2023 MIT Research and Development Conference - Startup Exchange Lightning Talks

Dr. Richard Swartwout is an MIT Ph.D.’21in Solar R&D and Printed Electronics under Dr.Bulovic and Dr. Bawendi. Dr. Swartwout brings over a decade of experience in energy innovation to Active Surfaces. As a Tata Center Fellow, Dr. Swartwout recognized the potential of flexible solar panels in powering remote areas, which led him to co-develop MIT’s GridEdge program. Dr.Swartwout brings his deep technical expertise to Active Surfaces, inventing 3 of the patents in Active Surface’s IP portfolio.

Thomas Collet is a serial life sciences entrepreneur with deep drug development expertise. He serves as President, CEO, and Director of Bilayer Therapeutics. Dr. Collethas founded and led several life sciences companies, including ProNAi Therapeutics(subsequently went public, now Sierra Oncology); Neural Intervention Technologies(subsequently acquired by W.L. Gore); and Rubicon Genomics (subsequently acquired by Takara Bio). He also served as Vice President of Business Development at IntegratedProtein Technologies, a unit of Monsanto Company that Dr. Collet helped start. Prior to entering the start-up space, Dr. Collet served as a General Partner at Tullis-Dickerson &Company, a healthcare-focused venture fund, and as a consultant at McKinsey &Company. He earned a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed post-doctoral studies in Dr. Richard Lerner’s laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute.

Tom is an innovator, bringing impactful technologies to life over a 20+ year career. He is the founder and CEO of Blue Dot Motorworks, where he single-handedly conceived, designed, fabricated, and funded the development of the world's first universal technologies for electrifying existing vehicles. He led the development of a mobile processor for low-income countries that can empty and perform on-site processing of trash-laden pit latrines, dramatically improving sanitation. He has designed e-mobility systems, medical devices, novel global sanitation technologies, and alternative energy systems. In leadership positions, Tom is a proven technology integrator, team organizer, and people manager, and thrives when connecting market needs to technology innovation to development execution. He also founded Carbyne Enterprises, a technology development consultancy and incubator. Tom holds a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and is a board member and EV group lead for MIT Alumni for ClimateAction.

Christina Qi is the CEO of Databento, an on-demand market data platform. She formerly founded DomeyardLP, a hedge fund focused on high-frequency trading (HFT)that traded up to $7.1 billion USD per day. Failing to earn a job offer after a Wall Street internship, Christina started Domeyard from her dorm room with $1000 in savings in 2012. Her fund was a tiny minnow amongst the tigers of the hedge fund world, but after Michael Lewis’s Flash Boys came out in 2014 and HFT firms hid from the spotlight, Domeyard accidentally found itself in the center of the ring. Over the next decade, her company’s story was featured on the front page of Forbes and Nikkei and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNN, NBC, and the Financial Times as a result of the controversy and fascination with HFT. Christina is a member of the MIT CorporationDevelopment Committee, a standing committee of the MIT Corporation (the board of trustees), charged with raising critical financial resources to uphold the Institute's Institute's academic rigor, promote student life, and advance global initiatives.

From 2018 to 2023, she co-chaired the Development Committee and eventually became Co-Chair of the Board of Invest in Girls, bringing financial literacy education to underserved populations across the US. Christina also sits on the Board of Directors of The Financial ExecutivesAlliance (FEA) Hedge Fund Group, drove entrepreneurship efforts at the MIT SloanBoston Alumni Association (MIT SBAA), and served on the U.S. Non-Profit BoardsCommittee of 100 Women in Finance. Although "X Under X" lists are a gimmick, she’ll admit that Forbes 30 Under 30 made a positive impact on her life by giving her community friends who dragged her out of bed during the lowest days of her life. Christina holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from MIT and recently celebrated her 10-year reunion.

Lavi Erisson, a physician-scientist-entrepreneur, is the co-founder and CEO of Gensaic, an MIT spinout delivering targeted genomic medicines through its ML-powered protein evolution platform. Lavi was previously Chief Medical and Head of Business Development at IterativeHealth, another MIT spinout, where he led clinical development to successful clearance of its flagship product, Skout (TM), and signed R&D collaborations with Eli-Lilly, Pfizer, and Janssen. Earlier in his career, Lavi held various leadership roles at Teva Pharmaceuticals, clinically translating over 10 novel assets from lead candidates through first-in-patient and investing over $300 M through Teva's corporate venture group. Lavi is a passionate global health advocate,volunteering as a physician in refugee camps along the border of Thailand and Myanmar, as wellas advising Israel's ministry for foreign trade on bi-national R&D funds. Lavi received hisMedicalDegree and Public-Policy degree, Summa Cum Laude, from Tel-Aviv University. He later earnedan MBA from MIT Sloan, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Dr. Sadegh Riazi is a technology enthusiast, co-founder and CEO of Pyte. He received his PhD in secure computation from UC San Diego where he was awarded the best PhD thesis award. Sadegh founded Project HEAX at Microsoft Research (a new computing platform for Homomorphic Encryption). Prior to that, he studied Electrical Engineering and designed a new system for Brain-Computer Interfaces. Sadegh is a fellow of the Institute for Global Entrepreneur and has received multiple prestigious awards including Richard Newton Young Fellow Award, Jacobs Graduate Student Award, and Silver Medal in International Student Olympiad.

Nader Karayanni has a strong passion for software and AI, and spent three years at Microsoft as a software engineer. Following which, he pursued his master's in Computer Science, researching systems for ML at Columbia University as a Fulbright Fellow. In the last year, he joined the Surplex team, working to bridge the gap between AI and the human body.

Peter H. Schmidt, Co-Founder and COO of Transcend Air, is an entrepreneur and executive with startup, turn-around, and large enterprise experience. Schmidt’s aviation roles have included sUAS test pilot, with two first flights; President & COO of LinearAir, Eclipse 500operator and Part 135 online charter marketplace; COO of Jet Advisors, a business aviation consultancy; and SVP of National Aviation Academy, the second largest Part 147 aviation mechanic school in the U.S. In his pre-aviation career, Schmidt led several networking and embedded systems companies, including as CTO of North America for Ipanema Technologies, CEO of Echo Engineering, Division Manager of Teradyne, and Co-Founder and President of MidnightNetworks. An aerobatic pilot, Schmidt did his undergrad in computer science and his master's degree in management, both at MIT. He currently serves as Chair of the Electric Flight Test Committee of the E-VTOL Flight Test Council.