A new working paper co-authored by MIT researchers finds that an online voting platform “could, in certain cases, be manipulated to alter votes — without being detected by the voter, election officials or the company that owns it,” reports David Singer, Nicole Perlroth and Matthew Rosenberg for The New York Times.
New York Times reporter Neil Irwin spotlights a new working paper co-authored by Prof. Iván Werning examining the macroeconomic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular whether negative supply shocks can affect demand. “Demand is interrelated with supply,” says Werning. “It’s not a separate concept.”
Alumna and author Christine Taylor-Butler '81 speaks with CBS Boston about the importance of children’s books in confronting racism. “If we can start flooding these kids with 20 books that are positive images of people who are African American and LatinX and Native Americans, [they] start to go ‘Wow, those kids are just like me,’” says Taylor-Butler.
During a Boston Globe virtual roundtable, Paul Ha, director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, spoke about how museums are being reimagined as they plan to reopen during the Covid-19 pandemic. Of MIT’s Student Art Lending Program, Ha notes that they try to ensure that, “for every student who walks in wanting a real piece of art, that they themselves are represented in the collection.”
In an article for TechCrunch, Andy Moss, Connor Spelliscy and John Borthwick highlight several tools developed by MIT researchers to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have created a system that allows two patients to share one ventilator. Postdoc Shriya Srinivasan explains the system has "individual channels for each patient, but has controls on them such that you can deliver the appropriate volumes and pressures that each patient needs.”
TechCrunch reporter Kyle Gibson spotlights Humatics, an MIT startup that develops “sensors that enable fast-moving and powerful robots to work alongside humans without accidents.” Gibson explains that Humatics hopes to apply this technology to support “social distancing efforts on commutes, in a pilot application to allow more subway trains to run on a single track.”
Jim Morelli of Boston 25 News reports that a model developed by MIT researchers showed a slight uptick in one measure of the likelihood of the coronavirus spreading.
Researchers from MIT, the University of Oklahoma and elsewhere, along with citizen scientists, have discovered the closest young brown dwarf with a disc, reports Matt Berg for The Boston Globe. The discovery could help scientists learn more about how planets are formed, Berg explains.
Smithsonian reporter Alex Fox writes that MIT researchers have developed a new type of no-slip shoe soul inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami. “The grippy new sole is made of a thin sheet of steel that is riddled with precise cuts that allow it to bristle like the scales of a snake when bent,” writes Fox.
TechCrunch reporter Alex Wilhelm writes about Overjet, an MIT startup “focused on using AI to help dentists and insurance companies understand dental scans.”
Guardian reporter Marina Gerner spotlights Bloomer Tech, a startup founded by several MIT alumnae, which is designing smart bras that gather cardiovascular data to help bridge the medical gender bias gap. “We transformed a typical medical device into everyday medical-grade garments that women will actually want to wear,” says Bloomber Tech co-founder and CEO Alicia Chong Rodriguez ’17, ‘18.
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. M. Taylor Fravel examines recent actions in a territorial dispute between China and India. “Facing a dramatically slowing economy, criticism for the government’s handling of the outbreak of the coronavirus and worsening ties with many countries,” writes Fravel, “China leaders may feel the need to show strength — and avoid signaling any weakness — over questions of national sovereignty.”
Gizmodo reporter Andrew Liszewski writes that MIT researchers have developed a new material that could help improve the grip on the bottom of any type of shoe. Liszewski notes that the “researchers took a mechanical approach instead of just tweaking a recipe for the rubber used in the soles.”
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Nick Leiber spotlights how Biobot Analytics, an MIT startup, is analyzing sewage in municipalities around the country to estimate the number of people with Covid-19 in a particular area. Our vision is for this to be deployed across the tens of thousands of wastewater facilities in the U.S.,” explains Biobot Analytics president and co-founder Newsha Ghaeli.