HUBweek returns to Boston
The week-long innovation festival will take place from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1
HUBweek, an initiative founded by Harvard, MIT, the Massachusetts General Hospital and The Boston Globe is taking over Boston for the second year in a row.
The event aims at bringing together start-ups, companies, and researchers, but also students or anyone wishing to “explore and celebrate the future being built in Boston.”
The 2015 edition was a great success according to HUBweek cofounder Linda Pizzuti Henry, as it had gathered 600 speakers and 46,000 attendees in 106 events last September.
HUBweek 2016 comprises over a hundred talks, workshops and roundtables. It is also made of concourses such as the Inclusive Innovation Competition (IIC), which is funded by MIT and will be hosted by the MIT Media Lab on September 27.
Among the competitors are a project aimed at teaching coding in economically disadvantaged areas, and a project focusing on broadening internet access in developing countries. Each of the four winners will receive a total prize of $125,000.
HUBweek events require registration through hubweek.org, and they are free for the most part.
MIT hosts a large number of the talks and workshops, such as the Solve series that aims at examining real-world issues and finding creative ways to solve them with the help of the people in the room. Solve is hosted by the MIT Media Lab and will take place on September 27 and 28.
An event on September 28, Next Generation of Ideas, is hosted in partnership with the MIT Enterprise Forum. Startup teams from various colleges in Boston will present what they have been working on. Among them is a group of eight MIT students introducing their project, Rendever, which aims to use Virtual Reality in retirement homes to entertain aging populations and better their mental health.
Brochures are available in the hallways to give a sense of what can be expected in this upcoming “Festival of the Future” casting light on Boston’s innovation hub.