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Writing for The New Yorker, Bernard Avishai spotlights Prof. Andrew Lo’s work exploring the need for a revolution in financial engineering to help spur the development of vaccines, and how a vaccine megafund could have assisted in bringing the Covid-19 pandemic under control. “The more I studied this, the more I realized that finance actually plays a huge role in drug development,” says Lo, “in many cases, way too big a role.”
Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia and senior postdoctoral associate Leslie Chan discuss their work developing a synthetic biosensor to diagnose lung disease. Chan explains that “instead of relying on naturally occurring breath volatiles, we wanted to be able to engineer the breath signal that we could use to monitor lung disease.”
Reuters reporter Storay Karimi spotlights how the Afghan all-girls robotics team has designed a low-cost ventilator, based in part off the E-Vent device developed by MIT researchers.
Forbes contributor Jason Brett writes that Prof. Ron Rivest testified before Congress on the feasibility of Blockchain voting technology.
TechCrunch reporter Darrell Etherington writes that CSAIL researchers have built a new two-fingered robotic gripper. The researchers “equipped their robotic gripper with fingertips that are not only made out of a soft material, but that also have embedded sensors which help it continually detect the position of a cable between the grippers to better control holding and manipulating them while performing simple tasks like detangling.”
CNN reporter Allen Kim writes about how CSAIL researchers developed a new system that enables a robot to disinfect surfaces and neutralize aerosolized forms of the coronavirus. In the future, the researchers hope the robot could be used to enable autonomous UV disinfection “in other environments such as supermarkets, factories and restaurants.”
WHDH reporter Emily Pritchard spotlights how CSAIL researchers have developed a new robotic system that is being used to help disinfect the Greater Boston Food Bank during the coronavirus pandemic. “We believe that is one piece of the puzzle in figuring out how to mitigate the spread of coronavirus,” says research scientist Alyssa Pierson.
A new robotic system developed by CSAIL researchers uses UV-C light to kill viruses and bacteria on surfaces and aerosols, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. “Via cameras and sensors, the robot can map an indoor space, then navigate designed waypoints within that mapped area and disinfect as it goes, keeping track of the areas it has to disinfect,” writes Etherington.
MIT researchers have developed a new robotic system that uses a UV-C light fixture to disinfect surfaces at the Greater Boston Food Bank’s warehouse staging area, reports Matt Reed for WCVB. Research scientist Alyssa Pierson explains that the ultraviolet light "breaks apart the kind of outer incasing or shell of these pathogens."
MIT researchers have developed an AI system that can predict Alzheimer’s risk by forecasting how patients will perform on a test measuring cognitive decline up to two years in advance, reports Casey Ross for STAT.
New tools developed by CSAIL researchers allow users to design a pattern that can be used to 3D print knitted garments, reports Elizabeth Segran for Fast Company. “We’re exciting about how this can be used by everyday, nonexpert knitters,” says graduate student Alexandre Kaspar. “This lets anybody become a designer.”
7 News spotlights how CSAIL researchers have developed two new software systems that are aimed at allowing anyone to customize and design their own knitted design patterns. “The researchers tested the software by having people with no knitting experience design gloves and hats,” explains 7 News reporter Keke Vencill.
Graduate student Alexandre Kaspar speaks with BBC Click about two new systems that ease the process of designing and making knitted clothing items. Kaspar explains that the systems allow users to “create building blocks of parts that are being knit.”
TechCrunch reporter Catherine Shu writes that CSAIL researchers have developed two new systems that enable users to design and customize their own knitted items, no knitting experience required. Shu explains that the researchers want “to make designing and making machine-knitted garments as accessible as 3D printing is now.”
Profs. Daniel Rothman and Daniela Rus contributed to a Boston Globe piece exploring what the next big moonshot challenge should be. Rothman noted that, “We need to understand how the Earth system responds to environmental change,” while Rus expressed a desire to explore interspecies communication and the development of intelligent clothing.