Ali Khalatpour, RLE Alumnus and founder of Piris Labs.
Roots in MIT Research
MIT teaches you to think about systems from first principles. I believe MIT graduates have a unique way of approaching problems at the system level, and many of them are currently leading emerging fields such as photonic interconnects. That culture of deep technical thinking and system-level design strongly shaped how I think about computing infrastructure and the problems Piris Labs is solving. During my PhD at MIT, access to MIT.nano provided invaluable nanofabrication and device-building experience.
Human-Centered Measures of Success
I grew up in a city without a high school and had to travel two hours each day to reach the nearest one. Today, we are operating at less than 1% of human innovation capacity, if not lower. If I succeed on this path, AI becomes a tool in everyone’s hands, allowing people to innovate regardless of where they are. It would truly unlock human capacity, and I am excited to be part of this massive wave.
From Lab Insight to Startup Decision
I have always been interested in building real, tangible products rooted in deep technology. For example, I developed the first portable THz laser systems, the local oscillator for NASA’s GUSTO mission, and ultra-low-loss photonic solutions for electro-optical interconnects. With the AI boom, I realized that the impact of my work can translate exponentially into the real world.
Translating Deep Tech to the Real World
Moving advanced research into real systems is mostly about engineering, integration, and supply chain. In the lab, you optimize for performance, but in production you must optimize for reliability, cost, and scalability at the same time. Technologies also need to fit into existing infrastructure. Probably 90% of academic solutions remain in academia, but as technology matures, those ideas gradually shape the future. Some of these ideas take 10 to 30 years to materialize, which is also the beauty of a forward-thinking institute like MIT. Many photonic solutions we use today were originally developed there decades ago.
Looking Ahead
I am building a once-in-a-lifetime company. In a few years, many game-changing solutions in gene therapy, cancer treatment, and AI breakthroughs will run on the infrastructure we are building today at Piris Labs.
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Keywords: Piris Labs, MIT, photonics, AI infrastructure, electro-optical interconnects, nanofabrication, MIT.nano, computing infrastructure, deep tech, artificial intelligence hardware.