In the Media

New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall spotlights recent research by Profs. Daron Acemoglu, David Autor and Simon Johnson, in which they explore whether artificial intelligence could be a beneficial tool for workers. “It is quite possible to leverage generative AI as an informational tool that enables various different types of workers to get better at their jobs and perform more complex tasks,” explains Acemoglu. However, he notes “to turn generative AI pro-worker, we need a major course correction.”

TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant has a look at MIT spinoff SiTration, which has developed a new process to reat mining wastewater and filter our critical minerals using silicon. “SiTration’s filters are built on the same style of wafers that are used to make computer chips and solar panels, though using a cheaper grade of silicon,” De Chant explains.

Richard Nieva reports on recent newcomers to Forbes’ 2024 Midas List, which features the magazine’s picks for the world’s best capital investors. Wesley Chan SB '00 SM '01 spent 14 years at Google, which “informed his focus on consumer tech startups,” Nieva writes.

Forbes reporter Michael Bernick spotlights Ultranauts, founded by Rajesh Anandan ’95 SM ‘96 and Art Shectman ‘95, which provides software testing services, quality engineering and test automation, data governance, and a recently launched suite of AI products to improve employee performance. The company employees people in 30 states, “75% of whom are neurodivergent.”

Researchers from MIT have discovered that integrating “Texas’ self-contained electrical grid with the broader national grid could prevent mass power outages,” reports Zack Budryk for The Hill. The researchers “modeled the effects of a bill introduced by Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) that would connect the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to the rest of the country,” explains Budryk. “They determined that if such a law had been enacted ahead of the 2021 event, Winter Storm Uri, up to 80 percent of the millions of blackouts caused by the storm could have been averted.”

Conner Galloway SB '08 SM '09 and Alexander Valys SB '08 lead Xcimer Energy Company, a startup seeking to provide economical nuclear fusion power and “pursuing what’s best described as a ground-up redesign of the underlying technology,” writes Tim De Chant for TechCrunch. “This is proven science,” Galloway, the CEO of Xcimer CEO, explains. “It’s just a matter of building a big enough laser, cheap enough laser and efficient enough laser.”

Researchers from the MIT Climate Policy Center have shown increasing shared transmission reduces outage risk, writes Sara Dinatale for the Star-Telegram. The researchers found connecting the Texas power grid to neighboring systems could have reduced blackouts during Winter Storm Uri in 2021. “What we're trying to do is provide policymakers with data," explains Prof. Christopher Knittel. “We just want policymakers to know what the trade-offs are from interconnecting or not interconnecting. And hopefully they can make a better decision.” 

Sloan Lecturer Shira Springer’s essay in Sports Business Journal makes the case for “investment in sports tech designed and developed with female athletes in mind.” Springer adds: “with fewer resources across the board in women’s sports, with all the gaps to close, sports tech can do more for women’s sports.”

Reporting in Portuguese, Correio Braziliense highlights researchers at MIT who have developed a new technique that uses light stimuli to benefit people with paralysis or amputations. “Our work could help bring the use of optogenetics closer to humans in the realm of neuroprosthetics that control paralyzed muscles and other functions of the peripheral nervous system,” says graduate student Guillermo Herrera-Arcos. 

A new proposal aims to transform Massachusetts into “a new leader in climate and environment technology,” with the help with MIT and other Massachusetts-based universities, reports Julia Jacobo for ABC News. “The foundations for seeing environmental initiatives from their inception to public market have long existed in Massachusetts, home to some of the most prestigious research institutions and scientific discoveries in the world, as well as existing infrastructure that allows production to be achieved much faster, according to experts in the state.” 

Prof. Albert Saiz speaks with USA Today reporter Bailey Schulz about the growing popularity of build-to-rent communities. With the U.S. estimated to be short anywhere between 1 million and 7 million single-family homes, depending on the source, “more housing is always better,” Saiz notes. He adds: “If you did not have this built-to-rent outlet for development, you wouldn't have these developments happen.” 

A program aiming to give kids a new strategy to learn reading is the goal of a new program developed by researchers from the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Florida State University, reports Kate Snow for NBC News. Currently serving 45,000 North Carolina third graders in 102 schools, Reach Every Reader is “weaving reading across subjects, like science and social studies,” rather than having just one class dedicated to reading, she says.

Researchers at MIT have created a noise-blocking sheet of silkworm silk that could “greatly streamline the pursuit of silence,” reports Andrew Chapman for Scientific American. “The silk sheet, which is enhanced with a special fiber, expands on a technology also found in noise-canceling headphones,” explains Chapman. “These devices create silence by sampling the ambient noise and then emitting sound waves that are out of phase with those in the environment. When the ambient and emitted waves overlap, they cancel each other out.” 

Postdoctoral researchers Marin and Lukas Vogelsang speak with Science reporter Christie Wilcox about their recent work finding “the poor color vision that newborns normally have actually helps them develop well-rounded vision overall.” “The question that really drove this study is why we are so good at recognizing faces and objects in black and white photos and movies,” explains Marin Vogelsang. “And we found an answer to this when studying children in India who were born blind and were treated for their blindness as a part of Project Prakash.”

Boston Globe reporter James McCown highlights the architectural design of the new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, noting that it is, “the most exciting work of academic architecture in Greater Boston in a generation.”Dean Daniel Huttenlocher adds: “The building was designed to be the physical embodiment of the college’s mission of fortifying studies in computer science and artificial intelligence. The building’s transparent and open design is already drawing a mix of people from throughout the campus and beyond.”