10X SUMMIT

FUTURES IN THE MAKING

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2026
MET WAREHOUSE 134 MASS AVENUE

Ten years of ideas, experimentation, and impact. Now, we come together to imagine and make what’s next.

Join us as we celebrate 10 years of DesignX and a decade of advancing design innovation, entrepreneurship, and impact. The 10X Summit: Futures in the Making brings together our global community of innovators, entrepreneurs, collaborators, and changemakers to celebrate what we have built together and to imagine what comes next.

Futures in the Making reflects our belief that the future is not something we simply anticipate, it is something we actively create. The Summit invites our community to think boldly, experiment together, and turn imagination into action.

Over the past decade, MIT DesignX has supported people and ideas seeking to transform the future of the built environment and the way we live. The 10X Summit is both a moment to reflect on that journey and an invitation to look forward with ambition and imagination. At a time of rapid technological, environmental, and societal change, our ability to envision new possibilities has never been more important. Through inspiring conversations, hands-on workshops, and shared experiences, the Summit will explore emerging ideas and opportunities, challenge assumptions about what is possible, and consider how design, technology, and entrepreneurship can help shape more meaningful and resilient futures.

08:30AM REGISTRATION

Check in when you arrive.

09:00AM WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

Make sure to take your seat in the auditorium for the keynote experience with Liam Young!

09:15AM KEYNOTE: LIAM YOUNG PRESENTS TOMORROW’S THOUGHTS TODAY

Join us for an immersive experience with Liam Young, a Speculative Architect, director and BAFTA-nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. Described by the BBC as ‘the man designing our futures’, his visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today.

09:35AM PANEL: IMAGINATION AND CURIOSITY THROUGH THE JOY OF MAKING AND DESIGN

What do we make of today’s automate-everything world? What happens when ideas have the space and community to become reality?

Panelists:

Hashim Sarkis / Dean, School of Architecture and Planning
John Ochsendorf / Assoc. Dean for Research, School of Architecture and Planning and Director, Morningside Academy for Design
Newsha Ghaeli / Co-Founder and CEO, Biobot
Liam Young, Speculative Architect, Director and BAFTA-nominated Producer

09:55AM SHOWCASE: A DECADE OF DESIGN INNOVATION

Carlos Centeno Lairet, DesignX Director of Programs and Operations, highlights MIT DesignX ventures making an impact in a variety of industries. Founders will take us through their journeys to becoming changemakers.

10:15AM SHOWCASE: THE JOY OF MAKING

Join Director of the Design Intelligence Lab Associate Professor Marcelo Coelho as he interacts with MIT DesignX prototypes and the inventors building the next ten years of transformational change.

11:00AM COFFEE AND ARTIFACTS

Take a closer look at MIT DesignX artifacts and prototypes while connecting with peers in the MET Warehouse lobby.

11:30AM CO-DESIGN SPRINTS

Join one of our simultaneous co-design sprints as we envision the next ten years of design-driven innovation and venture design. See our four sprints below.

12:45PM LUNCH AND LAUNCH OF SPRINT IDEAS

We invite you to gather for lunch as we visualize, live, the data emerging from our design sprints.

01:30PM DESIGN VENTURES: INVESTING IN SHARED FUTURES

Invite-only investor showcase with MIT DesignX teams.

02:00PM ROBOTIC FUTURES: AI MEETS THE PHYSICAL WORLD

AI is moving beyond the digital realm and into the physical world. This session explores the rise of robotics and physical AI—we’ll examine what’s possible today, what’s coming next, and how robotic futures could reshape real estate development, operations, and the built environment.

Sponsored by the Real Estate Transformation Lab

Co-Design Sprints

CONNECT

Connect to equip the next generation of MIT students to shape futures worth building.

ACTIVATE

Activate shared spaces and programs at MIT, to foster imagination and curiosity, through the joy of making and design

IMPACT

Impact the DesignX alumni community by shaping an experience that inspires future DesignX students to drive transformational change.

REIMAGINE

Reimagining futures in the built environment: where design-driven innovation and smart capital meet to build cities people actually love living in.