BBC Click spotlights how CSAIL researchers have developed robotic cubes, called M-Blocks, that can self-assemble to form different structures. “M-Blocks create more flexible systems,” says Prof. Daniela Rus. “They are able to flatten themselves. They are able to aggregate. They can crawl up towers or bridges. They can also go through tiny pipes.”
Graduate student Joy Buolamwini's speaks with Jennifer 8. Lee about her research on bias and facial recognition, and how she combines technology and art in her work. “We need more poets in tech, and we need more people of color in tech,” says Buolamwini. “The reason I call myself a poet is because poets illuminate the uncomfortable, and they make us feel what we otherwise not might see.”
Forbes reporters Susan Adams and Will Yakowicz highlight several startups founded by MIT alumni that are developing new technologies focused on the microbiome.
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights Primitives, an MIT startup that is developing compostable food packaging that can also detect safety issues. “We’re incorporating sensing mechanisms into our materials that allow it to detect things like spoilage or even cold chain monitoring,” says Viirj Kan ‘17, CEO of Primitives.
CNBC reporter Pippa Stevens writes that Sloan researchers have found there is a 70% chance of a recession within the next six months. “The researchers analyzed four market factors — industrial production, nonfarm payrolls, stock market return and the slope of the yield curve — on a monthly basis,” writes Stevens. “They then measured how the current relationship between the four metrics compares to historical readings.”
Prof. Richard Larson speaks with Peter Cohan of Forbes about the economic impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus. “If our response is a pendulum swinging way too far towards unwarranted hysteria,” says Larson, “the dominant economic costs could come from our over-response and not to the progression of the disease itself.”
Prof. Richard Larson speaks with Peter Cohan of Forbes about the economic impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus. “If our response is a pendulum swinging way too far towards unwarranted hysteria,” says Larson, “the dominant economic costs could come from our over-response and not to the progression of the disease itself.”
Prof. Charles Stewart III writes for Wired that the Iowa caucuses underscore the need for election officials to prepare for potential problems. “Girding computer systems against external attacks is critical,” writes Stewart. “But so is planning out the response when the inevitable failure occurs.”
Quartz reporter Michelle Cheng spotlights how the MIT Sloan School of Management is transforming its MBA program to include an increased focus on STEM fields. “Everyone wants to be close to technology now,” explains Jacob Cohen, senior associate dean for undergraduate and master’s programs at MIT Sloan.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a new smart surface, called RFocus, that improves signal strength for phones and other devices. The researchers envision "a future where RFocus is used in homes and warehouses to boost signals for the Internet of Things and various network-connected devices,” Heater explains.
Washington Post reporter Jeremy Deaton spotlights the late Prof. Edward Lorenz’s work on chaos theory and “the butterfly effect.” Deaton notes when Lorenz first invoked a butterfly’s wings, he was “actually saying that even if we could account for every skipper and swallowtail along the Yellow Sea, it wouldn’t do much to improve weather forecasts.”
CSAIL researchers have created a smart surface that can boost a phone’s signal strength by 1,000 percent, reports Victoria Song for Gizmodo. “CSAIL’s idea was instead of adding transmitters and receivers, wireless signals can be amplified by adding the antennas to external surfaces—like a wall,” writes Song.
Karilyn Crockett, a lecturer in DUSP, spoke with The Boston Globe’s Kelly Horan about her role as Boston’s chief of equity. “As I prioritize racial, gender, and health equity for a city of 700,000 that is majority people of color, it means that we have to recognize that the history that brought us here has to be looked at in a clear way.”
Frank Press - a former Institute Professor, Life Member Emeritus of the MIT Corporation, and president of the National Academy of Sciences – has died at age 95, reports Neil Genzlinger for The New York Times. Genzlinger notes that Press, “was a key voice in American science policy.”
Forbes reporter Anna Powers that MIT researchers have developed a way to make sodium-ion batteries more energy efficient. Powers notes that the development “was accomplished by tuning the battery composition through the addition of manganese.”