AI Venture Studio (MAS.664)

Fall'23



Overview

Join our MAS.664 AI for Impact: Venture Studio class. The rapid developments in AI can enable or accelerate major positive impact throughout the world. This semester’s course will be structured as a "Venture Studio" with mentors and engagement with Scientists, VCs, CEOs and Academics. The course will focus on opportunities in the broad sectors of digital health, sustainability and mobility with data and AI centric technologies such as identity, privacy-tech, foundation models, blockchain, VR/AR and Web3. Follow these steps to register for the course.


  • Step 0: Register for course : For MIT (Link), For Harvard (Link)
  • Step 1: Questionnaire (Link 1) before September 13th
  • Step 2: Finishing the Online AI blockchain course (Link 2) by September 15th


You must finish Step 1 to attend the first class. You will be expected to finish Step 2 and upload the snapshot that you’ve finished the course. If you have finished a degree course or have a professional background in these areas, you do not need to finish the online course.
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Class Schedule: Thursdays 10 AM -12 noon in room E14-633 at MIT Media Lab starting September 7th

Background

This long running course has led to many spin offs including Dimagi, Cogito, Prosperia, Ginger, Sanergy, and nonprofit PathCheck Foundation.

Our previous class links:

All other previous AI for Impact/Global Ventures class links can be found here:

A recent MIT News article talked about the history of our course "AI for Impact" (MAS.664) and its evolution over time. The entrepreneurship-focused class has a history of about a quarter of students continuing on to start real ventures. The course started by Sandy Pentland, earlier called Development Ventures was focused on leveraging entrepreneurship to drive societal scale impact. The highly anticipated Demo Day showcase has also been reported on.



Speakers & Mentors

Course Outline

Class Goals:

  • Venture Studio format for-credit course where instructors seed and stimulate high-impact, high-value projects that are attractive for the best engineering, design, and builder students
  • Advance "Big Ideas" into MVP-seed-stage commercial consideration

Timeline:

  • Meet and Greet held at MIT/Harvard
  • First day of class: September 7, 2023
  • Mid-term review: October 12, 2023
  • Final Class Presentations and “Demo Day” awards: December 7, 2023

Class Structure:

  • Venture studio format, with team projects with 5-8 students per team
  • Guest speakers share leading-edge thinking
  • Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by the end of the term
  • Demo Day

Support for Students:

  • Weekly class mentor meetings on Friday after class / guest lectures / work sessions
  • Class visits to local start-ups and technology companies
  • Data and AI scientists from startups for experience
  • Sessions with startup coaches

Funding:

  • Teams will receive milestone-based seed funds

Expected Mentors and Speakers:

  • Profs / Lecturers:
    • Jinhua Zhao
    • Daniela Rus
    • Cynthia Breazeal
    • Hari Balakrishnan
    • Fadel Adib
  • CEOs:
    • Morczinek (AirWorks)
    • Kartik Venkataraman (Akasha Imaging)
    • Shahid Azim (REACT Neuro)
    • Rajeev Surati (Skyline Nav AI Inc)
    • Kuldeep Singh Rajput (Biofourmis)
    • Aditya Khosla (PathAI)
    • Dan Raviv (Lendbuzz)
    • Tobin Moore (Optoro)
  • VCs:
    • John Hawthorne (2Lantern)
    • Eric Chen (OVO Fund)
    • Calvin Chin (E14 Fund)
    • Habib Haddad (E14 Fund)
    • Dave Blundin (Link Ventures)
    • John Werner (Link Ventures)
    • Sven Strohband (Khosla Ventures)
    • Bilal Zuberi (Lux Capital)
    • Jon McNeil (DVx Ventures)
    • Katie Rae (The Engine)
    • Paul English (Boston Venture Studio)
    • Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures)
    • Jason Pontin (DCVC)
    • Steve Jurvetson (Future Ventures)
    • Reed Sturtevant (The Engine)

Judges:

  • John Hawthrone (Two Lantern VC)
  • Giuseppe Stuto (186 Ventures)
  • Hesam N. Motlagh (Kohsla Ventures)
  • Raza Shaikh (Launchpad Venture Group)
  • Ali Mahmoud (Glasswing Ventures)
  • Imran Saeed (MITSloan)
  • Stephen Marcus (Riot Ventures)
  • Rana el Kaliouby (Entrepreneur)
  • Cavin Mozarmi (Remus Capital)
  • Mark Castleman (Intel Ignite)
  • Bo Vargas (BV Capital Partners)
  • Milo Werner (The Engine)
  • Beth Porter (Esme Learning)
  • Otkrist Gupta (Lendbuzz)
  • Alex Pentland (MIT)
  • David Zug (HarbourVest)
  • Kahini Shah (Obvious Ventures)
  • Jorge Cortell (Harvard Innovation Labs)
  • Davey Bakhshi (FORTEFAi)
  • Geoff Oblak (Data Point Capital)
  • John Sharp MD (Harvard Medical School)
  • Rob Fisher (Cogo Labs)
  • Terry V. Eagan MD (Eagan Medical Group, Inc)
  • Narendra Kale (Kale Logistics Solutions)
  • Rick Mehra (Continuum Health Ventures)
  • Jadyn Bryden (Xfund)
  • Mohamad Ali
  • Dafu Gao (OnePieceLabs)

Agenda

All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

August 24, 2023
12:00pm - 01:00pm

Virtual Meet & Greet 1: Course pre-meetup

Registration Link: (Link)

Join us to meet instructors and understand the pre-homework, timeline and expectations.

August 31, 2023
12:00pm - 01:00pm

Virtual Meet & Greet 2: Course pre-meetup

Registration Link: (Link)

Join us to meet instructors and understand the pre-homework, timeline and expectations.

September 6, 2023
05:00pm - 7:00pm

In-person Meet & Greet 1: Pre-class social

Registration Link: (Link)

Video

Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Room 32-D608, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

September 7, 2023
05:00pm - 7:00pm

In-person Meet & Greet 2: Class social

Registration Link: (Link)

Video

Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, MA 02139

September 7, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

First day of class

MIT Media Lab, E14-633

September 14, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Second Session of Class

September 21, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Third Session of Class

September 28, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Fourth Session of Class

October 5, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Fifth Session of Class

October 12, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Sixth Session of Class

Midterm
October 19, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Seventh Session of Class

Individual Meeting

October 26, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Eighth Session of Class

November 2, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Ninth Session of Class

November 9, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Tenth Session of Class

November 16, 2023

Eleventh Session of Class

November 23, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Thanksgiving holiday, No class

November 30, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Thirteenth Session of Class

December 7, 2023
10:00am - 12:00pm

Final Class

Student final deliverables presentation
12:00pm - 01:30pm

Social Event

Hosted at MIT Media Lab