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.
Prof. Simon Johnson reviews Adam Tooze’s new book, “Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World” for The Washington Post. Johnson writes that the book, “is an impressive narrative history, weaving together events from around the world with a light touch and a great deal of helpful explanation.”
Prof. Marcia Bartusiak speaks with Radio Boston’s Evan Horowitz about her book, “Dispatches from Planet 3.” Bartusiak explains that she was inspired to “take a new exciting finding and provide the backstory. All of these essays are taking something new - a new idea, a new discovery - and showing that it had an origin or a seed in the past.”
New York Times reporter Penelope Green profiles Prof. Neri Oxman, spotlighting her work with material ecology. Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the MoMA, says that the “reason why she is a gift to the field of architecture and design is that her science works, her aesthetics work, and her theory works.”
Prof. Amy Finkelstein speaks with Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered about winning a MacArthur grant for her work examining health economics. Finkelstein explains that the goal of her work is to “reduce the amount of rhetoric in health care policy discussion and increase the amount of evidence.”
Boston Globe reporter Michael Levenson writes that Profs. Amy Finkelstein and Lisa Parks have been selected as recipients of the MacArthur “genius grant.” Finkelstein notes that the award will allow her to take more risks with her research, while Parks plans to use the award to “strengthen MIT’s Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab and deepen the university’s ties to Africa, where she does research,” Levenson explains.
Profs. Amy Finkelstein and Lisa Parks have been named MacArthur Fellows, reports Joe Barrett for The Wall Street Journal. Barett explains that Finkelstein “conducts studies in the economics of health care; among her findings is that Medicaid expansion increases self-reported health and financial security, but also increases use of the emergency room and has no significant impact on many measures of physical health.”
Prof. Iyad Rahwan speaks with New Scientist reporter Sean O’Neill about his work investigating the ethics of artificial intelligence. “I’m pushing for a negotiated social-contract approach,” explains Rahwan. “As a society we want to get along well, but to do it we need property rights, free speech, protection from violence and so on. We need to think about machine ethics in the same way.”
Corporation member Samuel Bodman passed away in El Pas, TX at the age of 79. Bodman, who earned a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1965, also served as a professor of chemical engineering at the Institute before becoming CEO of Cabot Corp., reports James R. Hagerty for The Wall Street Journal.