Fox 25’s Kacie Yearout reports that a team of MIT students has developed a portable tool that converts text to braille in real-time. The students were awarded a Lemelson-MIT prize for their invention, which “uses a small camera with optical character recognition software to scan any printed material and convert it into a braille cell.”
In an article for Scientific American, Kavya Balaraman writes that MIT researchers have found that climate change could impact rainfall conditions over the Nile, potentially exacerbating water conflicts. Prof. Elfatih Eltahir explains that with the increased frequency of El Niño and La Niña, “we are projecting enhanced variability in the Nile flow.”
In an article for The Boston Globe about electric bike systems, Hiawatha Bray writes about the Copenhagen Wheel, a battery-powered wheel developed by MIT researchers. “The wheel turns almost any standard bike into a two-wheeled Tesla,” writes Bray, who recently tested the wheel on the streets of Boston.
Jordan Graham writes for The Boston Herald about a panel discussion at MIT on the future of work, which featured Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt. During the discussion, Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson noted that “there’s huge opportunities for creating new kinds of jobs, new kinds of work using technology.”
The New York Times' David Leonhardt writes about a study by Prof. Amy Finkelstein showing that as health care premiums rise, low-income families increasingly forgo insurance and use emergency care. Leonhardt explains that emergency care, “tends to be expensive, raising costs for other patients, and it’s often not as good as preventive care.”
Researchers in the MIT Self-Assembly Lab have developed a new method for 3-D printing that could enable large-scale production of 3-D printed objects, reports Alexandra Simon-Lewis for Wired. The process, called rapid liquid printing, “enables the precise creation of customized products,” in a liquid gel suspension.
CNN reporter Kaya Yurieff writes that MIT researchers have developed a robotic system that can 3-D print a building. Yurieff explains that the researchers, “want to deploy their system in remote regions, such as in the developing world or in disaster relief areas, for example after a major earthquake, to provide shelter quickly.”
In this MarketWatch video, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, explains how investors can ensure they save enough for retirement. In addition to regularly putting aside money, Coughlin advises that millennials should also invest in core skills and professional development “so that they are able to stay in the workforce for as long as possible.”
In an article for Scientific American about the future of robotics, Prof. Emeritus Rodney Brooks highlights Prof. Dina Katabi’s work developing devices that use wireless signals to detect a person’s emotions.
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a device that can measure walking speed using wireless signals. The device can “also measure stride length, which may come in handy when studying conditions that are characterized by small steps, such as Parkinson’s disease.”
Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT, discusses the effects of automated labor and the role of higher education with Steve Kolowich of The Chronicle of Higher Education. “We need an educational system now that excels at producing people to do the things that computers can’t do,” explains McAfee.
During this 60 Minutes segment, Anderson Cooper speaks with Mubarik Mohamoud, a senior majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, about his journey from Somaliland to MIT. Cooper notes that Mohamoud’s success has inspired his former classmates at the Abaarso School of Science and Technology, a boarding school founded to help train Somaliland’s future leaders.
Prof. Ernest Moniz, the former Secretary of Energy, appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss the Iran nuclear deal. Moniz explains that the deal helps to ensure nuclear security as it “puts in place verification measures that are completely unique and apply to this deal forever.”
MIT researchers have developed a robotic system that can 3-D print the basic structure of a building, writes Amina Khan for the Los Angeles Times. Khan explains that 3-D printing buildings, “has a number of advantages, many of which allow the robot to design and build more in the way that living systems in nature do.”
In an article for Forbes, Devin Cook, executive producer of MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge, explains that the challenge is aimed at finding new ways for people to “share in the prosperity that digital technology creates.”