Boston Globe reporter Pranshu Verma spotlights BitSight, a cybersecurity ratings company founded by MIT graduates. “The company’s platform uses algorithms to assess a company’s chances of being breached,” writes Verma. “It also provides customers with cybersecurity ratings, risk metrics, and security benchmarks to better assess and combat cyber threats.”
Writing for Pointe Magazine, Grace Young ’14 explores how her background in ballet taught her many of the skills that she currently uses as an engineer. Young emphasizes that as dancer she quickly learned the importance of practicing, a skill she applied as a student at MIT. “If it weren’t for ballet,” she writes, “I’m not sure I would appreciate all the work that goes into making science and engineering skills look effortless.”
Bloomberg’s Janet Wu speaks with alumna Nan-Wei Gong PhD '13, co-founder of Figur8, an MIT startup applying AI to help diagnose musculoskeletal problems. “Figur8 is a tool that really brings lab experience into the field so everyone can quantify their musculoskeletal injuries,” says Gong. “We invented a wearable system that allows you to capture biomarkers of your musculoskeletal health and pinpoint injury through our AI algorithm.”
Nuria Oliver PhD ’00 speaks with Wired reporter Willem Marx about her work developing a data gathering system to help combat Covid-19 in Valencia, Spain. Olivier and her team developed “a powerful predictor that's been road-tested during a time of unprecedented strain, and continues to be used across Valencia," writes Marx. "They have also created a system that can suggest a small number of specific, effective pandemic-related policies or interventions that a government can make.”
Boston Globe correspondent Dana Gerber spotlights how eight of the photographs alumna Linda Benedict-Jones captured of Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school students will be on display at the Harvard Art Museums this fall. “I thought of Cambridge Rindge and Latin as a kind of microcosm of society,” said Benedict-Jones. “I figured, there are probably kids in this school who are the sons and daughters of Harvard professors, and there are probably kids in this school who are recent immigrants.”
TechCrunch reporter Mary Ann Azevedo spotlights Insurify, a startup founded by alumna Snejina Zacharia. “Insurify has built a machine learning-based virtual insurance agent that integrates with more than 100 carriers to digitize — and personalize — the insurance shopping experience,” Azevedo explains.
Reporting for the PBS NewsHour, Miles O’Brien visits alumnus Dexter Ang ‘05 to learn more about how his startup, Pison, is developing a wrist-worn sensor that detects the faint electrical signals controlling simple hand gestures, allowing users to control digital interfaces using brain signals. “The device is connected to a smartphone, allowing control of it or other devices, conveyor belts in factories, drones, even pinball machines, to name a few,” notes O’Brien. He adds that Ang was inspired by his late mother, who contracted ALS, as “he wanted to make her life easier.”
Fast Company reporter Greg Toppo spotlights alumna Laila Shabir ‘10, founder of Girls Make Games, a series of summer camps, workshops and game jams aimed at bringing together and empowering young women interested in video games. “The camp not only promotes a message of empowerment for girls, but one that encourages them to think differently about games,” writes Toppo. “Shabir urges campers to ‘think big’ about games and get to the essence of the games they love and why they love them.”
Prof. Dava Newman, director of the MIT Media Lab, speaks with Mark Wilson of Fast Company about her vision for the future of the Media Lab. “We’re going to be a diverse and equitable place, we have to have everyone at the table,” says Newman. “We do have these special talents. We can see solutions in envisioning things that are further out. We are built on literal media and data, so we don’t shy away from any technical challenges.”
Motherboard reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley spotlights Unit, a new digital platform developed by MIT graduate James Earl White that is aimed at easing the unionization process. Gurley writes that White “founded Unit after volunteering with several labor organizing campaigns in college, and studying how unions can reduce income inequality.”
Boston Globe correspondent Scott Kirsner spotlights CubicPV, an MIT startup, which is creating solar cells that more efficiently convert sunlight into energy.
The Economist spotlights alumna Lisa Su S.B. ’90, S.M. ’91, PhD ’94, who is the chief executive of the chip maker AMD. “I learned that when I chose something very difficult, and did well, it would give me great confidence for the next challenge,” says Su.
Forbes reporters Amy Feldman and Aayushi Pratap spotlight Vicarious Surgical, a startup founded by MIT graduates that is developing a tiny robot paired with a VR headset for abdominal surgeries.
NPR’s Mandalit Del Barco spotlights alumna Alexia Sablone M. Arch ’16, who is competing in street skateboarding at this year’s Olympics. Sablone notes that skateboarding has always been about self-expression, creativity and style, not winning medals. "At the end of the day, it's still skateboarding, but there's the nostalgic younger part of me that kind of wants to rebel against this new format of skateboarding," says Sablone. "The thought that people will grow up skateboarding in the future with an Olympic gold medal in mind is so foreign to me, you know?"
Alexis Sablone M. Arch ’16 speaks with Washington Post reporter Les Carpenter about street skateboarding, competing at this year’s Olympic Games, and why she is uncomfortable with being defined. “To me, I’m just always like trying to be myself and do things that I love to do and not try to fit into these categories in ways that I don’t feel comfortable with,” says Sablone.