BostInno’s Elise Harmon writes that a $15 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to MIT could “help pave the way for a comprehensive cybersecurity policy.” The gift to MIT is part of $45 million in total to MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley as part of the foundation’s Cyber Initiative.
MIT’s Daniel Weitzner speaks with BetaBoston’s Nidhi Subbaraman about a new cybersecurity policy initiative supported by the Hewlett Foundation. Weitzner explains that researchers will examine what kind of laws and public policy are needed to make “[technologies] more trustworthy.”
Washington Post reporter Philip Bump writes about the average voter waiting time in states across the U.S., citing Professor Charles Stewart’s work examining voting lines. Stewart and his colleagues found that in 2012 Florida voters had to wait on average 45 minutes, Bump reports.
Margot Sanger-Katz cites research by Professor Jonathan Gruber in this New York Times article on rising health insurance premiums. Gruber’s findings indicate that prior to the Affordable Care Act, premiums rose at higher average rates for individuals than they have since the legislation went into effect
Stephen Ansolabehere and David Konisky write for The Boston Globe about a survey on public opinion on energy in the U.S. conducted by the MIT Energy Initiative and the Harvard University Center on Environment. The survey found that Americans have better knowledge of the policy debate than might be expected.
In the new book “Innovative Women: The Changing Face of Technology,” MIT alumna and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith co-authors a chapter about how to increase opportunities for women in technology. In an excerpt provided to Fortune, Smith writes that we’re at a “tipping point” and about to accelerate the path to lasting gender equality.
Bloomberg News reports that MIT alumna Megan Smith has been appointed as the White House Chief Technology Officer. In her new role, Smith will serve as a liaison between the White House and Silicon Valley companies, and advise the government on how to better use technology.
Writing for Wired, Issie Lapowsky reports that MIT graduate Megan Smith has been named the White House Chief Technology Officer. “In addition to being a gifted programmer and technologist, Smith has been one of the country’s leading advocates in the movement to get more women into tech jobs,” writes Lapowsky.
James Hamblin of The Atlantic reports on the new MIT study that shows implementing a cap on carbon emissions would result in health care savings. An economy-wide cap and trade program "would result in a net benefit of $125 billion in human health costs,” writes Hamblin.
CBC News reports on the MIT study examining how carbon reduction policies impact health care spending. “They discovered that the greatest health savings came from the cap-and-trade program, with savings coming in at 10.5 times the $14.5-billion cost of such a program,” CBC reports.
Professor Kenneth Oye speaks with WBUR’s Sacha Pfeiffer about his recent research that details a new way to alter the genomes of organisms and the need for a public discussion about the potential implications and benefits of this new technology.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ed Silverman interviews Professor Andrew Lo about his proposal that a public-private partnership could solve funding issues for drugs research and development. “Right now, the risk of failure [in developing an Alzheimer’s treatment] is far too high for any single pharmaceutical company to take on,” Lo explains.
Ph.D. candidate Josephine Wolff writes for Slate about the potential for allowing offensive computer security measures in order to protect networks. Wolff argues that the risks of endorsing these measures outweigh the benefits.
“Based on the current rates of success in creating new drugs for Alzheimer's disease, it could take 260 years until the next one is approved,” writes The Boston Globe’s Carolyn Johnson on the rationale for why Professor Andrew Lo is proposing a new, portfolio-based approach to Alzheimer's research.
Wall Street Journal reporter Irving Wladawsky-Berger examines Prof. David Autor’s research on income inequality. “Mr. Autor estimates that the difference in the yearly earnings between a college-educated two-income family and a high school-educated two-income family has risen by $28,000 between 1979 and 2012,” he writes.