In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, and research associate Lucas Yoquinto write that companies are increasingly designing aesthetically-pleasing and user-friendly technology for the elderly. “As the focus on older consumers’ preferences goes beyond the development of better products to the creation of new product categories, the experience of later life may improve substantially,” they explain.
As part of Wired’s 25 anniversary festival, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, leads a conversation with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman about “blitzscaling,” which encourages new companies to prioritize speed over efficiency. Ito points out that blitzscaling technology “accelerates you in the direction you are already going,” making it hard to correct any issues that arise early on.
CBS News reporter Kate Gibson writes that Atlas, the robot developed by MIT spinoff Boston Dynamics, can now tackle a parkour-style obstacle course. “The robot's control software uses its whole body -- legs, arms and torso -- to jump over a log and then leap up steps more than a foot high each, all without breaking pace,” Gibson explains.
Quartz reporter Zoë Schlanger writes that a new study by MIT researchers demonstrates how climate change can negatively impact a person’s mental health. The researchers found that “on average, the mental health of low-income people was most harmed by hotter temperatures. Women, on average, were also harmed more than men.”
Former MIT visiting artist Pedro Reyes speaks with Forbes reporter Ann Binlot about his time at MIT. “MIT was an amazing experience. Everyday is saturated with hundreds of encounters,” recounts Reyes. “And yet, one of the beautiful things about MIT is that they want people to think outside the box.”
CNBC reporter Lorie Konish speaks with Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, about some key questions around autonomous vehicles for retirees. “The older people who can't drive — whether it is a cognition issue, health issue, physical disability issue — who gets them in the car?” says Coughlin. “And if your mom’s not cognitively well enough to drive, does she ride in the robot car by herself?”
Forbes contributor Howard Gleckman highlights a study by Prof. Amy Finkelstein that shows only five percent of Medicare spending goes toward end-of-life costs. Gleckman writes that the study supports the argument that “using spending in the last year of life as a proxy for futile care is deeply flawed—because we are very bad at predicting who is going to die and who is not.”
Prof. Linda Griffith speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Mark Ellwood about her work developing a new device that allows researchers to test how a drug affects the human body. Ellwood notes that the technology that Griffith and her team have created “could prove vital for rapidly releasing new vaccines.”
While playing the popular video game Fortnite, graduate student Henri Drake and the Climate Fortnite Squad battle for glory and chat about climate science in an effort to make information about climate change accessible to Fortnite fans. “The squad hopes their streams will be watched by climate-curious gamers who can send in questions for them to answer midgame,” Andrews explains.
Boston Globe reporter Tim Logan writes about MIT’s groundbreaking ceremony for 314 Main Street, which will serve as a “new front door” for the Institute. Steve Marsh, managing director of real estate, explains that in Kendall Square, MIT aims “to create an environment where people solve problems. That will help us all.”
Prof. Marcia Bartusiak speaks with Radio Boston’s Evan Horowitz about her book, “Dispatches from Planet 3.” Bartusiak explains that she was inspired to “take a new exciting finding and provide the backstory. All of these essays are taking something new - a new idea, a new discovery - and showing that it had an origin or a seed in the past.”
Natasha Frost of Quartz speaks with graduate student Mostafa Mohsenvand about his work developing a new wearable device that could one day be used to help people with memory loss. Frost writes the device may help those suffering with Alzheimer’s by “making memories instantly accessible externally for those who may otherwise be unable to recall them.”
A new report from MIT researchers finds a correlation between climate change and an increase in mental health issues, writes Nicole Karlis for Salon. Research scientist Nick Obradovich explains that the study shows, “policymakers should be very actively considering how to increase societal resilience to our changing climate.”
TechCrunch reporter Kate Clark spotlights Prof. Tim Berners-Lee’s quest to decentralize the web and provide people with power over their personal data through his new startup inrupt. Clark explains that inrupt is expanding the platform Berners-Lee developed that allows users to “keep their data wherever they choose, rather than being forced to store it on centralized servers.”
MIT researchers have created an AI system that allows users to automatically erase people and objects from photos, writes Mark Wilson for Fast Company. Wilson writes that the researchers have “built a remarkably simple front-end interface to control [the system]. In one column, you select what you’d like to remove from your photos, and in the right column, you select your source material.”