Past Events

Are you a CSAIL entrepreneur? Are you curious about the resources that CSAIL Alliances, as well as the rest of the MIT Ecosystem can offer you?

Register for Time: https://calendly.com/ckalfas/office-hours

Sign up for Office Hours to ask these questions and more! Your questions may include: 

• Where can I get funding?
• Can I get connections to industry partners?
• How can I get pitch help?
• How can CSAIL Alliances help me?
• And more!

Christiana Kalfas, Senior Client Relations Coordinator (CSAIL Alliances), brings a rare blend of expertise to the entrepreneurial journey, anchored by an MS in Computer Information Systems and a BA in Neuropsychology. This background shapes her focus at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and human potential. With over eight years dedicated to accelerating ventures within the MIT ecosystem (including roles at CSAIL Alliances and MIT VMS), she has a proven track record of helping deep-tech ideas transition from the lab to the market. A recipient of multiple MIT Spot Awards, she specializes in building impactful programs and actively leveraging her role within CSAIL Alliances to directly facilitate connections between deep-tech ventures and senior industry leaders, helping translate complex research into scalable business plans. As an active Member of the Greek Scientists Society, she also offers an expanded perspective on global community and network building. Leverage her office hours to gain strategic guidance, access key institutional resources, and tap into the knowledge required to launch a successful MIT-affiliated venture. 

This month, Christiana will be joined by Keenan Blatt from MIT's Mission Innovation X. 

Keenan Blatt is the Senior Program Manager at MIT’s Mission Innovation X (MIX), where he leads dual-use innovation programs spanning education, research, and venture incubation. He runs the Dual Use Ventures incubator funded through the SBIR/STTR program, placing MIT undergraduates and graduate researchers on fundamental research with startups and government partners, and helps design and teach MIX’s dual-use curricula, including the SOCOM Engineering Innovation class and NATO DIANA bootcamp classes. Keenan’s background includes defense research program management at the University of Texas at Austin and service as an officer in the U.S. Army (Guard/Reserves) in intelligence/innovation community.

Mission Innovation X (MIx) serves as a strategic bridge between mission-driven organizations ("problem owners") and dual-use ventures ("capability providers"). We cultivate a robust innovation ecosystem at MIT by accelerating high-impact startups and advancing the science and practice of dual-use technology for societal benefit. Through a comprehensive portfolio of grants, strategic partnerships, fellowships, and experiential learning, MIx empowers the academic community to solve critical global challenges through direct collaboration and research translation.

Info on Startup Programs offered are here.

The CSAIL Forum event series is hosted by Professor Daniela Rus, CSAIL Director. This virtual series was created to inspire conversation, share insights, and shape the future of computer science and artificial intelligence. Registration is required. 
See past forum recordings and learn more here

Speaker: Mohammad Alizadeh, NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering
Date/time: Tuesday 12:00-1:00 EST, December 9, 2025 
Virtual via Zoom: Registration required
Title: Glia: A Human-Inspired AI for Automated Systems Design and Optimization

Abstract: 
Can an AI autonomously design mechanisms for computer systems on par with the creativity and reasoning of human experts? In this talk, I'll introduce Glia, an AI architecture for automated systems design that uses large language models (LLMs) in a human-inspired, multi-agent workflow. Each agent specializes in reasoning, experimentation, and analysis, collaborating through an evaluation framework that grounds abstract reasoning in empirical feedback. Unlike prior ML-for-systems methods that optimize black-box policies, Glia generates interpretable designs and exposes its reasoning process. When applied to a distributed GPU cluster for LLM inference, it produces new algorithms for request routing, scheduling, and auto-scaling that perform at human-expert levels in significantly less time, while yielding novel insights into workload behavior. Our results suggest that by combining reasoning LLMs with structured experimentation, an AI can produce creative and understandable designs for complex systems problems.

Bio:
Mohammad Alizadeh is the NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering at MIT EECS and a principal investigator in CSAIL. His current research focuses on leveraging AI for automated system design and optimization, intelligent decision-making, and system simulation. Mohammad's past research on datacenter networks led to protocols now implemented in commercial operating systems and switching products, and deployed by large datacenter operators. Mohammad's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, VMware Systems Research Award, SIGCOMM Rising Star Award, SIGCOMM Test of Time Award, and multiple best paper awards. He earned his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and his BS from Sharif University of Technology. Before joining MIT EECS in 2015, he worked at Insieme Networks and Cisco Systems.

Thank you for your interest in joining us for our upcoming VC Breakfast—this event is limited to members of CSAIL, our CSAIL Alliances members, and selected guests from the MIT community as space permits. 

• Registration is required.
• You may attend this event as an audience member, or to pitch. The registration form will guide you accordingly.
• See the VC Breakfast FAQ page to get more important information regarding this event
• Ventures, submitting this form does not guarantee a slot to pitch; its a competitive process. A member of CSAIL Alliances will follow up on your application.

This event is sponsored by Underscore VC, with more information on the fund incoming.

For more information on Underscore VC visit https://underscore.vc/ 

This event is hosted by CSAIL Alliances and the MIT Museum.

Join CSAIL Alliances and the MIT Museum for a live podcast event in the Exchange. 

Join two MIT scholars at the cutting edge of AI research—CSAIL Senior Research Scientist Neil Thompson and MIT Economics Professor David Autor—to understand how AI is reshaping employment.

Moderated by Kara Miller, host of the CSAIL Alliances Podcast. Learn more and listen to past episodes.