Jen Christensen reports for CNN on new research by Professor John Gabrieli that finds that brain scans can help to determine the best treatment for a given patient. "With this kind of science, we don't have to wait for a failure," explains Gabrieli. "We know what will be the best fit."
Boston Globe reporter David Scharfenberg writes that Gov. Deval Patrick has joined the MIT Innovation Initiative. Associate Dean for Innovation Fiona Murray explains that “having the right kinds of policies and programs in place to enable people to actually be effective innovators and entrepreneurs really matters.”
A study by co-authored by a team of MIT economists found that financial aid boosts enrollment and persistence, reports Inside Higher Ed. The researchers found that “the effects of the aid in encouraging enrollment and boosting persistence were especially pronounced among nonwhite students and students with lower grade point averages and standardized test scores.”
MIT basketball coach Larry Anderson speaks with Tom Layman of the Boston Herald following his 300th win as the Engineers’ head coach. “I can’t think of any profession I’d rather be in right now than coaching basketball at MIT,” says Anderson. “It’s a pretty special place.”
Gary Beach writes for The Wall Street Journal about Professor Erik Brynjolfsson’s predictions on how technology will change the workforce. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one-third, or more, jobs were eliminated by new technologies in the next decade,” says Brynjolfsson. “Millions of new jobs, however, will be created.”
Robert Olsen of Forbes profiles MIT alumnus Samuel Tak Lee, who recently made one of the largest gifts in MIT’s history to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab. “Now that he’s achieved such success, he’s helping others to follow a similar path by supporting the schools he attended,” writes Olsen.
In a Wall Street Journal article about whether there is a skills gap in the U.S., Jonathan House cites Prof. Paul Osterman and Andrew Weaver’s study examining vacancies at manufacturing firms. The researchers explain that their findings “call into question both the incidence and severity of manufacturing skills gaps.”
Led by Professor Eric Alm, a team of researchers plans to analyze sewage in Cambridge to screen for data on disease and drug use, reports Michael Fitzgerald for The Boston Globe. “Sewage is really an unexploited source of rich information about human activities,” says Alm.
Greg Satell writes for Forbes about Professor Zeynep Ton’s book “The Good Job’s Strategy,” in which she argues that maintaining a well-trained and well-paid workforce can lead to greater profits. “A higher paid workforce results in less turnover, better customer service and greater efficiency,” writes Satell of Ton’s findings.
Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News writes that MIT researchers have found that Latin Americans are less likely to be approved for work authorizations in the U.S. than immigrants from other areas. Researchers found that authorization disparities “disappeared in cases when officials looked more closely at supporting documents.”
Inside Higher Ed reports on the $118 million gift from MIT alumnus Samuel Tak Lee that will be used to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. The gift, one of the largest in MIT’s history, is aimed at exploring sustainability and social responsibility in the field of real estate.
Artist Pawel Romanczuk, who performed at MIT last week, has been working with MIT students to make instruments from different materials. Romanczuk explains to Boston Globe reporter Kevin Hartnett that his work is about “finding a new way for making music, searching for new sources of sound.”
Jack Newsham writes for The Boston Globe about the new gift from MIT alumnus Samuel Tak Lee to “fund the study of sustainable real estate development” through the creation of a new lab at MIT. The lab will have a focus on China, “a country where the real estate sector is rapidly changing.”
Justin Bachman writes for Bloomberg BusinessWeek about Prof. Dava Newman’s proposal for the skin-tight BioSuit, meant to replace today’s bulky spacesuits. BioSuit “shrinks onto the body, achieving pressurization not with gas but with a soft exoskeleton of heat-activated materials that shape to fit the traveler’s frame.”
A gift from alumnus Samuel Tak Lee will be used to establish a new MIT lab for sustainable real estate development, reports Chris Staiti of Bloomberg News. The gift will “help design a program that ties the study of real estate to 21st-century realities.”