Communications of the ACM
Leading Through Impact
Harvard University's Office of Technology Development has helped university researchers launch a machine-learning startup that has been acquired by Twitter.
Credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard SEAS
Harvard University computer scientist Ryan P. Adams and colleagues turned to the university's Office of Technology Development to launch a machine-learning startup. Fifteen months after Whetlab was founded, the company was acquired by Twitter.
Harvard researchers have launched several successful companies and many of the faculty who taught them have been active entrepreneurs as well.
Research by faculty at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has led to several promising startups in recent years. New ventures using droplet-based microfluidics to analyze genomes, deploying software to facilitate active learning in the classroom, and commercializing robotic graspers, three-dimensional printers, and quantum cascade lasers have helped ensure innovations reach the public.
For example, Harvard professor Margo Seltzer co-founded Sleepycat Software to commercialize the Berkeley database software. "Theorists can figure out hard problems, figure out whether something is possible, or how we're doing relative to the best we can do," she says.
"I find there's a real synergy between those of us who think of ourselves as applied and those of us who think of ourselves as theoretical. I'm thoroughly entrenched on the applied side, but you need that breadth."
From Harvard University
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