Bourree Lam reports for The Atlantic on an interactive map of U.S. counties produced using Prof. Amy Glasmeier’s Living Wage Calculator. “Glasmeier says that firms can use it to estimate how to pay their employees fairly,” writes Lam.
In an Atlantic article about how Zappos has implemented a system of self-governance, Jerry Useem speaks with Prof. Thomas Malone about how falling information costs allow for different organizational structures. “There comes a time when it’s economically feasible to bring information to all points, so in some sense, everyone can know everything,” says Malone.
Ana Swanson reports for The Washington Post on an interactive map created by Prof. Amy Glasmeier that displays the gap between minimum wages and living wages across the U.S. The map shows that the East Coast “is one of the most challenging places for minimum-wage workers to make ends meet.”
Using their “Living Wage Calculator,” Prof. Amy Glasmeier’s team has created a map of the communities in the U.S. that have the widest gaps between living wages and minimum wages, reports Rob Wile for The Huffington Post.
Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee write for BBC News about how advances in automation and robotics can aid in the creation of new and better jobs for humans. They write that the answer “is not to slow the pace of technological progress, but to speed up our institutions so that entrepreneurs, managers and workers alike can thrive.”
Karen Weintraub writes for The Boston Globe about Prof. Ki Ann Goosens’ work examining the intersection of stress and mental illness. Weintraub explains that Goosens’ latest work looks at whether the medications used to treat PTSD make biological sense.
Olga Kharif writes for Bloomberg Businessweek that MIT researchers have proposed a new design for a smaller and cheaper fusion reactor. The prototype "builds on the design of fusion reactors that use magnetic fields to squeeze superhot plasma, fusing atoms of hydrogen to produce energy."
In this video, Ben Gruber reports for Reuters on an MIT robot that is controlled by an operator wearing an exoskeleton. Prof. Sangbae Kim explains that his motivation was to develop “the best robot for disasters where we can actually use robots instead of risking human life.”
Jon Christian reports for The Boston Globe on FitSocket, a device created by researchers in MIT’s Biomechatronics group that gathers data used to create personalized prosthetic sockets. “We’re treating the body as a mechanical thing, because it is,” explains graduate student Arthur Petron.
A new study co-authored by Prof. Xavier Giroud finds that startups that receive more attention from their investors tend to be more innovative, reports Eilene Zimmerman for Forbes. The researchers found that those startups that investors could reach via a direct flight “produced higher quality innovation and were more likely to go public or be acquired.”
Richard Waters of The Financial Times reports that Toyota is funding new research centers at MIT and Stanford to research technologies that could enable computer-assisted driving. Waters explains that the goal behind the new centers is to give “drivers the choice one day of handing over full control to the AI ‘brains’ in their vehicles.”
In an article for Wired, Liz Stinson writes about how the new technique MIT researchers developed for 3-D printing glass could be used in building design. Stinson writes that Prof. Neri Oxman believes, “3-D printed glass eventually will make building facades far more dynamic.”
In an effort to spur breakthroughs in autonomous driving technology, Toyota is funding new research centers at MIT and Stanford, the Associated Press reports. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that MIT researchers will be working on developing technology that would make it possible to build a car, “that is never responsible for a collision.”
Toyota has announced that it is funding new research centers at MIT and at Stanford dedicated to developing “intelligent” cars, reports John Markoff for The New York Times. “We see this as basic computer science, A.I. and robotics that will make a difference in transportation,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
Forbes contributor TJ McCue writes about how MIT researchers have developed a 3-D printer that can manufacture glass. McCue explains that the printer uses, “many of the same controllers and parts that existing Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers use.”