Eva Ponce, director of online education for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, speaks with Financial Times reporter Rafe Uddin about how companies are integrating automation. “Labor shortages are a persistent theme and this is another driver for this investment,” says Ponce.
Diane Hoskins '79, a member of the MIT Corporation, has been named a CNBC Changemaker for her impact on the business world, reports Ian Thomas for CNBC. “Over her more than three-decade career at Gensler, she has risen up the firm’s ranks to now serve as its global co-chair alongside Andy Cohen, who Hoskins shares long-term strategy and day-to-day operations with and previously served as co-CEO with for nearly two decades,” writes Thomas. “Hoskins has also been at the center of the discussion around how workspace design intersects with employee performance and engagement, overseeing Gensler’s Workplace Survey and influencing how the industry at large designs offices and other spaces.”
Prof. Richard Binzel discusses how the risk posed by asteroid 2024 YR4 has now been significantly reduced based off new information gathered on the asteroid’s trajectory, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. The rapid de-escalation in risk is thanks to the “unsung, meticulous work by astronomers” who conducted a steady stream of follow-up observations of the space rock using telescopes across the globe,” Binzel explains. “I’m pleasantly surprised that we could reduce the probability numbers so quickly.”
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Bloomberg reporter F.D. Flam about tracking asteroid 2024 YR4. “It might seem like things are getting more dangerous or more scary, but what's really happening is we're making ourselves more and more secure,” says Binzel.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with NBC News reporter Denise Chow about the Torino scale, a method he developed for categorizing the risks posed by near-Earth objects. “The idea was to be as transparent as possible about what astronomers know,” says Binzel of the idea behind the scale.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new chip-based system capable of improving “how terahertz (THz) waves pass through silicon chips,” reports Rupendra Brahambhatt for Interesting Engineering. The researchers “applied a principle called matching, which involves reducing the difference between silicon (dielectric constant is 11) and air (dielectric constant is 1) so that more waves can travel through,” writes Brahambhatt.
Prof. Richard Binzel, creator of the Torino scale that NASA uses to measure the threat of incoming objects, speaks with Brandon Truitt of CBS Boston about his quest to track 2024 YR4, an asteroid that astronomers are closely monitoring to see how close it might come to Earth in 2032. “As we get more and more measurements, we keep tracking the asteroid, that uncertainty window, that broad range of where it could go it's going to shrink and shrink," says Binzel. "Until the Earth falls outside of that pathway, we're going to see these probabilities bounce around."
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Forbes reporter Jamie Carter about how astronomers are working to determine the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4. “Eventually, we expect the probability to fall to zero and reach Torino Scale 0 (all clear!),” says Binzel. “The uncertainty region, which looks like a long spaghetti of fettuccine string, shrinks as we get tracking data over a longer and longer piece of the asteroid’s orbit.”
Prof. Sarah Millholland, Prof. Christian Wolf, Prof. Emil Verner, Prof. Darcy McRose, Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi, Prof. Mohsen Ghaffari and Prof. Ariel Furst have received the 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship for “being among the most promising scientific researchers currently working in their fields,” reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “Sloan Research Fellows are chosen in seven scientific and technical fields—chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics,” explains Nietzel.
Varun Mohan '17, SM '17 and Douglas Chen '17 co-founded Codeium, an AI-powered coding startup designed to help users write code in a faster and more efficient manner, reports Marina Temkin for TechCrunch. “Codeium tries to distinguish itself from competitors by targeting companies rather than individual developers,” writes Temkin.
Tushar Shah '93, PhD '00 will join a six-member crew on Blue Origin’s upcoming New Shepard mission to space, reports Valerie Stimac for Forbes. “The mission represents another milestone in Blue Origin’s ongoing effort to expand access to commercial spaceflight,” writes Stimac.
Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner spotlights Lybra Bio, an MIT startup that is developing a “patch to treat skin conditions like psoriasis and alopecia areata, which causes hair loss.” Kirsner notes that Lybra “envisions a patch that could deliver drugs to precisely where they’re needed on the skin — like the scalp, in the case of alopecia.”
Prof. Richard Binzel, Prof. Julien de Wit, and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speak with NBC 10 Boston reporter Matt Fortin about their new asteroid-detecting method that will be used to track the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 and help protect Earth. “By refining and applying their technique, my colleagues [de Wit and Burdanov] have basically turned the JWST into the most capable asteroid-tracking system in history,” explains Binzel.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with CNN reporter Ashley Strickland about the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4. “YR4 presents a challenge because it is small and headed away. Telescopes on the ground can track it for a few more months. Then we’ll call (the James Webb Space Telescope) into service to track it even further, if needed,” says Binzel. “While certainty for 2024 YR4 missing the Earth is the outcome we expect, it’s not up to us. It’s for nature to decided. In fact, nature already has settled the question. We just don’t know that answer yet. That’s why our tracking efforts continue.”
Tye Brady SM '99 speaks with Fortune reporter John Kell about his career in robotic development and the role of generative AI in future advancements. “We’re using generative AI in just about everything that we’re doing inside of robotics,” says Brady.