In the Media

Senior Ryan Wilson speaks with CBS Boston’s Dan Roche about being the first Boston area student athlete to run a sub 4-minute mile and being named the Division 3 National Athlete of the Week. "It felt amazing. I saw my teammates and I actually gave them a smile with about 400 [meters] to go,” says Wilson of his record-breaking time. "Everybody loves Ryan. Everybody is rooting for him," said Coach Riley Macon. "So for him to be the one that does it, I mean, tears were had. It was pretty exceptional." 

Washington Post reporter Michael Andor Brodeur spotlights Prof. Tod Machover’s work exploring the concepts and techniques needed to advance the future of music, including using AI to help “exponentially increase access to music and creative tools for making it.” Machover explains that to him “pieces of music aren’t just pieces of sound. They’re because some human being thought something was important to communicate and express.”

Prof. David Autor speaks with Tony Dokoupil of CBS News about how the rise of artificial intelligence could change the quality of jobs. "What we've seen over the last four decades in the U.S. and many industrialized economies is what economists call labor market polarization, which means the hollowing out of the middle set of jobs,” says Autor. The "hollowing out" of the middle has led to some in the labor market moving up and making more money, while others are now making less — and "that's especially where the pain happens," Autor adds. 

MIT has been named to the top spot on the Forbes list of America’s best large employers, reports Rachel Rabkin Peachman for Forbes. "Participants were asked if they would recommend their current employers to friends and family (on a scale of 0 to 10), and to cite any other employer they would also recommend," writes Rabkin Peachman. "The final list ranks the 500 companies that received the most recommendations."

An ingestible, pill-shaped sensor module, which can pinpoint its location as it moves through the body, has been developed by researchers at MIT and Caltech, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. This method “could one day offer an effective means to assess issues like constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and gastroparesis,” writes Paul.

A variety of MIT online courses will be available for free using edX this week, reports Joseph Green for Mashable. “You can take lessons on everything from data science to machine learning, without spending anything,” writes Green.   

Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman spotlights several MIT startups that are using AI to generate 3-D environments. Common Sense Machines, an MIT startup, is “trying to enhance the creativity of its app by adding a bit of, well, common sense,” writes Pressman. “Human babies form an understanding of the world by developing abstract models. Common Sense Machines is trying to add similar models to its 3D world builder.”

MIT scientists have developed a new way of colliding ultracold molecules while controlling the rate at which they react, reports Martijn Boerkamp for Physics World. “Our work is a step to achieve quantum control over molecular collisions and reactions and to map out more broadly the collisional properties of these molecules with the goal of finding a deeper understanding,” explains Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle.

Prof. David Autor speaks with ABC News reporter Max Zahn about whether new AI technologies could displace workers. "The thing we shouldn't be worried about at present or for quite a while is the quantity of jobs," said Autor. "We should be worried about the quality of jobs."

Researchers at MIT have developed a drone that can be controlled using hand gestures, reports Mashable. “I think it’s important to think carefully about how machine learning and robotics can help people to have a higher quality of life and be more productive,” says postdoc Joseph DelPreto. “So we want to combine what robots do well and what people do well so that they can be more effective teams.”

Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with Scientific American reporter Nora Bradford about recent advancements in the field of soft robotics. “Building soft robots that can work, heal and grow independently could change many areas of human life,” says Rus. “Soft robot hands are enabling a new age for manufacturing.”  

A new smart pill the size of a quarter, developed by a team of researchers from MIT, Caltech and NYU, could one day help doctors more easily identify issues in a patient’s digestive tract. “Such a device could offer an alternative to more invasive procedures in humans, such as endoscopy, that are currently used to diagnose motility disorders,” writes Nina Massey for The Independent.

Prof. Gio Traverso and his colleagues at Caltech and NYU have developed a smart ingestible sensor that may offer a less invasive way to diagnose gastrointestinal disorders. “The hope is the device will allow doctors, armed with the exact location of a GI tract disruption, to better target care — and give patients a diagnostic option they can use at home,” reports Lizzy Lawler for STAT.

Researchers from MIT and Caltech have developed a pill-shaped ingestible sensor that can be monitored as it moves through the GI tract, allowing doctors to more easily diagnose gastrointestinal disorders, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The ability to characterize motility without the need for radiation, or more invasive placement of devices, I think will lower the barrier for people to be evaluated,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

Former Prof. Lael Brainard will be appointed as director of the National Economic Council for the White House economic team, report Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager for The Washington Post.