
Before Claire Mao built software to judge whether robots had done their jobs, she learned to model atmospheres, test lunar hardware, and mind the commas at MIT's student newspaper. Instance is the latest expression of the same instinct: make difficult work easier to see.

He found a market hiding in plain sight: thousands of campus outlets, millions of hard-to-reach students, and an advertising system still powered by phone calls. His fix began at the editor's desk.