Beeline Reader
Solve at MIT concludes three days of workshops, lectures, and discussions to advance solutions to global challenges. Find out how to join Solve as a member and attend the next Solve at MIT.
On May 16-18, more than 400 leaders convened on MIT’s campus for Solve at MIT, Solve’s annual flagship meeting. Attendees traveled from 38 countries to meet and advise Solver teams and hear remarks from luminaries such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, VEON Chairman of the Supervisory Board Ursula Burns, Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Alphabet Inc. Technical Advisor and Board Member Eric Schmidt.
Six Solver teams pitched their solutions on stage -- including Jay Newton-Small, chief executive officer of MemoryWell; Elizabeth Frank, co-founder of MealFlour; Kristin Kagetsu, co-founder of Saathi; Paul Falzone, executive director of Peripheral Vision International; and Patrick Meier, executive director of WeRobotics.
New prizes and partnerships for the 2018 Challenges
In addition to featuring the 2017 Solver class, Solve highlighted the next round of Global Challenges. Solve seeks innovative solutions to four new 2018 Challenges: Work of the Future, Frontlines of Health, Coastal Communities, and Teachers and Educators.
Solve announced $650,000 in prize funding will be available to the 2018 Solver class. This pool includes funding from General Motors, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and a new $10,000 grant for each Solver provided by Solve.
Solve at MIT included five thought-provoking plenary sessions, several workshops to advance Solver solutions, and networking opportunities to build partnerships between the Solve community.
Education will be a crucial step in humanizing technology
In the opening plenary session, “The Heart of the Machine: Bringing Humanity Back into Technology,” panelists and speakers discussed the current state of technology, the rapid speed at which it advances, and how we can use it for good.
Panelists Yo-Yo Ma and Eric Schmidt grappled with the questions, how do we combine technology and culture for social progress, and how do we mend the way technology has divided us? “During times of huge change, historically we’ve had the opportunity to redefine who we want to be, whether it’s during the Renaissance or during the Enlightenment,” Ma said. “I’d like to pose the question, who do we want to be [today]?”
Schmidt answered, “More tolerant, more diverse, more intelligent.” He argued these changes can be achieved through education, that we must teach people the importance of tolerance.
The second panel of Ursula Burns; Mitchell Baker, chairwoman of Mozilla; The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, director of the Media Lab’s Ethics Initiative; and Tom Taylor, Amazon’s senior vice president of Alexa, discussed technology from a different perspective: ethics and responsibility. They debated the industry’s responsibility to build products for good and stressed the importance of diversity in building new technologies.
Baker argued the need to include the humanities in tech education “so the technologists themselves have a sense of humanity — what it actually means to be human for the technology they build.”
Connecting human and environmental health
In the “Healthy Planet, Healthy People” session, panelists and speakers discussed the interrelation of human and environmental health and debated ways to improve both. A youth environmental activist panel of Malual Bol Kiir, executive director of African Youth Action Network; Brianna Fruean, climate activist and founding member of 350 Samoa; and Amira Odeh, organizer of Caribbean Youth Environment Network, told personal stories of the impacts of climate change.
They spoke of the beloved walkway in Samoa that will soon be underwater; drought and rising temperatures in South Sudan that limit natural resources, and the destruction of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Fruean issued a call to the world’s youth, saying, “You’re never too young to do something; you’re never too young to change the world.”
Empowering women in technology
During the “Connecting through Tech” session, Roya Mahboob, chief executive officer of Digital Citizens Fund; Reshma Saujani, founder and chief executive officer of Girls Who Code; and Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Partners, discussed ways to engage and empower women in technology.
That included everything from the need to expose girls to technology at a young age, to creating safe single-sex spaces for girls to learn, to the role that men play in supporting women. “We need to be thoughtful about what we can do as individuals in supporting the ecosystem and committing ourselves to diversifying [the entrepreneurs] we see,” said Saujani.
Insights on launching new ventures
In the “True Stories of Starting Up” session, insightful speakers such as Pita Taufatofua, Tongan Olympian; Rana el Kaliouby, chief executive officer of Affectiva; and Dean Kamen, president of DEKA Research & Development and founder of FIRST, talked about the realities of reaching both personal and professional goals.
During his conversation with Media Lab Assistant Professor Danielle Wood, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke about the importance of diversity and inclusiveness in decision-making and driving change. “Diversity is a source of strength, not of weakness,” he added. “Having someone alongside you with different perspectives helps you solve a problem.”
The importance of teamwork
During the “Design for Mars, Solve for Earth” session, Cady Coleman, former astronaut; Chandrakant Patel, chief engineer at HP; and Danielle Wood discussed how technology and tools designed for space can support life in extreme environments on earth.
The conversation went beyond technology. The panelists covered some other lessons learned in space: notably, how teamwork and a crystal clear mission drive impact. Working on a spaceship with a six-person crew is much like working on any team, Coleman explained. “The mission is more important than whether you like each other or whether you want to do that [task],” Coleman said. With that mindset, “We end up doing extraordinary things.”
MIT President L. Rafael Reif thanks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Professor Danielle Wood at the Plenary on “True Stories of Starting Up" during Solve at MIT, May 18, 2018. (Photo by Adam Schultz / MIT Solve)