Alumni/ae

Under the direction of CEO Noubar Afeyan PhD '87, a member of the MIT Corporation, Flagship Pioneering is using its resources to back life sciences companies, seeking to vertically integrate the processes of scientific discovery, reports Scott Kirsner for The Boston Globe. “Afeyan’s latest vision involves artificial intelligence and how it will change the way science and drug development are done,” he writes. “Afeyan says that AI could eventually become a tool that does much of the work of scientific discovery.”

MIT spinout, Cogito, uses “advanced voice analytics to scrutinize voice tons and speech patterns, not just during customer interactions but also within internal team communications,” reports Andre Shojaie for Forbes. “By providing real-time feedback to representatives, Cogito helps them adjust their emotional tone and empathy levels accordingly,” explains Shojaie. “This application significantly reduces stress and cultivates a supportive work environment by enhancing interpersonal interactions among team members.”

Ivan Casadevantre MS '15 and Hasier Larrea MS '15 co-founded ORI Living – a furniture company that uses electromechanics to develop furniture systems designed for space efficiency. “You have to make those small spaces feel and act as if they were much larger,” says Larrea. “And that’s when we started thinking about robotics, thinking about engineering, and how we bring all those technologies to make it possible to live large in a smaller footprint.” 

Researchers from MIT and other universities, businesses and government agencies are working to help the state of Massachusetts become a leading producer of climate technology innovations, reports Jeff Young for Newsweek. “Some MIT grads launched a climate tech incubator in Cambridge called Greentown Labs in 2011 and it now hosts hundreds of startups,” explains Young. “The area's venture capital and finance communities are attuned to the climate sector and are investing in companies tackling some of the biggest climate challenges.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, Cady Coleman ’83 reflects on her career as an astronaut and Air Force colonel. “I am an astronaut,” writes Coleman. “Even after 24 years at NASA, two space shuttle missions, and six months living aboard the International Space Station, it thrills me to say those words, and yet there is a part of me that’s still surprised by them.”  

Prakash Govindan PhD '12 and Anurag Bajpayee SM '08 PhD '12 co-founded AlkaLi, a startup working to extract lithium from brine and process it for use in batteries, reports Amy Feldman for Forbes. AlkaLi uses resins and membranes to more easily extract the lithium from brine, then relies on its own technology to concentrate the mineral, which ultimately is precipitated into a solid for use in batteries,” writes Feldman. 

Writing for Forbes, lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota '08, SM '16, MBA '16 explores the role of artificial intelligence and biotechnology in transforming the healthcare industry specifically for venture capitalists (VCs). “The fusion of AI and biotechnology presents a wealth of opportunities for venture capitalists,” writes Hayes-Mota. “By staying attuned to emerging trends and adopting strategies for impactful investments, VCs can drive innovation and create transformative changes in healthcare.” 

Ronald Davis III '18, SM '22, PhD '24 speaks with Jason Groves of Las Cruces Sun-News about how his research at both MIT and an Army Department of Defense lab inspired his interest in applying AI technologies to improve wireless communications, work he is now using as the foundation of his startup VectorWave. "When I think of a student earning multiple degrees from a school such as MIT along with a Ph.D., I'm blown away that it could come from a small place like Las Cruces [New Mexico]," says Brandon Sprague, Davis’ former high school mathematics teacher. 

Asadej Kongsiri MBA '99 has been named the new President of The Stock Exchange of Thailand, reports Anuchit Nguyen for Bloomberg. The stock exchange says “with Asadej’s extensive experience in the financial markets, board members ‘are confident in his ability to lead and navigate the evolving financial landscape,’” writes Nguyen.

Mario Ho '17, cofounded NIP Group, "an esports organization with a team of 125 pro gamers from China, Europe and Brazil," reports Zinnia Lee for Forbes. “NIP Group said it plans to expand into new markets such as Southeast Asia, North America, the Middle East, Japan and Korea,” explains Lee. “The company added that it would further expand its businesses in areas including esports education, digital collectibles and licensing of intellectual properties.”

Harrison White '50, PhD '55, “a theoretical physicist-turned-sociologist who upended the study of human relations and society” has died at age 94, reports Michael Rosenwald for The New York Times. “With his background in physics, Professor White viewed humans as nodes within social networks,” writes Rosenwald. “Those networks operated in complex ways that shaped economic mobility, financial markets, language and other social phenomena.”

NBC News reporter Alex Koller spotlights Noubar Afeyan PhD '87 and the messages he shared as commencement speaker for the 2024 MIT graduating class. "I'm utterly unreasonable and an eternal optimist," said Afeyan, adding that to tackle improbable challenges having "a special kind of optimism" can help. 

Writing for The New York Times, Kenji López-Alt '02 slices into his research with Rui Viana '05 on the best method for cutting an onion. Using “computer models of the cross section of an onion,” López-Alt and Viana simulated “various cutting geometries and to calculate basic information, such as the number of pieces cut with each method, their average size and the standard deviation from the norm within that group" to see which method is a cut above the rest. 

Tomás Vega SM '19 is CEO and co-founder of Augmental, a startup helping people with movement impairments interact with their computer devices, reports Popular Science’s Andrew Paul. Seeking to overcome the limitations of most brain-computer interfaces, the company’s first product is the MouthPad, leveraging the tongue muscles.“Our hope is to create an interface that is multimodal, so you can choose what works for you,” said Vega. “We want to be accommodating to every condition.”

TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant has a look at MIT spinoff SiTration, which has developed a new process to reat mining wastewater and filter our critical minerals using silicon. “SiTration’s filters are built on the same style of wafers that are used to make computer chips and solar panels, though using a cheaper grade of silicon,” De Chant explains.