A new study co-authored by Prof. Christopher Knittel shows some Uber and Lyft drivers are racially discriminating when selecting passengers, writes Bloomberg News reporter Eric Newcomer. One of the study’s findings was that “Uber drivers disproportionately canceled on riders with black-sounding names, even though the company penalizes drivers who cancel frequently.”
In an article for Wired, Issie Lapowsky interviews Prof. Charles Stewart about the fairness of the American voting system. Lapowsky explains that Stewart has been tracking voter experiences since 2008, and his research has “become the basis of other election administration research like the studies conducted by the Brennan Center.”
Scientists at MIT and Brown University have discovered the origin of the Orientale basin, the oldest crater on the Moon, according to EFE. The impact of an asteroid 3.8 billion years ago formed a crater that has since “collapsed under the rock fractures and its temperatures forming three concentric rings visible today.”
Prof. Tauhid Zaman writes for The Wall Street Journal about his research examining how biometric data could be used to help determine how people will perform under stress. Zaman and his colleagues found that “people who sweated when the stakes were low did the best when stakes were high.”
Prof. Antoinette Schoar writes for The Wall Street Journal about her research examining the quality of advice financial advisors provide to their clients. Schoar writes that her research has shown that “holding financial advisers to higher fiduciary standards is not only good consumer financial protection but is also good market economics.”
Barbara Fister writes for Inside Higher Ed about the task force report examining the future of MIT’s libraries. “The library it envisions is so much more than information rented annually for the use of a single community. It’s a place that values its local community and provides a physical space in which to learn and ask questions.”
New York Times reporter Randy Kennedy writes about “The Enemy,” a virtual reality project created by Prof. Fox Harrell and Visiting Scholar Ben Khelifa that is aimed at allowing visitors to learn from individuals on both sides of long-standing conflicts. The project “holds the promise of opening up new frontiers for the integration of journalism and art,” writes Kennedy.
Researchers at MIT have created an algorithm that transforms faces and popular landmarks into scarier versions with impressionistic, sketchy qualities, according to the BBC News. To help teach the algorithm about the concept of scariness, the researchers are asking people vote for the scariest images.
Just in time for Halloween, MIT researchers have launched a website that uses algorithms to generate scary images based off of pictures of popular landmarks and public figures, reports Rebecca Hersher for NPR. The deep-learning algorithm creates “artistic images of high perceptual quality based on examples of images created by humans,” Hersher reports.
Alyssa Newcomb writes for NBC News about the Nightmare Machine, a new system developed by MIT researchers that generates scary images based off of familiar faces and locations. “The Nightmare Machine gets scarier with help from humans, who are asked to vote on which images are the scariest,” Newcomb explains.
A study by MIT researchers is providing more information about how the brain stores and processes social memories, writes Hallie Smith for Boston Magazine. Smith explains that, in the future, the findings may be applicable to autism research and therapy.
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Federico Kukso of El País about the MIT Campaign for a Better World and the need to educate students prepared to tackle society’s most pressing challenges. MIT is “an intellectually explosive, unique place,” says Reif, adding that “we value intelligence, passion, curiosity.”
STAT reporter Meghana Keshavan speaks with Prof. Guoping Feng about his new research that shows glial cells “very actively participate in direct neuronal function — particularly in the brain areas that control appetite, energy and metabolism.” The findings could help spur the development of weight loss medications.
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Sparshott writes that a study co-authored by Prof. Scott Stern shows that while tech companies in Massachusetts are generating ideas and creating companies “those ventures aren’t breaking out into successful big companies.”
President L. Rafael Reif appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss innovation and research for a better world with Charlie Rose and Margaret Brennan. “At MIT, and places like MIT, you can actually see the future,” said Reif.