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Winds of change?

Study: China could go big on wind power — if it adjusts its grid operations.

June 20, 2016

Researchers examined twice-monthly diary entries from more than 40 undergraduate engineering students across four institutions in Massachusetts: MIT, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. That generated more than 3,000 individual diary entries that the scholars systematically analyzed.

Why do women leave engineering?

Study: Group dynamics of teamwork and internships deter many women in the profession.

June 15, 2016

“A big strand in my work has been to think about the important ways in which social identity, especially racial and ethnic identities, become really important in thinking about policies and justice in distributive issues,” MIT political scientist Evan Lieberman says.

Democracy now

Political scientist Evan Lieberman studies ethnic identity and African politics.

June 14, 2016

Actor and filmmaker Matt Damon spoke with MIT News in MIT’s Building 3 before the 2016 Commencement ceremony.

Q&A: Matt Damon on making a difference in the world

It’s no act: MIT 2016 Commencement speaker reflects on the “fun” of his activism and philanthropy.

June 3, 2016

Former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP ’78, PhD ’81 was the guest speaker at MIT’s 2016 Investiture of Doctoral Hoods.

At hooding ceremony, doctoral graduates urged to solve the world’s “toughest challenges”

Development leader Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP ’78, PhD ’81 encourages graduates to tackle pressing issues.

June 2, 2016

A new study finds generally higher prices with occasional sales mixed in will yield more revenue than consistently low prices, at least for fashionable goods. “The high-value customers will still buy the product,” Karen Zheng says. “They want to [avoid] this feeling of regret, which would occur if they wait now and then cannot get it in the future.”

The price of regret

Why stores should take shoppers’ emotions into account when setting prices.

May 23, 2016

“Children seem to interpret disjunction like conjunction,” observes MIT Linguistics Professor Danny Fox. However, Fox adds, although “it has been claimed children are very different from adults in the interpretation of logical words,” the study’s larger implication is almost the opposite — namely that “the child is [otherwise] identical to the adult, but there is a very small paramet...

Why children confuse simple words

Study: Kids have “and/or” problem despite sophisticated reasoning.

May 23, 2016

“We are still trying to understand the economics of theater-going over the course of these 113 years. For example, we have limited records about the casting of plays, but we have already recognized that when new actors or actresses debuted, there would be spikes in attendance,” Jeff Ravel says.

3 Questions: Jeffrey Ravel on bringing data to cultural history

MIT conference stems from data-rich historical project on French theater.

May 18, 2016

MIT's "Crossing the Charles" procession and competition was a featured part of the Institute's Moving Day festivities, May 7, 2016. Here, grand marshal Oliver Smoot '62 (right) rides at the front of the parade.

Moving spectacle

MIT marks 100 years in Cambridge with “Crossing the Charles” parade and evening celebration.

May 9, 2016

“Migrants continue to consume the foods that were popular in their origin states, after they moved,” David Atkin says.

Counting calories

Migrants pay more for their home region’s cuisine, even when on the edge of malnutrition.

May 4, 2016

(Left to right): Abubakar Abid, Jelani Cobb, Sasha Costanza-Chock, and Tanalis Padilla. “Participation in social movements has a profound impact on us as people,” Costanza-Chock said.

All-MIT Diversity Forum highlights progress, challenges for campus community

Conference underscores collaboration by students, administration.

May 3, 2016

3 Questions: David Autor on global trade and political polarization

Study finds relationship between U.S. job losses due to trade, and political polarization in Congress.

April 26, 2016

“Broadly speaking, my research looks at the causes of conflict, especially those involving China,” Taylor Fravel says. He is an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science and a member of MIT’s Security Studies Program.

MIT political scientist awarded prestigious Carnegie fellowship

Taylor Fravel will examine Asia’s maritime conflicts in further depth.

April 19, 2016

“As you go up in the income distribution, life expectancy continues to increase, at every point in the income distribution,” Michael Stepner says.

New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in U.S.

In unprecedented detail, lifespan gap shown to be large and growing rapidly.

April 11, 2016

“Algorithms, Identity, and Society” was held before a capacity audience at MIT’s Bartos Theater, and sponsored by MIT’s noted program in Science, Technology, and Society.

Identity theft?

Automation helps us in many ways, but does it steal our sense of self?

April 8, 2016

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