In an article for The Huffington Post about teaching kids computer programming, Joni Blecher highlights the robotic garden developed by researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and CSAIL. The garden has “over 100 flowers that can be controlled via a Bluetooth-enabled device.”
Seung-yoon Lee interviews Professor Noam Chomsky for The Huffington Post on his views on the current media landscape. “I think it's a good general principle that almost anything that increases the variety and range of available media is beneficial,” says Chomsky.
Craig Torres and Christine Idzelis write for Bloomberg Businessweek about a study coauthored by Prof. Xavier Giroud that indicates that employees working for companies with large amounts of debt “were particularly vulnerable to firings when household demand collapsed during the last recession.”
In an article for Bloomberg Businessweek about batteries, Christopher Martin highlights how Prof. Donald Sadoway’s liquid metal battery will be deployed this year. The batteries, which are being commercialized by Sadoway’s startup Ambri, will power solar and wind farms and store surplus energy for a power company in Manhattan.
MIT hosted a debate between two panels of experts last week to discuss whether the Institute should divest its endowment from fossil-fuel companies, reports Kyle Alspach for BostInno. Each side included “an MIT faculty member, a professor from another institution and an executive from an investment firm.”
Jennifer Switzer reports for The Tech on MIT’s fossil-fuel divestment debate. “Divestment has been one of the most strongly debated potential actions of academic institutions in recent times,” said Prof. Roman Stocker, head of the MIT Climate Change Committee. “We decided: Why don’t we tackle it head-on?”
Professor Jeff Gore speaks with CBS News about why he feels the penny should be retired. Gore explains that Canada eliminated its penny and now rounds prices up and down based on the last number of a product’s price. Gore notes that the Canadian “economy is doing fine” without the penny.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for The Boston Globe about Grove Labs, an MIT startup aimed at enabling people to grow vegetables at home year-round. The founders fine-tuned their idea at MIT’s Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator for a “high-tech indoor garden.”
Anya Kamenetz reports for NPR on a new MIT-Harvard study examining data compiled from two years of courses offered by edX. Researchers found that a large number of Greek and Spanish citizens took MOOCs, leading them to wonder if austerity measures in these two countries led students to “look online for an education alternative.”
MIT students launched a balloon the size of a small house as part of the Global Space Balloon Challenge last weekend, reports Amanda Hoover for Boston Magazine. The group’s balloon was dedicated to Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, "flying high to raise support and awareness for the institution and its patients.”
Benjamin Hulac reports for Scientific American on a debate held at MIT on whether the Institute should divest its endowment from fossil-fuel companies. The forum included a panel of experts arguing each side of the issue and responding to questions from the audience.
Carey Goldberg reports for NPR on Project Prakash, Prof. Pawan Sinha's non-profit that provides cataract operations for children in India. Sinha explains that by examining how a child reacts to gaining vision, “you have a ringside seat into the process of visual development.”
Research by Kate Darling and Cynthia Breazeal of the MIT Media Lab shows how humanizing robots can help shape people’s attitudes towards them, writes Gregory McNeal for Forbes. According to their paper, “participants hesitated significantly more to strike the robot when it was introduced through anthropomorphic framing, (such as a name or backstory).”
As part of its Game Changers series, Chronicle highlights Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, and her work developing robots that can collaborate, change shape and perform multiple tasks. Rus explains that she dreams “of a future where robots are as common as smart phones.”
MIT graduate student Maia Majumder speaks with Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston about her digital habits. Subbaraman writes that Majumder, “uses Twitter as a professional tool to discuss her research and to interact with colleagues around the world.”