Alight
Alight transforms public buses into vehicles of urban exploration by employing audio-augmented reality on your smartphone. With a surplus of empty seats on public buses, they provide riders with location-specific audio content so they can immerse themselves in exploring cities they live in and visit.
Candy Yang was part of the 5-person founding team of China Youthology, a start-up market research firm that 9 years later boasts 75 employees, $1+ million USD in yearly revenue, and currently leads the industry in qualitative market research on Chinese consumers. Through this experience, Candy not only understands how a company grows quickly and healthily, but has also become an expert at leading focus group discussions, user design and co-creation, and ethnographic consumer research. Candy is also a founder of Bamboo Bicycles Beijing establishing BBB’s business development strategy and employee development. She is also a passionate creator of community-engaged projects which reveal the kinds of stories that our app will share with its users.
David Wang has walked the path to a successful start-up before with his venture, Bamboo Bicycles Beijing. Through that experience he has developed an appreciation for the organizational visioning, strategic decision making, and passion that is needed to turn an idea into reality. As an MBA at MIT Sloan and a Legatum Entrepreneurship Fellow, David has built a sound foundation of entrepreneurship skills including fundraising, finance and accounting, leadership and teambuilding, and socially-responsible business thinking. As an MCP at MIT DUSP and a STL Entrepreneurship Fellow, David has developed the propensity to create technology with classes in Media Lab and D-Lab; a fluency for the cultural tools that influence travel behavior; and an ability to engage stakeholders across disciplines. David’s previous professional experience has helped him become seasoned researcher of Chinese consumer insights which will inform key product design decisions.
Scott Middleton is a transportation analyst and expert in ridesharing, transit, and transportation policy. Beyond his research and studies as a MCP/MST student at MIT, Scott enjoys tinkering at MIT’s D-Lab and teaching himself to code. A passionate educator, Scott also teaches the undergraduate class “Project Management and Evaluation” in the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for which he has won the Maseeh Award for Excellence in Teaching. As a teacher, Scott provides his students with the tools they need to build and manage projects large and small. Before coming to MIT, Scott worked as a community planner at the U.S. Department of Transportation, focused on asset management and transit operations, including work with the MBTA’s bus system. Scott has a B.A. in history and urban studies from Brown University, where he spent many hours exploring unconventional places by bus and by bike.