Mission

The X PRIZE Lab @ MIT engages students and faculty in designing and studying prizes to incentivize major feats of innovation.  Our interdisciplinary fall class focuses on revolution in energy and the environment, while our spring class targets opportunities in life sciences.

Founded in 2007, the X PRIZE Lab @ MIT partners the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the X PRIZE Foundation to engage leading thinkers in helping recognize areas that are ripe for breakthrough innovation. MIT students and faculty explore the strengths of prize philanthropy with academic rigor and the excitement of the X PRIZE model is used as an anchor for engaging youth in the world's biggest challenges.

Activities of the Lab include teaching graduate level classes on the intersection of incentives and innovation; researching the role of prizes in fostering technological and social breakthroughs; and engaging students and faculty in design of new X PRIZE challenges.

You can hear X PRIZE Founder Dr. Peter Diamandis talk more about the X PRIZE Lab @ MIT here .

People

Affiliate Faculty and Teaching Staff
Dr. Charles Cooney , Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering; Director, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation

Jeffrey Shames , MIT Executive in Resident; Board Member, X PRIZE Foundation

Dr. Fiona Murray , Class of 1922 Career Development Professor, Management of Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Ken Zolot , Senior Lecturer, MIT School of Engineering & Entrepreneurship Center

Dr. Dava Newman , Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow; Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems; Director, Technology and Policy Program