Prof. Antoinette Schoar writes for The Wall Street Journal about her research examining how credit card companies are using customer data to target specific consumers. Schoar writes that “as more and more personal data becomes available, businesses are now able to target customers in a personalized and sophisticated way.”
A new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel focuses on the impact technology has on cities, writes Kate Abbey-Lambertz for The Huffington Post. “Ratti and Claudel envision a potential future where new technology ― from individualized heating grids to neighborhood 3D-printing fabrication studios ― ‘weaves into a tapestry of citizen empowerment’.”
Colin Young and Andy Metzger of State House News write that MIT experts spoke about the need for government investment in long-term energy research during the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers. “A lot of what we really need to truly change our energy infrastructure is going to take a lot more than five years,” Prof. Kristala Prather noted.
Allie Bidwell writes for the National Medals Foundation about MIT’s “secret sauce for excellence.” Ian Waitz, dean of the School of Engineering, explains that MIT fosters “a strong desire to work on things that have a practical impact. We combine scholarship with having a real, tangible impact in the world.”
Prof. S.P. Kothari writes for The Wall Street Journal that federal student loans should be increased for STEM students to help close the science, technology and engineering skills gap. “If the nation is serious about staying competitive in the global race for STEM talent, then targeting student loans is one solution that can and should earn bipartisan support.”
Prof. Alex “Sandy” Pentland speaks with Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s On Point, about his study examining friendship. “If you’re trying to lose weight…50 percent of the time you are likely to reach out to people who really actually aren’t going to help that much,” Pentland explains, adding that people should be looking to mutual friendships for support.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart III examines how American voters have become increasingly concerned about the fairness of the electoral process. “The best hope is for a combination of voices, both partisan and nonpartisan, to remind Americans of the mechanisms in place to ensure that votes are counted fairly.”
In an article for Wired, Kevin Hartnett examines Prof. Scott Sheffield’s work studying geometric randomness. “You take the most natural objects—trees, paths, surfaces—and you show they’re all related to each other,” Sheffield explains. “And once you have these relationships, you can prove all sorts of new theorems you couldn’t prove before.”
During a Financial Times podcast, Prof. Heidi Williams speaks about her work studying the impact of patent policy and technology on medical research and health care. Williams explains that her work focuses on the role patents and policies play in developing "the medical technologies that are most beneficial to patients.”
Science reporter Adrian Cho profiles Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, exploring everything from his decades-long dedication to the search for gravitational waves to his reputation as a mentor. Prof. Emeritus Robert Birgeneau notes that Weiss was respected for “his passion and his courage in going after really important physics.”
Washington Post reporter Emily Langer chronicles the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died last week at age 88. Langer explains that Papert “led an early campaign to revolutionize education with the personal computer, a tool he championed not as a classroom gadget but as a key to unlocking a child’s excitement for learning.”
Prof. Susan Lindquist has been named a recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, according to the AP. Lindquist’s research has raised hopes that “treatments could prevent protein ‘misfolding’ that drives degenerative conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease.”
Barb Darrow writes for Fortune about the career of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died July 31. “In the 1960s, when computers were pricey and huge, Papert saw them as a way to help children learn by doing. He developed the Logo programming language for children, who initially used it to program and animate a small robot turtle.”
Prof. Polina Anikeeva speaks with Cory Johnson of Bloomberg West about the emerging field of bioelectronics. Concerning future applications of bioelectronics, Anikeeva says that she thinks “we will start seeing more and more devices coming in and being implanted into various parts of the nervous system to treat disorders we haven’t even thought of before as neurological.”
Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered speaks with Suzanne Massie, wife of the late Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, about Papert’s dedication to using technology to provide children around the world access to education. Massie notes that Papert was “the visionary who first saw the potential of the computer as an instrument of education of children.”