Alumna Jasmin Moghbeli speaks with NPR’s Emma Bowman about being selected for NASA astronaut training. Moghbeli, one of three trainees with MIT ties, explains that she hopes to inspire girls of color. “If they can see someone similar to them that they can relate to more, then it makes it all that much more possible…to imagine doing this.”
Prof. Daniela Rus and graduate student Robert Katzschmann speak with BBC reporter Gareth Mitchell about the device they developed to help the visually impaired navigate. Rus explains that they applied the technologies used for autonomous driving to develop a system that can, “guide a visually impaired person in the same way a suite of sensors can guide a self-driving car.”
Research Scientist Ashley Nunes speaks to Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about the proposed privatization of air-traffic control in the U.S., and how countries like Canada have successfully transitioned to a private system. When airlines pay less for air-traffic control services, “the price that the airline passes along to the passenger is also lower,” explains Nunes.
In an article for The Epoch Times, Emel Akpan highlights how The Engine is focused on supporting startups in fields that require time and patient capital. “We have a focus on tough tech,” explains Katie Rae, CEO and president of The Engine. “We think that’s where the resources are limited. But the opportunities can have a lot of impact.”
Anne Pycha of Scientific American writes about three new methods that could be used to help detect Parkinson’s disease and enable early intervention. A new typing test developed by MIT researchers could be used to identify individuals with possible signs of Parkinson’s, “by analyzing key hold times (the time required to press and release a key).”
Fortune reporter Aaron Pressman highlights how in her address during the 2017 Investiture of Doctoral Hoods, MIT alumna Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, urged doctoral graduates to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. "The world is starving for new ideas and great leaders who will champion those ideas," said Su.
CNBC reporter Anita Balakrishnan writes about MIT’s 2017 Commencement. During his address, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that at MIT and Apple, people “love hard problems, we love to search for new ideas, and we especially love finding these ideas — the ones that change the world.”
Wired reporter Aarian Marshall writes that AgeLab researchers are studying how drivers interact with their phones, in an effort to reduce fatalities caused by distracted driving. Research scientist Bruce Mehler explains that researchers are, “focused on taking a really fresh look at the whole design approach to evaluating human-machine interfaces in the car."
Susan Erdman, a principal research scientist at MIT and assistant director of MIT’s Division of Comparative Medicine, writes for STAT about her research examining whether the microbiome helped drive human evolution. “Thanks to our growing understanding of the human microbiome, it could represent a thrilling example of evolutionary symbiosis that has mutually benefitted humans and their microbial passengers.”
Wired reporter Tom Simonite highlights how Prof. Daniela Rus is developing technology that enables a car’s computer to take control from human drivers to help prevent accidents. “Eventually everyone will get to autonomy, but the technology’s not ready yet,” explains Rus. “This is an intermediate step we can take to make driving safer in the meantime.”
MIT’s 2017 Commencement exercises featured an address by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who urged graduates to use their skills to help people around the world, reports the AP. “Measure impact in humanity; not in the likes, but the lives you touch and the people you serve,” said Cook.
Reuters reporter Ross Kerber writes about MIT’s 2017 Commencement exercises, which featured an address by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook urged graduates to infuse technology with human values, explaining that he is concerned “about people thinking like computers, without values or compassion, without concern for consequence.”
In his address at MIT’s 2017 Commencement exercises, Apple CEO Tim Cook urged MIT graduates to pursue work in service of humanity, reports Erin Fuchs for Yahoo Finance. “When you keep people at the center of what you do it can have an enormous impact,” he said.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Sara Salinas highlights how in his MIT Commencement address, Apple CEO Tim Cook urged graduates to make the world a better place. “If you strive to create the best, give the best, do the best for everyone, not just for some, then today all of humanity has good cause for hope,” said Cook.
Tangible Media Group researchers have created shape-shifting, edible pasta, writes Grace Williams for Fox News. The pasta, which transforms from a flat sheet into 3-D shapes, could cut packaging and shipping costs for “large supermarkets, mountain hikers and Mars travelers, or whoever has the need of saving shipping spaces,” says former MIT graduate student Lining Yao.