Last June 23rd 2016, MIT and UCL decided to celebrate in Louvain-la-Neuve their continued international partnership notably the 5th grant cycle seeding research between the two institutions.
Following a proposal made by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) celebrated and highlighted their ongoing collaborations.
On that occasion, three main areas of collaborations between the two institutions were emphasized:
- The MIT Belgium UCL Seed Fund seeding MIT-UCL research. Since 2011, fifteen projects have been supported through this program. For many of these teams, the funding was essential to building a lasting collaboration. Many of these joint projects have resulted in publications and further funding. More info:http://misti.mit.edu/belgium-seed-fund
- The student program signed in 2015 placing MIT students in internships at UCL labs and spinoffs on Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park. Some of these students joined projects supported by seed funding, others joined teams with no active ties to MIT. At the same time, thanks to the support of the International Lhoist Berghmans Innovation Chair, this program allowed students from the Louvain School of Engineering selected for academic excellence to intern in labs at MIT. You may check-out the posters made by MIT and UCL students currently in exchange
- The edX platform of free online courses launched by MIT and Harvard University. UCL joined this platform as a charter member in 2013. Today it contributes to 16 online courses with the support of TreeTop followed by approximately 200.000 students. More info: https://www.edx.org
This event was also the occasion to showcase one of the MIT Belgium UCL Seed Fund projects entitled "Building like birds: A drone story". You may watch the demo on YouTube.