In the Media

"A computerized essay reader 'doesn’t care if you say the War of 1812 started in 1945', criticizes one reviewer." - MIT's Les Perelman weighs in on automated grading.

"It may just be a matter of time before we turn over control of our cars to robot intelligence. But before we do, we may have to give each vehicle a voice, eyes, body language, and even an avatar." - Work by MIT's Nicholas Pennycooke is discussed.

"You wouldn’t expect anybody at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to go looking for a less powerful computer. But there is an effort afoot at the university’s Sloan School of Management to move faculty and staff away from full-fledged desktop computers and onto dumber, network-based devices known as thin clients."

"She (MIT's Sherry Turkle) argues, though, that the tiny 'sips' of contact through social networking 'no matter how valuable ... do not substitute for conversation.'"

"We have seen a rash of essays and articles in the mainstream press recently that take a somewhat scare-mongering tone toward social networks and digital communication of various kinds."

"Hackers turned MIT’s Green Building into a giant playable game of Tetris late last week. Calling it 'the Holy Grail of hacks,' the IHTFP Hack Gallery has the deets."

"Nearly 12 million Americans create or modify products they use at home, according to our research. But the vast majority – more than 90 percent – will never get a patent on their innovations. So what motivates them?"

"Mr. Perelman tested the e-Rater and found that 'the automated reader can be easily gamed, is vulnerable to test prep, sets a very limited and rigid standard for what good writing is, and will pressure teachers to dumb down writing instruction.'”

"We're not close to the top of the Laffer Curve. Raising tax rates is part of a sensible deficit reduction strategy."

"In a recent study from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers Steve Barrett and Steve Yim report that emissions from cars, trucks, planes and power plants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the United Kingdom each year."

"At a time when many people think of science that explains what we already know, the new exhibit at the MIT Museum, 'Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Himalaya' provides a glimpse of science as it more often is - understanding that is being hammered out, that is driven by questions and often-striking observations, in which the answers turn out to be intricate."

"A recently released study has concluded that computers are capable of scoring essays on standardized tests as well as human beings do."

"The role of open resources in enabling universities to adapt was the message of Steve Carson from M.I.T."

"We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection." -MIT's Sherry Turkle

"But there are manufacturing advances in the pipeline that might level the cost of producing silicon-based cells in America and China, says Tonio Buonassisi, head of the Photovoltaic Research Laboratory at MIT."