Fortune reporter Robert Hackett writes that MIT spinoff nuTonomy is developing a fleet of driverless taxis for Singapore. Hackett writes that the company “could become the first to operate fully self-driving cars, known as ‘level four,’ in a city commercially.”
MIT researchers have developed a technique to help predict the thickness of a round shell, reports Alexandra Ossola for Popular Science. The findings “could help researchers create shells with a predictable thickness and a uniform consistency at an industrial scale. That’s useful for a range of products, including pills and aerodynamic vehicles.”
Alumna Tish Scolnik, CEO of GRIT, speaks with Justine Hofherr of Boston.com about how an MIT class inspired her career. Scolnik explains that the idea for GRIT, an MIT startup that produces wheelchairs that allows users to traverse rugged terrain, “started back at MIT as a class project.”
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bill Littlefield of NPR’s Only A Game about a local student’s “Deflategate" experiment. Leonard says that “ultimately I think if you can explain things in very simple terms and get at the essence of a concept, that’s the best situation."
On CBS This Morning, Prof. John Leonard weighed in on “Deflategate,” validating a local student's experiment that showed how cold weather causes a football to lose pressure. "It's just basic laws of physics, it doesn't matter if you root for the Patriots, or the Eagles, or the Redskins, this is what happens to footballs in cold weather," Leonard said.
In this video, The Economist explores how MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that can predict where and when rogue waves might strike. The algorithm “identifies groups of waves most likely to form a rogue wave. The MIT algorithm is so thrifty that a ship’s skipper can run it on a laptop.”
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm capable of predicting the onset of rogue waves, writes Jason Thomson for The Christian Science Monitor. The algorithm, “hunts through data collected about surrounding waves, sifting for signs of clusters that could coalesce and crest into one of these behemoths.”
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that can predict rogue waves, reports Matt Burgess for Wired. Burgess explains that the algorithm uses “statistical data, collected from buoys in the ocean, to quantify the range of possible waves for any body of water.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that MIT researchers have developed a new tool that could provide advanced warning of rogue waves. The tool should allow crews “to detect rogue wave minutes before they form, giving them enough time to adjust course, or at least hang on.”
Wendy Koch of National Geographic spoke with members of the MIT Hyperloop team about their work transforming their design for a levitating pod that could transport people at hundreds of miles an hour into an operational prototype. “It’s a great opportunity to learn and possibly to change the future of transportation,” says project manager and graduate student John Mayo.
Tech Insider’s Chris Weller reports on a new study by MIT researchers that examines how sneezes travel and spread viruses. The findings could help researchers “predict and prevent disease spread,” Weller explains. “If they know how quickly a pathogen spreads via sneeze, then they can learn more about the risks posed by the viruses themselves.”
MIT Hyperloop team members Philippe Kirschen and Sabrina Ball speak with Mike Nikitas of NECN about the team’s approach to the SpaceX competition. “We wanted to design a pod that was safe, scalable and feasible,” explains Kirschen.” We really focused on the technology that we thought we could develop… that could possibly be applied to a full-scale hyperloop.”
MIT researchers are developing a smart bandage that could monitor and help heal wounds, according to Reuters. Prof. Xuanhe Zhao explains that if sensors in the bandage detected “an abnormal increase in temperature, for example, it will send out a command. Then the controlled drug delivery system can deliver a specific drug to that specific location.”
Wired reporter Alex Davies speaks with graduate student Phillipe Kirschen, team captain of the MIT Hyperloop team, about the team’s strategy. Kirschen explains that the team is focused on developing a “pod that is gonna go really fast, that is gonna levitate, that can have good attitude control, and that can brake well.”
Graduate student Chris Merian, chief engineer for MIT's Hyperloop team, speaks with Radio Boston’s Meghna Chakrabarti about the team’s success in the Hyperloop contest. Merian says the team saw the competition as a, “really cool engineering challenge that we are really passionate about, and seeing our hundreds of hours of work rewarded like that was really, really nice.”