Fishy plans for The New England Aquarium's underwater robot
It’s not everyday that the worlds of sharks and Boston tech collide. That changed this week when The New England Aquarium welcomed a new underwater robot. The 100-pound robot is connected to an 80-foot cord and will help the aquarium conduct core research. The remote-powered vehicle can be used to record marine life footage that is too dangerous for humans to capture. So far, plans for the robot are fishy — in a good way. The group plans to capture videos of sharks, observe sand eels, and study Atlantic cod. [Boston Business Journal]
Cantina Consulting has a new address in Downtown Crossing
Design and and development agency Cantina Consulting has a new address. The group moved to 100 Summer Street in Downtown Crossing from the Seaport district. Founded in 2007, the move signals big growth for Cantina. The company tripled their staff over the past 18 months and they have exciting plans to build a mixed reality lab. “The new space aligns with our ethos at Cantina: to co-create with our clients and offer them a friendly space to work side-by-side with us as we help them to transform their businesses,” said Chief Operating Officer Adam Stachelek. [Business Wire]
Shift Technology raises $60M, grows Boston headquarters
Always choose Paris… and Boston. Another French company Shift Technology is making waves in Boston with a $60 million C-round of funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The latest round brings Shift Technology to a grand total of $100 million in investments. The C-round will be used to grow its U.S. headquarters in Boston and hire new talent among developers, data scientists, sales and marketing. [PR Newswire]
Boston language app for children battles it out in edtech competition
Edtech leaders from across the country gathered in Boston last week to battle it out in a design challenge. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt selected eight finalists to participate in a pitch session among world language companies. Each finalist was prompted to answer, “How do you ignite world languages learning?” Jennifer Huang, a mechanical engineer and founder of Boston-based Hihilulu, participated as a finalist. Inspired by her children learning different languages from cartoons, her app provides animated content and games for young children to learn Chinese. [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]
MIT mini cheetah robot gives gymnast-like performance
Sea creatures aren’t the only animals making headlines in Boston tech this week. An automated mini cheetah, born out of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has become the first four-legged robot to perform a 360-degree backflip. The feat is more monumental than it might sound. The lightweight mini cheetah is designed to be nearly indestructible. The robot can walk upside down, walk over uneven ground twice as fast as a human, and quickly pounce back into form after being kicked to the ground. [MIT News]
Muggle designs real-life sorting hat at MIT
And in case you missed it, another important invention came out of MIT: a real-life sorting hat. Magic and storied Hogwarts rituals aren’t just for Harry Potter and his gang of wizards anymore. Muggles can now get in on the action with Nataliya Kosmyna’s “Thinking Cap.” The cap analyzes a person’s brain activity to catch a glimpse into a user’s imagination using machine learning and then sorts them into a Hogwarts house. [Bloomberg]
