Kaya Yurieff reports for CNN that CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows the colors of 3-D printed objects to be altered after they have been fabricated. Prof. Stefanie Mueller explains that, “this sort of technology could help minimize the amount of waste that is produced from updating products."
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have created a new system that allows users to change the color of 3-D printed objects. Heater explains that researchers, “are looking to bring color-changing properties to the 3D-printing process in an attempt to help reduce material waste.”
Marc Bain of Quartz reports that CSAIL researchers have created a system that changes the color of 3-D printed objects using UV light. The researchers hope this system will allow consumers to, “quickly match accessories to outfits, or let retail stores switch the color of clothing or other items on the spot for customers,” explains Bain.
CSAIL researchers have developed a method that allows the color of 3-D printed objects to change after they have been printed, writes Emily Matchar for Smithsonian. The method uses, “UV light to change the pixels on an object from transparent to colored, and then a regular office projector to turn them from colored to transparent,” explains Prof. Stefanie Mueller.
In a Wired article, Prof. Carlo Ratti writes about how responsive sensors can help reduce energy usage in buildings. Ratti explains that, “by pursuing a tailor-made, non-standardised approach we can achieve not only better comfort levels for building users, but also a substantial reduction in energy consumptions: between 25 per cent and 40 per cent.”
Graduate student Joy Buolamwini is featured on NPR’s TED Radio Hour explaining the racial bias of facial recognition software and how these problems can be rectified. “The minimum thing we can do is actually check for the performance of these systems across groups that we already know have historically been disenfranchised,” says Buolanwini.
Political science graduate student, Michael Freedman writes in The Washington Post about the increased influence of Israel’s religious political parties. Freedman argues that this change is due to the death of powerful moderate political leaders, and warns that it will become “difficult to build a stable coalition that relies on cooperation between secular and religious parties.”
Boston Globe reporter Cate McQuaid spotlights the new works Prof. Judith Barry created for the citywide collaboration, “Art + Tech.” The ICA’s chief curator Eva Respini says that, “Judith is a prescient thinker, working on a cutting edge with digital and video technology.”
MIT researchers have made improvements to liquid-sodium batteries, potentially paving the way for the battery to be used for renewable energy storage, reports Laney Ruckstuhl for The Boston Globe. “Unlike lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones and laptops, the liquid-sodium batteries won’t lose their capacity quickly.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Maria T. Zuber, MIT’s Vice President for Research, stresses the importance of federal investment in scientific research. “When investments in R & D produce new scientific and technological advances, those advances can in turn spawn new companies and even whole new industries, creating good jobs in a variety of fields,” writes Zuber.
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that a team of MIT researchers has developed a new technique that can deliver medication to specific regions of the brain with extreme precision. “The whole idea here is that instead of treating the entire brain, you can treat small portions of the brain,” explains Prof. Michael Cima.
MIT researchers have discovered a new family of viruses in the ocean that appears to play a key role in ocean ecosystems and could help provide insights on how viruses evolve, reports Marin Finucane for The Boston Globe. Finucane explains that the findings could also lead to, "a better understanding of human biology.”
In an article co-written for Smithsonian, Prof. John Van Reenen writes about an analysis he and his colleagues conducted examining how socioeconomic background, race and gender can impact a child’s chances of becoming an inventor. The researchers found that, “young people’s exposure to innovators may be an important way to reduce these disparities and increase the number of inventors.”
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Matthew Campbell of Bloomberg about how the free-flow of talent contributes to America’s success as a leader in innovation. “We’ve been so lucky over the years that the best in the world have wanted to come to the U.S. If all of a sudden we don’t have the MITs because no talent comes, America will hurt.”
MIT researchers have designed a new chip that could advance the development of computers that operate like the human brain, reports James Vincent for The Verge. The development could, “lead to processors that run machine learning tasks with lower energy demands — up to 1,000 times less. This would enable us to give more devices AI abilities like voice and image recognition.”