In the Media

MIT was named the number 2 university in the world in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings of global universities, reports Jenni Fink for Newsweek.  

Forbes contributor Adi Gaskell spotlights the findings of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future. Gaskell writes that, “the authors believe that far from the future of work being one where technology is something to be feared, it is instead beholden on us to increase our investment in technology to improve the inequality that undermines our confidence about the future.”

Guardian reporter Ian Sample writes that Prof. Li-Huei Tsai is leading a clinical trial to see whether flickering lights and low frequency sounds can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Sample notes that, “the unusual approach to combating Alzheimer’s draws on the ability of light and sound waves to affect electrical activity in the brain.”

MIT researchers have developed a new ingestible capsule that can be used to deliver drugs directly to the bloodstream, reports Emily Matchar for Smithsonian. The system “has the capacity to transform how we deliver peptides, proteins—including mono-clonal antibodies—and nucleic acids,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso. “This could change drug delivery science.”

MIT researchers have developed a new ingestible capsule that can be used to deliver drugs directly to the bloodstream, reports Emily Matchar for Smithsonian. The system “has the capacity to transform how we deliver peptides, proteins—including mono-clonal antibodies—and nucleic acids,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso. “This could change drug delivery science.”
 

Forbes contributor Kerry McDonald spotlights how MIT alumnus Kelly Smith started Prenda, a network of micro-schools. Smith was inspired to start Prenda by the computer coding clubs he started for his son, where he noticed that, “learning is a very different thing when a human being wants to learn something than when a human being doesn’t want to learn something.”

Prof. Dava Newman speaks with Loren Grush of The Verge about her work developing a new type of spacesuit that would accommodate both men and women. “It’s a different design approach fundamentally,” says Newman. “Rather than shrinking spacecraft around someone, it’s saying ‘Oh here’s what the human does and how do we design a suit around the human capabilities?’”

Prof. Simon Jäger speaks with Peter O’Dowd of WBUR’s Here & Now about how in Germany, workers are able to elect workers to the corporate board. “We found that these companies produce more in-house and [labor] actually become more productive,” Jäger explains. “We don't find effects on negative effects on [overall] productivity, for example.”

Researchers from MIT and Harvard have found that “companies’ reliance on disclosing adjusted earnings or other figures not consistent with generally accepted accounting principles has made it more difficult for investors to forecast performance, putting them at greater risk than they may realize,” reports Mark Maurer for The Wall Street Journal.

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Stuart Madnick examines the ethical challenges posed by new AI technologies. “Ethical decisions are indeed hard, and AI will increasingly raise these dilemmas,” writes Madnick. “The dialogue on these matters must be started now, by creators of the science, by business leaders responsible for its uses, and by society which will have to live with the consequences.”

Fast Company reporter Lara Sorokanich spotlights how Prof. of the Practice Zeynep Ton’s work is focused on working with employers to improve the quality of jobs. Sorokanich writes that Ton “cites increasing minimum-wage laws and improved pay at Walmart, Target, and Amazon as signs of the sea change to come—but they’re just the first steps in what she considers a crucial overhaul of low-wage-workers’ conditions.”

TechCrunch reporter Darrell Etherington writes that MIT researchers have developed a new way to speed up the planning process involved in a robot grasping an object. The new technique reduces the “total time from as much as 10 or more minutes to less than a second,” Etherington explains. “That’s many orders of magnitude better.”

Gizmodo visits Prof. Joseph Paradiso to learn more about the giant modular synthesizer he created. “One of the beautiful things about modular synths, I think, is they don’t do anything when you turn them on,” says Paradiso. “It forces you to be creative, to really try to think of something new because you are starting with nothing.”

Boston Globe reporter Maria Lovato writes that MIT researchers used a large galaxy cluster to see the X-rays emitted by a galaxy 9.4 billion light-years away. “Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory,” writes Lovato, “the astronomers studied the Phoenix galaxy cluster 5.7 billion light-years away and were able to see the young galaxy hidden billions of light-years behind it.”

MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that can accurately identify actions in video while consuming a small fraction of the processing power previously required, reports Will Knight for Wired. “The work is a step towards having AI recognize what’s happening in video, perhaps helping to tame the vast amounts now being generated,” Knight explains.