The agenda for 2015 MIT-CHIEF is subject to change. This page is updated on a daily basis.
Please note that all the events during 2015 MIT-CHIEF will be in English except the Pitch to ZhenFund Special Event, which will be in Chinese.

Saturday, 15 November 2014
08:00 — 09:00	Registration
09:00 — 09:10	Welcome Address Yichao Pan 潘轶超 | Co-President, MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum
09:10 — 09:35	Opening Remarks Alex 'Sandy' Pentland | Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab
09:35 — 10:00	Keynote Session 1 Donald Sadoway | John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT Department of Materials Science Engineering
10:00 — 10:25	Keynote Session 2 Joe Chen | Chairman and CEO, Renren Inc.
10:25 — 10:40	Coffee Break
10:40 — 11:55	Panel 1A: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Panel 1B: Innovations in Education
12:00 — 13:30	Lunch Break
13:30 — 14:45	Panel 2A: Space Tech and Business Panel 2B: Start-up Development
14:45 — 15:00	Coffee Break
15:00 — 15:30	Keynote Session 3 Semyon Dukach | Managing Director, Techstars Boston
15:30 — 17:30	Business Plan Contest Finale
18:30 — 21:00	VIP Dinner (By Invitation Only)
Sunday, 16 November 2014
09:00 — 09:30	Keynote Session 4 Victor Qiang Wang | Partner, ZhenFund
09:30 — 10:45	Panel 3A: Early-stage Investment and Incubators Panel 3B: Healthcare Technologies
10:45 — 11:00	Coffee Break
11:00 — 11:30	Keynote Session 5 William Aulet | Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
11:30 — 12:00	Keynote Session 6 Peng Yang | Asia Center Fellow, Harvard University
12:00 — 12:30	Closing Remarks Yasheng Huang 黄亚生 | Associate Dean for International Programs and Action Learning, MIT Sloan School of Management
12:30 — 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00 — 17:00	Special Event: Pitch to ZhenFund (In Chinese) Bob Xiaoping Xu 徐小平 | Founding & Managing Partner, ZhenFund

Welcome Address

Yichao Pan 潘轶超 Co-President, MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum Ph.D. Candidate, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Opening Remarks

Alex 'Sandy' Pentland Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab Director, Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program View intro » Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland is a pioneer in organizational engineering, mobile information systems, and computational social science. Pentland's research focus is on harnessing information flows and incentives within social networks, the big data revolution, and converting this technology into real-world ventures. His work provides organizations with better management tools and better ways to interact with their customers. Pentland is founder and director of the Human Dynamics group, and the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program. He advises the World Economic Forum, Nissan Motor Corporation, and a variety of start-up companies. Pentland is the World Economic Forum’s lead academic for its big data and personal data initiatives. He is among the most-cited computer scientists in the world, and in 1997 Newsweek magazine named him one of the 100 Americans likely to shape this century. His book, Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World was published in 2008 by the MIT Press. In 2011, he was chosen as one of the world's top data scientists by Tim O'Reilly in Forbes magazine.

Keynote Session 1

Donald Sadoway John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT Department of Materials Science Engineering View intro » Donald R. Sadoway is the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained the B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science, the M.A.Sc. in Chemical Metallurgy, and the Ph.D. in Chemical Metallurgy, all from the University of Toronto. The author of over 150 scientific papers and holder of 19 U.S. patents, his research is directed towards the development of rechargeable batteries for grid-level storage and environmentally sound technologies for the extraction of metals. He is the founder of two companies, Ambri and Boston Electrometallurgical. Viewed over 1,500,000 times, his TED talk from February 29, 2012 is a narrative about inventing inventors as much as it about inventing technology. In 2012 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Keynote Session 2

Joe Chen Chairman and CEO, Renren Inc. View intro » Joe Chen (陈一舟) is the founder, Chairman & CEO of Renren Inc., the leading real-name SNS in China. Joe is a pioneer of Chinese internet industry. Before founding Renren, Joe was co-founder, Chairman & CEO of ChinaRen.com, a first-generation SNS in China and China’s #4 portal in 1999. He served as Senior Vice President of Sohu.com after the two companies merged in 2000. Joe Chen holds BS in Physics from University of Delaware, MS Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MBA from Stanford University.

Panel 1A: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Robotics, and more generally artificial intelligence, is the leading force behind the massive changes in how the world has always worked. From traditional industrial manipulators in assembly lines, to more recent applications such as humanoid robots, self-driving cars, and unmanned aerial vehicles, robots have shown a whole new level of agility, sophistication and intelligence. Emerging robotic technologies is invigorating this new industry with both startups and established businesses racing to lead the next innovation. Recent acquisitions and investments of robotics startups by technological giants have captured the imagination in the robotics world and beyond. In this year’s MIT-CHIEF, we are excited to add a new Robotics panel session with the goal to facilitate constructive dialogue in the robotics industry. We look for answers to key questions, such as: What are some of the most advanced academic robots and industrial robots? What is the most fertile area in robotics to exploit for engineers? What are some of the business opportunities facing entrepreneurs and investors? What does it take to make robots socially adaptable, and eventually capable of working side-by-side with humans?

William Borgia MIT Sloan Fellow, Robotics Industry Executive View intro » Bill Borgia has held engineering and management roles for several key defense and industrial applications of mobile robotic systems. These include early applications of closed-loop obstacle avoidance to unmanned aircraft, early implementations of human detection and avoidance for autonomous vehicles, development of driverless combat vehicles for the US Army, autonomous landing capabilities for full-sized unmanned helicopters, underwater infrastructure inspection systems, and autonomy for extreme environments as part of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Borgia has served in engineering and management roles with both Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, and served as program director for the US Army’s Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance. Borgia is currently attending the Sloan Fellows program at MIT.

Charles Grinnell Founder & COO, Harvest Automation View intro » Charles Grinnell is the Chief Operating Officer at Harvest Automation, a Boston-based startup company where he overseas all aspects of developing autonomous mobile robots for a range of industrial material handling applications. Charles founded Harvest Automation in 2008 with a group of robotic innovators and a goal of solving critical industrial challenges with a new breed of robots. Harvest recently commercially released the first practical, scalable robots that work alongside humans solving critical labor issues in a sector of Agriculture. This platform also helps growers reduce costs and environmental impact while increasing plant quality. Now the company is applying key technologies from the first product to other industrial material handling applications in warehousing, manufacturing, and other markets. Before founding Harvest Charles served as General Manager at DEKA R&D working with one of the world’s leading inventors, Dean Kamen, on a wide range of medical and industrial products including the Segway human transporter. Prior to DEKA Charles was the President of a consulting company he founded at CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland developing specialized instrumentation for the high-energy physics community around the world.

Olivier Joubert Business to Education Marketing Manager, Aldebaran Robotics View intro » Olivier Joubert (Neuropsychology Ph.D, 2008, University of Toulouse, France) joined Aldebaran Robotics in early 2011 to manage the Special Education Business Unit activities and lead the design and the commercialization of social humanoid robotics for specialized education, focusing on autism first in schools, then at home. He’s now Business to Education Marketing Manager and eager to explore how NAO, Aldebaran’s flagship robot, can help a larger number of young children in mainstream education. Prior to this he worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT, Brain & Cognitive Sciences department, Aude Oliva’s Lab, for a better understanding of visual cognition in neurotypical and autistic people thanks to a Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative grant. One of his favorite quote is “It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for - and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool - for love - for your dreams - for the adventure of being alive” from Oriah. One of his dream is to see the right technology serving rather than enslaving education.

Christopher Norman Director of Programs, CyPhy Works View intro » Christopher Norman is the Director of Programs for CyPhy Works Inc. Mr. Norman has broad experience in defense systems and robotics product development, working for 18 years in engineering and management roles. As iRobot’s Director of Engineering, he grew the engineering organization from 30 engineers to over 100 engineers in two years while developing designs for over $200M in product revenue. As a Program Manager and Deputy Program Manager, he was responsible for executing $90M in defense programs and as a Capture Manager, he developed new business of $85M. He was an Engineering Lead or Team Member on more than twenty robotic systems developments; robotic systems ranged from one-off, high-performance prototypes to robots that were produced in quantity thousands. As a Chief Technology Officer in two startups, he was involved in all aspects of both profitable businesses developing sensors and robotics.

Nicholas Roy Associate Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Founder, Project Wing at Google[X] View intro » Nicholas Roy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. He received his Ph. D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. His research interests include autonomous systems, mobile robotics, human-computer interaction, decision-making under uncertainty and machine learning. He recently returned to MIT after two years at Google [x] as the founder of Project Wing, Google's autonomous UAV delivery system.

Panel 1B: Innovations in Education

Education has always been an obstacle for many countries in the world. Whether it is the developing or developed country, we are always trying to learn the most efficient and impactful way of spreading knowledge and wisdom. With the internet and technology becoming more advanced each day, people are able to easily access some of the highest qualities of teaching provided by the finest institutions in the world. There are online platforms such as MOOC, private courses, and non-profits that provide free education within their own country. The question is, how has education evolved with advanced technology, and how the most innovative way of teaching and learning can be pursued and achieved? Also, how could we improve the quality of teaching with the help of technology? How can US and China share learning resources more effectively? How has online platforms changed the way of teaching? What are the future paths for online education?

Lori Breslow Director, MIT Teaching and Learning Laboratory Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management View intro » Lori Breslow is the founding Director of the Teaching & Learning Laboratory (TLL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She conducts research on the development and impact of pedagogical, curricular, and technological innovation in STEM higher education. She was the co-director of the Teaching for Learning Network, a collaboration between MIT and Cambridge, and she has spoken on university-level teaching and learning at Harvard, Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others. She has consulted on MIT’s partnerships to create new universities in Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Russia. She led a joint MIT-Harvard research project to analyze data from edX’s massive open online courses (MOOC), and was invited to present that research at the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology (PCAST), the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting, and the New American Foundation. She spoke at the New York Times’ “Schools for Tomorrow” symposium, and her research has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Education. Dr. Breslow is on the MIT Museum of Science Advisory Board, the Olin College President’s Advisory Board, and was a member of the Journal of Engineering Education editorial board and the MIT OpenCourseWare Assessment and Evaluation Advisory Board. She is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Yerrie Kim Executive Director, EF Education First View intro » Yerrie is currently the Head of Testing and Certification Services at EF Education First. Prior to EF, Yerrie worked in Washington DC as a advisor and consultant to the DC Public Schools’ Office of School Innovation. Before her career in education, she worked as an investment banker at Citigroup, where she specialized in global health care financing. Yerrie received a joint MBA-MPA degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She earned her BS degree at MIT in Economics. She is a board member of the East Rock Institute, a non-profit organization focused on deepening cross cultural understanding between Eastern and Western societies.

Tomer Rothschild Co-Founder, Elite Scholars of China View intro » Tomer is the Co-Founder of Elite Scholars of China (ESC), a boutique advisory firm which helps China’s top high school students achieve their academic potential during the college admissions process. Founded in 2010, ESC aspires to address a lack of college counseling support in Chinese high schools, where most students do not have access to proper guidance. Tomer first came to China in 1995, and has worked in a variety of consumer facing businesses, including fitness clubs and English schools. Tomer began his career at Lehman Brothers in New York as an Investment Banker. He was educated at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his MBA, and at Wesleyan University, where he graduated with Honors in Philosophy. He spent three years studying the Chinese language in China and Taiwan, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, as well as French and Hebrew.

Yunong Wu CEO, General Manager and Founder, Imagination Education View intro » Yunong Wu founded Imagination Education in 2013 and is currently the CEO and Manager General of the company. Imagination Education is a start up that provides private educational service ranging from online tutoring to SAT training. The company also heavily integrates technology into their lessons and has their own private system for analyzing students’ performance. Recently, Imagination Education received funding from XUE, a Chinese-based company listed in the NYSE. Currently, Imagination Education has branches at Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Changsha, and Zhengzhou. Prior to joining Imagination Education, Yunong was the Vice President of China E-Learning Group, the first online education group that is listed in Hong Kong. In addition, Yunong is a member of The Education Statistics and Measurement Committee of National Association of Foreign Education. Yunong graduated with a MBA from Tsinghua University.

Dun Xiao Co-Founder, 17zuoye.com View intro » Dun Xiao is a co-founder of 17zuoye.com (a.k.a Homework together), the largest online homework platform for K12 students in China. Dun is also a co-founder of Dun & Huang Ltd., one of the leading education APP developers in iOS store and has had over 6 years of experience with online education. Prior to his entrepreneurial life, Dun has been involved with organizing the Beijing and London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and as a Derivatives Trader in UBS. Dun serves on the board of a few education, healthcare and music related organizations and is passionate about philanthropy. Dun enjoys swimming, running and playing the trumpet regularly, and is a Master Trainer of Neural Linguistic Programming. Dun has studied in Cambridge, MIT and Harvard University, and graduated with a Master's degree in Electrical and Information Engineering from Cambridge University.

Panel 2A: Space Tech and Business

With people worldwide celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 in 2014, and the recent success of China’s Chang’e-3 unmanned lunar lander landing on the Moon, space exploration becomes a hot topic again. Today, the rise of private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Xcor, Space Adventures, China’s plan to go to the Moon in the next 10 years, as well as Americans’ expectation of Human to Mars in the next 20 years, are all catalyzing a new era for space race and space collaboration. This new ear would have no doubt having a fundamental impact on the world and people’s lives. Acting as the renaissance of space technologies, this decade could well play out the way that late 1990s and early 2000s did for the Internet: offering uncertainty, boundless creativity and ample opportunities. This year at MIT-CHIEF, we proudly present a new panel “Space Tech & Business” with a focus on the latest trends in this emerging industry and spotting the opportunities for the investors and aspiring entrepreneurs in this promising field. Topics will include but not limited to: Is it economically feasible to potentially spend billions, if not trillions of dollars in the long run in the new “Space Race”? If so, what is the best approach to get to space, what should be the missions? How could upcoming innovations from space help living on Earth? How to engage people involved in cutting edge research, discovery and strategy from across the fields of medicine, energy, space and technology to focus on collaborating and accelerating innovations? Is space travel tourism going to take off in the next five to ten years? What will the experience be like? What are the space technologies and innovations investors should pay attention to? Who are investing in the space tech industry? How to become a space entrepreneur? How to get involved in this game?

Greg Claxton Director of Retail Sales, XCOR Aerospace View intro » Greg Claxton is Director of Retail Sales at XCOR Aerospace. Formerly of Incredible Adventures (IA), Greg spent 17 years establishing the high-end aviation and space focused adventure travel industry. This included flying MIGs in Russia, as well as other high performance aircraft, and numerous zero-gravity experiences for a global audience. His expertise includes managing an extended enterprise of suppliers, affiliated agents and clientele. Mr. Claxton is responsible for overseeing XCOR’s Explorers Wanted.® campaign. He facilitates the success of the personal spaceflight sales efforts led by general sales agent Space Expedition Corporation, and the growing network of high adventure travel agents, bringing the pinnacle life event of spaceflight to their customers. He is also responsible for spaceflight promotional programs which global corporations, non-profits and other entities implement through brand campaigns involving the Lynx suborbital spacecraft.

Kellie Gerardi Media Specialist, Commercial Spaceflight Federation View intro » Kellie Gerardi is the Media Specialist for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), where she reports on the democratization of space and the expansion of Earth's economic sphere. The CSF is the industry trade association of leading businesses, whose mission is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers. Kellie is an active member of The Explorers Club, a renowned global scientific society, and serves both on the Space Committee and as the Chair of the Explorers Club Annual Dinner. She has flown on two ZERO-G parabolic flights and appeared on ABC's The View in September of 2013 to discuss the future of manned spaceflight. Kellie is dedicated to making mankind an interplanetary species, and in February 2015 she will serve a rotation at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), performing analog Mars field research in isolation with her crew.

Robert Jacobson Principal, Space Angels Network View intro » Robert Jacobson is Principal of Space Angels Network a global investment network which helps facilitate financing for early stage opportunities in aerospace. Jacobson is multi faceted entrepreneur who co-founded Desert Sky Holdings, a Los Angeles based boutique private equity group that focuses on below the radar opportunities. Jacobson is the co-founder of 62MileClub, co-founder of Aerospace & Defense Forum, a former board member of the Space Frontier Foundation Jacobson is a graduate of the University of Southern California where he studied Music and Business. Robert also holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts.Robert was inspired by the Ansari XPRIZE competition to personally and professionally involve himself in the entrepreneurial space industry through advocacy, investment, and leadership.

Naveen Jain CEO and Chairman of Executive Committee, Inome Founder and Executive Chairman, Moon Express View intro » Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur and philanthropist driven to solve the world's biggest challenges through innovation. He is a founder of World Innovation Institute, Moon Express, iNome, TalentWise, Intelius, and Infospace. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, WSJ, Huffington Post, and Inc.com. Naveen also sits on the board of Singularity University, an interdisciplinary university with the mission to educate and inspire leaders to address humanity's grand challenges through innovative technologies. He is a trustee of the board at the X PRIZE Foundation focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to address global challenges in health, education, poverty, agriculture, and clean water, and he is also a member of Pacific Council on International Policy and the Explorer club. Naveen Jain has been awarded many honors for his entrepreneurial successes and leadership skills including "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year", "Albert Einstein Technology Medal" for pioneers in technology, "Most admired Serial Entrepreneur" by Silicon India and "Top 20 Entrepreneurs" and "Lifetime Achievement Award" for the leadership in the technology industry and support of other entrepreneurs by Red Herring.

Paulo Lozano Director, MIT Space Propulsion Laboratory Associate Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics View intro » Paulo C. Lozano is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Director of the Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His main interests are in plasma physics, space propulsion, ion beam physics, small satellites and nanotechnology. His research features the development of highly efficient and compact ion thrusters for applications in space systems, including pico- and nano-satellites. In 2008 he received the Young Investigator Program Award from the US Air Force for his work on micro-propulsion, and in 2011 received the Future Mind award from Quo Science Magazine and the Discovery Channel. Dr Lozano’s research is sponsored by NASA, DARPA, AFOSR, AFRL, NSF and other government and private sources. He has received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award for his contributions to the research experience of undergraduate students at MIT. Dr Lozano has developed five patents; he published over 80 conference and journal publications and has delivered over 20 invited talk presentations on his work. He teaches courses in space and rocket propulsion, fluid mechanics and plasma physics. Dr Lozano is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has served on the Asteroid Mitigation and NASA Technology Roadmaps panels of the National Research Council. He earned his PhD in Space Propulsion from MIT.

Panel 2B: Start-up Development

Thanks to millions of creative inventors and brave entrepreneurs, the world are developing rapidly and our life are changing dramatically and becoming more fantastic. In recent years, the environment becomes more and more supportive and friendly to start-ups and attracts a lot of people to bring their ideas into realities by building their own companies. However, there are still many factors to consider when deciding whether or not to start a new company, e.g., market demanding, competition, funding, and management and so on. Moreover, a lot of other problems would possibly come up during the initial development stage of a new company, such as marketing of products, equity division between co-founders, constitution of board of directors. It is almost impossible for start-up founders to be familiar with everything so there is always something for them to learn. In order to help entrepreneurs to learn from the successful start-ups and address their specific concerns when building the companies, this year’s MIT-CHIEF hosts a panel on "Start-up Development", featuring in-depth discussion for people to learn more about founding start-ups. The topics include: Preparation for starting a new company; Process of starting a new company; Key factors for success; Special tips for founding a start-up in China.

Elaine Chen Senior Lecturer, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship View intro » Elaine Chen is a seasoned product development executive with a unique background spanning product development and product management. She co-teaches 15.S16 with Brian Halligan at MIT Sloan- a special seminar in management focusing on entrepreneurial product development and marketing. Elaine is deeply passionate about all aspects of bringing a product to market, from market sizing and analysis through customer research, ideation, user experience, design, development and release to product life cycle management and planned obsolescence. She has brought over 20 hardware and software products to market, in industries spanning robotics, haptics, CAD, consumer electronics, web, mobile platforms and more. She has built and grown several technical organizations from the ground up. She is a co-inventor on more than ten patents, and has managed IP portfolio strategies for several startups. Elaine has spent her entire career in startups and small companies. She really appreciates the speed, innovation and breadth of experiences that this type of environment has to offer. She loves that you never get pigeonholed; you are free to wear as many hats as you are comfortable wearing and can contribute to your maximum personal potential (and then some)! She says, "You learn something new every day, and that is priceless." Elaine served as Vice President of Product Development at Rethink Robotics, which is technically her fifth startup. Prior to Rethink Robotics, she has served at the VP level in engineering, product development and product management roles in several other Boston area startups, including Zeo, Zeemote and SensAble Technologies. She is also the founder and principal at ConceptSpring, a consulting business focusing on helping startups develop product strategies to bring their ideas from concept to market. Elaine is an active member of the MIT community and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She holds a BS and an MS in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Bofei He CEO and Co-Founder, DeepGlint View intro » Bofei He is the CEO and co-founder of DeepGlint, a computer vision and artificial intelligence startup focused on mission-critical applications. DeepGlint currently develops algorithms that enables accurate analysis of human behavior from videos captured by 3D cameras, and is the first to bring this technology to the surveillance market. Prior to DeepGlint, Bofei served as the GM of China for two US publicly listed companies (Intuit and Blackhawk Network) and built their businesses and operations in China from the ground up. He graduated with an MBA from Stanford University.

Louis Li Founding Partner and CEO, Pacific Founder View intro » Mr. Louis Li, the founding partner and CEO of Pacific Founder, is also a post-85 professional manager. From 2011 to 2013, He has served as the Chief Operating Officer at iBoxPay, Head of Operations at Groupon Hong Kong and Director of Operations at Groupon China, being one of the youngest senior executives among Groupon global offices. In 2014, Louis founded Pacific Founder, aiming to provide strategic advisory service, talent management and corporate financing for state-owned enterprises, listed companies, and internet start-ups at critical moment. Recently, Didi Taxi co-invested by GSR Ventures and Tencent, as well as Breadtrip invested by CBC Capital and Vertex Venture are his clients.

Terry Russell Managing Director, Interface Ventures View intro » Dr. Terry Russell is the Managing Director of Interface Ventures, a new venture creation company that develops startups and provides venture advisory services in healthcare, high technology, and the life sciences. Most recently he was the Chief Executive Officer of Makoto Life Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology discovery and services company co-founded with scientists from Harvard University and the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Russell is an active contributor to the Boston/Cambridge startup community where he lectures on finance and entrepreneurship at Boston area Universities, judges business plan competitors, and mentors entrepreneurs. He also actively advises a number of emerging technology companies. Prior to his entrepreneurial efforts, Dr. Russell conducted research at Harvard University and Boston University on a wide range of topics, from detectors for biological warfare agents to genetically engineered proteins used in anti-counterfeiting applications. He holds Bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Physics, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics, all from Boston University.

Atle Skalleberg CEO, StudentUniverse View intro » Atle joined StudentUniverse in 2005, and prior to his role as a CEO, he led the business development and marketing teams. Having grown up in Norway, you would think he would not mind the cold Boston winters - think again. Atle loves whiteboards, digital business and good wine. He is in charge of continuing StudentUniverse’s growth and is involved in all commercial aspects of the business. Atle received his undergraduate degree from The Norwegian School of Management - B.I. and his graduate degree from Boston University.

Keynote Session 3

Semyon Dukach Managing Director, Techstars Boston View intro » Semyon Dukach is the Managing Director of Techstars in Boston. Prior to joining Techstars, Semyon was a prolific angel investor in Boston and a friend to the startup community. Semyon made over 75 angel investments, and his philosophy has been to focus on helping his founders at all costs. Prior to becoming a full time angel, Semyon has co-founded several companies including Vert, Pdffiller, Global Cycle Solutions, and Fast Engines, which was sold to Adero in 2000. He is the Chairman of Nasdaq listed SMTP, a director of Terrafugia, and the founder of the Troublemaker Award. Semyon enjoys flying helicopters, windsurfing, biking and spending time with his family. He received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Columbia University and his Master’s degree from MIT, where he designed the original SNPP Internet payment protocol. Xconomy lists Semyon as a top Angel Investor in New England, and he is also known for leading one of the MIT blackjack teams in the 90s.

Business Plan Contest Finale

We have a number of experienced judges for this year's Business Plan Contest Finale:

Elaine Chen Senior Lecturer, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship View intro » Elaine Chen is a seasoned product development executive with a unique background spanning product development and product management. She co-teaches 15.S16 with Brian Halligan at MIT Sloan- a special seminar in management focusing on entrepreneurial product development and marketing. Elaine is deeply passionate about all aspects of bringing a product to market, from market sizing and analysis through customer research, ideation, user experience, design, development and release to product life cycle management and planned obsolescence. She has brought over 20 hardware and software products to market, in industries spanning robotics, haptics, CAD, consumer electronics, web, mobile platforms and more. She has built and grown several technical organizations from the ground up. She is a co-inventor on more than ten patents, and has managed IP portfolio strategies for several startups. Elaine has spent her entire career in startups and small companies. She really appreciates the speed, innovation and breadth of experiences that this type of environment has to offer. She loves that you never get pigeonholed; you are free to wear as many hats as you are comfortable wearing and can contribute to your maximum personal potential (and then some)! She says, "You learn something new every day, and that is priceless." Elaine served as Vice President of Product Development at Rethink Robotics, which is technically her fifth startup. Prior to Rethink Robotics, she has served at the VP level in engineering, product development and product management roles in several other Boston area startups, including Zeo, Zeemote and SensAble Technologies. She is also the founder and principal at ConceptSpring, a consulting business focusing on helping startups develop product strategies to bring their ideas from concept to market. Elaine is an active member of the MIT community and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She holds a BS and an MS in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Joe Chen Chairman and CEO, Renren Inc. View intro » Joe Chen (陈一舟) is the founder, Chairman & CEO of Renren Inc., the leading real-name SNS in China. Joe is a pioneer of Chinese internet industry. Before founding Renren, Joe was co-founder, Chairman & CEO of ChinaRen.com, a first-generation SNS in China and China’s #4 portal in 1999. He served as Senior Vice President of Sohu.com after the two companies merged in 2000. Joe Chen holds BS in Physics from University of Delaware, MS Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MBA from Stanford University.

Theresa Kavanaugh Partner, Goodwin Procter View intro » Dr. Kavanaugh is a partner in the firm’s nationally recognized Life Sciences Group. Her practice focuses on patent strategies in anticipation of company partnering, M&A, and financing events. Dr. Kavanaugh has significant experience in developing patent strategies throughout the developmental life cycle of chemical and biologic therapeutics. Her work includes early stage patent development for discovery programs through post approval patent strategy for FDA-approved therapeutics, including FDA Orange Book listings, patent term extension and post grant patent review procedures. She has extensive technical expertise with pharmaceutical and small molecule therapeutics; protein, antisense and other biologic therapies; diagnostic and drug discovery platform technologies, including biomarker and microbiome modulator technology; polymer chemistry; drug delivery and extended release formulations; materials science; and chemical process technologies. Dr. Kavanaugh has been selected for inclusion in both the 2013 and 2014 editions of U.S. News-Best Lawyers for her work in the area of biotech law. She has been named the 2014 Life Sciences IP Attorney of the Year in Massachusetts by Corporate Intlmagazine. She has also been recognized as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer “Rising Star” for 2009-2012.

Feng Li 李丰 Partner, IDG Capital View intro » Feng Li is actively involved in investment in education, consumer services and TMT industry. Prior to joining IDG Capital, Feng Li served at New Oriental Education & Technology Group, a NYSE listed company, where he held several core management roles, such as the core educational system, sub-brand’s establishment and promotion, distance education and subsidiary industry. Prior to New Oriental, Feng Li worked at China Renaissance, where he was involved in leading many financing cases, such as: Ambow, Wang Xue, RYB and D-Edu. Feng Li also served at a foreign environmental protection and water treatment company. Feng Li got his M.S. in Chemistry from University of Rochester and BS in Chemistry from Peking University.

James Jian Liu COO and Executive Director, Renren Inc. View intro » James Jian Liu has served as Renren’s Executive Director since January 2008 and Chief Operating Officer since February 2006. Before joining the company, he was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of UUMe.com, one of the earliest social networking service websites in China. He served as Product Management Director at Fortinet in its early years and held a Senior Product Manager role at Siebel Systems. Mr. Liu started his career as a Management Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in China. Mr. Liu holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a M.B.A. degree from Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Matthew Nordan Vice President, Venrock Capital View intro » Matthew Nordan is a vice president at Venrock, a premier venture capital firm originally established as the venture arm of the Rockefeller family. He focuses on breakthrough energy, environmental, and materials technologies from the firm’s Cambridge, MA office. Matthew is a board observer at FinSIX and Boston-Power and has been closely involved with portfolio companies Phononic Devices and Nest Labs. Prior to Venrock, Matthew was president of Lux Research, an advisory services firm for science-driven innovation that he co-founded in 2004. Under Matthew’s leadership, the Lux Research analyst team became a globally recognized authority on the business and economic impact of emerging technologies, advising corporations, start-ups, financial institutions, and governments. Before Lux, Matthew held a variety of senior management positions at emerging technology advisor Forrester Research in the U.S. and Europe. Matthew has testified before the U.S. Congress four times on emerging technology issues, advised the Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative of the National Academies, and been an invited speaker at universities including Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. He was a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies and has advised the OECD on technology development for energy and environmental applications. A regular speaker at technology conferences, Matthew’s views have been cited by news outlets including CNBC, ABC News, The Economist, Forbes, and Newsweek. Matthew is a graduate of Yale University, where he conducted cognitive neuroscience research on the neural pathways mediating emotion and memory.

Terry Russell Managing Director, Interface Ventures View intro » Dr. Terry Russell is the Managing Director of Interface Ventures, a new venture creation company that develops startups and provides venture advisory services in healthcare, high technology, and the life sciences. Most recently he was the Chief Executive Officer of Makoto Life Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology discovery and services company co-founded with scientists from Harvard University and the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Russell is an active contributor to the Boston/Cambridge startup community where he lectures on finance and entrepreneurship at Boston area Universities, judges business plan competitors, and mentors entrepreneurs. He also actively advises a number of emerging technology companies. Prior to his entrepreneurial efforts, Dr. Russell conducted research at Harvard University and Boston University on a wide range of topics, from detectors for biological warfare agents to genetically engineered proteins used in anti-counterfeiting applications. He holds Bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Physics, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics, all from Boston University.

Tilak Subrahmanian Vice President of Energy Efficiency, Northeast Utilities View intro » As Vice President, Energy Efficiency for Northeast Utilities (NU), Tilak Subrahmanian oversees one of the largest energy efficiency portfolios in the industry. He leads a team that is focused on scaling energy efficiency to drive aggressive reductions in energy use. NU’s energy efficiency programs serve more than 3.5 million electric and natural gas customers in three New England states. NU’s Energy Efficiency team also works closely with business partners and communities to help shape strong, environmentally sound energy policy. In support of the scaling efforts, Tilak led discussions with Massachusetts banks and credit unions to roll out financing mechanisms to encourage customer investments in energy efficiency. That effort has resulted in roughly $250 million of private financing capital being invested in energy efficiency in the state in just the last three years. Tilak has also been a judge of the MIT Clean Energy Prize (CEP), a business plan competition focused on significantly accelerating the pace of energy innovation and entrepreneurship. Previously, Tilak was at Arthur D. Little and at Thomson Reuters. He has an extensive background in Corporate Strategy and New Business ventures, working with executives in different industries to drive top-line growth and performance. He also has successfully launched and operated new business ventures for several companies. Tilak earned an MBA from the University of Michigan, a MS Engineering from the University of Washington, and B.Tech Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Stan Telson Director of Systems Engineering, Intel-GE Care Innovations View intro » Stan Telson is Director of Systems Engineering for Intel-GE Care Innovations. The Company drives patient engagement and connects the care continuum to the home through effective remote care management strategies and smart sensor analytics. Stan holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and has over 20 years experience in development and successful deployment of medical devices and healthcare systems.​

Jinlin Wang CTO and EVP of Engineering, Answers Venture Advisor, TEEC Angel Fund View intro » Jinlin Wang is a Venture Advisor to TEEC Angel Fund, and serves as CTO & EVP of Engineering of Answers, a leading Q&A consumer destination and an e-commerce platform. Jinlin has over 15 years of engineering management experience in building both consumer internet monetization engines and enterprise applications, and has held senior leadership roles at Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle, and PeopleSoft. Jinlin earned his Ph.D. In Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, and his bachelor and master degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Victor Qiang Wang Partner, ZhenFund Director, ZhenFund’s School of Entrepreneurial Thought View intro » Victor is the Co-Founder of ZhenFund. In addition to being a respected business man, he is also a well-known humanities and philosophy scholar. As such, Victor is also ZhenFund's Director of Entrepreneurial Thought and frequently advises portfolio companies on their mission and vision. He is also a famous collector and lover of rare books. Prior to ZhenFund, Victor was a Co-Founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), the largest provider of private education in China. He served as Vice President and Chairman of the Board of Directors at New Oriental and established New Oriental's spoken English division. His popular English classes were reported in-depth by Time Magazine in 2000. Victor also hosted a popular TV show called "From Word to the World", which was widely broadcasted on more than 30 channels in China.

Xiao Wang CEO, InnoSpring View intro » Dr. Xiao Wang is the CEO at InnoSpring Inc., the first US-China cross border technology incubator. Previously at InnoSpring she headed the business development and cross-border partnership team upon joining the company in 2012. In addition to her new role as CEO at InnoSpring, Dr. Wang is also the Project Manager at Entelos, a pharmaceutical consulting company. Here she advises global Pharmaceutical or Biotechnology companies in regards to drug development decisions, including target evaluation/ prioritization, translational medicine, biomarker analysis, and clinical trial design. Dr. Wang has Co-Founded China America Innovation Network (CHAIN), a professional non-profit organization envisioned to help transform innovation into value through fostering entrepreneurship in 2011. She is an honored associate member of Tsinghua Entrepreneur and Executive Club (TEEC) and the president of Tsinghua Alumni Association of Northern California (THAA-NC). Dr. Wang earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Tsinghua University in Beijing China.

Bob Xiaoping Xu 徐小平 Founding & Managing Partner, ZhenFund View intro » Xiaoping Xu, co-founded New Oriental School and has over 10 years of experience with New Oriental Group. Mr. Xu served as Director of New Oriental Group and was responsible for its marketing, public relations, government relations and most recently a specialised consulting arm for Chinese preparing to study abroad. He successfully led New Oriental to the US New York Stock Market in 2006. He also presided over an advisory board that helped advise management on a variety of issues relating to English Training in China. He has a wealth of experience, contacts and understanding of the English Training industry in China. He serves as Member of Board of Advisors of Idapted, Inc. An inspired angel investor, he has the magic to lift up all Chinese young entrepreneurs to fly. Mr. Xu holds an MA from the University of Saskatchewan of Canada.

Eugene Zhang 张于庆 General Partner, TEEC Angel Fund View intro » In summer 2010, Eugene co-foundered TEEC Angel Fund, a supper angel fund investing in both US and China early stage companies in Silicon Valley. Eugene was founding CEO of InnoSpring, a global cross border technology startup incubator in Silicon Valley from its inception to January 2014. Eugene founded JEDA Technologies, Inc., in December, 2002 and serves as President and CEO. JEDA specializes in next-generation SoC design methodologies and provides ESL (electronic system level ) verification automation products for leading edge SoC design companies world wide. JEDA Beijing R&D center was opened in December 2004 at Tsinghua Science Park. Eugene has been working in the networking and computer industry for thirteen years in technical and management positions. Prior to founding JEDA, he was with Juniper Networks from its start where he contributed greatly to the success of many complex ASICs for internet backbone routers. Prior to joining Juniper, Eugene was with Cisco Systems as an ASIC design verification engineer. From 1993 to 1995 while Eugene worked on the Sunfire SMP server project at SUN Microsystems, he co-invented industry’s first hardware Testbench language Vera, which is a part of today’s industry standard SystemVerilog ( IEEE 1880). Mr. Zhang received his M.S.C.E from Syracuse University, USA, and a M.S.E.E and B.S.E.E from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

VIP Dinner (By Invitation Only)

Jingjing Chai 柴菁菁 Co-President, MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum

Gang Chen 陈刚 Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, MIT Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, MIT View intro » Gang Chen is currently Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering and Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his bachelor and master degree from the Power Engineering Department, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in 1984 and 1987, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley in 1993 working under then Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. He was a faculty member at Duke University (1993-1997), University of California at Los Angeles (1997-2001), before joining MIT in 2001. He is a recipient of the NSF Young Investigator Award, the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, the R&D100 Award, and the MIT McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Guggenheim Fellow, an AAAS Fellow, an APS Fellow, and an ASME Fellow. He has published extensively in the area of nanoscale energy transport and conversion and nanoscale heat transfer. He is the director of Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center funded by the US DOE’s Energy Frontier Research Centers program.

Eugene Zhang 张于庆 General Partner, TEEC Angel Fund View intro » In summer 2010, Eugene co-foundered TEEC Angel Fund, a supper angel fund investing in both US and China early stage companies in Silicon Valley. Eugene was founding CEO of InnoSpring, a global cross border technology startup incubator in Silicon Valley from its inception to January 2014. Eugene founded JEDA Technologies, Inc., in December, 2002 and serves as President and CEO. JEDA specializes in next-generation SoC design methodologies and provides ESL (electronic system level ) verification automation products for leading edge SoC design companies world wide. JEDA Beijing R&D center was opened in December 2004 at Tsinghua Science Park. Eugene has been working in the networking and computer industry for thirteen years in technical and management positions. Prior to founding JEDA, he was with Juniper Networks from its start where he contributed greatly to the success of many complex ASICs for internet backbone routers. Prior to joining Juniper, Eugene was with Cisco Systems as an ASIC design verification engineer. From 1993 to 1995 while Eugene worked on the Sunfire SMP server project at SUN Microsystems, he co-invented industry’s first hardware Testbench language Vera, which is a part of today’s industry standard SystemVerilog ( IEEE 1880). Mr. Zhang received his M.S.C.E from Syracuse University, USA, and a M.S.E.E and B.S.E.E from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Keynote Session 4

Victor Qiang Wang Partner, ZhenFund Director, ZhenFund’s School of Entrepreneurial Thought View intro » Victor is the Co-Founder of ZhenFund. In addition to being a respected business man, he is also a well-known humanities and philosophy scholar. As such, Victor is also ZhenFund's Director of Entrepreneurial Thought and frequently advises portfolio companies on their mission and vision. He is also a famous collector and lover of rare books. Prior to ZhenFund, Victor was a Co-Founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), the largest provider of private education in China. He served as Vice President and Chairman of the Board of Directors at New Oriental and established New Oriental's spoken English division. His popular English classes were reported in-depth by Time Magazine in 2000. Victor also hosted a popular TV show called "From Word to the World", which was widely broadcasted on more than 30 channels in China.

Panel 3A: Early-stage Investment and Incubators

The first step is always the hardest. New entrepreneurs, with their limited time, experience and resources, are often overwhelmed by the heavy demands of the business world. This is where business incubators come into play. Operationally, incubators provide startups with the essential advisory and administrative support, so as to boost their “survival rate” and accelerate their growth. Financially, incubators help startups save on operating cost and attract more seed funding. Strategically, incubators bring valuable networks, industrial expertise as well as business trainings. However, as with all services, the multiple benefits that incubators provide also come at a price, be it cash or equity. Therefore, whether a specific startup would benefit from joining an incubator is an intricate business decision that requires careful analysis. This year we host the panel of "Early Stage Investment and Incubator", providing an opportunity to hear from investors' perspectives which cover basic questions of startups seeking for investments, such as: What are the strength and weakness of being invested at initial stage? What are the metrics of investors and incubators evaluating the proposals? Which qualities they prefer to see among the people who seek for investment? How do the incubators compare the entrepreneur environment in US and in China? Which industries or sectors are incubators interested in?

Robby Bitting Director of Marketing, MassChallenge View intro » Robby loves startups and storytelling - MassChallenge is filled to the brim with both. Robby is responsible for MassChallenge’s efforts to attract the highest-impact entrepreneurs in the world to apply to the startup accelerator. He also leads MassChallenge communications strategy and tactics, which include public relations, email marketing, social media, blogs and other fun things. Prior to MassChallenge he worked in PR in New York City, where he completed the Executive Training Program at Ruder Finn and contributed to the Healthcare Practice's Healthcare Innovation and Oncology teams. Robby is a graduate of Bowdoin College, where he studied religion and chemistry and was a member of the Men's Ultimate Frisbee team.

Christina Chase Entrepreneur in Residence, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship View intro » Christina Chase is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT in the Martin Trust Center, where she helps MIT students launch successful startups. She has helped hundreds of teams go from concept to company and was recently named by Mashable as one of the 15 People Shaping Boston’s Tech Scene. Christina is an entrepreneur with a track record of success in a several industries, starting her first company when she was 18 years old. Most recently she was the CEO and co-founder of Firehoze, an education technology company that focused on online education that involved over a hundred instructors from the most prestigious universities. Prior to that, for the healthcare IT startup Casenet, she built and ran the marketing and business development division positioning the company to be the industry leader. At the photonics company, Labsphere, Christina ran the Materials and Coating division where, in under a year, she tripled her division’s revenue and led the group to file three key patents. She has also worked at Dartmouth College’s Entrepreneurial Network to help launch startups that commercialized Dartmouth College’s intellectual property portfolio. At HP, Christina managed marketing for the newly formed OEM data storage division and changed the way HP thought about OEM marketing. The division grew by $750 million in a year. Christina is a TechStars mentor and serves on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum, SXSW Accelerator Advisory Board and SXSW V2V Advisory Board. In 2013, she was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in the Boston Tech Community.

Jalak Jobanputra Managing Partner, FuturePerfectVentures View intro » Jalak Jobanputra is Founding Partner of FuturePerfect Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in NYC. She has invested in over 80 early stage companies over the past 15 years, resulting in several multibillion dollar acquisitions and IPOs. Previously, Ms. Jobanputra was a director at Omidyar Network managing mobile investments in emerging markets, and senior vice president at the New York City Investment Fund where she launched a seed tech fund and the Fintech Innovation Lab. She was also at Intel Capital in Silicon Valley, on the founding team of a web startup in 1997, and a tech/media/telecom investment banker at Lehman Brothers in NYC and London. She has over 20 years’ experience in digital media, enterprise software, broadband infrastructure, healthcare IT, edtech, fin tech, mobile & web applications, and has invested throughout the world. She has also served on multiple advisory boards for the White House, NYC Mayor's Office, the US State Department, and serves on the BOD for the Center for an Urban Future. She is a frequent contributor for CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Business Insider, Quartz Media, and Fox Business News. She can be reached via her blog, The Barefoot VC, or on twitter at @jalak.

Millie Liu 刘睿颐 Founding Partner, Procyon Ventures View intro » Millie Liu is a founding partner at Procyon Ventures, an early stage fund focusing on enterprise software solutions surrounding data from application to infrastructure. She is particularly enthusiastic about helping entrepreneurs who tackle technically challenging problems with global expansion. Prior to starting Procyon, she founded a fintech startup minimizing financial news latency for traders. Millie has worked for TechStars with all the facets of early stage startup development for its portfolio companies. Prior to that, she was a management consultant serving Fortune 50 clients with a big data analytics focus. She has also worked in the private equity industry in China with a focus on growth equity investment. Millie holds a Master of Finance degree from MIT and B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

Xiao Wang CEO, InnoSpring View intro » Dr. Xiao Wang is the CEO at InnoSpring Inc., the first US-China cross border technology incubator. Previously at InnoSpring she headed the business development and cross-border partnership team upon joining the company in 2012. In addition to her new role as CEO at InnoSpring, Dr. Wang is also the Project Manager at Entelos, a pharmaceutical consulting company. Here she advises global Pharmaceutical or Biotechnology companies in regards to drug development decisions, including target evaluation/ prioritization, translational medicine, biomarker analysis, and clinical trial design. Dr. Wang has Co-Founded China America Innovation Network (CHAIN), a professional non-profit organization envisioned to help transform innovation into value through fostering entrepreneurship in 2011. She is an honored associate member of Tsinghua Entrepreneur and Executive Club (TEEC) and the president of Tsinghua Alumni Association of Northern California (THAA-NC). Dr. Wang earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Tsinghua University in Beijing China.

Panel 3B: Healthcare Technologies

An exciting era of in healthcare is now under way. Many innovative individuals and organizations are building technologies that are enabling everyone (healthy or not) to use their own health/fitness information in an entirely new way and consequently improve the quality of life. Wave after wave of M&A activities make startups and investors excited more than ever before. The healthcare reforms in the US as well as China are bringing tremendous opportunities in both public and private sectors. It is a time that produces entrepreneurs and heroes in healthcare. This panel strives to bring leaders from industry and academia to discuss the latest trend in the field. We aim to provide insights into how the advancement of these technologies and activities will revolutionize the way human beings understand health, communicate health data, and receive healthcare.

Zen Chu Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management Entrepreneur in Residence, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship View intro » Zen Chu is Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Entrepreneur-In-Residence for the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Zen believes that engineers will create the data, systems and products to help medicine scale and serve more patients with higher quality and lower cost. He specializes in building early-stage medical device and healthcare information technology companies and has served as founding CEO of three healthcare companies [3D-Matrix Ltd, Clinical Future, and EviPath]. He invests and serves on boards of a few public and private companies through Accelerated Medical Ventures. Alongside MIT professors Shuguang Zhang, Alex Rich, Alan Grodzinsky, and Bob Langer, Zen co-founded and served as CEO for 3D-Matrix Medical Inc., a venture-backed MIT regenerative medicine company with a successful IPO in 2011. 3D-Matrix has wound-healing and drug-delivery products on the market outside of the US and multiple human clinical trials in process. Zen has managed and led new ventures for Harvard Medical School, Wyss Institute, NetVentures and Hewlett-Packard, where he founded the HPGarage new ventures group in Silicon Valley in 1997. As Entrepreneur-In-Residence at MIT, Zen founded and mentors the H@ckingMedicine program, channeling MIT's efforts to impact healthcare around the world. He has served as judge and mentor for MIT's $100K Business Plan Competition and created Innovation Grand Rounds, courses to teach physicians and health professionals to invent high impact clinical innovations, in partnership with CIMIT (Center for Integration of Medicine & Integrative Technology), Mass General Hospital, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He's married to a software entrepreneur and they are raising three aspiring inventors. Zen earned a BS in biomedical/electrical engineering from Southern Mehodist University and an MBA from Yale University.

Jason Hardebeck Managing Director, DreamIt Ventures Baltimore View intro » Jason Hardebeck lives to build. Engineer by training and entrepreneur by calling, Jason is the Managing Director of DreamIt Baltimore. He is the cofounder of the Baltimore Foundery, an industrial-grade campus for makers. Jason has spent the past 20 years in senior management roles in a variety of Internet software and renewable technology startups. He was the founder and CEO of WhoGlue, a social networking company that he sold to Facebook in 2011. In 2005, he was appointed by Maryland’s Governor to serve as the state’s Entrepreneur in Residence. Prior to entering the private sector, Jason served in the United States Navy as a nuclear-qualified Surface Warfare Officer. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the U. S. Naval Academy and an MS in Business from Johns Hopkins. Jason lives just outside Baltimore with his wife, two kids, and a small menagerie. A native Montanan, he spends his free time outside trying to keep green things from turning brown, and inside turning lumber into sawdust.

Theresa Kavanaugh Partner, Goodwin Procter View intro » Dr. Kavanaugh is a partner in the firm’s nationally recognized Life Sciences Group. Her practice focuses on patent strategies in anticipation of company partnering, M&A, and financing events. Dr. Kavanaugh has significant experience in developing patent strategies throughout the developmental life cycle of chemical and biologic therapeutics. Her work includes early stage patent development for discovery programs through post approval patent strategy for FDA-approved therapeutics, including FDA Orange Book listings, patent term extension and post grant patent review procedures. She has extensive technical expertise with pharmaceutical and small molecule therapeutics; protein, antisense and other biologic therapies; diagnostic and drug discovery platform technologies, including biomarker and microbiome modulator technology; polymer chemistry; drug delivery and extended release formulations; materials science; and chemical process technologies. Dr. Kavanaugh has been selected for inclusion in both the 2013 and 2014 editions of U.S. News-Best Lawyers for her work in the area of biotech law. She has been named the 2014 Life Sciences IP Attorney of the Year in Massachusetts by Corporate Intlmagazine. She has also been recognized as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer “Rising Star” for 2009-2012.

Shen Luan Co-Founder, Berg Diagnostics View intro » Dr. Shen Luan co-founded Berg Diagnostics (now part of Berg) in 2009. He served as the founding President and CTO and was named as COO in 2011. He led efforts on corporate governance, molecular profiling, pan-omics, CLIA-certified clinical diagnostics laboratory services, and overall technology management related to business operations. Prior to Berg, he was Technical Product Manager III of Waters Corporation for 5 years responsible for LC/MS system solutions and laboratory informatics. He was with Thermo Fisher Scientific for 9 years and has held various management positions including Engineering Manager, Research Manager, and Product Manager. Shen received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University and a B.S. in Analytical Chemistry from Peking University. He holds a Lean - Six Sigma Black Belt certificate. He is a member of BayHelix, an invitation-only organization of leaders of Chinese heritage in the global life sciences and healthcare community.

Stan Telson Director of Systems Engineering, Intel-GE Care Innovations View intro » Stan Telson is Director of Systems Engineering for Intel-GE Care Innovations. The Company drives patient engagement and connects the care continuum to the home through effective remote care management strategies and smart sensor analytics. Stan holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and has over 20 years experience in development and successful deployment of medical devices and healthcare systems.​

Keynote Session 5

William Aulet Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management View intro » Bill Aulet is a highly accomplished business leader with a track record of success over 25 years. He has raised over $100 million in funding for his companies and directly created hundreds of millions of dollars of market value. He started his career with eleven years at IBM, culminating in being named a prestigious MIT Sloan Fellow in 1993. Upon graduation in 1994, Bill became a serial entrepreneur running two MIT spinouts; he first served as the President and CEO of both Cambridge Decision Dynamics, and later also of SensAble Technologies. The latter earned a place in Time Magazine's list of 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies. With a presence in over twenty countries, SensAble also won over two dozen awards and has been featured in Fortune Magazine, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications for its innovative products and strong business foundation.

Keynote Session 6

Peng Yang Asia Center Fellow, Harvard University Former Secretary General, One Foundation View intro » Peng Yang is a scholar and NGO founder. Peng Yang is a important figure in the research work of Chinese traditional believes and in Chinese civil society studies. Peng Yang has published 5 books and hundreds of articles in the field of Chinese ancient philosophy and in the civil society development today in China. Peng Yang is one of the founders of two important and influential NGOs (SEE and One Foundation) in China. From 2004 to 2009, Peng Yang worked as Chief Researcher and Secretary General for SEE (Society of Entrepreneurs & Ecology), the biggest non-state owned environment protection NGO in China. From 2010 to 2014, Peng Yang worked as Secretary General of One Foundation, the first non-state owned foundation which was granted the legal public fundraising right and is the most influential non-state public fundraising foundation in China. Now Peng Yang is a full-time fellow at the Harvard University, conducting research work on Chinese traditional religions in China.

Closing Remarks

Yasheng Huang 黄亚生 Associate Dean for International Programs and Action Learning, MIT Sloan School of Management International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business, MIT Sloan School of Management View intro » Yasheng Huang is the International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Huang founded and runs the China Lab and the India Lab, which aim to help entrepreneurs in those countries improve their management skills. He is an expert source on international business, political economy, and international management. In collaboration with other scholars, Huang is conducting research on human capital formation in China and India, entrepreneurship, and ethnic and labor-intensive foreign direct investment (FDI). Prior to MIT Sloan, he held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. Huang also served as a consultant to the World Bank. His research has been profiled in many publications, including TheWall Street Journal,The Economist, Businessworld, Le Monde, the Economic Times, as well as in numerous Chinese publications. He also has contributed to the Financial Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Policy. Huang’s published books include Inflation and Investment Controls in China (1996), FDI in China (1998), Selling China (2003), and Financial Reform in China (2005, co-edited with Tony Saich and Edward Steinfeld). His most recent book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (2008), is based on detailed archival and quantitative evidence spanning three decades of reforms. Huang shows that private entrepreneurship, facilitated by financial liberalization and microeconomic flexibility, played a central role in China’s economic miracle. Huang has held or received prestigious fellowships, such as the National Fellowship at Stanford University and the Social Science Research Council-MacArthur Fellowship. He is a member of the Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, a Fellow at the Center for Chinese Economic Research and the Center for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, a Fellow at the William Davidson Institute at Michigan Business School, and a World Economic Forum Fellow. Huang holds a BA in government from Harvard College and a PhD in government from Harvard University.

Special Event: Pitch to ZhenFund (In Chinese)

ZhenFund is a premier seed fund that invests primarily in early-stage startups in China. Founded by XU Xiaoping (Bob) and WANG Qiang (Victor), cofounders of New Oriental Education, ZhenFund took a prominent role in shaping the Chinese entrepreneurship ecosystem. Partnered with Sequoia Capital China, ZhenFund has invested in over 100 companies since 2011. ZhenFund aims to cultivate the next generation of high impact entrepreneurs. By fast-tracking the development of Chinese young innovators, ZhenFund supported some of the most promising tech startups in China, including Jumei (NASDAQ: JMEI), Jiayuan (NASDAQ: DATE) and Lightinthebox (NASDAQ: LITB). Coming to the MIT community, Bob hopes to discover talented and motivated young entrepreneurs and to help them succeed through an unparalleled combination of resources, education and seed investment.

Bob Xiaoping Xu 徐小平 Founding & Managing Partner, ZhenFund View intro » Xiaoping Xu, co-founded New Oriental School and has over 10 years of experience with New Oriental Group. Mr. Xu served as Director of New Oriental Group and was responsible for its marketing, public relations, government relations and most recently a specialised consulting arm for Chinese preparing to study abroad. He successfully led New Oriental to the US New York Stock Market in 2006. He also presided over an advisory board that helped advise management on a variety of issues relating to English Training in China. He has a wealth of experience, contacts and understanding of the English Training industry in China. He serves as Member of Board of Advisors of Idapted, Inc. An inspired angel investor, he has the magic to lift up all Chinese young entrepreneurs to fly. Mr. Xu holds an MA from the University of Saskatchewan of Canada.