Aleena Nadeem '16 founded EduFi, a fintech startup that provides a straightforward process for students in Pakistan to take out loans to help finance their education, reports Kate Park for TechCrunch. “Education offers hope and can change the lives of people. I am one example of millions out there,” says Nadeem.
Prof. Nick Montfort speaks with Inside Higher Ed reporter Lauren Coffey about the use of AI tools in art and education. “The primary concern should be how can we provide new education, how can we inform students, artists, instructors,” says Montfort. “How can we, not so much bolt policies or create guardrails, but how can we help them understand new technologies better and their implications?”
Cognito Therapeutics, founded by Prof. Ed Boyden and Prof. Li Huei Tsai, has developed a “specialized headset that delivers 40Hz auditory and visual stimulation” to the brain, which could potentially slow down the cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, reports William A. Haseltine for Forbes. Prof. Li-Huei Tsai “and her team speculated that if gamma wave activity is reduced in Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps, artificially stimulating the brain may enhance synchronized firing and restore cognition,” writes Haseltine.
MIT researchers have successfully figured out how to trap tiny electrons in a three-dimensional crystal prison, reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. The researchers hope that “the flat band properties of the electrons in these crystals will help them to explore new quantum states in three-dimensional materials,” Thomson explains, “and therefore develop technology like superconductors, supercomputing quantum bits, and ultraefficient power lines.”
Lisa Su BS, MS ’91, PhD ’94, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has been named to the Forbes 2023 Future of Work list for her, “technological chops and management savvy [techniques that] helped orchestrate a case-study worthy turnaround at AMD,” reports Jena McGregor for Forbes. The Forbes list, “highlights 50 leaders, executives, thinkers and teams rethinking the world of work at a time when everything – from the job market’s future to AI’s impact to a college degree’s value – feels more uncertain than ever.”
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee writes for Fast Company about the makings of a successful corporate culture. “I’ve come to believe that the most fundamental reason Silicon Valley companies are disrupting so many industries is that they’ve iterated and experimented their way into a corporate culture that supports high levels of agility, innovation, and execution simultaneously,” writes McAfee. “I call this culture the geek way. It’s based on four norms expected by those around you (and not just the bosses).”
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered that the young cosmos hosted a large number of tempestuous galaxies with large black holes at their cores, reports Charlie Wood for Quanta Magazine. “The exact numbers and the details of each object remain uncertain, but it’s very convincing that we’re finding a large population of accreting black holes,” says Prof. Anna-Christina Eilers. “JWST has revealed them for the first time, and that’s very exciting.”
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. Carlo Ratti explores the concept of the “15-minute city,” which is aimed at creating walkable neighborhoods. “The 15-minute city must be paired with investment in transport between neighborhoods,” writes Ratti, noting that investment is especially needed in public transportation to ensure that 15-minute cities do not contribute to greater segregation.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson write for Project Syndicate about how to structure U.S. international trade policies so that they benefit American workers and global stability. “Two new principles can form the basis of U.S. policy. First, international trade should be structured in a way to encourage a stable world order,” they write. “Second, appealing to abstract 'gains of trade' is no longer enough. American workers need to see the benefits. Any trade arrangement that significantly undermines the quality and quantity of middle-class American jobs is bad for the country and its people, and will likely incite a political backlash.”
Prof. Pierre Azoulay speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Bob Fernandez about new research that highlights how immigrant workers, “account for nearly one-in-five of the top 1% wage earners in the U.S.” Azoulay notes that: “One reason that immigrants do better is that they locate in places that are growing fast and the earnings potential are high. They do not randomly locate around the United States.”
Writing for Sports Business Journal, Sloan Lecturer Shira Springer explores how the success of the “Barbie” movie could be applied to women's sports. “The ultimate goals for competitions that feature female athletes: Build a fandom and a movement capable of organic growth, convert casual fans into avid fans, attract the previously indifferent and uninterested,” writes Springer. “‘Barbie”’ did that. Moviegoers didn’t simply watch the movie; many joined in the fun, the new fandom and the new movement.”
A study co-authored by research scientist Evan Fricke found that “extinctions and declines in habitat [of migratory birds] have dramatically reduced the long-distance dispersal of seeds,” reports Liam Drew for The Atlantic. “There have been really strong declines in long-distance seed dispersal as a result of the massive loss of big animals from the ecosystems,” says Fricke.
Prof. Carlo Ratti writes for USA Today about whether San Francisco is caught in a “doom loop,” a term that describes, “the city’s apparently unbreakable spiral of empty offices and unaffordable housing.” Ratti notes that “today’s crisis in the Bay Area could make room for new ideas to take hold faster than in other places. If the city seizes its moment, learning from its venture capital (VC) sector, San Francisco could also seize the future.”
In a cartoon for The Boston Globe, Sage Stossel spotlights how during the Cambridge Science Festival researchers from the MIT AgeLab spoke about their work during a special presentation at the Cambridge Senior Center. As part of an effort to spur innovations aimed at improving the quality of life for people in their later years, AgeLab researchers have “pursued an array of projects, from researching safer, more automated driving systems to collaborating on ‘smart home’ innovations for facilitating aging in place to the development of interactive robo-pets.”
Oprah Daily reporter Michael Clinton spotlights Anh Vu Sawyer MBA ‘20 and her personal, professional and academic journey to becoming a successful social entrepreneur. Vu Sawyer’s company, “which she called Anh55 after her name and birth year, is in many ways a natural extension of her own story: engaging immigrant and refugee communities in producing a line of sustainable clothing for women over 40 that’s both affordable and stylish.”