Research led by Prof. Amy Finkelstein found that just 4% of “bankruptcy filings by non-elderly adults” were associated with medical expenses. “Medical bankruptcy…wasn’t nearly as common as anticipated,” writes Alex Kingsbury for The Boston Globe. “Public policy aimed at fighting it might not have the anticipated results, either.”
Sarah Toy of The Wall Street Journal writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a soft robotic fish that can capture images and video of aquatic life. “The key here is that the robot is very quiet as it moves in the water and the undulating motion of the tail does not create too much water disturbance,” says Prof. Daniela Rus.
Dropbox, which was “founded in 2007 by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science students”, has launched its IPO with a valuation of more than $1 billion, writes Matt Phillips for The New York Times.“Dropbox’s initial public offering could pave the way for other unicorns to soon go public.”
Mouse on Mars, a music duo featuring former MIT guest lecturer Jan St. Werner, premiered their new album “Dimensional People” through a spatial installation that allowed guests to hear “more or less of certain instruments depending on their location,” writes Terence Cawley for The Boston Globe. The premiere was part of Dissolve Music @ MIT, a conference and sound festival organized by Prof. Ian Condry, St. Werner and DJ Rekha.
Associate Prof. John Hart speaks with Miles O’Brien on PBS NewsHour about the future of 3-D printing and how the true extent of its application is “in some part beyond our imagination.” “There’s few things that you can 3-D print and then use right away,” says Prof. Hart. “But we’re getting there.”
A recent study from Media Lab graduate student Joy Buolamwini addresses errors in facial recognition software that create concern for civil liberties. “If programmers are training artificial intelligence on a set of images primarily made up of white male faces, their systems will reflect that bias,” writes Cristina Quinn for WGBH.
SoFi, or “soft robot fish”, was developed by researchers in CSAIL to better observe marine life without disturbance. “…it's specially designed to look realistic and move super-quietly through the waves,” writes BBC News, whose brief also features a video of the fish in action.
Postdoc Sameer Rao talks to the BBC World Service about his team’s development of a device for extracting water from the atmosphere of excessively dry climates. “I think it can address water scarcity in areas where there is no water and there’s a lot of social and economic challenges because of that,” said Rao.
In this 3-minute read, Katharine Schwab of Co.Design highlights Assistant Prof. Brandon Clifford's project, Cyclopean Cannibalism. Updating an ancient building technique, "Clifford and his students have built algorithms that can...suggest a type of cyclopean wall design that would be able to transform any mound of debris into a wall," writes Schwab.
Prof. Evelyn Wang has improved upon a device she debuted last year that can pull water from the air of even the driest climates, reports UPI's Brooks Hays. The team tested the device in Arizona, “in a place that's representative of these arid areas, and [the device] showed that we can actually harvest the water, even in subzero dew points," said Wang.
CSAIL researchers have developed a soft robotic fish that can unobtrusively observe marine wildlife, writes NPR’s Colin Dwyer. Known as SoFi, the robot is “more likely to get close to aquatic life acting naturally,” explains Dwyer, “which could mean its camera has a better chance at snapping some candid shots to pass on to marine biologists.”
MIT researchers have developed a new imaging system that could allow autonomous vehicles to see through dense fog, writes Andrew Liszewski of Gizmodo. The laser-based system, which used a new processing algorithm, was able “to clearly see objects 21 centimeters further away than human eyes could discern,” Liszewski writes.
A soft robotic fish created in CSAIL could be used to study marine life in the wild. “Using sound, divers can pilot the robot fish from almost 70 feet away,” writes Matt Simon for Wired. Future versions of the device, known as SoFi, “would use machine vision to lock onto individual fish and follow them around, all without raising suspicion.”
MIT Media Lab spin out Affectiva has launched AI software that tracks drivers' emotions, energy, and distraction levels, writes Sasha Lekach of Mashable. The system uses “face and head tracking with near-infrared and RGB cameras” to measure facial expressions and emotions and listen for sounds, explains Lekach.
Research published in Science Robotics reveals the functionality and future potential of CSAIL’s “SoFi” robotic fish. “Scuba-diving humans don't exactly blend in, which can make it hard to watch some animals up-close,” writes Michael Greshko for National Geographic. “SoFi could act as marine biologists' unobtrusive eyes and ears.”