Jennifer Farah (née Broutin) is the Founder & CEO of SproutsIO Inc., where she leads the development of new technologies redefining our interactions with food. Her career has been focused on developing sustainable urban systems that prioritize small-scale interventions to create large-scale impact.
Farah earned an M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, an M.S. in Advanced Architecture Design from Columbia University, and a BArch from the University of Miami.
Farah taught at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and the New York City College of Technology.
Before founding SproutsIO Inc., Farah was a partner in fluxxlab, a research and design studio focused on innovative energy solutions and sustainable practice. She was also associated with Empire, a project which anticipates design opportunities by stimulating latent desires. Jennifer has worked with such diverse groups as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eyebeam, Arquitectonica Intl., and Volume Magazine. She has collaborated with numerous organizations from IBM to IDEO to the NYCPD. Jennifer’s multidisciplinary methodology allows her to create work that is thoughtful, engaging, and responsive to the environment.
Farah’s work has been widely recognized by Bloomberg Pursuits, Wall Street Journal Magazine, Vogue, Financial Times, Elle Décor, Wired Magazine, Popular Science, NPR, Fast Company, Architecture Newspaper, Metropolis Magazine and GOOD Magazine among others.
Farah and her work has the recipient of numerous awards and grants including Good Design Award, Cartier Women’s Initiative Finalist, Glamor Magazine Tech Hero, Wired Innovation Fellow, INK Fellow, Popular Science Best of What’s New Award, MassChallenge Finalist, MIT Research Assistant Fellowship, MIT 100K Competition Semifinalist, Founder.org 100K Prize, IBM Research Grant, PSC CUNY Research Award, Premio Well-Tech Award, Spark Design Award for New Sustainable Product, Society of American Registered Architects, and the William Kinne Fellows Prize from Columbia University.
Farah has given talks for the Specialty Food Association in New York, Seeds & Chips in Milan, the German American Conference at Harvard University in Boston, INK Talks in India, the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle, Cartier Women’s Initiative in France, the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University, Salt Art Space in Istanbul, University of the Arts in Philadelphia, California College of the Arts, and the University at Buffalo in New York.
Jennifer Farah is now the Director of Arts at the Knight Foundation.