Alum Sophie Bai, founded B.A.I Biosciences and through her research has created Pavise, a skincare line focusing on sun care and aging, reports Celia Shatzman for Forbes. “I believe skincare starts with sun care, because 90% of skin problems are caused by UVA,” says Bai.
Prof. Li-Huei Tsai and Prof. Ed Boyden co-founded Cognito Therapeutics after their research found that gamma waves could help clear amyloid plaques, which are known to appear in Alzheimer’s patients, reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe. “It was the most surprising result I’ve ever got in my life,” says Tsai. “When we published our first paper, most people said, ‘I don’t believe it. This is too good to be true. How can something this simple have this kind of effect?’”
MIT has ranked first in 11 different academic fields in the latest QS World University Rankings, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.
Researchers at MIT have quantified the shift toward the artificial intelligence industry and how it has impacted academia, reports Madhumita Murgia for Financial Times. “The MIT research found that almost 70 percent of AI PhDs went to work for companies in 2020, compared to 21 per cent in 2004,” writes Murgia.
MIT researchers have developed a low-cost air quality sensor that can be 3-D printed using open-source instructions and used by people around the world, reports Kristin Toussaint for Fast Company. “The reason we started this project was because we wanted to democratize environmental data,” explains research scientist Simone Mora. “We’re not just opening the data we’ve collected so far, but we hope to funnel a huge development in terms of sensors deployed in the streets, and in turn [make] the data collected available to everyone.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Aylin Woodward writes about how graduate student Crystal Owens and undergraduate Max Fan set out to solve a cookie conundrum: whether there was a way to twist apart an Oreo and have the filling stick to both wafers. Woodward writes that for Owens, the research “was a fun, easy way to make her regular physics and engineering work more accessible to the general public.”
Prof. Amy Finkelstein speaks with Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics Radio about why insurance markets are broken, how they can be fixed, and her new book, “Risky Business.” Finkelstein explains that “one thing I hadn’t realized ‘til I started working in economics is there’s another type of market frailty that’s really important, that’s the subject of a lot of government policy, but that most people just don’t seem to be as aware of. And that’s the problem of selection. And it’s front and center in insurance markets.”
Kirin Sinha ‘14 founded Illumix, a technology company that combines 2D models to interactive 3D models to provide immersive AR experiences, reports Rebecca Suhrawardi for Forbes. “Illumix is enabling high-quality and real-time virtual try-on which has implications for the fashion industry ranging from higher conversion rates, fewer returns, and more environmentally-friendly,” says Sinha.
Pickle Robot, an MIT startup, has developed a container unloading robot, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “Pickle has been single-mindedly focused on the specific problem since its inception, actually beginning life attempting to tackle the even more complex task of loading containers,” explains Heater.
In an excerpt from “Your Brain on Art” published in Fast Company, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross spotlight Prof. Li-Huei Tsai research exploring whether gamma oscillations from light and sound could help ease Alzheimer’s symptoms. “Li-Huei believes that increased gamma oscillations in the brain engage many different systems and cell types,” write Magsamen and Ross. “Because of this, the gamma waves may help with amyloid removal.”
Prof. Simon Johnson speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kara Miller about the safety of the U.S. banking system. “Johnson argues that more oversight and regulation are critical to making sure the banking system operates smoothly, even though increased regulations might provoke resistance,” writes Miller.
MIT researchers have found that by “encouraging strategic EV charging placement, rather than allowing EV chargers to be situated merely due to charging company convenience or preferences” it may be possible to “mitigate or eliminate EV charging problems without the need for advanced technological systems of connected devices and real-time communications, which could add to costs and energy consumption,” reports Carolyn Fortuna for CleanTechnica.
MIT researchers have found that placing EV charging stations in strategic locations and setting up charging systems to initiate charging at delayed times could help reduce the impact of EVs on the electrical grid, reports Michael Schoeck for PV Magazine.
Popular Science spotlights a sampling of the winning pictures from this year’s MIT Koch Institute Image Awards, an annual competition showcasing some of the images produced as part of life science and biomedical research at MIT. “Today, high-magnification images can help design new medical tools, enrich our understanding of diseases, and explain how embryos develop. And, as shown by the 2023 winners from the MIT Koch Institute Image Awards, they can be works of art, too.”
MIT scientists have found that delayed charging and strategic placement of EV charging stations could help reduce additional energy demands caused by more widespread EV adoption, reports Grace Carroll for Fast Company. “Leveraging these two strategies together significantly eliminates any additional energy demands,” writes Carroll, “and can be tailored to specific local conditions to help cities meet their decarbonization goals.”