School of Engineering

Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Danny Lewis, host of The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” podcast, about the future of nuclear power plants. “As countries, regions, businesses contemplate their future plans for reducing carbon emissions, nuclear is one technology that they have got to consider,” says Buongiorno. “It's an incredibly dense energy source, so you don't need a big supply chain that continuously feeds the power plant with fuel, the same way that you would with coal, for example. Also, the machine itself, the reactor is very, very compact.”

Grace Colón PhD '95, a board member of the MIT Corporation, writes for The Hill about how to transform cities into biotech innovations hubs. “The best path to biotech success will be different for each city,” writes Colón. “But by building on institutional strengths, investing in workers, and knocking down barriers to success, there’s no reason more of them can’t get there.”

Forbes reporter Nancy Wang spotlights Tara Bishop '97 and Eileen Tanghal '97, co-founders of Black Opal Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on health tech. “Tara and Eileen’s story at Black Opal Ventures is a testament to how diversity and innovation can disrupt traditional landscapes,” writes Wang. “Their pioneering strategies and investments herald a new era for healthcare venture capitalism, where diversity and technology converge to create a more inclusive and impactful future.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable “technopill” that can monitor vital signs from inside the body, reports Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.

Prof. Russ Tedrake and Max Bajracharya '21 MEng '21 speak with TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater about the impact of generative AI on the future of robotics. “Generative AI has the potential to bring revolutionary new capabilities to robotics,” says Tedrake. “Not only are we able to communicate with robots in natural language, but connecting to internet-scale language and image data is giving robots a much more robust understanding and reasoning about the world.”

MIT researchers have developed a supercapacitor comprised of concrete and charcoal, that can store electricity and discharge as needed, reports Aleks Phillips for Newsweek. Researchers hope the device can provide “a cheap and architectural way of saving renewable energy from going to waste,” writes Phillips.

New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed an ingestible electronic device that “can measure your breathing and heart rate from inside your gut [and] could potentially diagnose sleep apnea and even detect opioid overdoses.” The device could one day allow “people to be assessed for sleep apnea wirelessly and cheaply while at home.”

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable electronic capsule that can be used to help diagnose sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “Conventional laboratory and home sleep studies require the patient to be attached to many different sensors,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso. “As you can imagine, trying to sleep with all of this machinery can be challenging. [The] ingestible capsule just requires that the patient swallow the vitamin-sized pill. It's easy and unobtrusive and can accurately measure both respiratory rate and heart rate while the patient sleeps."

Writing for The Messenger, graduate student Kartik Chandra highlights the MIT Art Lending Program, which allows students to select one piece from the List Visual Arts Center’s collection to keep in their dorm rooms for the duration of the academic year. “Three years into my time at MIT, I’m convinced the program works well,” writes Chandra. “Our relationship with art changes from the moment we walk into the gallery. As students wander, pondering what to take home, conventional measures of fame, monetary worth, and even beauty fall away, and the only question that matters becomes: Does this piece speak to you, personally? And something always does — as if it were put there just for you.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a new 3D printing process that “allows users to create more elastic materials along with rigid ones using slow-curing polymers,” reports Tony Ho Tran for the Daily Beast. The researchers used the system to create a, “3D printed hand complete with bones, ligaments, and tendons. The new process also utilizes a laser sensor array developed by researchers at MIT that allows the printer to actually ‘see’ what it’s creating as it creates it.”

George Hadjigeorgiou MSc '98 co-founded Zoe, a personalized nutrition program that “aims to improve gut and metabolic health,” reports Julia Kollewe for The Guardian. “Zoe has identified almost 5,000 never-before-seen gut bacteria,” writes Kollewe. “Of those, 100 were strongly associated with health across all 35,000 participants – 50 good and 50 bad. This feeds into the app and members’ personalized scores will be updated over time”

Lisa Su BS, MS ’91, PhD ’94, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has been named to the Forbes 2023 Future of Work list for her, “technological chops and management savvy [techniques that] helped orchestrate a case-study worthy turnaround at AMD,” reports Jena McGregor for Forbes. The Forbes list, “highlights 50 leaders, executives, thinkers and teams rethinking the world of work at a time when everything – from the job market’s future to AI’s impact to a college degree’s value – feels more uncertain than ever.”

A study co-authored by research scientist Evan Fricke found that “extinctions and declines in habitat [of migratory birds] have dramatically reduced the long-distance dispersal of seeds,” reports Liam Drew for The Atlantic. “There have been really strong declines in long-distance seed dispersal as a result of the massive loss of big animals from the ecosystems,” says Fricke.

Milena Pagán '11 speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kara Baskin about bringing her Providence-based bagel shop, Reblle, to Kendall Square. “We started the process to move a store to Cambridge about two years ago” says Pagán. “This has really been a long time in the making, to find the right space and to work out a deal. But we’re in a really cool building. We have tenants upstairs. There’s a park across the street that reminds me in a lot of ways of the neighborhood where Rebelle is right now. And being close to MIT is such a dream. That place has really good juju for me, so I’m really excited about it.

President Biden has awarded Prof. Emeritus Subra Suresh ScD '81, the former dean of the MIT School of Engineering, the National Medal of Science for his “pioneering research across engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences,” reports Alexa Gagosz for The Boston Globe. Prof. James Fujimoto '79, SM '81, PhD '84, research affiliate Eric Swanson SM '84, and David Huang '85, SM '89, PhD '93 were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, “the nation’s highest award for technical achievement.”