Imperial College London and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will host the Innovation Journeys conference in London on 25 September 2019.
The event will bring together industry leaders, academics, and startups from both universities to explore and share the latest technological innovations and research.
Speakers at the event include academics and innovation experts from the participating universities, and speakers from industry collaborators BT and Mastercard.
The BT-sponsored event will also feature startups Synbiosys, a platform for materials research and development, Aventus, a next generation smart ticketing service utilising open blockchain, and Rightly, a platform that allows internet users to manage the handling of their personal data by third-party companies.
Disruptive technologies
The speeches at Innovation Journeys will focus on the development of disruptive technologies, which are always of interest to companies at the forefront of their markets. Especially prevalent in this conference are the changes that AI and blockchain are set to bring, with a speech from Dr Mark Kennedy, Associate Professor at the Imperial College Business School, addressing these and subsequent changes to working environments.
The changing demographics of the industries these technologies will affect will also be stressed. “People are getting older, they have different expectations”, said Julia Zanghieri, Programme Manager from Imperial Business Partners (IBP) and event co-organiser, who believes that the ever-evolving dynamics of markets such as healthcare need to be addressed alongside disruptive technologies, rather than separately from them.
There will also be a question and answer session with various academics. Zanghieri said “We hope this will be extremely useful and inspiring for companies who want to know answers to more specific challenges of their industries and markets.”
Connecting businesses with research
IBP, which is working with collaborators to host the event, helps engage researchers and innovators with business leaders and policymakers with the aim of giving the latest technologies real-world applications. This helps academics to further their research, and events like the Innovation Journeys conference help to accelerate this process.
IBP events give businesses an opportunity to become further acquainted with potentially disruptive technologies of the future. “Events like these make it easy for research managers to understand what research is happening, where it is happening, and how it can benefit them in business”, said Zanghieri. Since the programme’s initiation in 2011, over 20 partners have joined, including notable names such as AirAsia, HSBC and SSE.
Transatlantic bond
The conference represents a growing bond between Imperial and MIT, two universities that share many common objectives and qualities. This increased cooperation has already created big opportunities for students and researchers alike, such as the student exchange programme and the International Research Opportunities Program.
Enterpreneurial ecosystem
Innovation Journeys and the IBP membership programme are part of Imperial’s ecosystem of initiatives to support industry and entrepreneurship. You can read more about this work in the College’s annual Review of Enterprising Activity.
Article by Oli Hepworth
Article text (excluding photos or graphics) © Imperial College London.
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