WGBH reporter Gabrielle Emanuel speaks with Research Affiliate Catherine D’Ignazio about how she launched the Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon as a graduate student at MIT, and how the hackathon inspired new innovations in the breast pump industry. “In no other space of technology would the technology provide for such a terrible experience,” says D’Ignazio of the state of the breast pump.
The Echo Nest, an audio-tech company founded by MIT alumni, has identified the most danceable number one hit songs, writes Dan Kopf for Quartz. Echo Nest’s algorithm determines the “danceability” of a song based on the tempo and beat regularity, Kopf explains, “so a bridge that even briefly changes the mood is highly penalized.”
Katharine Schwab of Co.Design highlights graduate student Joy Buolamwini and Visiting Scholar J. Nathan Matias as “design heroes” for their commitment to keep technology fair. Schwab writes that Buolamwini has forced companies “to develop better, more equitable technology” while Matias helped “reduced the prevalence of fake news.”
BBC Click reporter Gareth Mitchell speaks with postdoc Oggi Rudovic about his work developing a system that allows autism therapy robots to help teach children how to decipher different emotions. Rudovic explains that the technology can “assist the therapist and also to make the whole therapy process engaging for the child.”
Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, writes for Wired about how scientists are creating new ways to develop meat-free foods. Ito writes that it’s, “feasible to imagine a system that unleashes a culinary bonanza of nutritional, flavor and texture options for future chefs while also lowering the environmental impact of belching cows, concentrated animal-feeding operations, and expensive and energy-inefficient refrigerated supply chains.”
BBC News reporter Jane Wakefield writes about Dormio, a new device developed by Media Lab researchers that awakens users before they enter deep sleep in an attempt to study the period between wakefulness and deep sleep. “I see a future in which sleep is more useful and more accessible to us, where we understand it better," says graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
In this video, Prof. Canan Dagdeviren speaks with STAT about her group’s work developing a new, self-powered implantable device that can be used to relay information about the human body. “The physical patterns of human beings contain information in coded ways, and we would like to decode and understand what these patterns are telling us,” Dagdeviren explains.
Popular Mechanics reporter David Grossman writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that helps robots used in autism therapy better estimate how engaged a child is during an interaction. Grossman explains that, “using the personalized algorithm, the robot was able to correctly interpret a child's reaction 60 percent of the time.”
Prof. Cynthia Breazeal helped Mattel design the latest Barbie in its “Career of the Year” line, who is a robotics engineer. In collaboration with the online platform Tynker, the company is also offering “seven free "Barbie-inspired” coding lessons that will focus on logic, problem-solving, and other skills that a potential robotics engineer will need,” writes Melissa Locker for Time.
In an article for The New York Times, graduate student Joy Buolamwini writes about how AI systems can often reinforce existing racial biases and exclusions. Buolamwini writes that, “Everyday people should support lawmakers, activists and public-interest technologists in demanding transparency, equity and accountability in the use of artificial intelligence that governs our lives.”
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes about Ori, a Media Lab spinout that aims to make apartments more functional and spacious through the use of robotic furniture. Founder and CEO Hasier Larrea, an MIT alumnus, explains that by using technology and robotics, “you can make a 300-square-foot apartment be much more functional than a traditional static 400-square-foot apartment.”
WCVB reporter Mike Wankum visits the Camera Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab to learn more about a device that uses photon imaging to see through dense fog. Wankum explains that the device can, “calculate how fog typically reflects laser light and then removes the fog from the equation, revealing an image hidden inside.”
Co.Design reporter Jesus Diaz writes that MIT researchers have developed a new technique to 3-D print photorealistic representations of objects. Diaz explains that this could have significant potential in education and scientific visualization: “While you can look at a 3D representation of data in virtual or augmented reality, looking at a real physical model is an experience that is hard to beat.”
To prove that the data used to train machine learning algorithms can greatly influence its behavior, MIT researchers input gruesome and violent content into an AI algorithm, writes Benjamin Fearnow for Newsweek. The result is “Norman,” an AI system in which “empathy logic simply failed to turn on,” explains Fearnow.
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that MIT researchers have developed a wireless ingestible sensor that could one day be used to diagnose and treat disease. “The most exciting thing is that we can wirelessly control tiny implants even though they have no batteries at all,” says Prof. Fadel Adib.