“Instead of trying to balance output at the panel level, the students looked to balance at the individual cell level,” writes Sami Grover of The Huffington Post about a team of MIT students who developed an integrated chip to solve the problem caused by shade on solar panels. “The result was both better performance and considerably lower cost.”
Callum Borchers of The Boston Globe writes about the Copenhagen Wheel developed by MIT SENSEable City Lab startup, Superpedestrian. The device is designed to replace a bicycle’s rear wheel and kicks in to give the rider a boost when facing higher resistance on inclines.
Michael Farrell of The Boston Globe reports on a robotic ankle created by Professor Hugh Herr’s startup, BiOM. “The BiOM ankle is programmed to replicate all the natural functionality of the foot and ankle,” writes Farrell.
Joel Brown reports for The Boston Globe on the new Innovations of Cambridge tour, which features several research labs at MIT. “It leaves them with the feeling that they’ve experienced MIT in a way that the casual person wandering the streets would not,” explains guide Daniel Berger-Jones.
Teo Kermeliotis and Jessica Ellis write about Sloan alumnus Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, CEO of Wecyclers, a company aimed at solving waste management issues in Lagos, Nigeria. Wecyclers rewards households that participate in recycling with SMS points that can be redeemed for rewards.
New York Times reporter Adam Bryant interviews Tom Leighton about how his time teaching as an MIT professor influenced his management style in his current role as CEO of Akamai.
In a piece for Bloomberg News, Tom Moroney highlights the innovative spirit behind the MIT Hobby Shop. “The little-known incubator has spawned hundreds of patented inventions, from a contraption that drops a line of salt around your Margarita to a wheelchair sold worldwide that can move the disabled across the roughest terrain,” Moroney writes.
Forbes reporter Bruce Rogers profiles the work of Professor Tom Leighton, from his days teaching as an MIT professor to his work co-founding Akamai and serving as the company’s CEO.
Hollie Slade of Forbes writes about ProtonMail, a new secure email service started by MIT and Harvard alumni.
Doug Saffir reports for Boston.com on ProtonMail a new, high-security email service started by five alumni of MIT and Harvard. ProtonMail is incorporated in Switzerland and subject to strict governmental privacy protections, features encrypted data, and a self-destruct feature that deletes sent emails.
Writing for Scientific American, Melissa Lott reports on how a team from MIT has developed an integrated circuit design that doubles the capacity of existing solar arrays.
Laura Baverman writes about MaKey MaKey, a manufacturing kit for children developed by MIT researchers, in a piece for USA Today. The kit allows children to develop musical instruments and electronics.
In an article for CNN, Thom Patterson reports on how MIT startup Altaeros Energies has developed an airborne wind turbine that they hope can deliver power to the roughly 1 billion people in rural areas without electricity.
Martin LaMonica of The Boston Globe writes about two MIT startups that are aiming to solve long-standing problems with the production of nuclear power. Transatomic Power and UPower Technologies are looking for ways to make efficient use of radioactive waste and develop smaller, cheaper plants, respectively.
MIT alumnus James Lee’s company has invented an armrest with a double-decker design that allows it to be shared comfortably, WCVB reports.