TechCrunch reporter Sarah Perez spotlights Outfit, a startup co-founded by MIT alumnus Nadeem Mazen that is aimed at making grassroots-style political campaigning easier. Perez explains that Outfit “helps individual voters reach out to their own personal acquaintances, family and friends.”
The Echo Nest, an audio-tech company founded by MIT alumni, has identified the most danceable number one hit songs, writes Dan Kopf for Quartz. Echo Nest’s algorithm determines the “danceability” of a song based on the tempo and beat regularity, Kopf explains, “so a bridge that even briefly changes the mood is highly penalized.”
Alex Knapp writes for Forbes about Accion Systems, an MIT startup that “manufactures ion thrusters that pack serious oomph even though they're the size and shape of microchips.” Later this summer, the first satellite using the company’s thrusters will take flight, which Accion CEO and MIT alumna Natalya Bailey hails as “a big milestone.”
In an article for The Boston Globe about the growing interest in space exploration, Hiawatha Bray highlights how MIT researchers have pushed the field forward. Bray notes that places like MIT helped the US win the space race and, “continue as major centers of space research. And the ideas emerging from their labs may help our region punch above its weight.”
Forbes contributor Frederick Daso writes about a new MIT startup called Alba that is aimed at helping families in Latin America find qualified caregivers for children and the elderly. Daso explains that leveraging the “social networks of both the family and the prospective babysitter allows Alba to provide a babysitter for any parent.”
Forbes reporter Anne Field highlights MDaaS Global, an MIT startup that aims to operate low-cost primary and diagnostic care centers in Africa. After seeing how a lack of medical equipment made it difficult for doctors to treat patients in rural areas, MIT graduate Oluwasoga Oni decided, “to build critical infrastructure in a scalable way across the continent.”
Catalog, an MIT startup that creates systems to store data on synthetic DNA molecules, hopes to make a commercial DNA storage product in the next year, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Using this new form of data storage, “can shrink down entire data centers into shoeboxes of DNA,” says former MIT postdoc and Catalog CEO Hyunjun Park.
Megan Molteni of Wired writes that data storage company, Catalog, an MIT spinout that is working on using DNA to store data. Molteni explains that at Catalog, “they’re building a machine that will write a terabyte of data a day, using 500 trillion molecules of DNA.”
Justin Chen of STAT writes that Biobot Analytics, which was founded by former MIT researchers, is measuring traces of drugs in sewers in an attempt to detect emerging public health threats. The technology could “first pinpoint communities that need interventions, like substance abuse programs, and later measure the success of those programs in lowering drug use,” explains Chen.
Autonomous vehicle company nuTonomy, an MIT startup, has been given permission to test their cars throughout Boston, writes The Boston Herald’s Jordan Graham. “They are going to encounter things on the road they’ve never seen before,” says MIT research engineer Bryan Reimer. “The only way to progress is to do it.”
Boston Globe reporter Jonathan Saltzman writes about how MIT alumnus Bernat Olle’s startup, Vedanta Biosciences, Inc., is looking to “collect a sample of every type of bacteria that lives in the gut.” The hope is to one day use what’s learned from this ‘library’ to help treat diseases.
CNBC reporter Lora Kolodny writes about Spyce kitchen, an MIT startup that uses both humans and robots to make what it calls “complex meals.” “Spyce has a stated goal of not replacing human chefs, explains Kolodny, “but helping them work faster, and make delicious meals more consistently, in its restaurants.”
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes about Ori, a Media Lab spinout that aims to make apartments more functional and spacious through the use of robotic furniture. Founder and CEO Hasier Larrea, an MIT alumnus, explains that by using technology and robotics, “you can make a 300-square-foot apartment be much more functional than a traditional static 400-square-foot apartment.”
Empatica, a startup co-founded by Prof. Rosalind Picard, is hoping to use the same data gathered by its wearable device Embrace, which “analyzes physiological signals to detect seizures,” to help people manage stress, reports Rina Raphael of Fast Company. “We’re developing the applications that can help people understand stress,” says Picard, “the technology is there.”
The Economist spotlights the experience of several MIT graduates who have started their own companies in a piece about teaching entrepreneurship. The Economist notes that MIT alumna Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola credits a course she took at MIT with helping her, “gain confidence in pitching to a room full of investors.”