HUBweek: Explore and celebrate the future being built in Boston

Image by YoungHee Jang/Northeastern University

It’s HUBweek in Boston—an annual creative festival that celebrates the city’s innovation at the intersection of art, science, and technology.

Now in its second year, HUBweek bills itself as “a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration that brings together the most creative and inventive minds making an impact in Boston and around the world.”

This year, several of those minds are those of Northeastern leaders, students, and alumni.

Creating an agile workforce for the 21st century

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, President Joseph E. Aoun will join HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan and Care.com co-founder Donna Levin to discuss how Boston’s robust higher education landscape and innovation ecosystem uniquely create the agile workforce the 21st-century demands.

The roundtable discussion, titled “Building and Growing a 21st Century Career,” will be moderated by Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung and will take place at Faneuil Hall from 2- 4 p.m. The event is free and registration is open.

The future of justice: data science and journalism combine

Later on Wednesday, Northeastern will co-host HUBweek’s first hackathon—an opportunity for scholars, scientists, and journalists to collaborate in drawing broad trends from large datasets, specifically in areas related to fairness, community, safety, and privacy.

School of Journalism professor John Wihbey; College of Computer and Information Science professor Michelle Borkin; and College of Social Sciences and Humanities professor Dan O’Brien, who also is research director of the Boston Area Research Initiative, will join Boston Globe data journalist Todd Wallack in leading the event.

The hackathon will kick off with a discussion with WorldQuant CEO and founder Igor Tulchinsky, moderated by Forbes Editor Randall Lane. The event will be held in the Curry Student Center from 5:30-9:30 p.m., and is co-hosted by HUBweek and InkHouse. Those interested in participating can register here.

Entrepreneurs go head-to-head

On Friday, Sept. 30, HUBweek Demo Day will showcase 100 of the highest impact startups and companies in the Greater Boston area. The final list, which includes a number of Northeastern student and alumni ventures, was whittled down from an initial pool of several hundred. The top 32 will pitch head-to-head on Friday.

Here is a look at three of the Northeastern startups selected for Demo Day.

Hylux Sport, a company started by Lamar Letts, DMSB’17, was born out of Letts recovery from a track injury. Frustrated by the artificial, sugary ingredients found in most sports drinks, Letts decided to create his own all-natural version, and got his start shopping it to gyms in Boston in the mornings before class.

Also on the roster is New Grounds Food, a company created by Northeastern seniors Johnny Fayad and Ali Kothari, both DMSB’17, who found they were running out of time in the mornings to have breakfast and a cup of coffee. “Why can’t we eat our coffee?” they mused, and thus the CoffeeBar, a coffee-infused energy bar, was born.

Therapeutic Innovations, a venture founded by Northeastern doctoral student Solomon Mensah, aims to redesign and reduce the cost of pediatric medical devices with the hope that someday all children—including those in developing countries—will have access to modern healthcare.

Registration for Demo Day is required.