On May 11, 2023 at the MIT Media Lab, 14 teams took to the stage as part of Demo Day, which served as a platform for the teams to present their projects. This event, a culmination of the annual course "AI and Web3 for Impact: Venture Studio" (MAS.664), not only provided students with an opportunity to showcase their endeavors aimed at making a positive impact on society but also fostered the creation of successful business ventures. The course was meticulously designed to facilitate meaningful interactions between students and mentors, as well as encourage engagement with esteemed figures such as venture capitalists, chief executive officers, and academic luminaries. Notably, approximately one-quarter of the students who have taken this entrepreneurship-focused course in the past have gone on to embark on their own ventures.

During the highly anticipated Demo Day event, each student team was allotted a succinct three minutes to deliver their venture pitch, followed by an additional two minutes to address any queries posed by the audience. Noteworthy top five projects presented included “Blue Voice,” the first AI voicebot to support public safety professionals,  “COARCT,” a platform for decentralized and anonymous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) where causal effects are computed without violating the privacy of users, “Solgud” service Robots For Hire, “HealthSync,” which is focused on unlocking private and efficient crowdsourced data access for healthcare developers, and Skill Aignite a low-cost, AI-driven upskilling delivery solution that adapts to changing, enterprise-specific needs.

The class behind Demo Day is offered twice a year, AI For Impact, and the Spring 2023 semester was co-taught by Media Lab professor Ramesh Raskar, MIT Sloan School of Management alum Shahid Azim, Managing Director at Link Ventures John Werner, Executive Director of the Reform for Resilience Commission’s North America Hub Patricia Geli, and co-founder of Link Ventures Dave Blundin.  “This course is about the early stage—an innovator may or may not be an entrepreneur,” said Professor Raskar. “The Venture Studio class focuses on a spot-probe process where students spot the opportunities and probe the solutions.”

Student teams were competing for seed funding opportunities based on scores from 30 different VCs, CEOs, and investors, many of whom participated as mentors in the class throughout this semester. These mentors included Habib Haddad, Managing Partner of the E14 Fund, and Sri Rao, Venture Partner at Union Labs Ventures, among others. Among the guest speakers this semester were Peter Diamandis who is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, Dr. Daniel Kraft Stanford and Harvard trained Physician-Scientist Innovator, David Hornik Founding Partner with Lobby Capital, Medha Parlikar Co-Founder at CasperLabs and many others.

Below is a full list of the fourteen projects presented by the student teams:

• Health Galaxy ~ A personalized predictive health analytics platform using 'Gamified' data aggregation models
• COARCT ~ A platform for decentralized and anonymous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) where causal effects are computed without violating the privacy of users
• Fount ~ Building safer, more inclusive financial systems in the age of AI
• HealthSync ~ We unlock private and efficient crowdsourced data access for healthcare developers
• AirAi ~ A platform for building health information sharing, based on sensor information.
• Embrace ~ AI-enabled therapeutic digital platform to enhance the therapy journey

• Tailbox ~ Personal travel companion, unlocking unique, tailored experiences by creating and curating stories using generative AI
• Rai ~ An AI companion for people with cognitive impairment
• DeAge ~ Personalized longevity solution based on Private AI and Web3
• Solgud ~ Transforming robotics with RaaS solutions, and enabling SaaS-like cashflows for manufacturers
• Microinfluencers ~ AI for connecting microinfluencers with charity and boosting donations through product sales
• Blue Voice ("Blue") ~ The first AI voicebot to support public safety professionals
• WellSpace ~ WellSpace is an innovative AI-powered health coach plugin that seamlessly integrates with the calendar, empowering young women to create a personalized, health-focused routine to minimize stress and elevate their well-being effortlessly
• Skill Aignite ~ Infuses your existing learning and training material to automatically update, personalize, and contextualize training using internal need and external market trends. Employees get more personalized, interactive courses that match their needs, and L&D teams get real time data on their skills gaps and course performance

Below is the list of Demo Day Judges:

• John Hawthrone (Two Lantern VC)
• Giuseppe Stuto (186 Ventures)
• Hesam N. Motlagh (Kohsla Ventures)
• Raza Shaikh (Launchpad Venture Group)
• Ali Mahmoud (Glasswing Ventures)
• Imran Saeed (MITSloan)
• Stephen Marcus (Riot Ventures)
• Rana el Kaliouby (Entrepreneur)
• Cavin Mozarmi (Remus Capital)
• Mark Castleman (Intel Ignite)
• Bo Vargas (BV Capital Partners)
• Milo Werner (The Engine)
• Beth Porter (Esme Learning)
• Otkrist Gupta (Lendbuzz)
• Alex Pentland (MIT)
• David Zug (HarbourVest)
• Kahini Shah (Obvious Ventures)
• Jorge Cortell (Harvard Innovation Labs)
• Davey Bakhshi (FORTEFAi)
• Geoff Oblak (Data Point Capital)
• John Sharp MD (Harvard Medical School)
• Rob Fisher (Cogo Labs)
• Terry V. Eagan MD (Eagan Medical Group, Inc)
• Narendra Kale (Kale Logistics Solutions)
• Rick Mehra (Continuum Health Ventures)
• Jadyn Bryden (Xfund)
• Mohamad Ali
• Dafu Gao (OnePieceLabs)