Media Lab spinout “Ori” has developed what its founder Hasier Larrea SM ’15 calls a “Swiss Army knife for studio apartments,” writes Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. A “robotic furniture system,” the compact 8 by 5 foot design can equip even the smallest rooms with a bed, multiple desks, closet, and entertainment system.
Led by senior research scientist Rolland Pellenq, students in the School of Engineering developed a model “that links a city’s ‘texture’ to its night-time UHI (Urban Heat Index),” writes Laurie Winkless for Forbes. The team hopes their research will influence future urban development, especially in very hot or cold climates.
Senior research scientist Roland Pellenq and his colleagues have found that the layout of a city’s streets and buildings impacts the way it heats up. “Scientists found cities with more geometric, grid-like layouts, such as New York and Chicago, had a greater heat island effect than cities with less uniformity, like London and Boston,” writes Brooks Hays for UPI.
Danny Crichton of TechCrunch highlights Media Lab researchers Kent Larson and John Clippinger, who are sorting socio-economic factors into datasets in order to create a model that can guide a community towards success. “Wouldn’t it be great to create an alternative where instead of optimizing for financial benefits, we could optimize for social benefits, and cultural benefits, and environmental benefits,” said Larson.
In an article for The New York Times, graduate student Yonah Freemark writes that making city streets safer can help protect pedestrians and cyclists from careless and malicious drivers. “The side effects of a pedestrian-focused strategy are overwhelmingly positive, even setting aside the lowered potential for death. Air quality improves, people exercise more, neighborhood business expands.”
By analyzing images from Google Street View, researchers from MIT’s Senseable City Lab have created a new database to calculate the total percentage of trees in a city, writes Matthew Reynolds for Wired. The database can potentially provide health data as cities with, “lower amounts of city greenery have been linked with higher stress levels,” explains Reynolds.
Forbes reporter Kevin Murnane writes about how MIT researchers have used a computer vision system to examine how several American cities physically improved or deteriorated over time. Murnane writes that the study “provides important support for nuanced versions of traditional theories about why urban neighborhoods change over time.”
UPI reporter Amy Wallace writes that MIT researchers have applied a computer vision system to help quantify the physical improvement of American neighborhoods. The researchers found that “density of highly educated residents, proximity to central business districts and other attractive areas, and the initial safety score assigned by the computer system are strongly related to improvements.”
In an article for The New York Times about the growing number of autonomous public transportation programs in Europe, Mark Scott highlights Prof. Carlo Ratti’s work testing driverless boats in Amsterdam. In addition to ferrying people and goods, the driverless boats will also be able to “automatically dock with each other, creating on-demand bridges and walkways whenever necessary."
New Scientist reporter Timothy Revell writes that a new study by Prof. Iyad Rahwan shows that automation will have a larger impact on jobs in smaller cities. Rahwan and his colleagues found that “towns and small cities have a smaller proportion of jobs that will be resilient to automation than larger urban centers.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Hannah Furfaro highlights Treepedia, an online tool developed by researchers from MIT’s Senseable City Lab, that analyses tree cover in cities around the world. “Street greenery is a really important part of the urban environment,” explains postdoctoral fellow Xiaojiang Li.
In an article for The Guardian about the importance of trees, Dyani Lewis highlights Treepedia, a project by researchers in MIT’s Senseable City Lab, which maps the number of trees in cities around the world. Prof. Carlo Ratti explains that the project will hopefully “put pressure on government to plant more trees.”
Laura Winkless writes for Forbes about the ways robots are changing life in urban areas. ROBOATs, the fleet of autonomous boats and floating structures developed by Prof. Carlo Ratti, “could offer an additional, low-cost way to once again integrate local canals and rivers into the urban landscape,” said Winkless.
A study co-authored by Prof. Carlo Ratti finds ride-sharing is feasible in different cities around the world, reports Eleanor Cummins for Popular Science. “The key thing is how this can transform our cities. Every car you remove from the road, you are removing pollution and traffic,” explains Ratti.
AP reporter Mark Pratt writes that MIT researchers have developed a platform to map the tree canopy in cities around the world, in an effort to identify locations where more trees are needed. "We as humans have a natural willingness and desire to be in green spaces," explains Prof. Carlo Ratti.