WGBH reporter Daniel Ackerman spotlights how MIT startup BioBot Analytics, along with researchers from MIT and other institutions, are sampling wastewater to try to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of Covid-19 in specific communities. Ackerman notes that “Biobot’s sewage sampling could help them craft guidelines for public health protections like social distancing.”
Forbes contributor Frederick Daso spotlights Floating Point Group (FPG), a startup founded by two MIT graduates, is a cryptocurrency trading platform that leverages smart order routing. “FPG has built critical infrastructure to allow cryptocurrency trading at scale between various actors,” Daso explains.
CNN reporter Lesley Kennedy highlights the Lovebox Spinning Heart Messenger, which was designed by an MIT alum, in a roundup of products that can help people stay in touch during social distancing. Kennedy writes that “this clever and romantic gizmo will help keep any long-distance (or quarantine-restricted) relationship thriving.”
Forbes contributor Stuart Levin spotlights a new study by researchers from the Sloan School of Management that finds “the most goal-oriented employees, i.e., those who are most engaged, saw their job satisfaction decrease as their time spend in meetings increased.”
Scientific American reporter Simon Makin writes that MIT researchers have uncovered the neural processing necessary for the human brain to organize memories into meaningful segments. “The work has implications for understanding how humans generalize knowledge, and it could aid efforts to develop AI systems that learn faster,” Makin explains.
Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, and Luke Bryant Yoquinto, a research associate at the AgeLab, write for The Washington Post about how patchwork social distancing regulations in certain areas of the U.S. have put vulnerable populations at risk. “Any policy that puts the people most susceptible to the virus at risk puts us all at risk,” they write.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Emil Verner underscores how public health measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 can aid economic recovery. “This shouldn’t be seen as a choice between saving lives and saving the economy,” writes Verner. “It’s clear that well-calibrated public health interventions are the most beneficial way to protect our health and the health of our economy.”
Professors Sabine Iatridou, Jonathan Gruber and Rebecca Saxe have been honored with Guggenheim fellowships, reports Diti Kohli for The Boston Globe. Kohli notes that “since 1925, the fellowship has bestowed more than $375 million to enable honorees ‘engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts.’”
Washington Post reporter Erin Blakemore explores how MIT researchers have transformed the spike-like proteins of the coronavirus into a musical composition, which could be used to help identify new treatments. The researchers hope the “protein-generated music could be used as an alternate way to visualize the complexity of proteins, and eventually find places to target with drugs.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Visiting Lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger highlights how the MIT Connection Science group is using anonymous geolocation data from digital devices to analyze the impact of social distancing measures in New York. The researchers found “social distancing policies have led to major changes in where people spend their time and how they interact with each other.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Yossi Sheffi about how governments can address shortages of health-care equipment. “The U.S. must keep a very large, centrally-managed inventory of health-care supplies in several locations around the country to supplement the inventory maintained at each hospital,” says Sheffi. “The parallel here is the strategic oil reserves.”
Scientific American reporter Wade Roush spotlights The Engine as “one bright spot in the world of tech investing.” Ann DeWitt, a general partner at The Engine notes that the researchers The Engine tends to work with are “compelled into entrepreneurship because of what they're trying to achieve.”
Professors Simon Johnson and Retsef Levi writes for The Boston Globe about how the U.S. can prepare to safely reopen the American economy without reigniting another wave of Covid-19 infections. “We must start to build the information and response systems necessary to sustain a different public health strategy: targeted social distancing,” they write.
During an interview with David Brancaccio of Marketplace, Prof. Esther Duflo advocates for providing direct cash transfers to help the poor during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There is no trade off in poor countries between helping people sustain themselves financially and getting the health conditions to improve; the two have to go hand in hand,” says Duflo.
MIT researchers have developed a new website aimed at K-12 students aimed at helping them learn more about artificial intelligence, reports Mark Wilson for Fast Company. “The site provides 60 activities, lesson plans, and links to interactive AI experiments that MIT and companies like Google have developed in the past,” writes Wilson.