Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Salon reporter Matthew Rosza about his work creating the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, which measures the threat posed by space rocks. Previous measurements expressed “themselves in different ways, and that could be very confusing to the public,” says Binzel. “This was the motivation for finding a common communication system, a common scale that we could put into context any newly discovered object.”
MIT has multiple projects represented in this year’s STAT Madness, a bracket-style competition “highlighting important scientific advances emerging from labs at the nation’s universities, medical schools, and other U.S. research institutions and companies,” reports STAT staff.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers reporter Cathy Cecere spotlights Ashley Lederman, a senior studying mechanical engineering who plays midfield and defense for the MIT field hockey team. Lederman relates how being an athlete has helped her learn to manage her time “meticulously.” Cecere writes: “Juggling practice, games, and travel led Lederman to use what time and energy she does have to be productive and disciplined especially during field hockey season. She explained this includes knowing when to seek out support from her teammates.” Lederman explains: “I know I have a support system to lean on.”
New Yorker reporter Brent Crane spotlights Quaise Energy, an MIT geothermal energy startup founded by Carlos Araque BS '01, MS '02. Crane explains that central to Quaise’s system is the gyrotron, a tubular device that “works like a very, very powerful microwave, emitting ‘millimeter waves’ that would vaporize your vegetables; they can generate temperatures of a hundred million degrees Celsius.” Crane notes that: “About a decade ago, Paul Woskov, an MIT research engineer, showed that the technology could be used for ‘energy drilling’ without a physical bit. Quaise’s scientists propose that the heat of a gyrotron could stabilize tunnel walls by vitrifying them into glass.”
Writing for Forbes, Dr. Diane Hamilton spotlights how a course offered by Profs. Danielle Li and Thomas Malone “challenged common assumptions about AI’s role in the workplace, offering a more interesting and, at times, unexpected perspective.” Hamilton notes: MIT researchers reveal AI’s good and bad impact on jobs and skills, making it clear that AI is not just about automation. It is about augmentation. Companies that use AI to empower employees rather than replace them will be the ones that thrive in the years ahead.”
Prof. Ryan Williams speaks with New Scientist reporter Matthew Sparkes about his finding concerning the relationship between the amount of memory a computation requires and how long it takes, a discovery that has “wowed computer scientists.” Says Williams of the discovery: “It kind of shakes my world view. I’m still just shocked that it even exists.”
Bloomberg reporter Robb Mandelbaum spotlights how the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship has developed a new AI JetPack to help students accelerate the entrepreneurial process. “Our mission at the Trust Center is to advance the field of innovation-driven entrepreneurship everywhere,” Paul Cheek, executive director of the Martin Trust Center. “We can’t do it with intuition or by throwing stuff against the wall. We have to practice entrepreneurship in a rigorous, systematic way that increases the odds of success.”
Dezeen reporter Rima Sabina Aouf spotlights how MIT researchers have created a “thin and flexible fiber computer and woven it into clothes, suggesting a potential alternative to current wearable electronics.” Prof. Yoek Fink explains: "In the not-too-distant future, fiber computers will allow us to run apps and get valuable health care and safety services from simple everyday apparel.” He adds: "The convergence of classical fibers and fabrics with computation and machine learning has only begun.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that a protein developed by tardigrades could be used to help protect cancer patients from the side effects of radiation therapy, reports Ed Cara for Gizmodo. “The findings could someday lead to an invaluable add-on treatment for many cancer patients,” writes Cara. He adds that the new technique “could even possibly be used to protect astronauts from space-related radiation or to protect cancer patients from other sources of treatment-induced DNA damage, such as chemotherapy drugs.”
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee co-founded Workhelix, a “tech-enabled service startup that works with enterprises to better understand and monitor AI automation at their companies,” reports Rebecca Szkutak for Tech Crunch. “Workhelix breaks down a company’s employee positions into specific job functions and tasks and scores each task for its suitability for AI adoption,” explains Szkutak. “This helps companies build roadmaps for how and where to adopt AI and gives enterprises a way to monitor if the AI they adopted is working.”
MIT researchers have developed a technique to use a damage suppressing protein called “Dsup” to help protect cancer patients from the side effects of radiation therapy, writes Shane Galvin for The New York Post. “Scientists, encouraged by this remarkable discovery, believe they can create an upgraded version of Dsup which can be used to radiation-proof human cells without any unwanted drawbacks,” writes Galvin. “They also believe that the protein could be used by astronauts to prevent space-related radiation [damage].”
Mohamed Elrefaie speaks with Automotive World reporter Will Girling about his work developing an open-source dataset of 8,000 car designs, including their aerodynamic characteristics, which could be used to develop novel car designs in a more efficient manner. “If an automaker wants to reduce drag and improve performance, it can guide the GenAI model to produce those specific designs,” Elrefaie explains. “The standard development cycle for a design using legacy tools can take anywhere from three to five years, as it requires collaboration between many specialized departments. With AI, you could validate up to 600 designs in just one or two minutes.”
MIT engineers have manufactured a programmable computer fiber that can be woven into clothing and used to help monitor the wearer’s vital signs, reports Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica. “The long-term objective is incorporating fiber computers into apparel that can sense and respond to changes in the surrounding environment and individual physiology,” Ouellette notes.
Writing for Forbes, Paula Schneider, CEO of Susan G. Komen, highlights Prof. Regina Barzilay’s research using AI to detect breast cancer. “Using her own mammograms in her research at MIT, Dr. Barzilay demonstrated how AI could have detected her breast cancer much earlier, potentially improving her prognosis,” writes Schneider. “Studies show that incorporating AI into mammogram analysis boosts cancer detection rates by 20%, without increasing false positives. This is a significant leap forward, as early detection is key to a better chance at positive outcomes and survival.”
A new study co-authored by Prof. David Rand found that there was a “20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized GPT-4 Turbo conversation partner,” writes Annie Duke for The Washington Post. “Participants demonstrated increased intentions to ignore or unfollow social media accounts promoting the conspiracies, and significantly increased willingness to ignore or argue against other believers in the conspiracy,” writes Duke. “And the results appear to be durable, holding up in evaluations 10 days and two months later.”