Kendall Square’s community took a deep dive into the history and way forward for the region on the Kendall Square Association’s 15th annual meeting on Oct. 19.
It’s no secret that Kendall Square, positioned in Cambridge, Massachusetts, moves fast. The event, titled “Looking Back, Looking Ahead,” gave community members a likelihood to pause and reflect on how far the region has come and to debate efforts to shape where it’s going next.
“The impact of the last 15 years of working along with a purposeful commitment to make the world a greater place was on display this evening,” KSA Executive Director Beth O’Neill Maloney told the audience toward the tip of the evening. “It also shows how Kendall Square can proceed contributing to the world.”
The gathering took place on the Microsoft NERD Center on Memorial Drive, on a floor that also featured music from the Kendall Square Orchestra and, judging by the piles of empty trays at the tip of the night, an exceedingly popular number of food from Kendall Square restaurants. Attendees got here from across Cambridge’s prolific innovation ecosystem — not only entrepreneurs and life science staff but in addition highschool and college students, restaurant and retail shop owners, staff at local cleantech and robotics firms, and leaders of nonprofits.
KSA itself is a nonprofit made up of over 150 organizations across Kendall Square, from major firms to universities like MIT to research organizations just like the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the independent shops and restaurants that give Kendall Square its distinct character.
The night’s programming included talks about recent funding achievements within the region, a panel discussion on the implications of artificial intelligence, and a highly entertaining, whirlwind history lesson led by Daniel Berger-Jones of Cambridge Historical Tours.
“Our vision for the state is to be the perfect, and Kendall really represents that,” said Yvonne Hao, Massachusetts secretary of economic development. “After I went to DC to consult with folks about why Massachusetts should win a few of these grants, they said, ‘You have already got Kendall, that’s what we’re attempting to get the entire country to be like!’”
Hao began her talk by noting her personal connection to Kendall Square. She moved to Cambridge along with her family in 2010 and has watched the neighborhood transform, along with her kids frequenting the old and recent restaurants and shops around town.
The crux of Hao’s talk was to remind attendees they’d more to have fun than KSA’s anniversary. Massachusetts was recently named the recipient of two major federal grants that can fuel the state’s innovation work. One among those grants, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), designated the state an “Investor Catalyst Hub” to speed up innovation around health care. The opposite, which got here through the federal CHIPS and Science Act, will allow the state to determine the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub to advance microelectronics jobs, workforce training opportunities, and investment within the region’s advanced manufacturing.
Hao recalled making the pitch for the grants, which could collectively amount to tons of of tens of millions of dollars in funding over time.
“The pitch happened in Kendall Square because Kendall highlights all the things magical about Massachusetts — now we have our universities, MIT, now we have our research institutions, nonprofits, small businesses, and great community members,” Hao said. “We were hoping for good weather because we desired to walk with government officials, because while you walk around Kendall, you see the art, you see the coffee shops, you see the people bumping into one another and talking, and also you see why it’s so vital that this one square mile of geography turn into the hub they were in search of.”
Hao can also be a part of work to place together the state’s newest economic development plan. She said the group’s tier one priorities are transportation and housing, but listed plenty of other areas where she hopes Massachusetts can improve.
“We could be a tremendous, strong economy that’s mission-driven and innovation-driven with every kind of jobs for every kind of individuals, and at the identical time an awesome community that loves one another and has great food and small businesses and appears out for one another, that appears diverse similar to this room,” Hao said. “That’s the story we wish to inform.”
After the historical tour and the debut of a video explaining the origins of the KSA, attendees fast-forwarded into the longer term with a panel discussion on the impact and implications of generative AI.
“I feel the paradigm shift we’re seeing with generative AI goes to be as transformative as the web, maybe even more so since the pace of adoption is far faster now,” said Microsoft’s Soundar Srinivasan.
The panel also featured Jennat Jounaidi, a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and member of Innovators for Purpose, a nonprofit that seeks to empower young people from historically marginalized groups to turn into innovators.
“I’m interested to see how generative AI shapes my upbringing in addition to the lives of future generations, and I feel it’s a pivotal moment to make a decision how we will best develop and incorporate AI into all of our lives,” Jounaidi said.
Panelists noted that today’s concerns around AI are vital, comparable to its potential to perpetuate inequality and amplify misinformation. But in addition they discussed the technology’s potential to drive advances in areas like sustainability and health care.
“I got here to Kendall Square to do my PhD in AI at MIT back when the web was called the ARPA-Net… so some time ago,” said Jeremy Wertheimer SM ’89, PhD ’96. “One among the dreams I had back then was to create a program to read all biology papers. We’re not quite there yet, but I feel we’re on the cusp, and it’s very exciting.
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 event was excitement for the longer term.
“Generative AI is giving us likelihood to stop working in siloes,” Jounaidi said. “Many individuals on this room return to their firms and take into consideration corporate responsibility, and I need to expand that to creating shared value in firms by looking for out the community and the people here. I feel that’s vital, and I’m excited to see what comes next.”
