Wall Street Journal reporter Ryan Dezember writes about Thasos Group, a company co-founded by Prof. Alex “Sandy” Pentland that aims to “paint detailed pictures of the ebb and flow of people, and thus their money” by gathering anonymous data about people’s activities through their smartphone usage.
Ground-penetrating radar or GPR, developed by researchers from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, scans for stable underground features like soil density and rocks to help autonomous trucks drive in all conditions, writes Steve Banker for Forbes. Once a road is scanned, GPR “creates a map of the subsurface strata that can determine the location of a vehicle within a few centimeters,” explains Banker.
Technology developed by researchers from MIT Lincoln Lab could be used to help detect public shooters before they fire, writes Elizabeth MacBride for Forbes. “The technology uses radar energy to detect weapons and explosives through clothing, backpacks and hand baggage in real time,” MacBride explains.
MIT alumni Aman Narang and Steve Fredette speak with NECN’s Brian Burnell about their startup Toast, which provides cloud-based, restaurant management software. Narang explains that Toast was created to replace outdated restaurant technology and “build something from the ground up that could connect their diners, their guests, their employees, and make the restauranteur’s life more efficient.”
MIT startup Nesterly is connecting young people looking for cheaper rents with older residents looking for assistance at home, reports Dugan Arnett for The Boston Globe. Arnett explains that Nesterly “works roughly on the principles of a dating app, with searchable online profiles and features that help work out details of a lease.”
Axios reporter Joann Muller spotlights Rivian, an electric-vehicle startup founded by MIT graduate RJ Scaringe. “If Rivian succeeds, the sharing of its technology could be one of the biggest reasons,” writes Muller. “Imagine companies like Amazon, Starbucks or Apple launching their own mobility fleets on top of a generic platform.”
A new video from MIT spinout Boston Dynamics shows their Atlas robot effortlessly jumping over logs and leaping onto ascending boxes, writes Andy McDonald for HuffPost. “From heavy lifting in factories or warehouses to search and rescue operations to missions on the battlefield, these robots can potentially do things that humans can’t or shouldn’t do,” writes McDonald.
As part of Wired’s 25 anniversary festival, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, leads a conversation with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman about “blitzscaling,” which encourages new companies to prioritize speed over efficiency. Ito points out that blitzscaling technology “accelerates you in the direction you are already going,” making it hard to correct any issues that arise early on.
CBS News reporter Kate Gibson writes that Atlas, the robot developed by MIT spinoff Boston Dynamics, can now tackle a parkour-style obstacle course. “The robot's control software uses its whole body -- legs, arms and torso -- to jump over a log and then leap up steps more than a foot high each, all without breaking pace,” Gibson explains.
TechCrunch reporter Kate Clark spotlights Prof. Tim Berners-Lee’s quest to decentralize the web and provide people with power over their personal data through his new startup inrupt. Clark explains that inrupt is expanding the platform Berners-Lee developed that allows users to “keep their data wherever they choose, rather than being forced to store it on centralized servers.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, has announced the launch of his new company Inrupt. The startup will use an open-source project called Solid, which Berners-Lee developed with colleagues at MIT, to “reshape the web and ‘restore the power and agency of the individuals’ using it,” writes Jason Evangelho for Forbes.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee discusses his new startup Inrupt, which is “the first major commercial venture built off of Solid, a decentralized web platform he and others at MIT have spent years building,” writes Katrina Brooker for Fast Company. Inrupt’s mission is “to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it,” says Brooker.
Forbes reporter Amy Feldman highlights Desktop Metal, a company started by MIT graduate Ric Fulop and a number of MIT researchers, that has developed 3-D metal printers that are intended to “print fast enough and at a low enough cost to replace casting and CNC machining for numerous metal parts.”
MIT spinout Affectiva Inc. has developed a new system that can study a driver’s face to help assess their mental state, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Bray explains that the system “analyzes facial expressions to determine if a driver is distracted, angry, scared, sleepy, or drunk.”
Robotic furniture produced by MIT spinout Ori, which created a furniture system that reconfigures itself with the push of a button or voice commands, could be the solution to living in small spaces, writes Candace Jackson for The New York Times.