Business and management

Addison Stark (left) and Abigail Ostriker

Q&A: Energy studies at MIT and the next generation of energy leaders

Abigail Ostriker ’16 and Addison Stark SM ’10, PhD ’15 share how their experiences with MIT’s energy programs connect them to the global energy community.

May 18, 2020

MIT News recently spoke with three leaders of MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future. Left to right: co-chair David A. Mindell, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT; executive director Elisabeth Beck Reynolds PhD ‘10, who is also executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center; and co-chair David ...

The changing world of work

MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future responds to rapid changes brought by the pandemic.

May 18, 2020

Francesca O’Hanlon of Blue Tap delivered a pitch at the Water Innovation Prize on April 22. Her team won first place with a novel water chlorinating system that makes clean water affordable and accessible for users without existing access to healthy water supplies.

MIT student leaders go virtual with global startup competitions

In the face of Covid-19, the MIT Water Club and the MIT Food and Agriculture Club take their signature innovation prizes online.

May 15, 2020

New research by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu shows that since 1987, automation has taken away jobs from lower-skill workers without being replaced by an equivalent number of labor-market opportunities.

Study finds stronger links between automation and inequality

Job-replacing tech has directly driven the income gap since the late 1980s, economists report.

May 5, 2020

A new study co-authored by an MIT professor shows firms that move quickly to use robots tend to add workers to their payroll, while industry job losses are more concentrated in firms that make this change more slowly.

Robots help some firms, even while workers across industries struggle

Study finds manufacturing companies that are quick to automate can thrive, but overall employment drops.

May 5, 2020

MIT professor Daron Acemoglu is co-author of a new study showing that each robot added to the workforce has the effect of replacing 3.3 jobs across the U.S.

How many jobs do robots really replace?

MIT economist Daron Acemoglu’s new research puts a number on the job costs of automation.

May 4, 2020

A report from the MIT Open Learning Workforce Education Project argues that higher education can and should play a vital role in providing workers with 21st-century skills suited to new technologies, as well as opportunities to move into better-paying jobs.

Workforce Education Project details how Covid-19 upends assumptions

Report finds that higher education institutions can play a significant role in reforming workforce education.

April 28, 2020

Graduate student Jean Pauphilet is a French PhD student in the Operations Research Center.

Optimizing complex decision-making

“Operations in practice are very messy, but I think that’s what makes them exciting,” says graduate student Jean Pauphilet.

April 22, 2020

Valerie Karplus, an assistant professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is one of several MIT faculty who have played an organizing role in an effort focused on delivering masks, gloves, and gowns, all critical items worn by front-line health care workers during the Covid-19 emergency.

MIT team draws on supply chain expertise to help protect health workers from Covid-19

The group is working to increase availability of personal protective equipment during the pandemic.

April 21, 2020

The startup Posh has created chat bots that use conversational memory to hold more natural conversations. Posh’s chat bots are currently used by about a dozen credit unions across a variety of voice and text platforms.

Deploying more conversational chatbots

Startup Posh has created chatbots that use “conversational memory” to have more natural exchanges.

April 17, 2020

Mosaic of MITx MicroMasters learners from the Program in Supply Chain Management. New program graduates bring the total number of credential-holders to 2,243 from 115 countries.

Amid shutdowns, supply chains pivot and global demand for specialized talent intensifies

New MITx MicroMasters credential-holders prepare to meet supply chain disruptions through their knowledge and newly acquired abilities.

April 13, 2020

Jing Li, an assistant professor of applied economics, engages with her students during the Electricity Strategy Game debrief.

Energy economics class inspires students to pursue clean energy careers

The Electricity Strategy Game is a prominent feature in 15.0201/14.43 (Economics of Energy, Innovation, and Sustainability).

April 13, 2020

Jonathan Parker PhD ’96, the Robert C. Merton (1970) Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a leading expert in understanding how U.S. citizens use stimulus payments from the government, and how big an impact such efforts make on the national economy.

3 Questions: Jonathan Parker on building an economic recovery

MIT professor evaluates the effect of government stimulus on the crisis-hit U.S. economy.

March 30, 2020

“Most manufacturing companies will keep about two weeks of inventory,” says David Simchi-Levi, who is a professor of engineering systems in the School of Engineering and in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society within the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. "That means they were able to cover demand for the first two weeks of March. After that, [given] no more supplies, ther...

Supply chain outlook: The timing of the slowdown

MIT Professor David Simchi-Levi forecast the mid-March manufacturing pause. Now he looks ahead.

March 25, 2020

“People are worried about the food supply chain,” says MIT supply chain expert Yossi Sheffi, who is the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, a professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. “However, the U.S. food supply chain is very robust.”

Supply chain outlook: Why the situation varies by industry

MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi describes the supply chain landscape in the U.S., from food security to concerns about medical supplies.