As part of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s special section on tech innovators, Jeffrey Young spotlights the work of Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning. Young writes that Sarma is transforming higher education “by pushing the lecture model into the margins and using technology to rethink the professor’s role.”
Prof. Emilio Frazzoli speaks with Nicole Dungca of The Boston Globe about his new startup nuTonomy, which is developing a fleet of driverless taxis for Singapore. Frazzoli explains that he feels the biggest impact of autonomous vehicles is in “really changing the way we think of personal mobility, or mobility, in general.”
Prof. Tavneet Suri writes for The Huffington Post that text messages can improve civic engagement in developing countries, if the electoral system is perceived as fair. “While it’s clear that get-out-the-vote text messages have enormous potential to increase civic engagement and participation, it’s also clear that these messages carry an implicit promise of transparency and openness,” writes Suri.
Katie Lobosco writes for CNN Money that a new survey has found that MIT provides one of the best returns on investment for students. Lobosco notes that, “Many MIT grads land high-paying engineering and computer science jobs.”
Boston.com reporter Justine Hofherr writes that in a new survey MIT has been ranked one of the top universities for return on investment, “based on the difference between a schools cost of attendance and the income the average student earns in the 20 years after graduation.”
In an article for Reuters, James Saft writes that MIT researchers have found that analyzing Twitter sentiment can provide useful information for investors. “We exploit a new dataset of tweets referencing the Federal Reserve and show that the content of tweets can be used to predict future returns,” Prof. Andrew Lo and grad student Pablo Azar explain.
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique for printing solid and liquid materials at the same time, a development that could make producing robots faster and easier. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that the new process could make “a big difference in what kind of machines you can make.”
STAT reporter Eric Boodman spotlights Prof. Jing-Ke Weng’s work searching for medical treatments in plants. Boodman writes that Weng is “determined to harness peanut skins, and twisted roots, and an herb known as horny goat weed...to treat human disease."
Popular Science reporter Kelsey Atherton writes that a new 3-D printing process developed by MIT researchers incorporates both solid and liquid materials at the same time. Atherton explains that the prototype robot developed using the process walks “with hydraulic bellows, fluid pumping in and out to turn a crankshaft that moves the legs back and forth.”
Researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed a new 3-D printing process that produces robots with no assembly required, reports Brian Mastroianni for CBS News. “MIT's new process is significant in that the production period is streamlined, with the robot's solid and liquid hydraulic parts being created in one step,” Mastroianni explains.
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that MIT researchers have developed a way to simultaneously 3-D print liquid and solid materials, “allowing them to create functional, nearly assembly-free robots.”
Anthony Cuthbertson writes for Newsweek that MIT researchers have developed a drone that is capable of mimicking a person’s drawings. Cutherbertson explains that, “the drone has been modified to carry a pen, allowing it to copy the actions of a human hand and scale it up through a combination of mechanical and algorithmic methods.”
MIT startup nuTonomy is developing driverless taxis to serve as a form of public transit in Singapore, reports Nyshka Chandran for CNBC. “The driverless taxis will follow optimal paths for picking up and dropping off passengers to reduce traffic congestion,” Chandran explains.
Fortune reporter Robert Hackett writes that MIT spinoff nuTonomy is developing a fleet of driverless taxis for Singapore. Hackett writes that the company “could become the first to operate fully self-driving cars, known as ‘level four,’ in a city commercially.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that a team of MIT students has developed an app that provides shoppers with a nutrition receipt for grocery store purchases. The app is based on an algorithm that could “parse through data from the USDA’s National Nutrient Database, assessing the nutritional value of each item in the shopper’s cart.”