Mobility Ventures:
Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems
Entrepreneurship
Leverage MIT's innovation ecosystem to spin off mobility tech startups and support existing startups
This course is designed for students who aspire to shape the future of mobility. This graduate level course offering at MIT explores technological, behavioral, policy and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research.
Launched in Fall 2020 the course has steadily grown in popularity. Class size for Fall 2023 comprised of 26 Students from MIT Sloan, DUSP, MIT Engineering, Harvard Kennedy School & Harvard GSD.
The course includes an entrepreneur dialog section which aims to:
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Enable conversations between entrepreneurs, MIT faculty and students.
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Explore issues where technology, modes and business intersect
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Inspire students with entrepreneurship stories of the industrial leaders
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Promote a comprehensive understanding of mobility systems
Guest Speakers over the years include:
- Dean Kamen, Founder & CEO, DEKA Research
- R.J Scaringe, CEO, Rivian Automotive
- Karl Iagnemma, President & CEO, Motional
- Kameale C. Terry, Co-Founder & CEO, ChargerHelp!
- John De Souza, co-Founder & President, Ample Inc.
- Tiffany Chu, Chief of Staff, City of Boston
- Tiya Gordon, Co-Founder & COO, itselectric
- Billy Thalheimer, Co-Founder & CEO, Regent Craft
- Saar Golde, Chief Data Scientist, Via
- Mujeeb Ijaz, Founder & CEO, Our Next Energy (ONE)
- Kyle Vogt, Co-Founder & CEO, Cruise
- Alex Wallar, Co-Founder & CTO, The Routing Company
- Dr. Georges Aoude, Co-Founder and CEO, Derq
- Peter Schmidt, Co- Founder & COO, Transcend Air
- Chris Thomas, Co-Founder & Partner, Assembly Ventures
- Michael Frumin, Director of Product & Data Science, Lyft
- Assaf Biderman, Founder & CEO, Superpedestrian
- Mark R. Rosekind, Ph.D., CEO, California Mobility Center
- Kei Onishi, CEO & MD, Yamaha Motor Ventures
- Libby Wayman, Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
- Chetan Maini, Founder & CEO, Sun Mobility
- Seleta Reynolds, General Manager, LA DOT
- Jody Kelman, Head of Autonomous, Lyft
- Reilly Brennan, Founder & Partner, Trucks Venture Capital
INSTRUCTORS
Jinhua Zhao
Professor, DUSP, MIT
Founder & Faculty Director MIT Mobility Initiative
John Moavenzadeh
Executive Director, MIT Mobility Initiative
Future of Mobility Advisor