Cambridge, Boston and region

Prof. Shafi Goldwasser and Prof. Vinod Vaikuntanathan founded the Institute for Responsible Superintelligence (RESI), “to develop mathematical principles and protocols to ensure AI models behave as intended,” writes Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe. “You patch them [AI models] up, you test them, you patch them to make sure that they can perform to the best ability, but also not do damage,” says Goldwasser. “That’s probably not enough attention, given the fact that these things are going to become what we call super intelligent.” 

Members of MassLive’s “25 Most Influential Innovators of 2026” list, which includes President Sally Kornbluth and a number of other MIT faculty and alumni, gathered at the MIT Museum to “discuss the forces shaping the future of innovation in Massachusetts,” writes reporter Tréa Lavery. “MIT Provost Anantha Chandrakasan said about half of undergraduate students at the school are studying some form of computing, and enrollment in those courses has gone up in recent years, prompting professors and administrators to rethink how they incorporate AI into their teaching,” writes Lavery.  

The New York Times’ Christopher Hawthorne highlights the Metropolitan Warehouse as “the new central hub for the School of Architecture and Planning.” Hawthorne notes that by “slicing into the brick exterior of the warehouse a la Gordon Matta-Clark, the architects have added giant windows while hanging new studio spaces from the existing ceiling. This is adaptive reuse with some bite.”  

Akamai will honor their late cofounder Danny Lewin SM ’98, a victim of the American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11, by illuminating their headquarters in blue the evening of Sept. 11, write Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung for The Boston Globe. “Lewin remains revered at Akamai; its highest employee award is given out each year in his honor,” Chesto and Leung write.  

In a video short, The Boston Globe’s Daniel Kool spotlights “The Living Bucentaur,” a parade of 250 people dressed in repurposed sail cloth to celebrate the opening of the School of Architecture and Plannings’ new home in the Metropolitan Warehouse. “In 1916, when MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge, they built this elaborate barge called Bucentaur. It was white and it had this beautiful decoration with angels and stucco and everyone was wearing costumes and waving tea squares,” says Prof. Azra Aksamija. “This project is in a way a reenactment.”  

MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) Dean Hashim Sarkis speaks to WBZ News Radio’s Emma Friedman about “The Living Bucentaur,” the Sept. 8 procession made up of 250 people, to SA+P’s new home in the redesigned Metropolitan Warehouse. “This is really a very conscious reenactment of the moment that MIT decided to move to Cambridge from Boston,” says Sarkis. “After all, moving into this building is an act of renewal.” 

MIT’s inaugural Future Fest, a new festival exploring the future of science, technology, art, and design will be held across the MIT campus from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, writes Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe. “More than 50 events looking at art, design, science, technology, and their interactions will be held on the MIT campus,” the staff write. “Those events held at the museum will be free throughout the festival, which concludes on Oct. 4 with the Cambridge Science Carnival.” 

MassLive’s “Most Influential Innovators” list, which celebrates inventors from across the Commonwealth, spotlights numerous MIT community members including President Sally Kornbluth, Prof. Russ Tedrake; Noubar Afeyan PhD ‘87 (a member of the MIT Corporation), Visiting Scientist Brandon Sorbom PhD ‘17, Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD ‘20, Tye Brady SM '99, Maxim Lobovsky SM ‘11, and Andy Ory. “Kornbluth has been working hard to defend the university, which has long been a major economic engine not just for Massachusetts, but for the country,” writes reporter Scott Kirsner. 

MassLive’s Joshua Macht explains how the MIT Museum is a “fitting” setting to host the honorees of MassLive’s “Most Influential Innovators” list, which includes President Sally Kornbluth and a number of other MIT faculty and alumni. “The museum welcomes all to participate in MIT’s unique culture of problem solving and playful creativity,” writes Macht. “It is also producing the inaugural MIT Future Fest, a new, annual festival exploring the future of science, technology, art and design.”  

WBUR’s Lloyd Schwartz highlights the forthcoming Radius Ensemble performance at MIT’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall on Oct. 17. “Oboist Jennifer Montbach is the founding impresario and leader of this superb group that specializes in contemporary music but always has the surprise of an older and only sometimes more familiar piece,” writes Schwartz.  

President Sally Kornbluth and Governor Maura Healey will kick off the festivities at MIT’s inaugural Future Fest, which aims to bring “together leaders across higher education, government and tech to explore the future of science, technology, art and design across MIT's campus for five days,” writes the Boston Business Journal’s Stephen MacLeod. 

The Boston Globe’s Mark Feeney chronicles MIT’s adaptive reuse of the historic Metropolitan Warehouse into the new home of the School of Architecture and Planning. “As spaces, our studios used to be a lot more like labs, but now they are grand and full of light and celebratory in a way that hopefully enables better work,” says Prof. Ana Miljački, Head of the Department of Architecture.  

Boston.com’s Elizabeth Mehler spotlights an AI-powered flood predictor and disaster response tool built by Arush Shangari, an MIT Beaver Works Research Scholar. “Through MIT Beaver Works and MIT CSAIL, I taught myself artificial intelligence and time-series forecasting,” says Shangari. “There was a lot of that error analysis and just learning in general.” 

Dezeen’s Ellen Eberhardt describes how the renovation of the historic Metropolitan Warehouse, the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, maintains “details such as the building's fortress-like corner towers and crenellated corbeled cornices, while punching new windows into its two-foot-thick walls.” Eberhardt highlights how “the project included careful ‘cutting strategies’ and the application of new support systems to shift existing loads within the building to make room for modern academic spaces such as studios and makerspaces.”  

MIT students and community members spoke with 7 News Boston about their experiences viewing Wednesday’s partial solar eclipse, using the Unistellar eVscope Two, a smart telescope provided by the MIT Astrogazers, an outreach group largely made up of MIT graduate students. “To be able to see this celestial event in a way that’s so approachable, and the way that everybody in the community can enjoy it, especially when you have the right gear, is a really special opportunity,” says Joe Diaz, program manager and STEAM educator at the MIT Media Lab.