School of Engineering

Ministry of Supply, a clothing brand founded by MIT alumni, has developed a machine-washable, heated jacket, reports Rebecca Barker for Fast Company. “The issue with a lot of heated garments is that they want you to know that they’re heated garments,” says co-founder Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11. “The controller is on the outside, for example, they’re often times made out of kind of cheap shell material, so it doesn’t look as high quality. We think of the heating system as a secondary element, because we think the design of the garment can stand on its own.”

MIT engineers have developed “two new control techniques that have enabled them to achieve a world-record single-qubit fidelity of 99.998 percent using a superconducting qubit called fluxonium,” reports Aman Tripathi for Interesting Engineering. “This breakthrough marks a significant step towards the realization of practical quantum computing,” Tripathi notes. 

Alumnus Andrew Clare has been named CEO of Elory Air, an aircraft company that has developed an “autonomous and hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft,” reports Ed Garsten for Forbes.  “My big goal on the technical side for the company is flight envelope expansion as well as autonomous capability expansion of our full-scale aircraft,” Clare explains. “You will see in the coming months that we will start to do full mission envelope work with our full-scale aircraft.”

Noubar Afeyan PhD '87 and a member of the MIT Corporation speaks with Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman about the future of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and “superintelligent” AI. “Humans have long developed tools, microscopes, mass spectrometers, you name it, to help them be able to understand nature better,” says Afeyan. “Now one of the tools, in the case of machine [learning], we’re elevating to the level of a whole new intelligence.”

Stever Robbins '86 shares his tips for organizing college application essays with Forbes contributor Dr. Marlena Corcoran. “There are two main ways that you would want to find the essays that you write,” says Robbins. “One is you're going to want to find the essay that you wrote for a particular school. The other way is you're going to want to find an essay you wrote on a particular topic.”

Graduate student Shomik Verma writes for Newsweek that “we need systemic change to ensure our individual climate actions aren't going to waste. If you're serious about fighting climate change this year, instead of recycling more, consider shifting focus to policy support and investments.” Verma adds: “if we advocate for change at the federal and state level, we can build an effective bridge between our individual actions and the change we want to see in the world.”

Ars Technica reporter Jacek Krywko spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new photonic chip that that can “compute the entire deep neural net, including both linear and non-linear operations, using photons.” Visiting scientist Saumil Bandyopadhyay '17, MEng '18, PhD '23 explains that: “We’re focused on a very specific metric here, which is latency. We aim for applications where what matters the most is how fast you can produce a solution. That’s why we are interested in systems where we’re able to do all the computations optically.” 

WCVB-TV's Chronicle spotlights Prof. Linda Griffith, “a forerunner in the field of biological engineering,” for her research investigating endometriosis and breaking the stigma around menstruation. Griffith founded the MIT Center for Gynepathology Research in 2009 and “one of their objectives is to help develop ways of staging endometriosis, similar to how cancer is characterized.” Griffith notes that by focusing on menstruation and making it a science, “I think we will really change the game for women.

Writing for Wired, Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, highlights the future of “physical intelligence, a new form of intelligent machine that can understand dynamic environments, cope with unpredictability, and make decisions in real time.” Rus writes: “Unlike the models used by standard AI, physical intelligence is rooted in physics; in understanding the fundamental principles of the real world, such as cause-and-effect.”

MIT Profs. Angela Belcher, Emery Brown, Paula Hammond and Feng Zhang have been honored with National Medals of Science and Technology, reports Michael T. Neitzel for Forbes. Additionally, R. Lawrence Edwards '76 received a National Medal of Science and Noubar Afeyan PhD '87, a member of the MIT Corporation, accepted a National Medal on behalf of Moderna. The recipients have been awarded “the nation’s highest honors for exemplary achievements and leadership in science and technology,” explains Neitzel. 

Prof. William Thilly, a “leader of groundbreaking research into human genetic mutations, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and the inventor of Kellogg’s Apple Jacks cereal,” has died at age 79, reports Jade Lozada for The Boston Globe. “I will always remember Bill as my first mentor and a scientific father figure,” says alumnus Tushar Kamath. “I can’t imagine having pursued a career of medical research without the formative experiences he offered me.” 

In an interview with NPR’s “Short Wave” host Emily Kwong, Prof. Mark Drela attempts to ease flight anxiety by explaining the science behind flying. “Airplanes are designed to withstand very, very extreme turbulence,” says Drela. “Even the most violent imaginable turbulence that you’ve ever felt, the airplane can withstand loads maybe three times bigger…There is a very big safety margin on how aircrafts are built.”

Forbes reporter Bruce Dorminey spotlights Donald Douglas, a graduate of the class of 1914. “Douglas christened his company, Douglas Aircraft and built his first planes under contract with the U.S. Navy,” explains Dorminey. “The early most successful model was known as the Douglas Torpedo 2, a single engine seaplane. But the DT2 had to be heavily modified to make it suitable for a trip around the world. Douglas increased the DT2 biplane’s range from 275 miles to over 2000 miles.” 

Newsweek reporter Tom Howarth spotlights MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems as they announced plans to “build the world's first grid-scale commercial nuclear fusion power plant” in Virginia. “The plant is expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 150,000 homes or large industrial facilities,” writes Howarth. 

Lisa Su '90, SM '91, PhD '94, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has been named Time’s 2024 CEO of the Year, reports Orianna Rosa Royle for Fortune. In 2012, Su joined “AMD as senior vice president and general manager of the company’s global business units,” writes Royle. “Just two years later she was promoted to AMD’s CEO becoming the first woman to hold to role since the company’s founding in 1969.”