More than 500 world solution leaders to gather for MIT Solve

World Today

More than 500 leaders working on solutions to world problems will gather at MIT this week. (Photo: MIT SOLVE)

For participants at the MIT Solve conference in Boston May 7-9, the aim is strength in numbers.

With more than 500 participants expected from fields as wide-ranging as business, nonprofits, and academia, organizers and participants hope to “crowdsolve” the world’s most pressing problems.

The annual meeting is part of the MIT Solve, which offers funding for applicants that can pitch potential solutions to specific challenges. (Full disclosure: CGTN America is an MIT Solve partner.)

The 33 recipients of the Solver teams awarded last fall will discuss technological solutions to the challenge of how technology can be used to transform people’s lives. They were selected from a pool of 1,150 applicatns.

Five plenary sessions will also cover tech for equality, data for good, innovation for and by women, investing in refugees and immigrant entrepreneurs, and creating the future.

Dinners will feature speakers on issues such as organizational agility, indigenous knowledge, Puerto Rico, environmental challenges, early childhood development, building healthy cities, and helping the workforce and educators.

Speakers will include:

Wendy Schmidt, President of the Schmidt Family Foundation which launched the research vessel Falkor in 2012 that has mapped a quarter of a million miles of ocean floor and has hosted more than 500 scientists from 92 countries to discover new ocean ecosystems and species, according to MIT Solve.

Neela Montgomery, CEO, Crate & Barrel, where 75 percent of senior leadership and 70 percent of retail associates are women.

Tristan Harris, Founder, Center for Humane Technology. Harris is a former Google design ethicist known for reforming technology to provide greater access to all.

Ayah Bdeir, Founder and CEO of littleBits, who invented the electronic building block. Her latest project, Snap the Gap, will provide 1 million girls with tools and opportunities to become scientists and engineers, MIT Solve said.

Lyla June, a musician, activist, and performance poet from the Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) nations.

Jade Hameister, a polar explorer who made history when at 16 years old, she was the youngest person to traverse the North Pole, South Pole, and the Greenland ice sheet.

Stephanie Mehta, Editor-in-Chief, Fast Company, which under her leadership has included greater coverage of diverse topics.

The plenary sessions will be livestreamed starting May 7th at 4 p.m. eastern time on MIT Solve’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages.