The Event
Over two days, we gather to share not just progress, but process: the raw, essential phases of innovation—from early-stage exploration to tangible breakthroughs to scalable impact.
You’ll hear from new faculty with uniquely radical research agendas, dive into updates from across the Lab, walk through ideas that live between concept and prototype, data and design, and get a glimpse of some exciting new alliances across MIT (MIT MAD, K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, MIT Museum, and more.) This is all part of a renewed vision energized by brand new leadership at the Lab—committed to expanding what’s possible through curiosity, collaboration, and courageous thinking. It is also part of the Media Lab’s 40th Anniversary year which culminates in a must-attend community celebration in October 2026!
Through open houses and working demos, you’ll step into experiments still unfolding. And throughout the event, we’ll explore how real innovation happens: beginning with the impossible—the early phase of fundamental research, where radical ideas are born long before they’re viable or understood; moving into the improbable—where those ideas are built, broken, tested, and rebuilt through iteration and creative friction; and culminating in the inevitable—when solutions are ready to scale, and must prove themselves in the real world.
That’s what this moment is. And that’s what we build on.