Professors Edward Boyden and Feng Zhang have been named to the 2018 class of Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, reports Jonathan Saltzman for The Boston Globe. “We selected these scientists because they know how to ask hard and interesting questions with skill and intellectual courage,” says David Clapham, vice president and chief scientific officer of the institute.
Katie Kindelan of Good Morning America reports on the “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” hackathon at the Media Lab, which examined physical, socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting new mothers. “We really thought, ‘How do we attack this problem from all angles, not just technology and design but also policy and access,’” explains researcher Alexis Hope.
Prof. Tod Machover details his experience creating “Philadelphia Voices,” which is “the latest in a series of Machover symphonies inspired by cities,” writes Michael Cooper for The New York Times. “To help organize his library of Philadelphia sounds he used software developed at M.I.T. called Constellation, which can analyze hundreds of sound files by volume, frequency and shape, then visually display them.”
A new headset developed by graduate student Arnav Kapur reads the small muscle movements in the face that occur when the wearer thinks about speaking, and then uses “artificial intelligence algorithms to decipher their meaning,” writes Chelsea Whyte for New Scientist. Known as AlterEgo, the device “is directly linked to a program that can query Google and then speak the answers.”
Prof. Tod Machover debuts his latest symphony, “Philadelphia Voices,” this week, and the AP’s Natalie Pompilio writes that it “both captures and celebrates the distinctive sounds and sizzle of Philadelphia.” The piece interweaves live music with recordings that include a “cheesesteak interlude,” birds at the Philadelphia Zoo, and children visiting the Museum of the American Revolution.
Danny Crichton of TechCrunch highlights Media Lab researchers Kent Larson and John Clippinger, who are sorting socio-economic factors into datasets in order to create a model that can guide a community towards success. “Wouldn’t it be great to create an alternative where instead of optimizing for financial benefits, we could optimize for social benefits, and cultural benefits, and environmental benefits,” said Larson.
Writing for Gizmodo, Sidney Fussell explains that a new Media Lab study finds facial-recognition software is most accurate when identifying men with lighter skin and least accurate for women with darker skin. The software analyzed by graduate student Joy Buolamwini “misidentified the gender of dark-skinned females 35 percent of the time,” explains Fussell.
A study co-authored by MIT graduate student Joy Buolamwini finds that facial-recognition software is less accurate when identifying darker skin tones, especially those of women, writes Josh Horwitz of Quartz. According to the study, these errors could cause AI services to “treat individuals differently based on factors such as skin color or gender,” explains Horwitz.
Prof. Kevin Esvelt speaks with Scientific American reporter Elie Dolgin about his work applying genetic engineering to eradicate diseases like malaria. Esvelt explains that one day researchers could potentially, “engineer an organism that would confer disease resistance to an entire species. Ideally, we’d want to start small and local, see how well it works, and only then scale up if it’s warranted.”
Boston Herald reporter Lindsay Kalter writes that a team of MIT researchers has developed a new technique that can deliver medication to specific regions of the brain with extreme precision. “The whole idea here is that instead of treating the entire brain, you can treat small portions of the brain,” explains Prof. Michael Cima.
AP reporter Lauran Neergaard writes that MIT researchers have developed a hair-thin implant that can deliver medications to specific regions of the brain. Neergaard writes that the device, “could mark a new approach to treating brain diseases — potentially reducing side effects by targeting only the hard-to-reach circuits that need care.”
Wired reporter Sandy Ong highlights the work of Prof. Suranga Nanayakkara, who as a postdoc at MIT helped develop the Finger Reader, a device aimed at helping people with visual impairments read without the need for clunky hardware. The Finger Reader, “lets people read only what they’re pointing at, promising a relatively fuss-free experience, especially when out and about.”
Writing for Forbes, Charlie Fink writes about the AR in Action (ARiA) conference, which was held at the MIT Media Lab, and how the event focuses on new ideas rather than products. Fink notes that the conference, “is filled with the innovators and thinkers who are poised to create the next wave of groundbreaking products destined to disrupt the status quo.”
Graduate student Achuta Kadambi speaks with the BBC’s Gareth Mitchell about the new depth sensors he and his colleagues developed that could eventually be used in self-driving cars. “This new approach is able to obtain very high-quality positioning of objects that surround a robot,” Kadambi explains.
MIT researchers have developed an autonomous tricycle that can transport people and packages, writes David Silverberg for Motherboard. “The innovation created by MIT is dubbed PEV (Persuasive Electric Vehicle), and sports a 250W electric motor and 10Ah battery pack. It can run on 25 miles per charge with a top speed of 20 miles per hour.”