity. The AI helps with scheduling, planning and coaching activities. He was a Vice President of Product at Twitter leading the Platform team. In his role, he focused on rebuilding the data and ML platform, which led to substantial increase in user engagement. Richard previously ran the Data Platform product team at Twitter, with focus on big data analytics and ML infrastructure. Richard was co-founder, CEO of Gfycat, for which he raised $20 million, making it the largest GIF platform (top 60 US website, top 250 worldwide). Gfycat was acquired by Snap, Inc. Richard had led ad monetization at a late-stage startup Tango and grew revenue from $0 to $30M ARR. Richard was a General Manager at Zynga, focused on monetization and platform, where he built the first SaaS platform for gaming. Richard started his career in product management at Google, where he worked on the search team as well as on Chrome. Richard has a Ph.D. and an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds a Master of Engineering and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut. Richard was born in Beirut, Lebanon and lives in Newton, Massachusetts, USA.
Co-Founder and CEO, Heron 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.
Director of Business Development, Alsym Energy
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 2020under advisors James Swan and William Tisdale. Sam’s thesis leveraged both 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.
Co-Founder & CEO, EDEN
Paris received his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program. He earned his B.S. from the University of South Carolina in Geophysics. He is a member of the Einstein Rock Mechanics Group at MIT, where his research is focused on conducting laboratory experiments to study the effects of high-voltage electricity on decreasing rock strength for applications in enhanced geothermal systems and unconventional reservoirs. He co-founded Eden in 2017 and leads the development of the company’s core electrical stimulation technology and go-to-market strategy. His awards and accomplishments include the NSF GRFP, NSF I-CORPS–Entrepreneurial lead, Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Young Millionaires” 2020 edition, EY–Entrepreneur Access Network 2021, and Forbes 30 Under 30–Energy Honoree 2021. He has given talks at Babson and Brandeis Universities and numerous high schools in the Boston area about the role of renewable geothermal energy in meeting UN 2050 decarbonization goals.
CEO, Ontologic
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.
Co-Founder and CEO, Triangulate Labs
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.
Co-Founder & CEO, Seia Bio
Tim Mui is the CEO and co-founder of Seia Bio. He received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and then completed his Ph.D. in the Professor Jacqueline K. Barton at The California Institute of Technology as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and earned an EMBA from MIT Sloan. He brings extensive experience in the commercialization of products in regulated industries. Tim has launched over 50 new global health products, with 9 granted patents, while advocating for sustainable solutions to reduce virgin plastic use and emission through innovative solutions leading innovation at The Clorox Company.
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.