Fortune contributor Andrew Winston highlights an analysis from the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, part of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, examining the role of sustainability in supply chains. The researchers found that “85% of companies were maintaining or accelerating sustainable supply chain practices.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with New York Times reporter Patricia Cohen about various factors influencing the global economy, including “the revolution in artificial intelligence, rapidly aging populations, climate change, and a worldwide turn against liberal democracy and a rules-based international order.” Acemoglu explains that: “We are living through a singularly turbulent time.”
A new study co-authored by Prof. Lawrence Schmidt examining AI and job losses found that “AI can successfully complete many of a worker’s job responsibilities but not all,” reports Pattie Hunt Sinacole for Boston.com. “About 14% of roles within a company can be performed by AI, according to Schmidt’s research. However, AI is less effective in tasks where critical thinking may be required,” Hunt Sinacole explains.
MIT researchers have developed “GelSight,” a system that provides robots with a sense of touch, reports Ben Guarino for Scientific American. “GelSight can identify by touch the tiny letters spelling out LEGO on the stud of a toy brick,” explains Guarino.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new physical model that can help “improve predictions of proton mobility across a wide range of metal oxides,” reports Ameya Paleja for Interesting Engineering. “This can help develop new materials and technologies powered by protons as charge carriers, rather than relying on lithium, which is widely used now,” explains Paleja.
Luke Hobson, assistant director of Industrial Design for MIT xPRO, speaks with Inside Higher Ed reporter Emma Whitford about safe and creative ways to use AI technology in the classroom. “For so long, online courses have been the same old, same old—essays and multiple choice questions,” says Hobson. “Now it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s elevate this. Let’s really make this into a whole new type of learning experience to make it better.”
MIT researchers have developed a deep-learning model “capable of predicting the precise movements, divisions, and restructuring of thousands of cells during the embryo’s transition from a simple cluster to a complex organism,” reports Mrigakshi Dixit for Interesting Engineering. “This model currently provides a sneak peek into the fruit fly’s earliest developmental stage,” explains Dixit. “In the future, it could be used to predict how more complex tissues, organs, and organisms develop.”
Sherwin Greenblatt '62, SM '64 reflects on his two-decade tenure as director of MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), a program that provides support for entrepreneurs in the MIT community, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “VMS differs from many mentoring programs in that entrepreneurs are connected to not just one mentor, but several subject matter experts, depending on their needs,” explains Chesto. “These are also considered long-term commitments, not just several months of counsel and brainstorming.”
Prof. Emeritus Paul Osterman speaks with The Boston Globe reporter Scotty Nickerson about increased employment opportunities in nursing homes and residential care facilities. “Baby boomers and retirements are going to increase demand, and a lot of folks are going to need longer-term health care,” says Osterman.
Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, speaks with WBUR’s Here & Now host Indira Lakshmanan about his work developing a longevity index. “In our studies at the AgeLab, believe it or not, 70 percent of us believe that our significant other, or adult children are going to take care of us, [but] only 30 percent of us had the conversation.”
Lila Sciences, a startup co-founded by Prof. Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli, is developing new platforms aimed at enabling AI-driven laboratories to accelerate materials discovery for energy, sustainability, and computing, writes David Rotman for Technology Review. “If they succeed, these companies could shorten the discovery process from decades to a few years or less,” Rotman notes.
Reporting for FOX News, Kurt Knuttson highlights how MIT researchers have developed a new light-based scanner that can read blood sugar without a single prick. “A handheld or watch-sized glucose scanner would mark a major shift in diabetes care,” writes Knuttson. “MIT's work brings that future closer with a design that reads your chemistry through light.”
While studying a 2,000-year-old construction site in Pompeii, MIT researchers uncovered new insights into the Roman building process, including the key ingredients needed to develop long-standing durable Roman concrete, reports Luis Prada for Vice. “Ancient Roman builders were ‘hot-mixing,’ which means that they dumped volcanic ash and powdered quicklime together dry, then added water later, triggering a chemical reaction that cooked the mixture from the inside,” writes Prada.
A new paper by Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues details their new findings on the specific ingredients used by ancient Romans to develop durable concrete, reports Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. “Looking ahead, the findings could help improve modern construction techniques, informing the development of next-generation durable, low-carbon concrete,” writes Kuta.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu spoke at the City University Graduate Center’s panel discussion about the development of AI in the workforce. Acemoglu says “[AI could take] very different directions, and which direction we choose is going to have great consequences in terms of its labor market impact.”