There are other places at MIT with a similar vibe. Media Lab springs to mind.
I took a class co-taught by TBL called Linked Data Ventures (6.898). There was an effort to seed a Semantic Web startup ecosystem with project teams formed in the class. IIRC one of the groups did get funded and was eventually acquired, but not using Semantic Web/Linked Data.
Regardless, it was an amazing experience having TBL review our little demo app.
I have mixed feelings about Media Lab. They were the cool thing at one point but, even with their expansion, they just don't seem to be much in the conversation any longer. That's not necessarily a bad thing--a lot of academic matters aren't--but they certainly aren't the focus of conversation they were at one point.
I took a class co-taught by TBL called Linked Data Ventures (6.898). There was an effort to seed a Semantic Web startup ecosystem with project teams formed in the class. IIRC one of the groups did get funded and was eventually acquired, but not using Semantic Web/Linked Data.
Regardless, it was an amazing experience having TBL review our little demo app.