Piaggio Group: Piaggio Fast Forward at The World Frontiers Forum in Boston

The Piaggio Group with Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF), the Boston-based company that runs the group’s center for research into mobility for the future, has taken part in the World Frontiers Forum being held in Cambridge and at Harvard University (October 1-3), and is the only Italian organization at the debate.

Founded by Dennis Ausiello (Harvard Medical School/MGH), David Edwards (Harvard, ArtScience) and Robert Langer (MIT), the World Frontiers Forum is an annual event attended by important international groups and companies, as well as academics and cultural bodies, notable for a pioneering vision and proposals to improve the future of the world.

The Forum, which this year is hosting 150 participants from all over the world, aims to identify, share and encourage original innovative ideas that, looking ahead, could increase well-being and the quality of life in an increasingly frontier-oriented world requiring people to change their behavior and the way they think and act.

Piaggio Fast Forward is representing the transport and mobility sector. Piaggio Fast Forward CEO Jeffrey Schnapp will be speaking today, illustrating the experience of GITA, PFF’s first robotics project presented in Boston last February: a smart vehicle that can move independently, GITA is designed to improve the mobility of objects and people in today’s increasingly complex urban environments.

Many well-known figures will address the Forum. Highlights include a paper by Fabrizio Hochschild (United Nations Assistant Secretary-General) on the future of global issues such as the economic balance between the population, employment and climate change, and a discussion between Robert Langer (an MIT professor, engineer, scientist and chemist) and David Edwards on Langer’s pioneering work in bioengineering, and its developments and applications for world health.

Piaggio Fast Forward is taking part at the World Frontiers Forum together with leading players in fields ranging from biomedical research and art to cultural promotion and finance. They include Verily (a company in the Alphabet group), Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group (bioscience), Wyss Institute (a biomedical engineering research institute based in Harvard), VIA Art Fund (a no-profit organization that supports art projects) and Northstar Advisors (a private equity company headquartered in Singapore).