In an article for Fortune, Prof. Deborah Lucas examines how worried investors should be worried about debt-burdened cities in China. Lucas writes that a new MIT study found that “while the massive debt buildup in China presents challenges, the situation is not as dire as a full-blown debt crisis.”
Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with Boston Globe reporter Murray Carpenter about how scientists need more powerful computers to help gain a better understanding of brain function. “The cool part of neuroengineering is that we have all these unmet needs,” Boyden says. “I think there is an enormous amount of hope generated by bringing new tools into neuroscience.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Alexandra Wolfe profiles Prof. Cynthia Breazeal and examines her latest work developing a robot, dubbed Jibo, that can assist humans with daily tasks and serve as a companion. “I’m really thinking about social robots as an extender of our human capacity,” Breazeal explains.
In this Today Show segment, Prof. Earl Miller and Prof. Robert Desimone discuss how the brain reacts to the information overload that comes from using multiple digital tools at once. “The brain has a great deal of difficulty processing multiple bits of data at once,” explains Miller. "We are very, very single minded.”
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes that MIT scientists have developed a potential new treatment for diabetes. Joseph explains that the new technique could allow healthy insulin-producing cells to be successfully transplanted into patients.
Prof. Paul O’Gorman spoke at Columbia University regarding a study he conducted on how climate change might impact extreme snowfall, reports Andrea Thompson for Scientific American. O'Gorman found that while average annual snow amounts and extreme snowfalls would decline as temperatures rose, “extreme snowfalls would become a bigger proportion of all snow events.”
Alumnus Anmol Madan, co-founder and CEO of MIT startup Ginger.io, writes for The Huffington Post about how to improve mental health care in the U.S. In his piece, Madan highlights how MIT researchers have found “vast potential for the application of mobile sensing to mental health.”
In an article for The Boston Globe, David Abel writes about MIT’s efforts to combat climate change. Abel notes that, “MIT is embarking on an unprecedented program to accelerate progress on low-carbon energy technologies.”
In this video, Prof. Edward Boyden speaks with The Huffington Post about how sleep and meditation impact people on a neurological level. Boyden says that traditions such as mediation can “help us be more attuned to what our mind really wants.”
Bloomberg Business reporter Rebecca Greenfield writes about a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that finds that when workers have control over their schedules they tend to be more satisfied. Prof. Erin Kelly explains that at present employees "worry about if there are career consequences for working in this different way.”
MIT researchers are collaborating with the Self-Employed Women's Association to identify how women in India use technology, reports The Times of India. "There are lots of innovations in the name of the poor, but nobody knows what works," explains Prof. Bishwapriya Sanyal.
Boston Magazine reporter Kyle Clauss reports that researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed a drone that uses algorithms to detect obstacle-free regions in space. “Using free-space segments is a more ‘glass-half-full’ approach that works far better for drones in small, cluttered spaces,” says MIT alumnus Benoit Landry.
Prof. Ju Li and graduate students Sangtae Kim and Soon Ju Choi have developed a device that harvests human motion for electrical power, reports Krithika Varagur for The Huffington Post. “This device will make it possible to harvest some of this otherwise-wasted potential into electricity,” explains Kim.
Straits Times reporter Pang Xue Qiang writes that researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have developed a sensor that can monitor and regulate the fluid flow of an IV drip. The researchers hope that the sensor will reduce the burden on hospital staff.
Researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed an algorithm that allows drones to navigate obstacle courses, reports Kelsey Atherton for Popular Science. “As drones move away from simple remote-controlled toys and become more autonomous flying tools, programs like these will keep them flying safely through unfamiliar terrain,” explains Atherton.