Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that MIT is establishing a college of computing to help students and researchers use computing and AI to advance their work. President L. Rafael Reif explains that the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing “will constitute both a global centre for computing research and education, and an intellectual foundry for powerful new AI tools.”
The New York Times writes about the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, calling MIT’s move “a particularly ambitious step.” President Reif says the College will “educate the bilinguals of the future,” people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history, and linguistics who are also skilled in the techniques of modern computing that can be applied to them.
During her Commencement address at MIT, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg urged graduates to try to make the world a better place, reports Abigail Hess for CNBC. "We are accountable to the people who use what we build, to our colleagues, to ourselves and to our values,” said Sandberg.
Boston Globe reporter Sophia Eppolito writes that during MIT’s 2018 Commencement exercises, speakers stressed the importance of uniting to create a better world. “We all strive to see the world, not as a zero-sum game, but as positive-sum — as a world where generous collaboration makes each collaborator smarter, stronger, and richer in every way,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
Quartz reporter Leah Fessler writes that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s Commencement address at MIT featured a call for graduates to help create more inclusive technologies and workplaces. “It’s not the technology you build that will define you. It’s the teams you build and what people do with the technology you build,” Sandberg advised.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg advocated for MIT graduates to be, “clear-eyed optimists” while speaking at MIT’s 2018 Commencement exercises, reports Ethan Wolff-Mann for Yahoo! Finance. “It’s not enough to be technologists. We have to make sure that technology serves people,” she said.
AP reporter Collin Binkley writes that during her Commencement address at MIT, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg called for equality in the technology sector. "Build workplaces where everyone — everyone — is treated with respect," she said. "We need to stop harassment and hold both perpetrators and enablers accountable. And we need to make a personal commitment to stop racism and sexism."
The Boston Globe highlights some of the notable speakers who will deliver remarks at commencements across New England in the coming weeks, including Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, who will speak at MIT’s ceremony.
World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma will deliver an on campus talk titled "Yo-Yo Ma: Culture, Understanding and Survival" as part of MIT's Compton Lecture series. “Ma is a prolific performer who has recorded more than 100 albums and has worked to promote collaboration among artists from different cultures,” notes the Associated Press.
President Reif is GeekWire’s Geek of the Week! He talks about what inspires him, his favorite app, and the very “only at MIT” thing he’s waited in line for.
President Reif sat down with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop, as part of a Seattle trip to talk with alumni about MIT’s plans for the future of education, research, and innovation. In talking about the work of the future, Reif tells Bishop, “[T]here will be work, it just will look very different from today. And we need to prepare for that transition.”
NBC Boston reporter Frank Holland visits MIT to discuss the Institute’s ties to slavery, which is the subject of a new undergraduate research course. “MIT and Slavery class is pushing us into a national conversation. A conversation that’s well underway in the rest of country regarding the role of slavery and institutions of higher learning,” said Dean Melissa Nobles.
After being charged by MIT’s president to investigate the Institute’s ties to slavery, Prof. Craig Wilder led a new class that “uncovered myriad connections… some blatant and others nuanced,” reports Laura Krantz for The Boston Globe. SHASS Dean Melissa Nobles says it’s important to study MIT’s role in post-Civil War Reconstruction: “At the end of day, MIT is about ideas. It’s about better understanding human knowledge and advancing it. And one way we advance it is by understanding its origins.”
Jeff Engel writes for Xconomy about MIT’s ambitions for its newly announced Institute-wide initiative, MIT Intelligence Quest. “If we want A.I. breakthroughs, it’s going to take research in new science. That’s a central inspiration for MIT IQ,” said President Reif.
“The MIT Intelligence Quest or MIT IQ, based at an institution that has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research since the 1950s, is a far-reaching academic effort to regain the initiative in AI,” writes Clive Cookson for The Financial Times.