I-Lab Teams Present to Board of Overseers

Six teams of Harvard students based out of the I-Lab presented their business ideas—including proposals to revolutionize battery technology and to re-define teacher education—to members of the Harvard Board of Overseers on Sunday.

The presentations were meant to showcase the creative thinking sponsored by the I-Lab, which currently offers space and resources to 55 teams. The teams, composed of students from across the University, are the first to maintain residency in the I-Lab, which opened last year.

University President Drew G. Faust, who is also an overseer, said the event demonstrated how the I-Lab fosters the innovative thinking that is crucial to the University’s mission.

“The I-Lab student presentations at the overseers meeting illustrated Harvard’s tradition of using knowledge to invent the future,” Faust wrote in an email. “We saw, firsthand, how this new collaborative space inspires innovation, curiosity, and engagement.”

Megan R. Marcus, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said she was “honored” to have the opportunity to address the members of the Board of Overseers.

“It’s just wonderful to have a platform to talk about a large idea in front of a group made up of such prominent and important leaders in such a wide range of fields,” said Marcus, who said that she hopes to revolutionize teacher’s education through her business, FuelEd.

Louis B. Beryl presented his business idea “Solid Energy”—a new, more efficient and cost-effective battery. Beryl’s group has already been in talks with a number of high profile corporations, including Toyota, he said.

“It was very validating to have such a prestigious group respond positively to our idea,” Beryl said.

I-Lab director Gordon S. Jones said that Sunday’s presentations was a sampling of the type of “progressive, inventive, and cutting-edge” projects the teams at the I-Lab are pursuing.

He added that the event marked an important benchmark for the new lab, displaying the extant potential for student creativity.

“What makes the innovation lab distinctive is that it’s this chance for students from around the University to be able to meet each other and put these ideas they have into practice,” Jones said. “It’s important that they have a space like the I-Lab, where we facilitate, support, and resource those ideas.”

In addition to space, the I-Lab provides its teams access to experienced mentors and legal advisors. These resources, have been essential for students like Katharine R. Wolf, who is studying at Harvard Kennedy School. Wolf is the president and CEO of the new company OrganJet—an organization which aims to help patients awaiting organ transplants obtain organs more quickly while reducing the health-care costs associated with such a transplant.

She said the I-Lab has been crucial in developing her idea, which she said she hopes will affect everyone, “rich or poor, white or black.”

“The I-Lab space is really critical for us, because it allows us to interact with other ideas that help us think through what we really want to do as well as giving us access to venture capitalists, lawyers, and medias,” said Wolf, who also said she wants to base her growing company out of the I-Lab. “This is the chance of a lifetime. We’re trying to save lives out of this space.”

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.