Tuesday, October 20
EmTech MIT’s program examines the fundamental underpinnings of our technology-driven world, exploring with purpose a new path forward.
We have reached a world-altering inflection point. It is time to re-evaluate priorities and processes to find new ways of doing and being, unencumbered by old rituals and routines formerly held in place by inertia or the status quo.
Now, more than ever, leaders must learn to leverage new perspectives, new ideas, and new approaches to the design and deployment of new technologies.
An economic pause, an upcoming election, and a virus that is still not under control, what do business leaders need to know now in order to pivot for change?
How can a data-driven framework help nations prepare for potential catastrophic events tied to their dependence on infrastructure such as oil rigs, nuclear reactors, and desalination plants?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
Get an expert’s overview of the history, developments, opportunities, and issues within this dynamic field.
Hosted by: David R. Martinez, MIT Lincoln Laboratory Cyber Security and Information Sciences Division
Open to All-Access ticket holders only
We take you inside CSAIL to unveil SprayableTech, a system that lets users create large-scale interactive surfaces with sensors and displays using airbrushed inks.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
Examining state of the art AI, how it's being put to use to solve real-world problems, and how that work may inform future innovations.
The power of deep learning has expanded but has yet to lead to deep understanding. What needs to happen for the next major step in the development of AI?
From better climate models to more efficient supply chains, how can we leverage the power of AI to feed the world?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
MIT’s nuclear research reactor MITR-II is the second largest university research reactor in the US. Join this virtual tour and get an inside look at the reactor and its experimental facilities. Our lab expert will answer questions about the lab and its work on molten salt reactors, a leading candidate for next-generation nuclear power.
Tune in as we challenge our Innovators Under 35 to brainstorm solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.
In a matter of months, covid-19 has changed everything. In this segment, we’ll explore the latest vaccine research and the progress of other covid-related treatments.
How is the global community preparing for what will be the single largest and most needed deployment of vaccines the world has ever seen?
Could neutralizing antibodies be a solution to not only treat, but also prevent, covid-19?
Covid-19 is mutating. Will this prevent us from finding a universal vaccine?
Any new technology creates moral dilemmas. “Where would you Draw the Line?” is our informal, participatory debate about where to draw the ethical boundaries on topics like genetic modification and climate harm reduction. We’ll give our audience a series of scenarios and ask them to discuss the case for and against each one.
Wednesday, October 21
Not based in North America? Not a problem. Watch the content at your convenience and join a group discussion at a time zone-friendly hour as we talk about the previous sessions and what’s coming up on the agenda.
Examining the evolving nature of cyberthreats and response strategies for when the inevitable breaches occur.
The National Security Agency shares its approach to cybersecurity, to include discussing the release of recent cybersecurity advisories and how NSA plans to address emerging technologies.
Now that we’re all working from home, have we exponentially increased the number of gateways hackers can use to get into our corporate networks?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
In 25 minutes we’ll summarize the evidence for climate change, confront some of the stickier questions behind uncertainty in climate projections, and discuss particular risks entailed by climate change.
Hosted by: Kerry Emanuel, MIT Lorenz Center
Open to All-Access ticket holders only
RoboRaise demonstrates robot-human collaboration where machines help people lift objects by monitoring their muscle movements.
It’s our world, and we need to take better care.
Carbon management strategies are a critical method for addressing the impact of fossil fuel waste on the environment. What mitigation strategies are needed to reduce the negative climate impacts? What will it take to capture and extract existing carbon from the environment? What do we need to know about the technology that may make this possible?
Strides in energy storage will make it cheaper and easier to clean up the power and transportation sectors. In this session, we’ll dive into recent advances in lithium-metal batteries and explore why they could help deliver less expensive electric vehicles and lower-emissions aircrafts.
How can the chemical industry reduce its carbon footprint by using AI to optimize reactions with electricity instead of heat?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
Since March, the Broad Institute has performed over 1 million covid-19 tests, at low cost and with 24-hour turn-around. During this video tour and Q&A session, scientists from the Broad Institute will demonstrate how they have set up the lab for processing covid-19 tests at scale and discuss how they have supported state public health needs throughout the pandemic.
Tune in as we challenge our Innovators Under 35 to brainstorm solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
Our digital world does not exist within a bubble. This segment explores the checks and balances that are - or should be - in place to ensure equitable inclusion at the creative table and distribution of technology’s benefits for all.
How do we overcome discriminatory design when it is hardcoded into the very infrastructure that shapes future technology innovations?
Our cities are aging. How can technology innovations make infrastructure more sustainable, efficient, and equitable?
Any new technology creates moral dilemmas. “Where would you Draw the Line?” is our informal, participatory debate about where to draw the ethical boundaries on topics like genetic modification and climate harm reduction. We’ll give our audience a series of scenarios and ask them to discuss the case for and against each one.
Thursday, October 22
Not based in North America? Not a problem. Watch the content at your convenience and join a group discussion at a timezone-friendly hour as we talk about the previous sessions and what’s coming up on the agenda.
Social media giants are a vital source of information and community for billions of people, yet they are also home to a flood of misinformation.
How do we ensure that this technology serves a mission of forming communities as opposed to driving deeper wedges between people?
How is racial bias in data being used to train facial recognition systems?
With the ever-increasing volume of content on social media, will AI be able to protect us from misinformation and manipulated media?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
The rise of 5G mobile technologies is re-architecting the wireless communications and networking industry. This session explores 5G and its impact on business and consumers.
Hosted by: Muriel Médard, MIT EECS
Open to All-Access ticket holders only
Imagine a video game where you can grab an object off your desk and have it be seamlessly incorporated into gameplay. Memglove is a wearable smart glove that can detect your hand pose, distinguish between more than 30 different household objects, and has the potential to transform AR, VR, and video games of tomorrow.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
There is data you want to share, data you need to share, and data that’s for your eyes only. Regardless of type, it’s essential to ensure that your cloud provider has the protections in place to ensure proper access to each. The next challenge then becomes evaluating the trade-off between the collective benefit of data sharing and the personal need for data privacy. We discuss.
2020 has brought global disruption of societies, customer behavior, and economies. The businesses that survive and thrive will need to make fast, smart decisions about how to pivot in today’s world – and those smart decisions will be fundamentally based on data.
Can we find the balance between public safety and privacy when it comes to battling covid-19 with contact tracing?
Join one of the concurrent sessions to engage more deeply with our content, speakers, and your fellow attendees during mainstage programming breaks.
Join this tour and see how twenty-five years of intensive research now gives us the power to reshape our world from the nanoscale up.
Connect with your working group to share questions, thoughts, and ideas.
Tune in as we challenge our Innovators Under 35 to brainstorm solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.
What will be the next big innovation? What will be the next cloud, the next connected device, or the next artificial intelligence that changes our world?
VCs play a critical role in innovation. How do they find the innovators who show promise for exponential impact?
What lessons have been learned from a decade of moonshots? The world needs more moonshots and more moonshot takers. As X marks its 10 year anniversary, Alphabet’s X shares how they created a factory for radical ideas and technologies and how other organizations can do it too.
Join us for a final drink and an MIT Technology Review editorial meeting, where our editors and all attendees can reflect on the past four days. Share your favorite moments, quotes, and observations as we unpack the event that was.
Open to All-Access ticket holders only