Prof. Kripa Varanasi, graduate student Sreedath Panath, and a team of researchers are developing a water-free way to clear dust off of solar panels, reports Billy Hurley and Ed Brown for Tech Briefs. “Water is such a precious commodity, and people need to be careful about how to make use of this resource that we have,” says Varanasi. “The solar industry really needs to keep this in mind; we don’t want to be solving one problem and creating another.”
MIT researchers have used a new reinforcement learning system to teach robots how to acclimate to complex landscapes at high speeds, reports Emmett Smith for Mashable. “After hours of simulation training, MIT’s mini-cheetah robot broke a record with its fastest run yet,” writes Smith.
CSAIL researchers developed a new machine learning system to teach the MIT mini cheetah to run, reports James Vincent for The Verge. “Using reinforcement learning, they were able to achieve a new top-speed for the robot of 3.9m/s, or roughly 8.7mph,” writes Vincent.
MIT has announced the creation of a new multidisciplinary center, called Morningside Academy for Design, which is intended to serve as a “focal point for design research, education, and entrepreneurship,” reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.
MIT has announced the establishment of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design, reports Susan H. Greenberg for Inside Higher Ed. The new center “aims to foster collaboration and innovation across academic disciplines – including engineering, science, management, computing, architecture, urban planning and the arts – to address such pressing global issues as climate change, public health, transportation, and civic engagement,” writes Greenberg.
MIT researchers have developed a new water-free system that uses static electricity to clear dust from solar panels, reports Miriam Fauzia for The Daily Beast. “By using this technique, we can recover up to 95 percent of a solar panel’s power output,” explains graduate student Sreedath Panat.
New Scientist reporter Chen Ly writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique that uses static electricity to remove the dust from solar panels, which could save around 45 billion liters of water annually. “I think water is a precious commodity that is very undervalued,” says Prof. Kripa Varanasi. “What I’m hoping is this will spur more people to think about water issues.”
Writing for Science, Prof. Gang Chen emphasizes the need for universities and funding agencies to stand up for faculty who are wrongfully prosecuted. “What gave me hope and ultimately saved me is a lesson for all universities. MIT leadership, under President L. Rafael Reif, supported me morally and financially after I was detained at the airport, and the university made its support public soon after I was arrested,” writes Chen. He adds, “I urge university leaders, trustees, and alumni associations to protect their faculty from a campaign that is misdirected. The talent loss and terror lobbed upon faculty are weakening their institutions, supporting harmful bias, and ruining lives.”
Jim Axelrod of CBS News speaks with Professor Gang Chen about his ordeal following charges he faced – all now dismissed – under the “China Initiative.” Describing the accusations against Chen as “a massive jolt,” President L. Rafael Reif said, “I felt it was an attack on all Chinese Americans in America, particularly in academia.” Added Chen, a U.S. citizen for more than two decades, “We thought we had achieved the American Dream. Until this nightmare happened.”
MIT researchers have developed a solar-powered desalination system that “avoids salt buildup and could provide a family with continuous drinking water for only $4,” reports Miriam Fauzia for The Daily Beast. “The researchers hope to develop their device into something that can be mass produced and used by individuals and families, especially for those living in remote communities,” writes Fauzia.
Amrita Saigal ’10 has created Kudos Diapers, a sustainable disposable diaper that allows a baby’s skin to touch nothing but pure cotton, reports Angela Yang for The Boston Globe. “We need to get to that point in the world where people opt for sustainable products not just because of the environmental aspects,” says Saigal. “But also because they’re like, ‘this is the best-performing product on the market.’”
New York Times reporter Amanda Morris speaks with Eric Baker, an avid outdoorsperson with chronic debilitating joint diseases, about the GRIT Freedom chair, an all-terrain wheelchair invented by MIT researchers. “With the new chair, Mr. Baker hops curbs, hunts, visits the beach, and can cross mud, rocks and gravel,” writes Morris.
MIT researchers have developed a transparent, degradable medical dressing that could be used to help gut wounds heal more quickly and efficiently without leaking bacteria, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. The researchers “designed their dressing to work like duct tape, which is only sticky on one side,” writes Wilkins. “Once it covers the wound, it quickly forms a hydrogel, an adhesive layer that can help the wound to heal.”
Prof. Mircea Dincǎ, Prof. Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang, Prof. Ian W. Hunter, Prof. Guoping Feng, and Senior Research Scientist David H. Shoemaker were elected as Fellows of AAAS for their efforts on behalf of the advancement of science and its applications to better serve society, reports Science.
Prof. Gang Chen speaks with New York Times reporter Ellen Barry about the damage inflicted by the “China Initiative.” “My love is science. I did not want politics, right?” says Chen. “But I learned that you can’t get away. Politics impacts everybody. So if there are things that are not right, we all need to speak out.”