MS 2013
Creative Engineer
Arlene is an NYC-based entrepreneur running an ML-spinoff company, Multimer.
She is also an adjunct professor at New York University School of Engineering.
How did your experience at the Lab influence your next step?
I knew I wanted to move back to NYC and continue to be an entrepreneur, but keep a strong tie to the Media Lab and MIT. My PI left the Media Lab soon after I graduated, so my strongest official tie to the Media Lab was E14. Under Dave Strand's leadership, I had a really good experience with E14. Also, through ML contacts, I interviewed with and started teaching at NYU. Like many ML students, faculty, and staff, I need a lot of flexibility to do my best work, so being an adjunct and an entrepreneur is a great arrangement.
Leverage the resources at MIT beyond the Media Lab, and connect with people beyond the Media Lab as well. This helped me enormously. The Media Lab can be too insular at times.