MIT’s 35 Innovators Under 35, 2019 edition

I am a science nerd. Not that I am good at science. In fact, I don’t really know how science is done. But the science results I read about are inspiring.

One of the fascinating things about scientific results is how they can be used for purposes completely different from the initial intent.

Case in point … MIT’s annual list of 35 Innovators Under 35 (https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/), 2019 edition includes Ritu Raman, who has “developed inchworm-size robots made partly of biological tissue and muscle.” The primary focus of her research is on applications in the medical field.

If you are in another field, the natural impulse is to think that her work, while interesting in itself, will not be useful to you.

However, as she notes, right now they look a bit like inchworms, but that’s just the proof of concept. “Can we make new ‘biohybrid’ implants for drug delivery that adapt to your body better than purely synthetic implants could?” Raman says. “Can we release robots into a polluted water supply and have them walk toward a toxin and exude a chemical to neutralize that?”

Here are a few of the people from the MIT list that I found particularly interesting. Use my keyword tips to dig a little deeper.

///////
Ritu Raman
MIT
Country of birth: India
She’s developed inchworm-size robots made partly of biological tissue and muscle
by Dan Solomon
Ritu Raman’s robots are made out of both polymers and muscle tissue, and are capable of sensing their environment and recognizing  temperature, pH, and mechanical pressure.
“I’m a mechanical engineer by training, and I’m honestly a little bored building with the materials we’ve been building with for the past thousand years. So I’m making robots and machines that use biological materials to move and walk around and sense their environment, and do more interesting things—like get stronger when they need to and heal when they get damaged.”
Raman has built 3D printers capable of patterning living cells and proteins, injecting those into a mold where the cells self-­assemble into dense muscle tissue. The tissue is then transferred to a robotic skeleton. The robots, powered by living skeletal muscle, move in response to light or electricity.
Right now, they look a bit like inchworms, but that’s just the proof of concept. “Can we make new ‘biohybrid’ implants for drug delivery that adapt to your body better than purely synthetic implants could?” Raman says. “Can we release robots into a polluted water supply and have them walk toward a toxin and exude a chemical to neutralize that?”
source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/inventor/ritu-raman/

///////

TIP: Google® ritu raman
One result …

///////
Biography
Raman, R.
I am an engineer, writer, and educator with a passion for introducing bio-hybrid materials into the toolbox of every inventor. I grew up in India, Kenya, and the United States and have learned to appreciate and thrive in diverse and dynamic environments. My life experiences have shown me that technical innovation can drive positive social change, and this inspires me to help democratize and diversify STEM education around the world.
I received my B.S. magna cum laude in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Biomedical Engineering, from Cornell University in 2012. I received my M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2016) in Mechanical Engineering as an NSF Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Langer Lab at MIT and a member of Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2018. I develop novel materials and devices for applications in translational medicine.
source: https://rituraman.com/

///////
Anurag Bajpayee
His approaches can treat dirty wastewater and can make desalination more efficient.
Gradiant
Country of birth: India
by Edd Gent
Anurag Bajpayee built a one-stop shop for cleaning up the world’s most contaminated water. And after just six years, his Boston-based company, Gradiant, has more than 200 employees and operates more than 20 treatment plants around the world.
Bajpayee started Gradiant with lab-mate Prakash Govindan, who like him was working on desalination techniques. The oil and gas industry was at the peak of the shale boom thanks to advances in fracking, where rock formations are fractured using pressurized fluids to extract oil and gas trapped inside. They quickly found customers keen to use Govindan’s technology to extract water from fluids contaminated during the process, which reduces water requirements and minimizes how much toxic brine needs to be stored in deep disposal wells.
Since then they’ve developed an extensive patent portfolio, says Bajpayee, and commercialized two more treatment technologies—one that efficiently pulls specific contaminants out of industrial wastewater so it can be reused, and another that disinfects water without the use of chemicals like bleach. This year Gradiant will launch its first commercial system based on a new technology that can be installed in seawater desalination plants to increase recovery of fresh water by up to 85%.
As a PhD student at MIT he invented a membrane-free desalination technique that Scientific American recognized as one of its annual Top 10 World-Changing Ideas. But Bajpayee realized that it was a long way from commercial viability and any business built around this one idea was likely to fail. Instead he decided to develop and collect lots of different technologies, so his company could tackle any water contamination problem it encountered.
Edd Gent Guest contributor
source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/entrepreneur/anurag-bajpayee/
///////

TIP: Google® Anurag Bajpayee gradient
One result …

///////
Our Approach
We bring a unique approach to water treatment, ensuring industrial operators can meet their needs easily, often at a lower total life cycle cost than incumbent techniques. In certain cases, we enable the treatment of wastewaters that have previously not been treated.
Our approach to water treatment is based on the foundation that with the right technology, we can transform water use and recycling for industrial operators that need:

Unmatched technology to treat difficult wastewaters
Custom solutions for varying industrial applications
Competitive solutions that improve the bottom line
Regulatory and environmental compliance
Source: https://gradiant.com/who-we-are/
///////
Qichao Hu
On the cusp of the next big battery breakthrough
SolidEnergy Systems
Country of birth: China
by Edd Gent
Qichao Hu believes he’s on the cusp of one of the most highly anticipated developments in industry: the next battery revolution.
As founder and CEO of SolidEnergy Systems, a startup based in Woburn, Massachusetts, he’s come as close as anyone to commercializing rechargeable batteries made of lithium metal. These promise twice the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, the current industry standard for nearly all electronics and electric vehicles.
Since the development of the lead-acid battery in 1870, there have been only five major breakthroughs in battery technology—with energy density doubling roughly every 30 years. If the pattern holds, the next breakthrough is almost due: lithium-ion batteries, whose anodes are usually made of graphite or silicon, were first commercialized in 1991 by Sony.
The boost in energy density offered by lithium metal batteries could effectively double the range of an electric vehicle. The problem is that lithium metal is highly reactive. When charging, early prototypes of lithium metal batteries would form needle--like structures known as dendrites, which could short the cells and cause them to catch fire or explode.
Hu, who was born in China and moved to New York at 12, developed a liquid electrolyte, consisting of a high--concentration solvent in salt, which reduced the formation of dendrites. Building on this solution, SolidEnergy Systems developed a pilot line of lithium metal batteries in 2016 that are now being tested in drones. Later in 2019, it will open the world’s largest manufacturing facility for lithium metal batteries in Shanghai, where Hu hopes to scale up production to tens of thousands of cells per month.

source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/entrepreneur/qichao-hu/
///////

TIP: Google® Qichao Hu SolidEnergy

One result, which is best viewed in toto …
Source: http://www.solidenergysystems.com/

///////
Raluca Ada Popa
Her computer security method could protect data, even when attackers break in
University of California, Berkeley
Country of birth: Romania
by Jonathan W. Rosen
Raluca Ada Popa found a fix for one of cybersecurity’s most fundamental challenges: securing computer systems without relying on firewalls to keep hackers out.
Popa’s breakthrough work started with practical database management systems that could work on encrypted data. Though encrypting data had worked for simple messaging applications like WhatsApp, it was too sluggish for systems that needed to also run calculations on the data, like databases and web applications. But Popa found a way to make computation on encrypted data practical. Today, her encryption systems work with a range of applications and provide a level of protection that firewalls cannot: even if attackers break in, they have no way to decipher the data.
Popa says her techniques allow systems to operate as if they’ve been blindfolded. They’re able to compute on data without actually seeing it—which is opening the cybersecurity field to a host of new applications. A more recent innovation of hers, Helen, can be used by hospitals to share and aggregate patient records without compromising confidentiality. Another of her systems, Opaque, secures hardware systems against potentially compromised software and is now used by such companies as IBM.
source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/visionary/raluca-ada-popa/

///////
TIP: Google® Raluca Ada Popa
One result …

///////
Raluca Ada Popa
Assistant professor, UC Berkeley
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
UC Berkeley
Address: 729 Soda Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720
Email: raluca AT eecs DOT berkeley DOT edu
@ralucaadapopa 
I am an assistant professor at UC Berkeley. I am interested in security, systems, and applied cryptography.
I co-founded the RISELab, whose aim is to build systems that are secure and intelligent.
I am also a co-founder and the CTO of PreVeil, a security startup based on my research.
Before joining UC Berkeley, I did a one-year postdoc at ETHZürich in the System Security group led by Prof. Srdjan Capkun.Before that, I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at MIT, my thesis being about building practical systems that compute on encrypted data. My advisor was Professor NickolaiZeldovich, and I was also fortunate to work closely with: Professor Hari Balakrishnan (in systems), Professor Shafi Goldwasser, Professor Yael Kalai, and Professor Vinod Vaikuntanathan (in cryptography). I earned my Masters of Engineering in Computer Science in 2010 and my two Bachelors in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2009 also from MIT. My PhD thesis was awarded a George M. Sprowls Award for best MIT CS doctoral theses, and I received a Sloan Research Fellowship as a professor.
source: https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~raluca/

///////
TIP: Google® Raluca Ada Popa PreVeil
One result …

///////
About Us
PreVeil provides the enterprise with an easy-to-use encrypted email and encrypted cloud storage solution to protect important email and files. Moreover, PreVeil uses the gold standard of end-to-end encryption to secure data.
PreVeil also provides the enterprise with a “Trusted Community” for communicating with fellow employees, contractors, vendors or other third parties. With a Trusted Community, employees can communicate and exchange information without worrying about being phished, spoofed, becoming victims of BEC, or having their admins compromised.
Randy Battat | Founder, President And CEO at PreVeil
Randy's LinkedIn 
Randy Battat
Founder, President and CEO
Before PreVeil, Randy was President and CEO of Airvana from 2000-2014, growing the company from a two-month old startup to a 400 person global corporation. Airvana became the #2 supplier of wireless broadband infrastructure software for the CDMA standard used by operators like Verizon and Sprint, and the #1 supplier of femtocell access points used to provide great wireless coverage inside homes. Randy spent the first thirteen years of his career at Apple, including five years as Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and three years as Vice President of the PowerBook Division. After Apple, Randy joined Motorola to run its Wireless Data Group and later became Senior Vice President of Motorola’s Internet and Networking Group, responsible for businesses such as cable voice and data communications, enterprise networking equipment, and wireless content servers.
Randy was named CEO of the Year by the Massachusetts Network Communications in April 2005, and he is also the recipient of the New England Technology Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2004 Award.
Randy holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Read More
Sanjeev Verma | Founder And Chairman at PreVeil
Sanjeev's LinkedIn 
Sanjeev Verma
Founder and Chairman
Sanjeev is a technology entrepreneur with a track record of building successful businesses. In 2000 he co-founded Airvana, which developed mobile wireless infrastructure used by leading mobile operators such as Verizon and Sprint to deliver high speed 3G data services. Airvana grew to be the world’s second largest supplier of CDMA 3G mobile data infrastructure and the world’s largest supplier of small cells. Sanjeev spent over 13 years at Airvana and helped grow the company’s business from an idea to a large public company. Prior to Airvana, Sanjeev held various technical and business leadership roles in Motorola’s Internet and Networking Group.
Sanjeev is also a member of the board of directors of Citizens School, an education non profit. He earned a BS in EE from the Delhi College of Engineering, an MS in EE from University of Rhode Island and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Read More
Raluca Ada Popa, Founder And Chief Technology Officer at PreVeil
Raluca Ada Popa
Founder And Chief Technology Officer
Raluca Ada Popa is an assistant professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. Her research is in security and applied cryptography. Raluca has developed practical systems that protect data confidentiality by computing over encrypted data as well as designed novel encryption schemes. Raluca received her PhD in computer security as well as two BS degrees, in computer science and in mathematics, from MIT. She is the recipient of an Intel Early Career Faculty Honor award, George M. Sprowls Award for best MIT CS doctoral thesis, a Google PhD Fellowship, a Johnson award for best CS Masters of Engineering thesis from MIT, and a CRA Outstanding undergraduate award from the ACM.
Read More
Nickolai Zeldovich | Chief System Architect at PreVeil
Nickolai Zeldovich
Chief System Architect
Nickolai Zeldovich is an Associate Professor at MIT's department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research interests are in building practical secure systems, from operating systems and hardware to programming languages and security analysis tools. He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2008, where he developed HiStar, an operating system designed to minimize the amount
source: https://www.preveil.com/about/

///////
Grace Gu
She’s using AI to help dream up a new generation of lighter, stronger materials
University of California, Berkeley
Country of birth: US
by Dan Solomon
Grace Gu is using artificial intelligence to find ways to make better materials. Gu envisions materials that can be used for lighter and stronger body armors, 3D-printed and customizable medical implants, and tunable solar cell materials that push the boundaries of the renewable energy technology.
Gu’s work is inspired by natural materials such as seashells and bamboo, in which the structure of the base constituents results in strength and other desirable properties. Her team at UC Berkeley uses machine learning algorithms to discover new composite structures based on nature’s examples. This approach allows her to design materials that are superstrong and yet lightweight. These designs are then 3D-printed and tested to validate the algorithm, to make sure that the hypothetical materials work in the real world.
Thus far, Gu’s research has led to material designs with dramatically enhanced mechanical properties. And as the team continues its research, Gu hopes that bigger breakthroughs are around the corner.
source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/pioneer/grace-gu/
///////

TIP: Google® Grace Gu
One result …

///////
Grace X. Gu
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
6177 Etcheverry Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
ggu@berkeley.edu
(510) 643-4996
For more information see:  Gu Research Group
Current Classes Taught
Education:
PhD Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2018
MS Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2014
BS Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2012
Research Description:
Research interests: Composites, additive manufacturing, fracture mechanics, topology optimization, machine learning, finite element analysis, and bioinspired materials.
Key Publications:
GX Gu and MJ Buehler. Tunable mechanical properties through texture control of polycrystalline additively manufactured materials using adjoint-based gradient optimization. Acta Mechanica, 2018, Accepted
GX Gu, CT Chen, and MJ Buehler. De novo composite design based on machine learning algorithm. Extreme Mechanics Letters, 18:19-28, 2018
GX Gu, M Takaffoli, and MJ Buehler. Hierarchically enhanced impact resistance of bioinspired composites. Advanced Materials, 29 (28), 2017
GX Gu, S Wettermark, and MJ Buehler. Algorithm driven design of fracture resistant composite materials realized through additive manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing, 17:47-54, 2017
GX Gu, F Libonati, S Wettermark, and MJ. Buehler. Printing nature: Unraveling the role of nacre’s mineral bridges. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 76:135-144, 2017
To view a complete list of Professor Gu’s publications, please visit the Gu Research Group website.
source: https://me.berkeley.edu/people/grace-x-gu/

///////

RECOMMENDATION: View the entire 35 Under 35 list at https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2019/. Use your imagination to see how each innovator might offer a solution to a problem you face in your own field.