In the Media

MIT will name an asteroid after 16-year-old Jonah Butler for his work transforming byproducts of agricultural waste into renewable energy, reports FOX 25 reporter Paul Blume. 

"I'm not really nervous. Of course, once I get out an hour over the ocean for the first time and all I can see is blue, that might change a little," says MIT student Matt Guthmiller in this Huffington Post article. 

Professor John Leonard speaks with Bloomberg TV about Google’s self-driving car and the advanced mapping and sensor technology that allows the car to operate. 

Matt Rocheleau of The Boston Globe reports on how the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have established a new seed fund that will, “help pay for faculty and scientists at the two schools to embark on new research endeavors.”

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray reports on the 50^th anniversary of MIT’s Project MAC. “When this started in 1963, the dream was to let multiple people use computers simultaneously,” Daniela Rus explains. “Fifty years later we’re now in a world where we find computing indispensable.”

Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, speaks with Marcus Wohlsen of Wired about, “the phenomenon of convergence, where bits from the digital realm are fusing with atoms here in the physical world.”

Matt Guthmiller will attempt to be the youngest person to fly solo around the world, reports Melissa Mahan of FOX 25. "Flying was just kind of one of those things that I always wanted to do for as long as I can remember and a few years ago I finally started doing it," explains Guthmiller.

Senior Kirin Sinha discusses her after-school program SHINE for Girls with CBS News. SHINE uses dance to help teach math and science to young girls.

“It was just kind of one of those things that I’d always wanted to do,” said rising sophomore Matt Guthmiller. Guthmiller plans to spend the summer attempting to become the youngest person to fly around the world solo.

Japanese video artist Sputniko! will be joining the faculty at the Media Lab as an assistant professor, reports Paul Glader for Forbes. “As an emerging player in Japan’s creative industries, Sputniko! represents a bridge between Britain, Japan and the US,” writes Glader.

Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe report on a World Cup kick-off party hosted by the MIT Museum and the MIT-Brazil program. “The day’s program included a ball juggling competition, music, and a lesson from MIT applied mathematics professor John Bush about the physics of the sport,” they write.

Washington Post reporter Nia-Malika Henderson highlights several projects being presented at this year’s White House Science Fair, including the search-and-rescue vehicle developed by Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam students Katelyn Sweeney and Olivia Van Amsterdam. 

Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson writes about how Boston researchers are building brain implants aimed at treating mental illnesses suffered by combat veterans.  

“According to a paper by Mr. Autor published Thursday in the journal Science, the true cost of a college degree is about negative $500,000,” David Leonhardt writes in a New York Times piece about David Autor’s research on inequality. 

"Now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan have devised a way in which graphene can be grown directly onto an insulator like glass or silicon,” writes Dexter Johnson of IEEE Spectrum. The method could be used to manufacture interactive screens, said Professor A. John Hart.