WCVB reporter Karen Holmes Ward spotlights Joshua Reed-Diawuoh MBA ’20, founder of Gria Food Co., a U.S.-based food company that provides locally sourced snacks from Africa to customers around the world. Ward highlights Diawuoh’s work with Commonwealth Kitchen, a commercial kitchen that aims to uplift local businesses.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, MIT Prof. Katherine Kellogg and Stanford Prof. Melissa Valentine explore the challenges of introducing AI technologies in the workplace, focusing on the fashion industry. "Getting workers to actually use the technologies will turn out to be just as important as making sure the systems work in the first place," they write.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Linda Griffith underscores the pressing need to invest in studying women’s health and menstruation science. “These were the attitudes society had about breast cancer decades ago; we didn’t talk about it. But then we finally focused on the science, and overcame the squeamishness about mentioning ‘breasts’ by creating a technical language that could be spoken without hesitation by anyone,” writes Griffith. “We need a similar scientific push for menstruation science, and a comfort level with the language that goes with it. It’s time.”
Forbes contributor Anuradha Varanasi spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that finds that in China, “masks might function as a ‘moral symbol’ and decrease the likelihood of an individual engaging in any form of deviant behavior.”
The Economist highlights a paper by researchers from MIT and Stanford that finds new ideas are becoming harder to find in areas ranging from crop yields to microchip density. The Economist also spotlights how Prof. Danielle Li and Prof. Pierre Azoulay examined the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) model of funding and found that it “does best when its program directors have a clear understanding of the sort of breakthroughs that are needed.”
Ash Carter, a member of the MIT Corporation and innovation fellow, has died at the at the age of 68, reports Tara Copp for Associated Press. Carter – who opened combat jobs to women and ended the ban on transgender people serving in the military – was known “as a defensive thinker and strategist,” writes Copp.
Atlantic reporter David Graham spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT researchers explored 25 different methods for reducing partisan animosity, support for antidemocratic values and tolerance for political violence. The researchers found that “partisan animosity seemed to have little relation to antidemocratic attitudes, and interventions that reduced animosity didn’t always do much to reduce those antidemocratic views,” writes Graham.
Researchers from the Sloan School of Management have found that toxic work culture is the driving force behind many employees leaving their jobs, reports James Reid for Forbes. “A strong, healthy culture is the execution engine of an organization, which makes it the most valuable asset any organization can possess,” writes Reid.
Researchers from MIT have narrowed down four pathways for companies to digitally transform, reports Joe McKendrick for Forbes. “The pathways pursued depend on corporate culture, internal limitations, and even the fears of business leaders themselves,” writes McKendrick.
Writing for the Financial Times, Prof. David Rand explores how social media platforms could channel partisan motivations to help moderate the spread of misinformation online. “Combating misinformation is a challenge requiring a wide range of approaches,” writes Rand. “Our work suggests that an important route for social media companies to save democracy from misinformation is to democratize the moderation process itself.”
Prof. Diana Henderson, Prof. Daniel Jackson, Prof. David Kaiser, Prof. S.P Kothari, and Prof. Sanjay Sarma have released a new white paper “summarizing their ideas for a new type of undergraduate institution,” writes David Rosowsky for Forbes. “The authors have done a commendable job identifying and assembling some of the proven high-impact practices each of these types of higher educational institutions can offer,” writes Rosowsky.
MIT has been named one of the top 10 best colleges in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, writes Celia Fernandez for CNBC.
Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan has launched a cyberattack prevention course for business leaders, reports Sydney Lake for Fortune. “Board members must be knowledgeable participants in cyber leadership,” says Keri Pearlson, executive director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan. “Board members need a set of frameworks, a language, some examples, and actionable insights so they have an independent way to interpret and understand what their organization is doing to be cybersecure.”
Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew Duehren about how European governments are beginning to experiment with new ways to control energy prices.“Especially with the European energy-market policy interventions, what policy makers do not want to do is exacerbate these problems with their policies, and my fear is that is what these proposals would do,” says Knittel.
In this opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Prof. Simon Johnson suggests that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) decision to reduce production quotas, which was seemingly done in an effort to support Russia, will drive up oil prices worldwide. “The likelihood of Russian defeat in Ukraine, increasing daily with Ukrainian advances, will change the global picture for oil considerably, and OPEC members need to decide whose side they are on for what comes next,” writes Johnson.