In the Media

Jesus Diaz of Co.Design explains how MIT scientists have found that Legos can be used more easily to assemble microfluidic laboratories. Historically, doing so "required expensive custom prototyping and manufacturing methods." 

In an article for Science, Vijaysree Venkatraman highlights MIT’s Translational Fellows Program, which helps “postdocs go from being job seekers to job creators.” Founded by Yoel Fink, the program allows students to evaluate business ventures for real-world sustainability.

TechCrunch’s “Technotopia” podcast, hosted by John Biggs, features Prof. Nick Montfort, who has authored a new book, “The Future”. Montfort’s book identifies those whose work impacts the future of culture and technology.

As noted by the Associated Press, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be joining MIT as an innovation fellow beginning this Spring, where he will advise the recently launched MIT Intelligence Quest.

In an article for Wired, Prof. James J. DiCarlo explains how artificial intelligence can transcend algorithm-based decision making by reverse-engineering the brain. “Armed with an engineering description of the brain, scientists will see new ways to repair, educate, and augment our own minds,” writes DiCarlo.

As Steve Rosenbush notes in the Wall Street Journal, MIT Intelligence Quest hopes to answer two questions: “How does human intelligence work, in engineering terms? And how can we use that deep grasp of human intelligence to build wiser and more useful machines?” explains President Reif.

Writing for Wired, Prof. Joi Ito explains his concerns regarding ICOs, or initial coin offerings, which are meant to be used to easily send cryptographically secure tokens or coins peer-to-peer. “We haven’t set up the legal, technical, or normative controls yet, and many people are taking advantage of this,” writes Prof. Ito.

Dean Anantha Chandrakasan speaks with Kristin Toussaint of Metro about MIT Intelligence Quest. “When you bring together researchers from different disciplines, they end up collaborating and creating something very new that they individually couldn't have created,” said Chandrakasan.

In an article for Times Higher Education, Anna Gast, president of Imperial College London, praises former MIT presidents, Vannevar Bush and Charles Vest, for their willingness to “advocate for the importance of fundamental research and the need for government support of it.”

Brian Heater writes for TechCrunch about the new Institute-wide initiative, MIT Intelligence Quest. “Many of the products are moonshoots. They involve teams of scientists and engineers working together. It’s essentially a new model and we need folks and resources behind that,” said Prof. James DiCarlo.

Profs. Polina Anikeeva and Feng Zhang are two of the 2018 recipients of the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise, which are awarded to “young immigrants who have demonstrated exceptional promise early in their careers,” reports Lisa Krieger of The Mercury News.

“Intriguing is that [MIT IQ] brings together researchers who study both human intelligence and artificial intelligence. The hope is that better understanding both of them will help develop new algorithms and techniques that can be used broadly,” writes Sean Captain for Fast Company.

In an article for Salon, Prof. Thomas Kochan writes about what employees would prioritize if they were given the opportunity to participate in discussions about workplace issues. “We found that there are large voice gaps across a range of worker concerns and that they are largest on basic economic issues of compensation and benefits, promotions and job security.”

MIT is launching a new initiative known as MIT Intelligence Quest, “in an effort to combine multiple disciplines to reverse engineer human intelligence, create new algorithms for machine learning and artificial intelligence and foster collaboration,” writes Larry Dignan for ZDNet.

MIT scientists have found that Legos can be used to create a portable, complex microfluidics lab, reports John Biggs of TechCrunch. While the Legos did have to be modified to run fine channels, the precision of the bricks and panels mean “you don’t need much more than a drill and some tubing to prototype a working microfluidics lab,” explains Biggs.