In the new book “Innovative Women: The Changing Face of Technology,” MIT alumna and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith co-authors a chapter about how to increase opportunities for women in technology. In an excerpt provided to Fortune, Smith writes that we’re at a “tipping point” and about to accelerate the path to lasting gender equality.
Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston reports that MIT researchers have proposed a new solar-powered, desalination system for purifying groundwater. “Wright and Winter argue that for the low levels of salt in the groundwater in up to 60 percent of rural India, they can extract enough power from solar panels to run their electrodialysis setup,” writes Subbaraman.
Boston Globe reporter Chris Reify writes that Professor Sangeeta Bhatia has been awarded the 2014 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. “Dr. Bhatia is a wonderful example of a woman who has used her brilliance, skill and creativity to radically improve the detection and treatment of serious global health issues,” says Dorothy Lemelson, Lemelson Foundation chair.
NBC News reports that MIT Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT prize for her work designing miniaturized biomedical tools. "As innovations emerge, we're constantly asking whether they can be repurposed for one of the two diseases we concentrate on: liver disease and cancer,” says Bhatia.
Thomas Tamblyn of The Huffington Post writes about a new video showing MIT’s Atlas robot carrying a metal frame. Tamblyn writes that the video demonstrates an advancement by MIT researchers, “who have been trying to juggle the complexities of making a robot walk while still dragging a weighted object in one hand.”
Writing for Scientific American, Tim Radford reports on Professor Paul O’Gorman’s new study, which shows that despite climate change blizzards will still occur. Radford writes that O’Gorman’s research shows that while some areas may receive less overall snowfall, extreme snowfall could become more intense.
Kyle Plantz profiles MIT’s Underwater Hockey Club for USA Today. “It’s social, it’s an exercise, it’s competitive, it’s a great workout, it’s a three-dimensional sport,” says Underwater Hockey Club organizer Martin Jaspan.
Marc Abrahams writes for BetaBoston about ‘The Breast Pump Hackathon,' which is scheduled to take place Sept. 20-21 at the MIT Media Lab. The event will bring together a wide variety of people to collaborate on designing a better breast pump.
Thor Benson writes for United Press International about a new video of MIT’s Atlas robot that shows the robot moving objects of different weights while maintaining balance. A team of MIT researchers is competing with the Atlas robot in the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
Research by James Rice, deputy director of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, finds that few companies are actually ‘reshoring’ manufacturing jobs to the U.S., writes Robert Wright of The Financial Times. The study indicates that the trend has had a negligible effect on employment in the U.S.
Henry Grabar of Salon writes about new research by Professor Carlo Ratti on the impacts of taxi sharing. If taxi sharing was implemented in New York City, “the total distance traveled by New York City cabs would fall by 40 percent, relieving traffic, reducing air pollution and speeding up travel for everyone else on the road,” Grabar writes.
In a piece for The Guardian about Apple CEO Tim Cook, Dominic Rushe writes about a new book co-authored by MIT Professor Michael Cusumano that examines what happens to companies after they lose leaders. "There's no reason Apple can't be an extraordinarily successful company but it will be a different one," Cusumano says.
Bill Aulet writes for The Wall Street Journal about how new startups are valued. “Historically the science has been pretty simple: Find comparable companies and do a multiple of earnings or revenue. However, three drivers of startup valuation have emerged that are changing the game,” Aulet writes.
Washington Post reporter Angela Fritz writes that MIT Professor Paul O’Gorman has found that extreme snowfall events will continue despite global warming. Fritz reports that O’Gorman’s models show that in some high-latitude cases, “extreme snowstorms could deposit 10 percent more snow.”
Bloomberg News reports that MIT alumna Megan Smith has been appointed as the White House Chief Technology Officer. In her new role, Smith will serve as a liaison between the White House and Silicon Valley companies, and advise the government on how to better use technology.