MIT Media Ventures ~ Spring 2018 Projects!

Professors Alex "Sandy" Pentland, Cynthia Breazeal, and I together

with colleague instructors David Shrier, Beth Porter, Steve Derezinski, and Thomas Hardjono were pleased to have ~75 students in our MIT Media Lab & MIT Sloan cross-listed Media Ventures class this past Spring 2018 semester working on nearly three dozen projects! These projects are a combination of new venture proposals pursuing entrepreneurial concepts and innovation roadmaps exploring a larger landscape of emerging technology possibilities. Just to give you a taste for the wide range of topics covered, here they are in alphabetical order...

• Acciyo ~ Assistive AI for Active News Readers
• Aion Therapeutics ~ Bio-derived Neuroceuticals  
• Alpaca ~ Scaling Online Marketplaces  
• Bias Detection ~ AI/ML for Fallacy Detection 
• Bienvendido ~ Home Purchase Fund for Mexico 
• Blockchain + Healthcare ~ Traceablity & Authentication 
• Blockchain x Music ~ Fast, Inclusive, Artist-Friendly 
• Climate Media Engine ~ Provocative Short Videos 
• Digital Health ~ Proactive Care Innovation Roadmap 
• Equalizr ~ Speech Pattern Analysis & Coaching 
• EthAnalytics ~ Blockchain Venture Impact Metrics 
• FundONE ~ Democratizing Political Fundraising 
• Hustle ~ Changing Contractor Career Options 
• Levio ~ Home Swapping for LGTBQ Travelers 
• Markets for Data ~ Vertical & Horizontal Roadmap 
• Mindful VR ~ Overcoming Test Anxiety, Boosting Scores 
• Mobile Digital ID ~ Authentication & Login Tech 
• Nutrition Tracking ~ Consumer Innovation Roadmap 
• Oncotector ~ Surgical Cancer Detector 
• Personal Media Venture ~ MIT Tech x Business Examples  
• Project Tokenize ~ Alternatives to Debt & Equity 
• R&D Megafunds ~ Financial Instruments for Good 
• Recipere ~ New Age Clinical Research Portal 
• Restaurants & Tech ~ For Kitchens, Tables, & Beyond 
• Smart Devices for the Disabled ~ Innovation Roadmap 
• Space Economy ~ Astropreneurship Roadmap 
• Straight Line Capital ~ Alt Funding Platform 
• Tech to Fight Sex Trafficking ~ Tools Roadmap 
• Told Ya! ~ Peer-to-Peer Casino-less Betting  
• Trustee ~ Digital ID for Consumer Use 
• Waffle ~ Re-imagining Insurance Holistically 
• Wakanda Institute of Technology ~ New MIT Conference 
• Zilper ~ Trenchless Construction for Piping 
• Zippi ~ Inclusive Finance in Brazil

MIT Media Ventures ~ Thurs 10a-12n Spring '17

UPDATE: Due to MIT's snow closing, our kickoff class was Thursday morning 10a-12n February 16th, 2017 in Media Lab E14-633.

Our MIT Media Ventures ~ Media Lab Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovations class surveys a broad landscape of emerging media technologies interwoven with live- and historic-cases of intre- and entrepreneurship-based on new media ideas, culminating in a term project. The core goal of this Action Lab offering is for students to gain increased understanding of how emergent media and digital innovations translate into commercial reality and transform society.

We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapple with the difficulties of deploying and diffusing products and as a means of exploring a range of business models and opportunities enabled by emerging Media Lab and related innovations. This year we will be especially emphasizing urban innovations, personal data rights, health, civic engagement, financial service innovations, mobile transactions, and social media generally with special focus on social networks, quantified self and society, AI, robotics, automation, and data analytics. Join us at first class Thursday morning 10a-12n February 9th, 2017 in Media Lab E14-633.

CityScope Kendall ~ Model Innovation District

I'm co-teaching CityScope Kendall Square class this Spring 2017 together with MIT Media Lab colleague Kent Larson and team, starting Wednesday, 8 February at 2pm, as part of our MIT Cities Initiative. Kendall Square is considered by many to be an ideal innovation district -- but it is dysfunctional as a community due to an extreme lack of amenities, housing, cultural venues, and after-work activity. MIT’s selection as the developer for the 14-acre Volpe Center creates one last opportunity to transform the district into a vibrant and creative center for entrepreneurship. Students will explore an evidence-based, data-driven process that makes use of the CityScope augmented reality platform to design, iterate, and reimagine Kendall Square. Join us at first class Wed afternoon 2pm February 8th, 2017 in Media Lab E15-359.

MIT Media Ventures ~ Thurs 10a-12n Spring '16

Our MIT Media Ventures ~ Media Lab Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovations class surveys a broad landscape of emerging media technologies interwoven with live- and historic-cases of inter- and entrepreneurship-based on new media ideas, culminating in a term project. The core goal of this Action Lab offering is for students to gain increased understanding of how emergent media and digital innovations translate into commercial reality and transform society.

We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapple with the difficulties of deploying and diffusing products and as a means of exploring a range of business models and opportunities enabled by emerging Media Lab and related innovations. This year we will be especially emphasizing urban innovations, personal data rights, public health, financial service innovations, mobile transactions, and social media generally with special focus on social networks, quantified self and society, and "Big Data" analytics. Join us at first class Thursday morning 10a-12n February 4th, 2016 in Media Lab E14-633.

Creative Places ~ On Urban Hot Spots Spring '16

I'm co-teaching Creative Places class this Spring 2016 together with MIT Media Lab colleague Kent Larson and team, starting Wednesday, 3 February at 2pm, as part of our MIT Cities Initiative. We're particularly keen on understanding and enabling innovation, entrepreneurship, and creative vitality in cities. We seek better indices (or rankings or scores) and analyses especially of important but often intangible aspects of the city. Ultimately we aspire to deep understanding of how urban attractiveness can be best achieved through design, zoning, development, and more.  Join us at first class Wed afternoon 2pm February 4th, 2016 in Media Lab E14-633.

Dancing Cows ~ Bovine Joy at Spring Freedom!

24Oranges spots cows dancing with delight after being let in fields for first time in Spring;-)