Spinoffs

Many companies---about one per year---have been either founded by laboratory members or with heavy involvement from laboratory members. A representative sample follows:

Arris Pharmaceutical

Discovery and development of synthetic small molecule therapeutics that modulate the activity of medically important proteins.

Ascent Technology

Situation assessment and resource allocation software for airlines and airports, for logistics centers, and for security traders.

Barrett Technology

Barrett Technology, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of High-Performance Robotic Hardware.

Barrett's product line includes, BarrettHand (dexterous grasper), BarrettArm (a.k.a. the WAM arm), and MiniMotor (tiny servo motor).

Boston Dynamics

Real-time computer characters, human animation, force feedback virtual-reality systems, and physics-based simulation.

Cayennesoft

Formed from a merger with Bachman Information Systems with Cadre Technologies. Products and software for managing software development, from analysis, design and code construction through reuse, reverse engineering and testing.

Cognex

Machine vision systems for gauging, guiding, identifying, and inspecting products.

Exa Corporation

Fluid flow modelling hardware and software solutions based on discrete physics models.

Gold Hill Computers

Lisp and expert systems.

Imagen Incorporated

Imagen specializes in automated visual recognition and pictorial/multimedia search systems. At the heart of Imagen is a groundbreaking technology for image and video analysis that was developed by the founders at MIT. This technology was honored with the 1997 MIT George M. Sprowls Award for exceptional research. Imagen was also the grand prize winner in the prestigious MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition for 1997.

IS Robotics

Designs and manufactures standard and custom micro-robots for a variety of scientific, exploration, and industrial applications.

Microdisplay Corporation

Makers of the world's smallest computer display systems

Naughty Dog Software

Developers of some of the hottest video games, including such hits as Crash Bandicoot.

Newton Research Labs

Newton Research Labs makes robots and various systems related to robots, including fast vision systems and software development environments. Newton Labs aims to create affordable, cutting-edge robotic systems.

nFX

Real time interactive graphics for multimedia and the World Wide Web

Orbotech

Orbotech is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of automated optical inspection systems for use in the manufacture of printed circuit boards and a leading manufacturer of computer-aided manufacturing systems and laser plotters for printed circuit board production.

SensAble Technologies

Manufactures the PHANToM haptic interface, which allows users to interact with virtual objects via touch.

Silicon Spice

Revolutionary technology for the telecommunications market.

StockMaster

Provides individual investors on the Web with comprehensive quotes and charts on U.S. stocks and mutual funds.

Thinking Machines, Inc.

Software and systems solutions for parallel computing problems.

Y & Y

Programs and fonts for the TeX typesetting system.

Universal Access Inc.

Web based authoring tools and languages -- META-HTML.