Don Yansen '63 walked into the MIT AgeLab for a study on tech in elder care, and - surprise, surprise - walked out with a startup idea. Because nothing says 'retirement' like launching a company to fix the fact that your generation can't use a phone.

Yansen, a serial entrepreneur who retired to care for his wife, holds an MIT degree in electrical engineering and a master's in physics from Northeastern. He credits MIT with giving him 'a good education and the feeling I could solve difficult problems.' And what difficult problem did he choose? The one where older adults 'can't even use a modern cell phone' and 'very few people can use something like an Apple Watch.'

So in October 2024, he founded Kiwi Health, a company selling a wristband controlled primarily by voice. The device lets wearers set reminders, make calls, send texts, and share health data - all without wrestling with screens. AI interprets commands, adapting to age-related voice changes, and the band also tracks health metrics and automatically alerts caregivers to falls.

Yansen's hope: to 'help seniors live the best life that they can.' Because apparently, that requires a voice-controlled wristband, not just, you know, a user manual.

Read more at www.technologyreview.com/alumni-profiles.