Jamie GoldsteinLaunched in September 2022, the MIT-Pillar AI Collective supports translational research in AI, data science, and machine learning
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The MIT School of Engineering and Pillar VC are thrilled to announce the inaugural MIT-Pillar AI Collective grant recipients.
The MIT-Pillar AI Collective is a pilot program funded by a $1M gift from Pillar VC that will provide seed grants for projects in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science with the goal of supporting translational research. Administered by the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, the AI Collective centers on the market discovery process, advancing projects through market research, customer discovery, and prototyping. Graduate students and postdocs will aim to emerge from the program having built minimum viable products, with support from Pillar VC and experienced industry leaders.
The first cohort of grant recipients include:
● Vibhaa Sivaraman (MIT CSAIL), advised by Mohammad Alizadeh: Developing generative technology to facilitate video conferencing in high latency and low network environments.
● Guillermo Bernal (MIT Media Lab), advised by Pattie Maes: Inventing a fascia monitoring mask to enable researchers to conduct sleep studies with patients remotely.
● Abdullah Alomar (MIT EECS), advised by Devavrat Shah: Building a predictive query interface for time series databases to better forecast demand and financial data.
● Michael Foshey (MIT CSAIL), advised by Wojciech Matusik: Making wearable devices that measure human activity and pose to advance health monitoring and connect supply chains.
● Simon Axelrod (Harvard Chemical Physics), advised by Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli: Designing light-activated drugs which target regions of the body to minimize side effects of drug delivery.
● Arjun Balasingam (MIT CSAIL), advised by Hari Balakrishnan: Creating a low-cost 3D perception framework for consumer mobile devices.