Startups

MIT startup Ministry of Supply has developed a jacket that utilizes AI to keep its wearer warm. “The jacket…can also be voice-controlled through devices like the Amazon Echo or manually with an app,” writes Erin Black for CNBC.

This year, MIT’s Global Startup Workshop (GSW), a student-run “conference on innovation and technology,” will take place in Bangkok, writes Jon Russell of TechCrunch. “We’ve been focusing more on emerging markets because it’s such an exciting space to be in and it’s a space where GSW can have the most impact,” said graduate student and organizer Juan Ruiz Ruiz.

Alumnus Mark Ethier ’01 talks to NECN’s Brian Burnell about his startup, iZotope, that allows musicians of all levels to record professional grade audio. “I was a passionate musician, who wanted to make recordings, and I understood the technology, but the tools out there were really complicated,” Ethier said.

Astranis, a startup co-founded by alum Ryan McLinko, is building smaller and less expensive satellites for the purpose of providing internet access. “[T]he company just might be able to bring affordable high-speed internet to places where laying fiber isn't practical, such as the Pacific islands,” writes Klint Finley for Wired.

EasyEmail, a startup co-founded at MIT, offers an AI-driven “productivity tool” for quickly responding to email. “Going through MIT’s Sandbox Program, Fuse, and The Martin Trust Center’s NYC Summer Startup Studio helped the team rapidly iterate and develop their product,” writes Forbes contributor Frederick Daso, also a graduate student at MIT.

MIT spinout Myomo has developed a robotic brace to aid in the reduction of neurological-related limb paralysis. “With the robotic brace, patients use their own muscle signals to control movements of a paretic or injured arm,” writes Jennifer Kite-Powell for Forbes. “[T]he brace amplifies their weak muscle signal to help move the limb.”

Katie Rae, managing director of The Engine, has collaborated with other Boston-based female investors to create FemaleFounders.org. The group will hold “office hours” that will encourage “entrepreneurs to get to know women investors and build a community,” writes Ron Miller for TechCrunch.

Dropbox, which was co-founded by MIT alumnus Drew Houston ’05, has filed for “its long-awaited initial public offering, which is set to be one of the biggest tech debuts of the past few years,” writes Maureen Farrell and Jay Greene of The Wall Street Journal

Spun out from MIT, Feature Labs helps companies identify, implement, and deploy impactful machine learning products, writes Ron Miller of TechCrunch. By automating the manual process of feature engineering, data scientists “can spend more time figuring out what they need to predict,” says co-founder Max Kanter ’15.

MIT startup Ministry of Supply has launched an intelligent heated jacket that can operate manually or respond to smart assistants. As Richard Priday of Wired explains, the “optimum temperature of the garment” is calculated using sensors that detect the outside temperature as well as the user’s body movement and temperature.

StandX, a robotic chair developed by MIT research scientist Simon Hong, helps users avoid back pain by nudging its occupant to shift positions, writes Scott Kirsner for The Boston Globe. Hong, who invented the chair to deal with his own back pain, says his is proactive because with others “you can change position, but you do it only when you feel pain."

Prof. Alex Pentland speaks with Nikolai Kuznetsov of Forbes about Endor, the predictive analytics company he cofounded with Research Affiliate Yaniv Altshuler. “Endor aspires to give average investors and traders an easier time finding equal footing all while lending the investment industry more legitimacy,” said Pentland.

Ministry of Supply, which was founded out of MIT, is launching a new line of “intelligent outerwear” that will feature a jacket that can be warmed from your smartphone. "We think technology should just blend into the background and be simple to use,” cofounder and president Gihan Amarasiriwardena ’11 told Janelle Nanos of the Boston Globe.

Spun out of Sloan’s Billion Prices Project, PriceStats tracks millions of items sold online and produces a daily measure of U.S. consumer prices, allowing investors to track inflation faster.“By producing a daily index of prices…it has a considerable jump on figures that government entities calculate monthly,” writes Eric Morath of the Wall Street Journal.

Aerobotics, a startup by MIT alumnus James Paterson ’14 aims to optimize crop yields and reduce costs for farmers by using an app to analyze images of the land. “Satellite footage is used to highlight longer-term trends, while drones are flown at specific points during the season to get more detailed information,” write Eleni Giokos and Mary McDougall for CNN Tech.