9.455/15.128/20.454/MAS.883 Revolutionary Ventures ~ Inventing & Deploying Transformative Technologies
Fall 2015
Instructors: Edward Stuart Boyden, Joseph JACOBSON, Joost Paul Bonsen, Desiree D Dudley, Adam Henry Marblestone
Lecture: Th 2-4 P.M. (E15-341)
Information:
How to Invent and Deploy Transformative Technologies and
Engineering Revolutions
Revolutionary Ventures (RV) is an Action Lab seminar on
envisioning and building ideas and organizations to accelerate
engineering revolutions. Focuses on emerging technology domains,
such as neurotechnology, imaging, cryotechnology, gerontechnology,
and bio-and-nano fabrication. Draws on historical examples as well
as live case studies of existing or emerging organizations,
including labs, institutes, startups, and companies. Goals range
from accelerating basic science to developing transformative
products or therapeutics. Each class is devoted to a specific area,
often with invited speakers, exploring issues from the deeply
technical through the strategic. Individually or in small groups,
students prototype new ventures aimed at inventing and deploying
revolutionary technologies.
Limited Enrollment
Limited enrollment subject to permission of instructors. All interested candidate students must send a three-paragraph application email ASAP to reven@media.mit.edu in order to be considered. The three paragraphs should explain (1) your trajectory in education and/or career to the present day, emphasizing any special skills or unique experiences, (2) your inventive, scientific, and/or entrepreneurial aspirations over the coming decade, (3) your biggest ambition about how the human condition could be transformed for the better within our lifetimes. First round of permissions announced before registration day and a class admission waiting list will be maintained on a first-applied, first-admitted basis.
Homepage -- http://syntheticneurobiology.org/classes/display/44
Announcements
Special lecture: Dr. Miyoung Chun, EVP of Kavli Foundation
as part of our Revolutionary Ventures guest speaker series -- Miyoung
Chun, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of the Kavli Foundation.
- - -
Speaker: Miyoung Chun, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President of Science Programs
The Kavli Foundation
Title: "You want to make an impact? Start listening.”
Time: 2P-3P, Nov. 12, 2015
Room: E15-341
Building: MIT Media Lab, 20 Ames St., Cambridge, MA 02139
Dr. Chun was one of the key initiators of the U.S. BRAIN initiative.
In her lecture, she will will talk about how she began the process of
launching the U.S. BRAIN Initiative, which is helping create new tools
for studying and repairing the brain (ref. 1), then catalyzed the
Unified Microbiome Initiative, which aims to study the Earth's
microbial ecosystems (ref. 2), and is now igniting the Kavli HUMAN
Project, a massive longitudinal study of human health and behavior,
which aims to track 10,000 people over a 20 year period, to better
understand the human mind and the human condition (ref. 3). Please
join us to hear Dr. Chun speak!
References
1. http://braininitiative.nih.
2. http://www.nature.com/news/
3. http://www.neuroeconomics.nyu.
Announced on 09 November 2015 8:48 a.m. by Edward Stuart Boyden
Guidance: first homework, due 9/17, and other topics
2. The first real homework is to write (e.g., a page or two) about your possible paths going forward for the next 5-10 years -- both the stretch goals and the fallback goals, visualizing the time ahead in detail, and delineating what skills or resources you would need to acquire along the way to make them a reality. But remember: the first rule of our class is that there aren't any hard and fast rules. If you want to diagram it out as a flowchart, or whatever, feel free. Just make sure you're communicating the content.
3. As for picking the goal you are most passionate about exploring in the class, and preparing a 1-minute oral pitch (no slides) for the next class: you'll want to communicate two things: why your goal is important, and why you think it's solvable. This is often tricky: many important goals aren't addressable, and many addressable goals aren't important. It's okay not to have a clear plan at this point, but solving your goal shouldn't defy the laws of physics. Or if there's an "unknown unknown," hint at why you think you can clear it up.
5. Looking ahead: the homework due on 10/1 is to interview 3-6 scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, or others, active in the general domains you are interested in (or orthogonal, complementary domains), summarizing the key insights. This is a really fun exercise, but fair warning: it can be really hard to schedule time with busy people, so you might want to start contacting people soon, even this week or next, because getting on someone's calendar can take some effort (and luck).
6. Also, these announcements should be going out by email, but they'll always be archived on the front page of the class Stellar site as well,
http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/MAS/fa15/MAS.883/
Best,
Ed
Announced on 11 September 2015 10:10 a.m. by Edward Stuart Boyden
