STAT reporter Damian Garde spotlights alumna Lita Nelson, who led MIT’s TLO for 23 years. Garde notes that Nelsen, “shattered the glass ceiling for women in tech transfer,” and Katharine Ku, head of Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing, adds that she has been “a beacon for the tech transfer community.”
Boston Globe reporter Elizabeth Gehrman speaks with MIT alumna Ceres Lee about her career as a software engineer at Google. Of the field of computer science, Lee says that “everyone uses it, it’s important, and it’s basically everywhere.”
Katie Lobosco writes for CNN Money that a new survey has found that MIT provides one of the best returns on investment for students. Lobosco notes that, “Many MIT grads land high-paying engineering and computer science jobs.”
Boston.com reporter Justine Hofherr writes that in a new survey MIT has been ranked one of the top universities for return on investment, “based on the difference between a schools cost of attendance and the income the average student earns in the 20 years after graduation.”
CNN reporter Laurie Segall reports from the MIT Media Lab on innovative research that could transform different industries, highlighting the work of several MIT alumni, as part of CNN’s “20/20 Visionaries” series. Segall describes MIT as a “breeding ground for some of the biggest ideas from some of the brightest minds in the world.”
Alumna Michelle Lee, director of the USPTO, speaks with Radio Boston’s Anthony Brooks during a trip to Boston to speak at MIT about patents and innovation. Lee noted her commitment to encouraging more females to pursue STEM fields because “you never know who’s going to start that next company that’s going to revolutionize the world.”
Lisa Boone of The Los Angeles Times highlights Sprout plantable pencils, which were designed by three MIT students. Boone explains that after planting, “a dissolvable seed capsule at the end of the pencil will proceed to germinate in a few weeks, transforming the pencil in to one of 12 edible plants.”
At a recent seminar at MIT, alumnus J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, managing culinary director for SeriousEats.com, demonstrated how to sear a piece of steak, writes Peggy Hernandez for The Boston Globe. “Lopez-Alt’s ‘Searing and Roasting’ presentation last week was part of a symposium complementing MIT’s ‘Kitchen Chemistry’ course,” explains Hernandez.
Alumna Tish Scolnik, CEO of GRIT, speaks with Justine Hofherr of Boston.com about how an MIT class inspired her career. Scolnik explains that the idea for GRIT, an MIT startup that produces wheelchairs that allows users to traverse rugged terrain, “started back at MIT as a class project.”
Ambika Behal writes for Forbes about MIT startup Authess, which is dedicated to changing educational assessments. Based off Prof. Chris Kaiser’s experiences in the classroom and with edX, Authess is focused on developing a more authentic learning experience for students.
In an article for Scientific American, Charles Schmidt writes that MIT scientists have measured the energy of a chemical reaction’s transition state. Schmidt explains that, “better knowledge of transition states in fuel-combustion reactions could allow scientists to engineer cars with better gas mileage.”
John Wyatt, who served as an MIT professor for 36 years and was known for his work developing retinal implants, died on Feb. 3, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Marquard writes that Wyatt helped found the field of retinal prosthetic research, which was aimed at restoring “sight to those diagnosed with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.”
In an article for Forbes, Bill Hardekopf highlights a new hack-proof chip developed by MIT researchers. Hardekopf explains that the chip could help make credit cards more secure.
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.”
Prof. Ioannis Yannas was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame for his work with Dr. John Burke on regenerating human skin as a treatment for burn victims, writes Robby Berman for Slate. In a video accompanying the story, Yannas explains that his work was focused on “speeding up the rate of closing up these wounds.”