MIT alumnus You Wu has spent six years perfecting robots that can travel through pipes to identify water leaks, writes Anne Quito for Quartz. “Over 240,000 water pipes burst in the US each year, with each incident costing an average of $200,000 in infrastructure damage,” notes Quito.
A new MIT Energy Initiative study details how nuclear power could help fight climate change, reports Jonathan Tirone for Bloomberg News. The study’s authors explain that U.S. policy makers could support the nuclear industry by putting a “price on emissions, either through direct taxation or carbon-trading markets. That would give atomic operators more room to compete against cheap gas, wind and solar.”
BuzzFeed highlights the work of Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia in a list of trailblazing women working in the STEM fields. BuzzFeed notes that Bhatia is an “incredible role model for women in STEM, not only for to her scientific contributions, but for the elegant way in which she balances her professional and personal roles.”
MIT scientists have developed a new coating that uses solar-power to melt and prevent ice buildup, reports the Xinhua News Agency. The coating, which does not use harmful chemicals, “collects solar radiation, converts it to heat, and spreads that heat around so that the melting is not just confined to the areas exposed directly to the sunlight.”
Quanta Magazine reporter Natalie Wolchover spotlights how the work of Profs. William Freeman, Antonio Torralba and Ramesh Raskar is shedding light on how visual signals can be used to uncover information on hidden objects. Freeman explains that he is thrilled by the idea that “the world is rich with lots of things yet to be discovered.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Cate McQuaid highlights Delia Gonzalez’s new exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center. McQuaid notes that Gonzalez turns to “ancient civilization in search of meaning — specifically the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii, in the year 79.”
Boston magazine highlights Prof. Tod Machover’s new opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood” in their fall guide to the arts in Boston. Boston magazine notes that the opera is “about a brilliant composer fleeing the Nazis and landing in 1930s L.A.—you’ve never seen opera like this.”
MIT alumna Kara Elliott-Ortega has been named Boston’s new chief of arts and culture, reports Don Aucoin for The Boston Globe. Elliott-Ortega, who received a master’s degree in city planning from MIT, explains that she feels the “arts aren’t just a stand-alone sector or area of work, but are a part of everything the city is doing.’’
In an article for the Financial Times, John Gapper highlights a study by Prof. John Van Reenen examining the increasing concentration of industries. Van Reenen explains that globalization and new technology foster superstar companies because “network effects mean that small quality differences can tip a market to one or two players.”
Research affiliate Tim Hwang speaks with Aaron Mak of Slate about whether Google is suppressing conservative media outlets in search results. “I don’t think the question is whether or not it’s biased. All these systems embed some kind of bias,” explains Hwang. “The question is: Do we have transparency to how some of these decisions are being made?”
A study by MIT researchers demonstrates how air pollution can significantly reduce profits from solar panel installations, reports Avery Thompson for Popular Mechanics. The researchers found that in Delhi, “electricity generation is reduced by more than 10 percent,” Thompson explains, “which translates to a cost of more than $20 million.”
TechRepublic reporter Nick Heath writes about Julia 1.0, a programming language created by MIT researchers. “The breadth of Julia's capabilities and ability to spread workloads across hundreds of thousands of processing cores have led to its use for everything from machine learning to large-scale supercomputer simulation,” writes Heath.
Axios reporter Dan Primack writes about a new study by Prof. Antoinette Schoar examining the performance of sidecar private equity funds. Primack explains that Schoar and her colleagues found that, “GP-directed sidecar funds had worse average performance than did the main funds raised at the same time by the same firms, while discretionary co-investment funds were basically a wash.”
Fast Company reporter Mark Wilson writes that MIT researchers have developed a new tool for computer-aided drafting software that can optimize the design for any product. Wilson explains that the tool could “help designers optimize their existing processes–and, crucially, deconstruct what works and what doesn’t, sooner.”
Research Scientist Stephanie Woerner speaks with Forbes reporter Joe McKendrick about the best ways for companies to develop digital business models. "Companies have to develop new ways of working, really taking evidence into account when making decisions," Woerner explains.