Cambridge, Boston and region

Roughly 100 high school students, two from each state, attended this past weekend’s “Youth AI Festival,” organized in part by MIT RAISE (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education) to discuss the need for clear AI policies for K-12 education, writes Boston Globe reporter Marcela García. “[T]he students discussed, wrote, and approved a model AI-use policy for classrooms, ending in a simulated Senate floor debate and vote at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute,” García explains.  

USA Today reporter Anthony Thompson explains that researchers from MIT, UMass Amherst and the Center for Coastal Studies have found evidence of invasive Manila clam reproduction at multiple sites from Boston Harbor to Cape Cod. "We do need more research to understand the Manila clam’s potential effects on the shellfishing industry and ecological communities," says Research Scientist Carolina Bastidas. "There could also be positive impacts." 

Writing for the Observer, Michael John Gorman, director of the MIT Museum, points to the 1976 Cambridge Experimentation Review Board, a group of citizens tasked with weighing the risks and benefits of DNA splicing technology, as a solution to modern debates over AI. “The dominant assumption in the AI debate is that there are only two options: reckless acceleration or fearful prohibition,” writes Gorman. “Cambridge in 1976 proved there is a third path, and that it runs through the public rather than around it.” 

In an opinion piece for the Boston Globe, Research Scientist Jim Aliosi advocates for reliable public bus service along Blue Hill Avenue in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood. “Each day more than 30,000 riders use one of the bus routes using Blue Hill Avenue, and each day they collectively lose 3,000 hours of precious time due to traffic congestion and impediments like double parking,” writes Aliosi, “Bus rapid transit will change all that in this decade.”  

WBUR’s Amelia Mason highlights the MIT Museum’s acquisition of the project archives of renowned architect I.M. Pei ’40, which includes details from some of Pei’s most famous works, such as the Louvre’s glass pyramid and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. “ It's an exciting moment for MIT,” says Jonathan Duval, MIT Museum assistant curator of architecture. “I.M. Pei's archive really belongs here. This is where he started his architectural career and education. It’s a homecoming.”

For the Boston Globe, reporter Aaron Pressman features MIT startup VulcanForms, a 3D printing manufacturer expected to create over 1,000 jobs with a new 1-million-square-foot-plant in Devens, MA. The facility will bring capacity for more customers in medical devices, aerospace and defense, and consumer goods industries. “MIT professor John Hart started the company with grad student Martin Feldmann [‘14] as a way to bring 3D printing techniques using lasers and powdered metals to larger-scale manufacturing jobs,” writes Pressman.

Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman spotlights MIT startup Liquid AI, along with the various AI efforts underway at MIT as part of The Globe’s 2026 Tech Power Players special section. Pressman notes that: “President Sally Kornbluth is reinvigorating the school’s support of the local innovation ecosystem, unveiling new online classes dedicated to AI — with free entry-level classes for anyone — and encouraging more entrepreneurship on campus.” 

Honorees on The Boston Globe’s 2026 Tech Power Players list shared their reasons for having optimism about the future of the Greater Boston area’s tech and innovation scene. President Sally Kornbluth says opportunities abound in what she calls “AI + X” — integrating AI into fields such as manufacturing, life sciences, and energy. “Massachusetts can absolutely lead in this next wave,” says Kornbluth. 

The Boston Globe’s Tech Power Players list for 2026 features numerous MIT faculty, researchers and alumni. In response to a question about the most promising area in the Boston tech scene right now, President Sally Kornbluth shared: “There isn’t a more important technological field right now than quantum science and technology, and the Boston area has the greatest concentration of quantum talent anywhere in the world.” 

Boston Globe reporter Robert Weisman spotlights how MIT is “working to drive artificial intelligence forward in sectors where the region is strongest, from biotechnology and robotics to defense and clean energy. It’s also trying to broaden entrepreneurship through a ‘dorm-to-startup’ push, creating a pipeline of support services — from hack-a-thons to venture funding — to help students to start companies between classes.” 

To help establish Massachusetts and the nation as a quantum leader, President Sally Kornbluth and Governor Maura Healey announced plans for a new share-used quantum research facility at MIT, writes Axios reporter Steph Solis. The Quantum Systems Laboratory would “host teams focused on using quantum mechanics for life sciences and defense research, but what would set the MIT project apart from existing labs is its ability to power direct communication among multiple quantum computers,” Solis explains. 

Thanks in part to a $25 investment from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MIT plans to open the Quantum Systems Laboratory, which will “provide quantum experts from across Massachusetts access to quantum hardware and specialized equipment,” reports Lucia Maffei for the Boston Business Journal. "This is good news for MIT, good news for Massachusetts and, frankly, good news for the world," said Governor Maura Healey. "This is really setting the stage to have cutting-edge quantum computers be able to operate in that building," said President Sally Kornbluth. "There will be many people throughout Massachusetts who come to use this facility. It's really a hub to make Massachusetts a quantum center.” 

State House News Service reporter Katie Castellani writes that President Sally Kornbluth and Governor Maura Healey announced a new shared-use quantum facility at MIT, the Quantum Systems Laboratory (QSL), aimed at providing scientists the opportunity to apply quantum research across various sectors, including defense and the life sciences. The QSL will “bring quantum computers together with quantum sensors and peripherals through physical channels that transfer information,” Castellani explains. 

Writing for MassLive, Scott Kirsner highlights Gander Robotics, a startup co-founded by Sloan graduate student Michael Autery, that is “developing a torpedo-like device that is light enough to be tossed over the side of a ship — and designed to find a person in the water.” Autery, who served 15 years in the U.S. Navy, first pitched the idea for an “autonomous rescue swimmer” as part of an MIT entrepreneurship competition and notes: “if I had the same idea in a different place at the same time, I’m not sure it would’ve played out the same way. Cambridge is this very rich ecosystem for entrepreneurship.”

Florencia Pierri, associate curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum, speaks with NPR’s All Things Considered host Andrea Shea about the 150^th anniversary of the world’s first telephone call. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, “didn’t set out to create a telephone,” explains Pierri. “He set out to create a better telegraph. But still had this idea of, like, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I could talk to somebody, even if I wasn’t right there in the room with them?’”