During a ceremony on Wednesday, MIT unveiled a new memorial built in honor of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, reports Jack Harper for WCVB. “The goal was really to take that notion of what is strength and how to celebrate Sean,” said Prof. J. Meejin Yoon, the memorial's architect.
The Associated Press reports that MIT has dedicated a new memorial in honor of Officer Sean Collier. The memorial, “features five granite walls arranged in a radial pattern resembling the spread fingers of an open hand, connected by a vault in the center where ‘In the line of duty, Sean Collier April 18, 2013’ is etched.”
Kristin Toussaint reports for Boston.com on “A Shout Across Time,” an event organized by Professor David Kaiser that explains the theory of relativity through dance. “It’s all about objects moving through space and time,” says Kaiser. “What could be more natural than bodies in a dance for that?”
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, an MIT alumna, is featured in Wired’s list of people transforming the business world. Jessi Hempel writes that Smith, this year’s commencement speaker, brings a "startup mentality to Washington, D.C."
Boston Globe reporter Jeremy Eichler reviews the final concert performed this year as part of Sounding, a new annual concert series at MIT, which featured a celebration of American experimental music. The annual series concluded on Saturday night with a “roiling and joyful 80th birthday tribute to minimalist pioneer Terry Riley,” Eichler writes.
MIT hosted a debate between two panels of experts last week to discuss whether the Institute should divest its endowment from fossil-fuel companies, reports Kyle Alspach for BostInno. Each side included “an MIT faculty member, a professor from another institution and an executive from an investment firm.”
Jennifer Switzer reports for The Tech on MIT’s fossil-fuel divestment debate. “Divestment has been one of the most strongly debated potential actions of academic institutions in recent times,” said Prof. Roman Stocker, head of the MIT Climate Change Committee. “We decided: Why don’t we tackle it head-on?”
Benjamin Hulac reports for Scientific American on a debate held at MIT on whether the Institute should divest its endowment from fossil-fuel companies. The forum included a panel of experts arguing each side of the issue and responding to questions from the audience.
Mark Shanahan writes for The Boston Globe that the organizers of HUBweek, an innovation-themed festival designed to showcase Boston’s leadership in education, medicine, technology and the arts, gathered at a launch party last week. As part of HUBweek, MIT will host “Solve,” an event designed to bring together leaders in a variety of areas to tackle global challenges.
Steve Annear writes for The Boston Globe about “TransportationCamp New England,” a conference exploring the future of transportation to be held at MIT on April 11th. The event will “play host to demonstrations of technologies including a fuel cell car and the Cambridge-bred Copenhagen Wheel, which provides stored electric power to cyclists struggling to pump their pedals.”
Karen Weintraub writes for The Boston Globe about Professor Temple Grandin’s talk at MIT about coping with stress. Grandin, who has autism, “said her anxiety has been transformed into hyper-vigilance. She’s aware of every little movement the airplane she’s riding on makes, but isn’t worried that the plane might crash,” Weintraub explains.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston about MIT’s new cybersecurity initiatives designed to “tackle tech security problems both big and small.” The new efforts are aimed at addressing cybersecurity’s technical, policy and business challenges.
MIT is launching three cybersecurity efforts, including one aimed at managing cybersecurity within critical infrastructure, reports Rachael King for The Wall Street Journal. “We’re hoping to develop a number of new approaches and techniques that measure security culture in organizations,” says Prof. Stuart Madnick.
Nidhi Subbaraman reports for BetaBoston on MakeMIT, “a hardware hackathon that challenges students to produce practical applications for cutting-edge industrial tools.” A group of undergraduates started the event in an effort to provide students with an opportunity to build new products.
Patrick Rishe writes for Forbes about the first day of the 2015 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference, highlighting six of the panel sessions he attended. “My fourth foray at the event, the biggest challenge continues to be finding enough time to attend all the sessions,” Rishe writes.