MIT researchers have developed a new traffic navigation system that more accurately reflects travel time by including parking data, reports Catherine Parotta for Boston 25. “What we can do is figure out if you’re best off trying this parking lot first, even if it’s farther than the closest parking lot,” explains Prof. Cathy Wu. Graduate student Cameron Hickert adds that: “We hope that this can help people make better decisions."
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Clare Ansberry about how the baby boomers are shaping and transforming the future of aging. “They are reinventing old age,” he notes. Coughlin adds: “If you don’t have expectations of getting better, then you simply become satisfied with what is.”
Prof. Kate Brown, author of “Tiny Gardens Everywhere,” speaks with Forbes reporter Alan Ohnsman of Forbes about the benefits of home gardens. Brown notes that people can “put in some healthy soils that are rich with compost, which feeds microbes and worms and black soldier flies, all these creatures that are in the soil so the soil is alive. Then you put in plants, trees, berry bushes, lettuces, greens, whatever. And when it rains, those healthy soils soak up a lot more water… [which is] great for flooding. They sequester a lot of carbon, more than any of our aesthetic alternatives. And of course, they can feed people.”
In an article for The Financial Times, Prof. Carlo Ratti writes about his group’s new research that “reveals that those over the age of 66 have more encounters with a broader cross-section of society than younger, working-age groups.” Ratti adds: “Armed with data that shows retirement expands opportunities for social interaction, cities could be designed to support this more deliberately. Retirement communities could be woven into student neighborhoods, for example, allowing knowledge to circulate across generations. Public spaces could be optimized to encourage everyday mixing.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Kate Brown and David Greenwood-Sanchez of the University of Iowa explore the growing popularity of transforming residential yards into home gardens. They emphasize: “With food prices up 27 percent since 2020, it is a good time for Massachusetts legislators to consider protecting gardeners from vegetation restrictions so that they can grow plants that, in contrast to turf grass, nurture birds, bees, and the occasional rabbit — and their own families and neighbors.”
In an article for Fortune, Aimee DeCamillo and Diane Ty highlight the Longevity Preparedness Index developed by researchers from the MIT AgeLab and John Hancock. The index highlights how “Americans are entering what could be 30- to 40-year retirements with meaningful gaps in preparedness, particularly around care, health, and the non‑financial factors — such as social connections and purpose — that shape quality of life. Better support and planning to elevate that broader view is one of the most important shifts we can make.”
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with CBS Boston about the success of the Artemis II mission and the future of space exploration. "It's exciting we have humans back in space again," Binzel shared. "It's a real test of a spaceflight system. Surviving reentry and landing safely. That's the real accomplishment here. Showing we can go to the moon but also come back safely."
Jennifer Eagen of WCVB-TV highlights MIT Space Week, an annual series of events across MIT focused on space exploration and the space industry. Eagan notes that one of the themes for this year’s event is the space economy. "Having humans land on the moon, having built a base on the moon, learning how to operate there so eventually we can go to Mars," said keynote speaker Terry Virts, former commander of the International Space Station. "I would love to see all those things happen that would be a huge success for America and for the world, for all of humanity."
Fortune reporter Nick Lichtenberg highlights research by MIT economists that finds “automation doesn’t affect all parts of a job equally. The critical variable is whether the tasks being automated are the expert parts of a role or the administrative scaffolding around them.”
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Prof. Tod Machover’s “already and not yet,” reports A.Z. Madonna for The Boston Globe. Madonna notes that Machover, “has a decades-long resume of experimenting with artificial intelligence technology in music-making, such as in the 1987 science fiction opera ‘VALIS.’”
Prof. Sinan Aral joins CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the state of AI data center construction across the U.S. and the impact of new AI technologies on the power grid. “Data center and compute demand is so large and growing,” says Aral. He adds that hybrid models that “combine the benefit of connecting to the [power] grid with the benefit of an energy island model, where you have onsite storage of energy, you have battery and you have onsite generation to offload during peak times. The hybrid model is really good because it gets the best of both worlds.”
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with CNBC reporter Greg Iacurci about using AI systems for financial planning and advice. “The problem that we have to solve is not whether AI has enough expertise. The answer right now is, clearly, AI has the [financial] expertise,” says Lo. “What they don’t have is that fiduciary duty. They don’t have the ability to suffer consequences if they make a mistake to the same degree that a human advisor does.”
Using technology developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, the Artemis II astronauts are using lasers to send high-resolution video and images back to Earth, reports Hanna Ali for WBUR. Bryan Robinson, the leader of the Lincoln Laboratory Optical and Quantum Communications Group, explained that laser beams allow them to direct more energy at a target receiver. In other words, "you can communicate at higher data rates," Robinson said.
MassLive reporter John Micek writes about how the Artemis II astronauts are using optical communications technology developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to send high-resolution video and images of the lunar surface back to Earth.
The stunning images of the moon and Earth being shared by the Artemis II crew have been made possible thanks to new optical communications technology developed by researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, reports Emily Maher for WCVB-TV. "It was just awe-inspiring to think humans haven't seen the Earth from pole-to-pole in over 50 years, and being part of helping to make that happen is very cool," said Corrie Smeaton, associate group leader of the Optical Engineering Group at Lincoln Lab.