Guardian reporter Dominic Rushe highlights research affiliate Ashley Nunes’ research showing that the cost of fully self-driving vehicles may be the biggest roadblock to integrating automated vehicles into the transportation system. “People want to talk about the tech, people want to talk about the ethics. No one wants to talk about the cost,” says Nunes.
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Barry Posen argues for reevaluating America’s role in NATO. “President Trump has no strategy for returning the European allies to full responsibility for their own futures,” writes Posen, “the American foreign policy establishment could better spend its time devising such a strategy than defending the counterproductive trans-Atlantic status quo.”
Prof. Carlo Ratti speaks with NBC Mach reporter Wynne Parry about his vision for the city of the future. “New technologies will have an impact on the experience of the city more than on its physical form,” Ratti explains. “The way we move, communicate and shop will be radically different from how it is today.”
Fast Company reporter Katharine Schwab spotlights Duality, an MIT startup that is using homomorphic encryption to analyze encrypted data without decrypting it. Schwab explains that “the company’s technology could provide an actual solution to the data privacy problem by allowing companies to keep their data fully encrypted and still find patterns in it.”
In an article for Wired celebrating 10 pioneering women in STEM, Emily Dreyfuss highlights the work of Margaret Hamilton, who led a team at the MIT Instrumentation Lab that developed the onboard flight software on the Apollo computers. Dreyfuss notes that without Hamilton, “the modern computing era would not be what it is today.”
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Lewis highlights a study by MIT researchers analyzing data on first-time misdemeanor offenders in Harris County, Texas. The researchers found that “black defendants who got jail time because they were randomly assigned to a more punitive courtroom were significantly less likely to vote in the next presidential election.”
Boston Globe correspondent Jenna Ciccotelli takes the ice with fourth year student Kelsey Becker and the MIT curling club to learn the ins and outs of this winter sport. “It’s mostly about having fun,” says Becker. Coach Andy Willis adds that the sport is often referred to as, “chess on ice. It’s a mental game.”
WGBH’s Kirk Carapezza reports from the launch of the new MIT Stephen Schwarzman College of Computing on how the new college is indicative of a shift in higher education towards more technical fields. “They can choose the major which is their passion and be confident they’re going to gain the skills that are necessary to advance that passion,” explains Provost Martin Schmidt.
Financial Times reporter Janina Conboye highlights how alumni networks at business schools like MIT’s Sloan School of Management can be instrumental in helping young women land jobs after graduation. “There’s a secret code among those from some schools to help each other out,” explains Sloan graduate Angela Xu.
In this video, HuffPost highlights a robotic cheetah created by MIT researchers that can perform a backflip from a standing position. HuffPost notes that the robot has a “range of motions, making it agile enough to pick itself up if knocked to the ground.”
Ben Strauss of the Washington Post reports that during this year’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference there was growing interest in applying more statistical analysis into curling strategies. There are panels here this weekend about chess and poker,” says Nate Silver, creator of the website FiveThirtyEight. “So, it’s broadening the definition of analytics and sports — and also the overall geekiness of the conference.”
Axios reporter Steve Levine writes that a new paper by Prof. David Autor shows how, “cities, once the hope of people seeking a middle-class life, are now a symbol of the disappearance of well-paid, middle-skill work.”
Students from MIT and the University of Michigan will install solar panels for families in Long Beach, California over spring break, reports Marcela Valdivia for NBC 4. “Students will install solar panels for a two-day period for one family and spend the other days spreading awareness about renewable energy in the community,” Valdivia explains.
Forbes reporter Eric Mack writes about the latest iteration of MIT’s robotic cheetah: A new miniature version that weighs 20 pounds. “The cheetah has heavyweight skills like walking over uneven terrain, picking itself up after a fall or a swift kick and of course, its ability to pull off a 360-degree reverse flip from a standing position,” Mack explains.
In an article for USA Today, research affiliate Ashley Nunes explores the feasibility of creating fully self-driving vehicles. “Unless these systems are proven faultless (which they aren’t), ceding control of public safety to algorithmic rather than human intuitions is an unlikely prospect at best,” writes Nunes. “There goes the let-the-robot-drive future we were promised.”