TechCrunch reporter Devin Coldewey writes that MIT researchers have developed a new robotic platform that can perform experimental trials numerous times. Coldewey explains that the platform can not only perform an experiment, but can also “intelligently observe the results, change the setup accordingly to pursue further information, and continue doing that until it has something worth reporting.”
Symmetry Magazine spotlights the work of Prof. Kerstin Perez, what inspired her to become a physicist and her favorite part of the experimental process. "I like building things with a small group of people who are all trying to get something to work,” she says. “I find that really exciting.”
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear spotlights MIT students Phoebe Li and Amber VanHemel and their mission to set a new Guinness World Record for the world’s longest hot dog toss. “I definitely have a knack for weird things,” says VanHamel of the inspiration for this feat. “The more random the better.”
Inverse reporter Mike Brown writes that MIT researchers have developed a new transparent coating for solar panels that improves electrical conductivity. “The ability of our vapor deposited conducting polymer layers to integrate into next-generation light-weight solar cells has the potential to simplify the roof top installation process,” explains Prof. Karen Gleason.
Motherboard reporter DJ Pangburn writes that a new immersive interactive art exhibit developed by MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality shows a deepfake video of President Richard Nixon delivering an alternate moon landing speech. “Rather than exploring deepfakes within the context of current news, the team was thinking about what it meant to retroactively rewrite a past event,” writes Pangburn.
MIT researchers have developed a protective coating to help seeds grow in currently unusable soil, reports Kristin Toussaint for Fast Company. “If you go to Morocco, you see land that was fertile 10 years ago is not fertile now due to the salinity of the soil, so our plan is to try to mitigate that,” explains Prof. Benedetto Marelli.
WGBH's Craig LeMoult reports that MIT is teaming up with Harvard, G.E., Fujifilm and five area hospitals to build a center dedicated to new genetic and cell therapies. “How we make the medicines better, not just how we make better medicines — that is what this facility can really enable," explains Associate Provost Krystyn Van Vliet.
In an article for USA Today, Prof. Ariel White examines how incarceration impacts voting in the U.S. “State lawmakers and election officials must act swiftly to ensure that detained individuals can exercise their right to vote,” writes White. “Local sheriffs and election officials should make plans to facilitate jail voting.”
MIT researchers have developed an AI-enabled machine known as DeepRole that can beat human players in an online multiplayer game where each player’s true motives and roles are kept secret from one another. This “is the first gaming bot that can win online multiplayer games in which the participants' team allegiances are initially unclear,” reports Xinhua.
Prof. Esther Duflo speaks with Molly Wood, host of the Marketplace Tech podcast, about the ways in which she uses artificial intelligence to enhance her poverty research. Machine learning allows researchers to pinpoint “where the program is the most effective, and therefore where a government with limited budget would want to expand it,” explains Duflo.
WBUR’s Bob Shaffer reports on a deepfake video created by MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality, which aims to spark awareness of deepfake technologies. The goal is to highlight how deepfakes are an extension “of a continuum of misinformation that we all should be aware of and should have our ears tuned to, if we can," said co-director Halsey Burgund.
Profs. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo speak with PBS NewsHour’s Paul Solman about their use of randomized control trials to address global poverty. “[T]hat's what the Duflo/Banerjee research is all about, trying to reduce the guesswork of economic development policy by seeing what seems to work, and what doesn't, at least in its current form,” explains Solman.
Writing for the Financial Times, James Crabtree spotlights “Good Economics for Hard Times,” a new book by Profs. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Crabtree writes that Banerjee and Duflo make the case that, “cutting-edge economic research can help fix thorny problems, from aiding communities recovering from trade shocks to setting ideal immigration levels.”
New York Times reporter Kathleen Massara explores the process of creating origami sculptures, spotlighting the work of Prof. Erik Demaine and lecturer Jason Ku. “I want the result to be complex, but I want to simplify the process it takes to get there,” says Ku. “It reminds me of the quote in ‘Amadeus’: ‘There are simply too many notes.’”
Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers finds that smartphone data could be used to help predict and prevent the spread of epidemics across cities. “By coupling cellphone movement data with typical dengue infection rates, scientists were able to create a simulation of a dengue epidemic,” Wilson explains.