Newsweek reporter Tom Howarth spotlights MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems as they announced plans to “build the world's first grid-scale commercial nuclear fusion power plant” in Virginia. “The plant is expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 150,000 homes or large industrial facilities,” writes Howarth.
In a wide-ranging interview with NHK (broadcast in Japanese), President Sally Kornbluth discusses MIT’s innovation ecosystem, the MIT Climate Project and how MIT faculty work to help nurture their students’ creativity. "We give students the opportunity to research real-world projects and see their impact on society," says Kornbluth. “We should focus on bringing out the creativity of students, their individual creativity. Almost everyone you meet at a place like MIT wants to start a company. Nurturing this kind of talent is essential in the long run to the incredible success we see at American universities.”
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff, plans to build “the nation’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia by the early 2030s,” reports Laura Vozzella and Gregory S. Schneider for The Washington Post. “Fusion is a long-sought source of power that can generate almost limitless energy by combining atomic nuclei,” they write. “It is unlike fission, the more common form of nuclear energy, in which the nucleus is split, and which generates large amounts of radioactive waste.”
MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems has shared their plans “to build its first commercial power plant” in Virginia, reports Aaron Pressman for The Boston Globe. “Commonwealth aims to build a complete power plant with a fusion machine generating heat used to spin turbines and make 400 megawatts of electric power, enough to supply 150,000 homes, by the mid-2030s,” explains Pressman.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout, has announced plans to “build its first fusion power plant in Virginia, with the aim of generating zero-emissions electricity there in the early 2030s,” reports Raymond Zhong for The New York Times. “The proposed facility is among the first to be announced that would harness nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, to produce power commercially, a long-elusive goal that scientists have pursued for the better part of a century,” explains Zhong.
MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems has announced plans to build the “world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Virginia, to generate power by the early 2030s,” reports Timothy Gardner for Reuters. The project, “could revolutionize the global energy industry by tapping into a virtually limitless power source, similar to that which fuels the stars,” writes Gardner.
Anna Sun '23 co-founded Nowadays, an AI-powered event planner, reports Julie Bort for TechCrunch. Nowadays “emails venues, caterers, and the like to gather bids,” explains Bort. “It will even make phone calls to nudge a response to unanswered emails. It then organizes the information and presents it to the event planner, who can make decisions and sign contracts.”
Boston Business Journal reporter Hannah Green spotlights the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative, a new effort designed to connect researchers, medical professionals, and industry leaders in a shared mission to address some of the most pressing health challenges of our time. Green notes that the collaborative aims to “spur high-impact discoveries and health solutions through interdisciplinary projects across engineering, science, AI, economics, business, policy, design, and the humanities.”
Writing for Forbes, Senior Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota SB '08, MS '16, MBA '16 shares insight into how entrepreneurs can use AI to build successful startups. AI “can be a strategic advantage when implemented wisely and used as a tool to support, rather than replace, the human touch,” writes Hayes-Mota.
Prof. Kripa Varanasi speaks with BBC News reporter Chris Baraniuk about his work developing a “range of coatings that make surfaces slippery and therefore resistant to the formation of biofilms.” Baraniuk notes that: “Tests of one such coating in an experiment carried out on board the International Space Station found that it worked as intended.”
TSP Smart Spaces, a home automation company founded by Michael Oh '95 has been named to Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston Home 2025 list, reports Jaci Conry, Cheryl Fention, Marni Elyse Katz, Angela Athena Mats, and Stefanie Schwalb for Boston Magazine. TSP Smart Spaces uses “the ideal technology solutions while simultaneously making the user experience simple, comprehensive, and value-driven ensures even the most tech-hesitant homeowner feels automatically savvy,” they write.
Neural Magic, an AI optimization startup co-founded by Prof. Nir Shavit and former Research Scientist Alex Matveev, aims to “process AI workloads on processors and GPUs at speeds equivalent to specialized AI chips,” reports Kyle Wiggers for TechCrunch. “By running models on off-the-shelf processors, which usually have more available memory, the company’s software can realize these performance gains,” explains Wiggers.
Michael Truell '21, Sualeh Asif '22, Arvid Lunnemar '22, and Aman Sanger '22 co-founded Anysphere, an AI startup working on developing Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant, reports Marina Temkin for TechCrunch.
Samara Oster MBA '22 has founded Meli, a company that has crafted a gluten-free beer made with organic quinoa, reports Ann Trieger Kurland for The Boston Globe. “With 4.4 percent alcohol, typical of light beers, it’s produced merely with water, high-quality organic quinoa, hops, and yeast,” explains Kurland.
Lithios, a startup cofounded by Mohammad Alkhadra PhD '22 and Prof. Martin Bazant, is developing “a clean and relatively cheap way to access vast amounts of lithium,” reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Lithios has developed a lithium-absorbing material that can be made into electrodes using the same technologies created to make electrodes for lithium-ion batteries,” explains Bray.