Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, a leading expert on using technology to help children learn, died on July 31, reports Glenn Rifkin for The New York Times. Prof. Mitchel Resnick notes that Papert was “the first person to see that the computer could be used to support children’s learning and development.”
ABC News visits Prof. Hugh Herr’s lab to explore his work developing bionic limbs aimed at augmenting human capabilities and ending “profound human suffering caused by disability.” Herr says he “always had the dream of developing exoskeletal structures that would enable anyone to walk with less energy, run with less energy, move faster with complete ease.”
Writing for the Financial Times, senior lecturer Robert Pozen explores how the retirement health care plans offered to the employees of many U.S. cities and states could pose budgetary problems. Pozen writes that the "unfunded liabilities for retirement healthcare could bust the budgets of many cities and states over the next decade."
In an article for The New Yorker, Frank Rose features “The City of Tomorrow”, a new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel. Rose writes that the city Claudel and Ratti envision is “a hybrid of the digital and the physical, a ‘triumph of atoms and bits’ that yields a sort of augmented urban reality.”
In an article for The Atlantic, Jessa Gamble highlights MIT alumnus David Sengeh’s work, which is focused on designing better-fitting prosthetics by examining a patient’s internal anatomy using MRI technology. “We’ve been able to make the [world’s] first socket entirely from quantitative methods,” says Sengeh. “No human hands were involved in defining the shape, including the cut lines and material properties of the socket.”
Popular Science reporter Samantha Cole writes that MIT researchers have developed a laptop-sized, portable device that can produce biopharmaceuticals for doctors in remote locations. Cole explains that the device can “produce a single dose of treatment with a series of steps, using genetically engineered yeast cells as a mini 'factory' for a variety of customizable drugs.”
Space.com reporter Samantha Mathewson writes that MIT researchers have developed a vibrating boot to help astronauts avoid obstacles. Prof. Leia Stirling explains that she hopes the boot will make astronauts “more confident and efficient during extravehicular activities and may decrease their injury risk due to trips and falls.”
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that MIT researchers have developed a portable pharmacy that can manufacture biopharmaceuticals and modify treatments. “Instead of relying on a cocktail that already exists, you can reprogram the reactor on demand to customize the treatment,” says Prof. Timothy Lu.
Prof. Jonathan How speaks with Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear about how researchers from MIT and Ford are collaborating on a new project aimed at better understanding vehicle mobility and demand in dense urban areas. The project will allow researchers to “investigate new planning and prediction algorithms in a complex, but controlled, environment,” explains How.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Robert Litan highlights a paper by MIT researchers that finds the outlook for high-growth startups has improved. “Focusing on 15 states–which include six cities where start-up up activity historically has been high–they found that high-growth startup activity has recovered from the Great Recession.”
Sophia Haigney writes for The Boston Globe that students in the URBANFRAME program, based out of MIT’s architecture department, are exploring design solutions for Cambridge’s Central Square, including sidewalk lanes to help smartphone users avoid collisions. Haigney notes that the program is aimed at designing “for under-represented groups in the community — people whom designers might typically ignore.”
Research Associate Jim Walsh discusses the evolution of relations between North and South Korea 63 years after the Korean War armistice with Meghna Chakrabarti of WBUR’s Here & Now. Walsh notes that North and South Korea are currently in “a very different place where neither side wants a war, but the danger of nuclear weapons hangs in the shadows.”
Boston Globe reporter Cristela Guerra writes that Profs. Janet Conrad and Lindley Winslow helped ensure the science in the new “Ghostbusters” was as accurate as possible. “I am very fond of the original ‘Ghostbusters’,” says Conrad. “I have even used ‘Ghostbusters’ as a theme for my colloquium on neutrino physics, since neutrinos are often called the ghost particle.”
Researchers from MIT and Ford are collaborating on a new project to measure pedestrian traffic and predict the need for on-demand shuttle services, reports Kirsten Korosec for Fortune. The researchers hope to use the data they collect to predict demand for shuttles, and then "routing those vehicles to areas where they’re needed most at the corresponding times.”
Oscar Williams writes for The Huffington Post about a new prototype for a glasses-free, 3-D movie screen developed by CSAIL researchers. The prototype "harnesses a blend of lenses and mirrors to enable viewers to watch the film from any seat in the house.”