boston diaries 2014-2015

[chris macrae]

Connect with us! Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook  Visit us! E40-160   Top of the Week: 11/10/2014 News: SolidEnergy achieved a major breakthrough and more! Upcoming: What Legal Stuff I Need to Know When Starting a Company and more! Deadlines: Legatum Center's Zambezi Prize Deadline and more! Greater Community: HBS SPARK Conference and more! Looking Ahead: MIT Water Innovation Prize Idea Pitch Generator Dinner and more!

News Alumni in the News Alumni founded SolidEnergy recently achieved a major breakthrough, breaking the world record in battery energy density, they achieved 1337 Wh/L (validated by A123), more than twice that of conventional Li-ion batteries. Alumni founded LTG Exam Prep and peerTransfer, and several professors including Martin Trust Center affiliate Sanjay Sarma, are nominated for BostInno's 50 on Fire in Education. MIT Alumna, Zoe Schagrin, launches Fleetfit, a startup that brings fitness trainers to your home or office. Forget Dating Apps, These Millennials Want to Use Startups to Chang.... Julie Lein (SM '12) and Clara Brenner (SM '12) launch business accelerator Tumml. Tech Licensing Office director Lita Nelsen wins lifetime achievement award from Global University Venturing. Upcoming What Legal Stuff Do I Really Need to Know When Starting a Company? A Founder's Orientation to Startup Law Wed, Nov 12th, 12-1pm, E40-160 Martin Trust Center program coordinator Sam Breen, a trained lawyer, will discuss startup formation, founder's agreements, intellectual property, and immigration basics, as well as how to work effectively with lawyers. You will come away with a broad-based introduction to startup law so you get it right the first time. RSVP Here. hack/reduce Lecture Series: Steve Papa on Startups & Big Data Opportunities Wed, Nov 12th, 5:30-7pm, E25-117 Steve Papa was the founder and CEO of Endeca until it was acquired by Oracle in 2011 ($1.1 billion). Before founding Endeca, Steve was part of the original team creating Akamai; a member of the early team at Inktomi in charge of creating the company's infrastructure caching business; a product manager at Teradata; and a venture associate at Venrock. Steve has served as Chairman and Director of Infinio Systems Incorporated since May 7, 2013. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Operations Research and Economics from Princeton University.Learn More. MIT $100K Pitch Finale Wed, Nov 12th, 7-10pm, Wong Auditorium These 21 finalists were selected from over 150 teams in October, and now they will present their ideas in 60-second pitches in front of a panel of five expert judges - and the MIT community. The event will also feature a keynote from Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot and MIT alumnus. In addition to recently guiding his inbound marketing firm through a successful IPO, Dharmesh is an active member of the Boston area entrepreneurial community and an angel investor in over 40 startups. Register Here.  VMS From the Trenches: Start-up War Story with Peter Quigley of Fiberspar Thurs, Nov 13th, 5:30-7pm, 2-105 Hear the frank and exciting account of how an MIT entrepreneur grew and reinvented a successful technology company -- from leading maker of patented fiber-reinforced tubing for the high-performance sporting goods market to one of the fastest growing oil-field service companies in North America. Learn More. StartIAP 2015 Bootcamp Info Sessions Fri, Nov 14th, 11-11:30am, 5-134 Tue, Nov 18th, 12-12:30pm, E40-160 Learn more about StartIAP, where startup teams from across the Institute -- undergraduate and graduate, from all disciplines -- have the opportunity to buckle down and make progress on their ideas, with close advising and education from the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and its acclaimed Disciplined Entrepreneurship methodology. Non-pizza lunch will be provided. RSVP Here. Product Management Speaker Series: Hans Robertson '99 M.Eng '03, co-founder, Meraki (acquired by Cisco) Fri, Nov 14th, 12-1pm, E40-160 Hans Robertson co-founded Meraki Networks, Inc. (acquired by Cisco in 2012 for $1.2B) in 2006 and serves as its Vice President of Product Management. He holds an S.B. and M.Eng in Computer Science from MIT. Non-pizza lunch will be provided. RSVP Here. athenahealth Hackathon Fri - Sun, Nov 14-16, Watertown MA athenahealth is hosting a hackathon as part of their More Disruption Please (MDP) program! The goal of this event is to bring together inventive, forward-thinking minds to change the status quo and create disruptive solutions in healthcare today. If you are an engineer, entrepreneur, physician, designer, or scientist, then come get involved to help drive the much-needed change in healthcare. athenahealth's aim is to provide APIs for hackers to utilize as part of the hackathon! Learn More. MIT-CHIEF Annual Conference Sat-Sun, Nov 15-16th, Stata Center Two-day annually-held conference of leading authorities from academia, industries, enterprises, businesses and the government institutions, from both China and the US, will deliver presentations and showcase their work at MIT. Addressing not only the current development and potential collaborations of technologies and enterprises in the US and China in areas such as clean technology, information technology, health care and biotechnology, but also the related policies and future directions China should take for continued future development in innovation and entrepreneurship. Learn More. Innovation in Hospitals: Myths and Realities Mon, Nov 17th, 12-1pm, E40-160 Dr. Ayesha Khalid MBA '14 will discuss the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship in the hospital setting, in particular in the surgical space, and how prospective entrepreneurs should approach the sector. Non-pizza lunch will be provided. RSVP Here. Deadlines Application Deadline for Startup Trade Show and Blitz Competition at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Deadline: Fri, Nov 14th Applications are now open for the Startup Trade Show and Blitz Competition at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (Feb 27-28). This is a unique opportunity for sports-industry startups to demonstrate their exciting products or services to potential customers, business partners and employees. Apply before November 14th to have the chance to showcase your startup at the world's largest sports conference and pitch for a chance to win $5,000.Learn More. Application deadline for the Legatum Center's Zambezi Prize Deadline: Sat, Nov 15th The Zambezi Prize raises awareness of entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, encourages the flow of capital to financial inclusion ventures, and advances entrepreneurship and financial inclusion to fuel broad-based prosperity.Learn More. Greater Community Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator Event Wed, Nov 12th, 6-9pm, NuVu Studio Cambridge The SprintAccelerator powered by Techstars is a three-month, immersive, mentorship-driven startup accelerator with a focus on healthcare. With access to Sprint technologies, engineers and executives, along with the massive 3,000+ network of Techstars entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and corporate partners, we are helping startups build the future of mobile health. Techstars and Health 2.0 Boston are coming together for an event to help start-ups learn about the accelerator and how to get involved. Learn More. The Digital Trust: The Technology of Trust, Boston Thurs, Nov 13, 8:30-10:30am, The State Room, Harborside Salon The digital economy is built on trust: that transactions are protected from fraud and crime, and that personal, business, and government data are used appropriately and stored securely. Bloomberg Government is coming to Boston-home to some of the nation's top universities, start-ups, financial institutions and leading corporations-to convene a conversation about commerce, technology and trust. Learn More.  Executive Summary Submission Deadline for Baylor New Venture Competition Fri, Nov 14th The Baylor New Venture Competition is a two-day, dual round business plan competition and speed pitch competition promoting entrepreneurship and small business development. Learn More. Harvard Business School SPARK Conference Sat, Nov 15th, Harvard Business School Organized by the HBS Entrepreneurship Club, the Entrepreneurship Conference is one of the largest and most anticipated conferences of the year at HBS. Students from HBS, Harvard University, MIT, and entrepreneurs from across Boston meet with dozens of experienced entrepreneurs, investors and experts for one exciting day exploring the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Learn More.  Looking Ahead * denotes newly added items 11/17 MIT Water Innovation Prize: Idea pitch & Generator Dinner 11/18 MITEF Cambridge Beantown Throwdown 11/19* Immigration Law Workshop: A Focus on Startups 11/19 How Do I Find a Co-Founder? A Founder's Orientation to Building a Team 11/19 How Can MIT Resources Help My Startup Idea? A Founder's Orientation... 11/19 MIT Student Entrepreneurship Meetup & Cornhole 11/20-22 Qatar Hackathon 11/21 Product Mgmt Speaker Series: Raj Bhatia MBA '10, VP of Product, Atl... 11/21-23 Undergraduate How to Hack Healthcare (H^3) 11/21-23 Boston Startup Weekend EDU 12/3 I Have My Product Idea. Now Where Do I Get Customers? A Founder's O... 12/12 17th Annual MIT Venture Capital & Innovation Conference

If you have an MIT entrepreneurship event to promote, please let us know!

[chris macrae]

http://sdm.mit.edu

2014 MIT SDM Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges 
Systems Thinking for Emerging, Evolving, and Established Leaders

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Back-to-the-Classroom Preconference Sessions, Wong Auditorium

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Registration
2:00 - 2:05 p.m.	Welcome and Overview, SDM Back to the Classroom Joan S. Rubin, Industry Codirector, System Design and Management, MIT
2:05 - 3:30 p.m.	What Is Systems Thinking and Why Is It Important? Qi Van Eikema Hommes, Ph.D., Lecturer, Engineering Systems Division, MIT
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.	A New Era in Project Management: Viewing Projects as Systems Bryan R. Moser, Ph.D., Lecturer, System Design and Management, MIT; Researcher, Design Engineering Laboratory, University of Tokyo; President and CEO, Global Project Design

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

SDM Systems Thinking Conference, Wong Auditorium

7:00 - 8:00 a.m.	Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:00 - 8:05 a.m.	Welcome and Overview Pat Hale, Executive Director, SDM Fellows Program
8:10 - 9:10 a.m.	Keynote: The Importance of a Systems-Based Approach to Leadership i... Dr. Catherine Mohr, Vice President of Medical Research, Intuitive Surgical
9:15 - 10:15 a.m.	Hacking Leadership Andrea Ippolito, SDM '11, Ph.D. student, Engineering Systems Division, MIT; Presidential Innovation Fellow, White House; Co-founder, Smart Scheduling; Co-leader, MIT Hacking Medicine
10:15 - 10:45 a.m.	Break
10:45 - 11:45 a.m.	A Systems Thinking Framework for Emerging, Evolving, and Establishe... Freddie Douglas III, SDM '00, Director of Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate, John C. Stennis Space Center, NASA
11:45 - 1:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00 - 1:15 p.m.	Design Leadership at MIT Matthew S. Kressy, Director and Senior Lecturer, Integrated Design & Management, MIT
1:15 - 2:15 p.m.	Keynote: Adopting Systems Thinking as a Standard Organizational App... James Cook, Vice President and Director, Center for Enterprise Modernization, The MITRE Corporation
2:15 - 2:30 p.m.	Break
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.	The Importance of Failure and the Incomplete Leader Christopher Berardi, SDM '11, Ph.D. Student, Engineering Systems Division, MIT; Captain, US Air Force
3:30 - 4:30 p.m.	How a Systems-Based Approach Can Help You Lead and Manage More Effe... Michael A. M. Davies, Founder and Chairman, Endeavour Partners; Senior Lecturer, Engineering Systems Division, MIT
4:30 - 4:45 p.m.	Wrapping Up and Looking Forward Joan S. Rubin, SDM Industry Codirector, MIT
4:45 - 5:45 p.m.	Networking reception
6:00 - 9:00 p.m.	SDM Information Evening Bush Room, Building 10, Room 105 (Under the Dome)

[chris macrae]

Turning Waste into Energy, One Community at a Time

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By Kathryn O'Neill, courtesy of News@MITSloan

On a good day, residents in Lagos, Nigeria, get eight hours of electricity—far from enough for a rapidly growing city of 18 million. To address this shortfall, students from across MIT have teamed up to launch a waste-to-energy company that will provide Lagos residents with cheap, reliable electricity.

"Lagos has a severe waste problem, severe unemployment, and an environmental problem. Millions of people are running diesel generators on a daily basis," said Adetayo "Tayo" Bamiduro, an MIT Sloan MBA '15 student from Nigeria. The company the students founded, NovaGen Power Solutions, aims to supply biogas to apartment buildings while providing local jobs. "The impact is social, environmental, and economic," Bamiduro said.

The brainchild of Adeyemi "Yemi" Adepetu, a student in MIT's System Design and Management (SDM) program, NovaGen will collect organic waste from apartments and convert it into biogas to fuel generators. The system will be piloted this summer at a seven-unit building and scaled up to 10 buildings, serving 70 units in total. If the pilot succeeds, the next step would be for NovaGen to equip all 210 units managed by their partner real estate company, Property Mart Real Estate Investment.

"We think what's available is too expensive," Adepetu said. "Our idea was: Look at the technology out there, build locally, and make it affordable for people."

While NovaGen will employ existing technology, it has a novel strategy, Bamiduro said. "The innovation is our business model. We're not targeting large businesses or customers one by one. We're looking for that sweet spot," he said, wherein 20-70 families share one waste-to-energy system. "That's why we picked real estate."

The fledgling company has racked up a number of successes in entrepreneurship competitions. The team—which also includes Ellen Chen, a Master's in City Planning (MCP) candidate in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning—was a semifinalist this spring in the MIT Africa Innovate Business Plan Competition, the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, and the MIT $100K Pitch and Launch Entrepreneurship Competitions (emerging markets track).

Adepetu was recently named a finalist for the 2014 Echoing Green Climate Fellowship, which supports next-generation social entrepreneurs committed to working on innovations in mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Adepetu also has a Legatum Fellowship that supports his work on NovaGen and is supported by the MasterCard Foundation.

Born and raised in Nigeria, Adepetu said the idea for the company had been percolating for a long time before he came to MIT and was inspired to act. "I thought [NovaGen] was 10 years away. MIT was the crucial influence that took me from the corporate world," said Adepetu, who spent several years working for United Technologies. "Before MIT... I thought I'd do this when I was done with my first career."

At MIT last fall, Adepetu met Chen in New Enterprises, a class designed to help students launch startups. "I wanted to do something in emerging markets and Yemi's was the only idea in a developing country," said Chen, whose interest in housing inspired the idea of targeting residential real estate. Adepetu had originally envisioned serving hospitals.

Bamiduro was the next team member to join NovaGen, bringing with him crucial, up-to-date contacts with the Lagos business community. (Adepetu had been out of the country for nine years, but Bamiduro had just left a lead analyst role in Nigeria's oil and gas industry.) Bamiduro said his goal in attending MIT was to gain the skills necessary to create "a high impact energy venture that would employ a lot of people."

NovaGen's founders credited the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship for first believing in their idea, as well as the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, MIT Africa Interest Group, and the student club Energy for Human Development with giving them opportunities to meet mentors and connect to others with a passion for energy and the developing world. "The ecosystem at MIT Sloan gives you the chance to test your ideas vigorously," Bamiduro said. The MIT D-Lab group has also been a source of mentorship and advice, he added.

All three founders are committed to a future with NovaGen—although Chen won't graduate until December, and Bamiduro won't complete his degree until 2015. Adepetu, who will graduate this spring with a master's degree in engineering and management, said he expects to spend the next couple years building the company in Nigeria, but the long-term plan for NovaGen is to build a U.S.-based multinational company. For now, the founders are actively seeking early seed investors, mentors, and additional business partners to help them move forward.