Kendall Square’s group took a deep dive into the historical past and way forward for the area on the Kendall Square Association’s 15th annual assembly on Oct. 19.
It’s no secret that Kendall Square, positioned in Cambridge, Massachusetts, strikes quick. The occasion, titled “Looking Back, Looking Ahead,” gave group members an opportunity to pause and mirror on how far the area has come and to debate efforts to form the place it’s going subsequent.
“The impact of the last 15 years of working together with a purposeful commitment to make the world a better place was on display this evening,” KSA Executive Director Beth O’Neill Maloney informed the viewers towards the top of the night. “It also shows how Kendall Square can continue contributing to the world.”
The gathering happened on the Microsoft NERD Center on Memorial Drive, on a flooring that additionally featured music from the Kendall Square Orchestra and, judging by the piles of empty trays on the finish of the night time, an exceedingly common number of meals from Kendall Square eating places. Attendees got here from throughout Cambridge’s prolific innovation ecosystem — not simply entrepreneurs and life science employees but in addition highschool and faculty college students, restaurant and retail store house owners, employees at native cleantech and robotics corporations, and leaders of nonprofits.
KSA itself is a nonprofit made up of over 150 organizations throughout Kendall Square, from main corporations to universities like MIT to analysis organizations just like the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the unbiased retailers and eating places that give Kendall Square its distinct character.
The night time’s programming included talks about current funding achievements within the area, a panel dialogue on the implications of synthetic intelligence, and a extremely entertaining, whirlwind historical past lesson led by Daniel Berger-Jones of Cambridge Historical Tours.
“Our vision for the state is to be the best, and Kendall really represents that,” stated Yvonne Hao, Massachusetts secretary of financial growth. “When I went to DC to talk to folks about why Massachusetts should win some of these grants, they said, ‘You already have Kendall, that’s what we’re trying to get the whole country to be like!’”
Hao began her speak by noting her private connection to Kendall Square. She moved to Cambridge along with her household in 2010 and has watched the neighborhood remodel, along with her youngsters frequenting the previous and new eating places and retailers round city.
The crux of Hao’s speak was to remind attendees they’d extra to have a good time than KSA’s anniversary. Massachusetts was not too long ago named the recipient of two main federal grants that can gasoline the state’s innovation work. One of these grants, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), designated the state an “Investor Catalyst Hub” to speed up innovation round well being care. The different, which got here by way of the federal CHIPS and Science Act, will enable the state to determine the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub to advance microelectronics jobs, workforce coaching alternatives, and funding within the area’s superior manufacturing.
Hao recalled making the pitch for the grants, which might collectively quantity to lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in funding over time.
“The pitch happened in Kendall Square because Kendall highlights everything magical about Massachusetts — we have our universities, MIT, we have our research institutions, nonprofits, small businesses, and great community members,” Hao stated. “We were hoping for good weather because we wanted to walk with government officials, because when you walk around Kendall, you see the art, you see the coffee shops, you see the people bumping into each other and talking, and you see why it’s so important that this one square mile of geography become the hub they were looking for.”
Hao can be a part of work to place collectively the state’s latest financial growth plan. She stated the group’s tier one priorities are transportation and housing, however listed quite a few different areas the place she hopes Massachusetts can enhance.
“We can be an amazing, strong economy that’s mission-driven and innovation-driven with all kinds of jobs for all kinds of people, and at the same time an awesome community that loves each other and has great food and small businesses and looks out for each other, that looks diverse just like this room,” Hao stated. “That’s the story we want to tell.”
After the historic tour and the debut of a video explaining the origins of the KSA, attendees fast-forwarded into the longer term with a panel dialogue on the influence and implications of generative AI.
“I think the paradigm shift we’re seeing with generative AI is going to be as transformative as the internet, perhaps even more so because the pace of adoption is much faster now,” stated Microsoft’s Soundar Srinivasan.
The panel additionally featured Jennat Jounaidi, a scholar at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and member of Innovators for Purpose, a nonprofit that seeks to empower younger individuals from traditionally marginalized teams to turn into innovators.
“I’m interested to see how generative AI shapes my upbringing as well as the lives of future generations, and I think it’s a pivotal moment to decide how we can best develop and incorporate AI into all of our lives,” Jounaidi stated.
Panelists famous that at this time’s issues round AI are vital, comparable to its potential to perpetuate inequality and amplify misinformation. But in addition they mentioned the know-how’s potential to drive advances in areas like sustainability and well being care.
“I came to Kendall Square to do my PhD in AI at MIT back when the internet was called the ARPA-Net… so a while ago,” stated Jeremy Wertheimer SM ’89, PhD ’96. “One of the goals I had again then was to create a program to learn all biology papers. We’re not fairly there but, however I feel we’re on the cusp, and it’s very thrilling.
Above all else, the panelists characterised AI as a possibility. Despite all that’s been completed in Kendall Square to this point, the prevailing feeling on the occasion was pleasure for the longer term.
“Generative AI is giving us chance to stop working in siloes,” Jounaidi stated. “Many people in this room go back to their companies and think about corporate responsibility, and I want to expand that to creating shared value in companies by seeking out the community and the people here. I think that’s important, and I’m excited to see what comes next.”