Media Lab alums Honghao Deng (City Science) and Sarah Sclarsic (Synthetic Neurobiology) have served as judges for Forbes "30 Under 30" North America 2024. Deng was selected as a judge for the Manufacturing + Industry category, while Sclarsic judged the Energy category. 

Judges and Forbes staff evaluate list candidates on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to) funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential.