Fast Company reporter Kristin Toussaint writes that a study by MIT researchers finds shutdowns and lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to clearer skies and increased solar output in Delhi. “I think we’ve been able to get a glimpse of how the world can look like if we actually have clean air,” says research scientist Ian Marius Peters.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif and Michael McRobbie, president of Indiana University, call for new U.S. investment in science and technology. “Even as America grapples with today’s urgent and interlocking crises, we must invest in our ability to innovate,” they write. The Endless Frontier Act is "the kind of approach needed to meet today’s challenges.”
MIT researchers have found that the Paycheck Protection Program helped protect around 2.3 million jobs, reports Jonnelle Marte for Reuters. “The researchers compared hiring trends at companies that were eligible for the program to those that were too large to qualify,” writes Marte. “They found that hiring at eligible companies rose after the launch of PPP when compared to companies that did not qualify.”
Bloomberg reporter Maeve Sheehey writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that the Paycheck Protection Program helped to boost employment by 2% to 4.5%. “The research suggests that providing money directly to companies helped curb job losses during the pandemic,” writes Sheehey.
Writing for Forbes, Prof. David Mindell highlights a new report by MIT researchers that explores the future of automation. “We can imagine cities jammed with single-occupant autonomous cars, or we can imagine flexible, high-throughput mixed modal systems that benefit from autonomous technologies,” writes Mindell. “What comes to pass is up to us, and will be shaped by policy choices we make today.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Carlo Ratti explores the importance of public spaces in bringing people together. “Public space is performing its primordial function: revealing fault lines in our society and helping to reconcile them,” writes Ratti. “This is a particularly important activity today, as the growth of digital communication is leading to increased polarization.”
A study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that the Paycheck Protection Program saved between 1.5 and 3.5 million jobs, reports David Leonhardt for The New York Times. “The study adds to the mounting evidence about one kind of economic stimulus that seems to have worked especially well during the pandemic: direct subsidies to businesses, to keep people employed.”
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a new biosensitive ink “that indicates one’s health condition by changing its color,” writes Seung Jae Park for The Los Angeles Times. “With the subtle embellishment of the ink with tattoo artistry, the team aims to overcome the shortcomings of the current biomedical monitoring devices.”
CNBC reporter Cory Stieg writes about how researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital created a new reusable silicon mask with slots for small disposable N95 filters. “The masks themselves can be quickly and easily sterilized and reused, and though the small filters must be thrown out, each mask requires much less N95 material,” writes Stieg.
Architects from MIT and Generate Technologies have designed Boston’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) building, a “’revolutionary’ type of timber [that] promises to reduce emissions that cause climate change, create affordable housing and jumpstart a new job-producing, homegrown industry in New England,” reports Bruce Gellerman and Kathleen McNerney for WBUR.
A report by researchers from MIT and Harvard outlines a framework for improving education during the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Paul Darvasi for KQED. “It's more likely that if young people feel like they have voice and ownership and are part of the process of reopening and recreating schools, that they will be more likely to be excited to participate in them,” says Prof. Justin Reich.
Boston 25’s Chris Flanagan reports that MIT researchers developed a website aimed at educating the public about deepfake technology and misinformation. “This project is part of an awareness campaign to get people aware of what is possible with both AI technologies like our deepfake, but also really simple video editing technologies,” says Francesca Panetta, XR creative director at MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality.
MIT researchers created a deepfake video and website to help educate the public of the dangers of deepfakes and misinformation, reports Mike Wall for Space.com. “This alternative history shows how new technologies can obfuscate the truth around us, encouraging our audience to think carefully about the media they encounter daily,” says Francesca Panetta, XR creative director at MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality.
Scientific American explores how MIT researchers created a new website aimed at exploring the potential perils and possibilities of deepfakes. “One of the things I most love about this project is that it’s using deepfakes as a medium and the arts to address the issue of misinformation in our society,” says Prof. D. Fox Harrell.
Reuters reporter Storay Karimi spotlights how the Afghan all-girls robotics team has designed a low-cost ventilator, based in part off the E-Vent device developed by MIT researchers.