To see video of the event click this link or scroll to the bottom of this page.
On June 06, 2017, the MIT Club of New York and MITArchA, (the MIT Architecture Alumni Affinity Group) and CAMIT (the Council for the Arts at MIT) hosted a talk by Marcel Botha, SM ’06 for a talk about his company, 10xBeta, an innovative product design consultancy focusing on consumer and healthcare products. The event was held at Arup New York, located in Manhattan’s Financial District.
Marcel Botha began the talk with a brief introduction to his company, followed by a description of NewLab, the Brooklyn-based technology and innovation incubator space in which 10xBeta resides. He described the resources available to NewLab affiliated companies and the unique community which inhabits the space. Botha then spoke about his company in greater detail, describing its operating method and philosophy, and gave examples of various working arrangements for products in which 10xBeta has been involved. He noted that his MIT education helped his career immensely, stating that the Institute helped him learn (among other things) how to first define a problem before looking for solutions.
Having described his background and approach, Botha showed attendees a number of products developed by 10xBeta, including: Beatbot, a programmable self-driving robot designed to motivate athletes by giving them a target to beat (Usain Bolt is a fan); Footprintless, a sneaker prototype created from CO2 recovered from energy production (each pair of shoes includes 78 grams of captured carbon dioxide); Timesulin, a digital add-on to a standard insulin pen that tracks injection schedules to assist diabetic patients; and Spuni, an infant spoon designed to trigger a baby’s innate latching instinct to improve feeding and reduce mess.
Alumni in attendance asked many detailed and insightful questions after the talk concluded, touching on topics including management, technology, partnerships, and the like, creating a lively and stimulating conversation that extended well into the evening.
[ See video below ]