In the Media

New York Times reporter William J. Broad writes that MIT has joined a new research consortium that seeks to “put top scientists onto gargantuan social problems with the help of A.I. — its first challenge being the pandemic.”

Prof. Lee Gehrke speaks with Julianne Lima of Boston 25 about his work developing a new rapid diagnostic test to detect Covid-19.  “We want to have a test that could be right there at the front line and in 30 minutes tell a patient whether he or she has a viral infection,” says Gehrke.

The Broad Institute now has the capacity to process more than 1,000 diagnostic tests for Covid-19 a day, reports WBUR. The Broad will be able to serve as a reference lab, “meaning it will be able to test samples sent from hospitals and other locations.”

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with WCVB-TV about how Covid-19 is affecting supply chains and steps retailers can take to minimize impacts. Sheffi advises grocery stores to implement safeguards such as not allowing “too many people into the stores at once and setting the aisles so they only go one way” to allow people to practice social distancing.

Writing for The New York Times, Prof. David Rand argues that social media platforms must ensure that their efforts to tackle the spread of misinformation are empirically grounded. “Social media platforms should rigorously test their ideas for combating fake news and not just rely on common sense or intuition about what will work,” writes Rand.

Washington Post reporters Andrew Freeman and Simon Denyer write that a new analysis by MIT researchers finds warmer temperatures and higher levels of humidity could help slow the spread of Covid-19. “The best-case scenario, according to the study’s authors, is that the rate of spread in parts of the Northern Hemisphere will slow as temperatures warm and humidity increases,” they write.

Senior lecturer Otto Scharmer speaks with Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about how the global response to the spread of Covid-19 could be applied to tackling climate change. “We see the moment we focus on a key issue there is nothing we couldn’t get done within weeks or months,” says Scharmer.

Gizmodo reporter Ryan Mandelbaum highlights the COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium, which is bringing together MIT and other research institutions, along with industry and government organizations to combat Covid-19. “The organizers of the new consortium will provide 16 supercomputing systems to researchers, as well as a community to engage in the fight together,” Mandelbaum explains.

MIT has joined the Covid-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which is aimed at using supercomputers to study the virus, reports Rachel Kraus for Mashable. “Supercomputers owned by tech companies, the government, and research institutions are capable of running complex experiments much more quickly than a traditional computer,” writes Kraus.

Inside Higher Ed reporter Scott Jaschik writes that MIT will no longer consider SAT subject scores when making admissions decisions. "We made this decision after considerable study, in consultation with our faculty policy committee. We believe this decision will improve access for students applying to MIT," explains Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services at MIT.

A paper by research affiliate Christos A. Makridis finds that regions with more digitally-intensive jobs will be more insulated from the economic impacts of Covid-19, reports Alexandre Tanzi for Bloomberg. “U.S. counties with high concentrations of jobs in industries such as retail and health care could see as much as a 4% decline in their annual growth rate if the shutdowns last just a month.”

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray spotlights how Prof. Ramesh Raskar is developing an app aimed at tracking the spread of Covid-19 using location data already collected by mobile phones. Raskar hopes “people who have tested positive for COVID-19 would voluntarily share their location data with public health officials, to help them identity hot spots and potential paths of infection,” writes Bray.

CNBC reporter Hannah Miller writes that MIT is joining a consortium aimed at making supercomputing power available to help combat Covid-19. “The supercomputing power will be available to help researchers develop predictive models to analyze how the disease is progressing as well as model new potential therapies or a possible vaccine,” writes Miller.

A new analysis by MIT researchers finds that warmer temperatures may help reduce the spread of Covid-19, reports Knvul Sheikh and Ernesto Londoño for The New York Times. “We still need to take strong precautions,” explains postdoctoral associate Qasim Bukhari. “Warmer temperatures may make this virus less effective, but less effective transmission does not mean that there is no transmission.”

Popular Mechanics reporter Courtney Linder writes that MIT startup Biobot has launched a new program to test community sewers as a way to help track the spread of Covid-19. "We are establishing protocols to test sewage for SARS-CoV-2,” explains Biobot. “If successful, this data will give communities a dynamic map of the virus as it spreads to new places.”