Falmouth’s Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium has unveiled a new chocolate candy named Dr. Bob’s Dark Chocolate Maple Syrup Cream – inspired by Prof. Bob Langer’s love of maple, reports Jon Chesto in The Boston Globe. “To make the Dr. Bob’s candy, the staff takes the maple cream chocolates and then drizzles maple syrup over them as a topping,” writes Chesto.
Edwin Olson '00, MEng '01, PhD '08 founded May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle company that uses human autonomous vehicle operators on its rides, reports Gus Alexiou for Forbes. “May Mobility is focused above all else on gradually building up the confidence of its riders and community stakeholders in the technology over the long-term,” explains Alexiou. “This may be especially true for certain more vulnerable sections of society such as the disability community where the need for more personalized and affordable forms of transportation is arguably greatest but so too is the requirement for robust safety and accessibility protocols.”
Researchers at MIT have developed tiny batteries capable of powering cell-sized robots that can “execute tasks as varied as targeting drug delivery inside the human body to checking pipelines for gas leaks,” reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “Despite the barely visible size, the researchers say the batteries can generate up to 1 volt, which can be used to power a sensor, circuit or even a moving actuator.”
A new database of AI risks has been developed by MIT researchers in an effort to help guide organizations as they begin using AI technologies, reports Will Knight for Wired. “Many organizations are still pretty early in that process of adopting AI,” meaning they need guidance on the possible perils, says Research Scientist Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech project.
Interesting Engineering reporter Shubhangi Dua describes a new implantable device developed by MIT researchers that can detect and automatically treat an opioid overdose. “Having an automated robotic system that can sense and reverse opiate overdose could be transformational,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso, “particularly for high-risk populations.”
MIT researchers have developed an AI risk repository that includes over 70 AI risks, reports Kyle Wiggers for TechCrunch. “This is an attempt to rigorously curate and analyze AI risks into a publicly accessible, comprehensive, extensible and categorized risk database that anyone can copy and use, and that will be kept up to date over time,” explains Peter Slattery, a research affiliate at the MIT FutureTech project.
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new device “designed to detect the signs of an overdose and automatically deliver a dose of naloxone in as little as 10 seconds,” reports Tom Hawking for Popular Science. “The device [which has an associated smartphone app] also has a built-in alert system with auditory and tactile signals to wake the user, providing an alternative for those without smartphones or with uncharged devices,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
TechCrunch reporter Kyle Wiggers writes that MIT researchers have developed a new tool, called SigLLM, that uses large language models to flag problems in complex systems. In the future, SigLLM could be used to “help technicians flag potential problems in equipment like heavy machinery before they occur.”
A new study by MIT researchers finds that commercial air travel continues to get safer, with the risk of a fatality 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally in the 2018 to 2022 period, reports Brittany Anas for Forbes. “Researchers explain that this trend in safer flights can be understood through ‘Moore’s Law,’ which is the observation that innovators find ways to double computing power of chips every roughly 18 months,” Anas writes. “However, in this case, the MIT team points out, commercial travel has become almost twice as safe in each decade since the late 1960s.”
Research by Prof. David Autor finds that following the Covid-19 pandemic, wages for lower-paid US workers increased, reports Soumaya Keynes for The Financial Times. Autor and his colleagues found that people switching to better jobs served as a mechanism for boosting pay.
Prof. Regina Barzilay joins BBC host Caroline Steel and other AI experts to discuss her inspiration for applying AI technologies to help improve medicine and fight cancer. “I think that in cancer and in many other diseases, the big question is always, how do you deal with uncertainty? It's all the matter of predictions," says Barzilay. "Unfortunately, today, we rely on humans who don't have this capacity to make predictions. As a result, many times people get wrong treatments or they are diagnosed much later.”
In a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, Prof. Emerita Lotte Bailyn underscores the importance of leaders and prominent public figures taking family leave. “As someone who has long studied the effect of employer policies and practices on the success of an enterprise, I know the extreme importance of a leader’s actions,” writes Bailyn. “What they model, not the words they say, has the strongest impact on the culture of an organization”
In Esses Magazine, Lecturer Amy Carleton profiles Prof. Amos Winter PhD ‘11, a mechanical engineer driven by his Formula 1 passion to find “elegant engineering solutions to perennial problems.” Carleton notes that “as a professor, Winter teaches students to be resourceful innovators, while also stressing the need for them to be responsible community partners and user advocates. And as an educator, he resolutely dispels the adage, ‘those who can’t do, teach,’ because his hands-on experience is what compels student buy-in.”
Elliot Schwartz ’89 PhD ’94 joins NPR’s Planet Money host Jeff Guo to discuss his work using data to help coaches and athletes make sense of the complicated judging systems used in many Olympic sports . “Seeing what happened to artistic swimming kind of makes you realize that the goal of these judging systems is not just about being objective. It's about motivating athletes to push the limits,” Guo says.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that air travel has never been safer, with the fatality rate falling to 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally in the 2018-2022 period, reports Agence France-Presse. Prof. Arnold Barnett compared aviation safety increases to "'Moore's Law,’ the famous prediction by Intel founder Gordon Moore that the computing power of chips doubles roughly every 18 months. From 1978-1987 the risk of dying was 1 per 750,000 boarding passengers; from 1988-1997 it was 1 per 1.3 million; and in 1998-2007, 1 per 2.7 million.”