Bryanna Cappadona reports for Boston.com that Matt Damon will be MIT’s 2016 commencement speaker. “Damon joins a long list of notable MIT commencement speakers, including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith in 2015, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman in 2014, and Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston in 2013,” writes Cappadona.
Actor and Cambridge native Matt Damon will speak at MIT’s 2016 commencement, writes Steve Annear for The Boston Globe. In addition to his success in Hollywood, Annear writes that Damon “is one of the founders of Water.org, a non-profit dedicated to delivering access to clean drinking water in developing countries.”
Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker and social activist Matt Damon will deliver the 2016 commencement address at MIT, reports the Associated Press.
Natalie Handy of The Cambridge Chronicle writes about the MIT Museum’s Chain Reaction event, during which teams of people came together to build a mega machine. “Getting people involved, getting people excited, and dreaming and thinking about what they can make is what it’s all about,” said Jennifer Novotney of the MIT Museum.
Boston.com reporter Nina Godlewski writes that a time capsule from 1957 has been discovered at MIT. The capsule was a “specially designed glass cylinder and contained argon gas to preserve the contents. A little bit of carbon-14 was also added so scientists could date the capsule.”
A glass time capsule from 1957 has been unearthed during excavation for MIT.nano, reports Steve Annear for The Boston Globe. Deborah Douglas, director of collections for the MIT Museum, says that the capsule is “a wonderful gesture, executed MIT-style.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes about the discovery of a time capsule from 1957 during excavation for MIT.nano. Griggs writes that the capsule had “been in the ground for 58 years, but it was supposed to be in place for much longer.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Karen Weintraub spotlights Prof. Rosalind Picard’s work examining college stress. Research scientist Akane Sano explains that they have been using machine learning techniques to identify the differences in “behaviors between high-stress and low-stress people.”
Matthew Nisbet, a professor at Northeastern University who focuses on climate change communication, writes for The Conversation about MIT’s Climate Action Plan. Nisbet writes that MIT’s plan can “serve as a model for how major research universities can accelerate effective societal actions on climate change by collaborating with a diversity of industry members.”
In an interview with NPR, alumna Noramay Cadena and her daughter, Chassitty Saldana, discuss how Cadena completed her MIT degrees while raising Saldana. Cadena tells Saldana that graduating from MIT “gave me this huge sense of hope for what you would do."
Boston.com reporter Allison Pohle writes about how stigmas against mental illness are fading on college campuses, highlighting the work of MIT’s Active Minds group, a student-led initiative aimed at raising awareness of mental health.
The last leg of the “Tour De Force” bike ride from New York to Boston, which was held in honor of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was named for Officer Sean Collier, Karyn Regal reports for CBS Boston. MIT Police Officer Dusty Miller called the ride a “great tribute” to Collier.
Laura Krantz of The Boston Globe reports on the launch of the MindHandHeart initiative. “We really view this as the next logical step for us in our continuing process to address mental health and well-being on our campus,” says Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart.
Tech reporter Kath Xu writes about MIT’s new MindHandHeart initiative. “What we’re trying to do with the MindHandHeart Initiative is to help students manage stress, manage time, manage MIT,” explains Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart.
Catherine Pearson writes for The Huffington Post about the Gala Pump, a compression breast pump designed by Kohana Inc. at MIT’s “make the breast pump not suck” hackathon: “Kohana has run a small clinical trial with 30 moms and says the majority of those women preferred The Gala to their vacuum pumps.”