The new MIT Museum, a “purpose-built exhibition and gathering space in the heart of Kendall Square,” writes Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay, “seeks to demystify some of the school’s opaque inner workings, makes itself broadly approachable with expanded gallery space, forum areas, learning labs, and a maker hub where visitors can work on museum-led projects.” MIT Museum Director John Durant explains: “We want people to feel that this is their museum.”
The Engine has moved into a new building situated between Kendall and Central Square in Cambridge, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Katie Rae, chief executive and managing partner of The Engine, said having a physical place for startups to work was a crucial part of the original ‘tough tech’ concept,” writes Chesto.
The new MIT Museum opens to the public this weekend in its new location in Kendall Square, which is “quite significant because this is the heart of innovation,” notes GBH’s Jared Bowen. Museum visitors will not only get a sense of MIT’s long history of innovation, but also get a sense of the scientific process, with exhibits featuring “part of the machinery that was used to help sequence the human genome, [and] the star shade petal that allowed NASA to photograph exoplanets,” Bowen explains.
Lita Nelsen BS ’64, MS ’66, MBA ’79 writes for The Boston Herald about the Bayh-Dole Act, a landmark piece of legislation that allows universities to keep the patents to their own inventions. “As the head of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office for almost three decades, I helped license thousands of technologies to the innovative companies that sprung up around campus,” writes Nelsen. “The Bayh-Dole Act has indisputably helped the U.S. life sciences sector become the envy of the world.”
Writing for Metropolis, James McCown highlights the architecture of the new MIT buildings in Kendall Square, particularly the property at 314 Main Street, which houses the new MIT Press Bookstore and MIT Museum. “To walk across the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is to get a crash course in 20th and early 21st-century architecture,” writes McCown. “Who wouldn’t want to add their signature to this splendid architectural canvas?”
Boston Globe reporter Tim Logan spotlights MIT’s efforts to increase connections with the neighborhoods surrounding Kendall Square. MIT is “running shuttles from nearby neighborhoods to help people get to community events at its newly built plaza off Main Street, and it’s working on ways to get Cambridge kids better engaged with the MIT Museum when it reopens in its new location,” notes Logan. “It is imperative that what we’re doing here and Kendall represents the desires and aspirations of the neighbors,” says Sarah Gallop, co-director of MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations.
Boston Globe reporter Brittany Bowker spotlights the work of Amy Brand, director and publisher of the MIT Press, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this month. “I feel like I have one of the best jobs in the world because I’m living in this realm of exciting ideas and discoveries,” Brand says. “I’m getting to walk and work with such brilliant and amazing people at the press, but also in general. Authors who are passionate about what they do and passionate about the potential for knowledge.”
Former MIT research fellow Robert (Bob) Buderi speaks with Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing about his new book, “Where The Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub,” which explores the history of Kendall Square and its innovation ecosystem. “One of the big chapters is about an effort at MIT by former President Susan Hockfield and two professors Sangeeta Bhatia and Nancy Hopkins to increase the opportunity for women faculty… to get into the stream that creates companies,” explains Buderi.
Fortune reporter Nicole Gull McElroy spotlights how the MIT Innovation Initiative and the Sloan School of Management are opening Innovation HQ, a 50,000 square foot space that will house a cross-disciplinary innovation and entrepreneurship lab. “Innovation HQ will offer students, alumni, faculty and staff a place to work, collaborate and create with six departments, lab space, an innovator’s lounge and a new space for music and arts innovation called Voxel Lab,” writes McElroy.
Boston Globe reporter Nina MacLaughlin spotlights the MIT Press Bookstore, which has reopened in a new space in the MIT Kendall Gateway. “The new space has more square footage than its previous home, and besides offering the books and journals published by the titular press, the bookstore also carries a selection of academic and general interest titles,” writes MacLaughlin, “including a space dedicated to STEAM books for kids, with special attention on the new MIT Kids Press and MITeen Press titles.”
Boston Globe reporter Anissa Gardizy writes that Apple has announced it will be leasing office space in Kendall Square. “Big tech companies have long wanted to be close to MIT,” writes Gardizy. “This area of Cambridge is home to offices for Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, and MIT’s new building is across the street from another under-construction building mostly occupied by Google.”
Boston Business Journal reporter Catherine Carlock spotlights how MIT has submitted plans for the second phase of the Volpe redevelopment in Kendall Square. “The second phase could house a combined 1,400 residential units; 1.7 million square feet of lab, research and office space; a 20,000-square-foot community center; 3.5 acres of open space and other retail, entertainment and cultural facilities,” writes Carlock.
Boston Globe reporter Tim Logan writes about how MIT has submitted design plans for the next phase of its proposal to transform the Volpe Transportation Center into a dynamic mixed-use development, including “eight office and residential towers on the 14-acre site north of Broadway.”
Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung spotlights how the development of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine demonstrates the success of the Massachusetts life sciences sector. “For more than half a century, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been the epicenter of that curiosity, with a focus on molecular biology — initially to find a cure for cancer,” writes Leung. “There have been Nobel laureates collaborating on cancer, genetics, and immunology, along with future laureates making discoveries in how RNA, a molecule that is as fundamental as DNA to cell function, can be used in medicine.”
Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine, speaks with Forbes reporter David Jeans about the second round of funding raised by The Engine and how the venture is looking to help support tough tech ideas. “These are things with often longer [investment] timeframes,” Rae says. “They’ve almost always been backed by government-led research, and now they are ready to translate into companies.”