MIT Mobility Initiative

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?eighth episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, March 28th 2025. Forum Title: Creating the Mobility Innovation Ecosystem: The State and Private Sector Role Please join us for a discussion on state capacity and the business sector’s role in building a sustainable and successful regional ecosystem. Stephanie Pollack will cover the very timely topic of state capacity and how and what it requires for sustainable mobility. Jamey Tesler will elaborate on the role at a local level of business innovation (what it needs, how to support it etc.). We hope to generate a discussion on an affirmative, proactive way to continue to pursue these goals (sustainability and infrastructure development) at a state level in today’s environment. #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

Last week's MIT Mobility Initiative Friday Forum was our most popular one yet with 408 participants - thank you to all those who joined! We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our esteemed speakers Sam Schwartz, Will Carry, and Matthew W. Daus. We had a vibrant discussion regarding congestion charge's history and development, the latest data/impact, and various international experiences. We also examined how other cities can gain from New York’s experience. Video available now at https://lnkd.in/eGmSXpKx Slides available at our forum page - https://lnkd.in/eHG4YvN7

Join us this Thursday as MIT Mobility Initiative (MMI) and MMI Senior Fellow 2024 Laura Fox host a live session with two founders (Alexander Esposito (Co-Founder & CEO of Circuit) and Luke Mairo (Co-Founder & COO of Voltpost)) on identifying, applying to, and receiving deployments grants to help startups de-risk debt capital. This will hopefully be a great learning experience for founders in the mobility or climate space who are looking to learn more about non-dilutive sources of capital like grants and debt to build your business. Or investors looking to support a portfolio company on this topic. Sign up here to join us on March 20: https://lu.ma/meebp3qv

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?seventh episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, March 21st 2025. Forum Title: Congestion Pricing in New York City: ‘If you can make it there, can you make it anywhere?' With the introduction of congestion pricing in January 2025, New York City sets a precedent for how American cities can address the dual challenges of urban congestion and climate change. This policy marks a critical step toward creating healthier, more equitable, and sustainable urban environments. Sam Schwartz, Will Carry, and Matthew W. Daus will discuss the program’s history and development, present the latest data and impacts, and share international experiences for comparison. The panelists will also examine current challenges, future prospects, and insights other cities can gain from New York’s experience. #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?sixth episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, March 14th 2025. Forum Title: Cities, Transit and the Future of Working from Home Working from Home has now stabilized at one quarter of full paid days in the US. This has had massive impacts on cities, working, and transportation. The presentation will first briefly overview the latest US, industry and international data on working from home, and why this is profitable for employers to adopt. It will then focus on the key economic impacts on this, including the “Donut effect” (how population has moved to the suburbs), commuting impacts (distance to work has roughly doubled), labor supply impacts on female and disability workers, as well as crime, sport and commuting impacts. In short, this permanent five-fold increase in working from home appears to have shaped most parts of the modern economy and society. Speaker - Nick Bloom, Professor of Economics, Stanford University #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?fifth episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, March 7th 2025. Forum Title: 2025 UP.Partners's Moving World Report The forces impacting transformations in mobility are changing rapidly. Each year brings new developments, often shaped by geopolitics. This talk walks through some of the macro changes being driven by the newly elected Trump administration, and examines some specific challenges and opportunities open to business. We will briefly cover how the change in political posture will affect developments on land, sea, air, space, and energy. These developments have profound impact on GDP allocation, and will have repercussions for decades to come. Speaker - Adam Grosser, Chairman and Managing Partner, UP.Partners #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?fourth episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by John Moavenzadeh taking place this Friday, Feb 28 2025. Forum Title: Going Nowhere Fast: Dissecting the Remarkable Fall of U.S. Personal Travel in the 21st Century Covid-19 significantly altered work, out-of-home activity participation, and travel, with much activity time being moved into the home. But many of these trends are not new; some have continued through and after the pandemic, while others have accelerated. This talk presents data from both the American Time Use Survey and the National Household Travel Survey since the early 2000s to consider changes in in-home and out-of-home activities and travel over the past two decades, with a focus on post-pandemic trends. Many of the trends appear enduring, and if so have profound implications for cities, their transportation systems, and socialization more broadly in the years ahead. Speaker - Brian Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, Research Fellow in the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?third episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, Feb 21 2025. Forum Title: Automating Ports: Technology Frontier and Industry Application This talk explores the latest advancements in developing and deploying self-driving trucks for automating container transport and management, and operating our autonomous fleet at a major Asian port, at Venti Technologies. The discussion will cover results, metrics, and Venti's approach to autonomy and fleet management. The discussion will also cover recent research that combines language and video to enhance the out-of-distribution generalization of AI mobility models. Speakers - Heidi Wyle - CEO & Founder, Venti Technologies | Daniela Rus - Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)) #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

The MIT Mobility Initiative is delighted to announce the?second episode of the Mobility?Forum?Spring 2025 hosted by Prof. Jinhua Zhao taking place this Friday, Feb 14 2025. Forum Title: The Role Of Transportation Infrastructure In The Future Of Connected And Automated Vehicles As vehicles achieve increasing levels of connectivity and automation, will the way that we operate transportation infrastructure evolve as well? This talk led by Jen Duthie from Cintra, a Ferrovial company will reflect on this question from the perspective of a leading transportation infrastructure company that owns and operates long-term roadway concessions around the globe, with commentary by Dr. Dan Work of Vanderbilt University, and will encourage the audience to “think beyond the concrete” when imagining the future. #mitmobilityinitiative Fridays 12:00-13:00 ET, Feb 7 - May 30, 2025 The MIT Mobility Forum is open to the public. Please register here - https://lnkd.in/e9e5NmPz

For startups and companies in mobility and beyond, securing funding without giving up equity is crucial for sustainable growth. MIT Mobility Initiative 2024 Senior Fellow Laura Fox's research briefing on Non-Dilutive Capital for Mobility Startups, explores funding sources that empower businesses while maintaining ownership and control. The research briefing covers key aspects such as: - Key sources and types of non-dilutive funding - Insights on grants, debt and revenue-based financing - A list of great resources for startups to explore You can find the research briefing here - https://lnkd.in/e8VcBrjc #Entrepreneurship #Startups #Funding #NonDilutiveCapital #MITMobilityInitiative #Innovation #SustainableGrowth