Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Lee Gardner notes that MIT is making a $1 billion investment in furthering the study of computation and AI. “The institute’s project will support the search for solutions to two other daunting challenges,” Gardner explains, “how to handle the ethical and philosophical implications of AI for the societies it will transform, and how to break down institutional silos in academe.”
WGBH reporter Maggie Penn examines how the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing will integrate the study of computer science and AI into every academic discipline. "Much of higher education is silo-ed, a lot of universities are dealing with that," explains Melissa Nobles, dean of SHASS. "This is a really creative way of getting around that and creating something new that is truly collaborative."
Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Lee Gardner notes that MIT is making a $1 billion investment in furthering the study of computation and AI. “The institute’s project will support the search for solutions to two other daunting challenges,” Gardner explains, “how to handle the ethical and philosophical implications of AI for the societies it will transform, and how to break down institutional silos in academe.”
Science reporter Jeffrey Mervis notes that the $350 million gift from Stephen Schwarzman, which will help establish a new college of computing at MIT, will enable the Institute to hire 50 new faculty members. Provost Martin Schmidt notes that the college will be instrumental in “linking computation to all disciplines on campus.”
Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed reports that MIT has announced a $1 billion plan to create a college of computing. The college, which will be named for Stephen Schwarzman, will also “promote teaching and research on computing and artificial intelligence.”
MIT’s new college of computing will teach students how to apply computer science and artificial intelligence in their specific field of study, writes Dave Gershgorn for Quartz. Gershgorn notes that researchers studying the impact of AI on society “have consistently suggested the expansion of interdisciplinary education, on the grounds that computer scientists can sometimes overlook the nuances of other fields.”
With the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, MIT is looking to educate the next generation of people working in the field of AI and computer science, writes James Vincent for The Verge. Vincent explains that the college is also aimed at investigating the ethics involved with the fields of computing and AI, positioning “the college as an ethically minded enterprise.”
In an article for TechCrunch, Danny Crichton calls the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing a “doubling down on the future of computer science.” Crichton writes that “the objective of the new school will be to ensure that all MIT students become familiar with the field regardless of their chosen profession.”
Boston Globe reporter Andy Rosen writes that MIT is establishing a college of computing as part of an effort to examine the impact computer science and AI is having on all disciplines. “We have to move much faster educating the next generation for the new economy,” explains President L. Rafael Reif. “The way to do that is to come up with integrated curriculum.”
Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that MIT is establishing a college of computing to help students and researchers use computing and AI to advance their work. President L. Rafael Reif explains that the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing “will constitute both a global centre for computing research and education, and an intellectual foundry for powerful new AI tools.”
The New York Times writes about the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, calling MIT’s move “a particularly ambitious step.” President Reif says the College will “educate the bilinguals of the future,” people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history, and linguistics who are also skilled in the techniques of modern computing that can be applied to them.
Wired reporter Aarian Marshall highlights how MIT is launching a new undergraduate major that will combine computer science and urban planning. Prof. Eran Ben-Joseph explains that the motivation for the major is studying how, “you make a better connection between the training and computation, and what the implication of the work will be, for communities, for policies.”
MIT’s Course 2.007 Design and Manufacturing I hosted its annual robotic competition with a Willy Wonka-themed course. The event, which involves five “sudden death” rounds, is about “more than just taking home first place,” says WBZ’s Lisa Hughes. “I cannot even explain…how much opportunity this class has given us,” a student shares.
Kerri Corrado of 7 News Boston reported live from this year’s Course 2.007 robot competition, where students put their homemade robots to the test on a Willy Wonka-themed course. The competition “gets the students into the design process, the manufacturing process, the building process and gets their ideas to reality,” said mechanical engineering student John Taylor Novak.
Sloan Adjunct Associate Prof. Zeynep Ton is one of the “forward-thinking professors” to receive this year’s Ideas Worth Teaching Awards from the Aspen Institute, which “celebrate curricula that bring to life the promise of meaningful work in business,” reports Lila MacLellan for Quartz. Ton was recognized for teaching Management of Services: Concepts, Design, and Delivery.