It was an eventful journey across the solar for MIT this yr, from President Sally Kornbluth’s inauguration and Mark Rober’s Graduation deal with to Professor Moungi Bawendi profitable the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2023 MIT researchers made key advances, detecting a dying star swallowing a planet, exploring the frontiers of synthetic intelligence, creating clear power options, inventing instruments geared toward earlier detection and prognosis of most cancers, and even exploring the science of spreading kindness. Under are highlights of a number of the uplifting folks, breakthroughs, and concepts from MIT that made headlines in 2023.
The present: Kindness goes viral with Steve Hartman
Steve Hartman visited Professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi to discover the science behind whether or not a single act of kindness can change the world.
Full story by way of CBS Information
Trio wins Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on quantum dots, utilized in electronics and medical imaging
“The motivation actually is the fundamental science. A fundamental understanding, the curiosity of ‘how does the world work?’” stated Professor Moungi Bawendi of the inspiration for his analysis on quantum dots, for which he was co-awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Full story by way of the Related Press
How MIT’s all-women management group plans to alter science for the higher
President Sally Kornbluth, Provost Cynthia Barnhart, and Chancellor Melissa Nobles emphasised the significance of illustration for girls and underrepresented teams in STEM.
Full story by way of Radio Boston
MIT by way of group faculty? Switch college students discover a new path to a level
Undergraduate Subin Kim shared his expertise transferring from group faculty to MIT by the Switch Students Community, which is geared toward serving to group faculty college students discover a path to four-year universities.
Full story by way of the Christian Science Monitor
MIT president Sally Kornbluth doesn’t suppose we are able to hit the pause button on AI
President Kornbluth mentioned the way forward for AI, ethics in science, and local weather change with columnist Shirley Leung on her new “Say Extra” podcast. “I view [the climate crisis] as an existential concern to the extent that if we don’t take motion there, all the many, many different issues that we’re engaged on, not that they’ll be irrelevant, however they’ll pale compared,” Kornbluth stated.
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
It’s the tip of a world as we all know it
Astronomers from MIT, Harvard College, Caltech and elsewhere noticed a dying star swallowing a big planet. Postdoc Kishalay De defined that: “Discovering an occasion like this actually places all the theories which were on the market to essentially the most stringent assessments doable. It actually opens up this whole new area of analysis.”
Full story by way of The New York Instances
Frontiers of AI
Hey, Alexa, what ought to college students study AI?
The Day of AI is a program developed by the MIT RAISE initiative geared toward introducing and instructing Ok-12 college students about AI. “We would like college students to be told, accountable customers and knowledgeable, accountable designers of those applied sciences,” stated Professor Cynthia Breazeal, dean of digital studying at MIT.
Full story by way of The New York Instances
AI tipping level
4 college members from throughout MIT — Professors Tune Han, Simon Johnson, Yoon Kim and Rosalind Picard — described the alternatives and dangers posed by the fast developments within the area of AI.
Full story by way of Curiosity Stream
A glance into the way forward for AI at MIT’s robotics laboratory
Professor Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Laptop Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory, mentioned the way forward for synthetic intelligence, robotics, and machine studying, emphasizing the significance of balancing the event of latest applied sciences with the necessity to guarantee they’re deployed in a means that advantages humanity.
Full story by way of Mashable
Well being care suppliers say synthetic intelligence may remodel drugs
Professor Regina Barzilay spoke about her work growing new AI programs that could possibly be used to assist diagnose breast and lung most cancers earlier than the cancers are detectable to the human eye.
Full story by way of Chronicle
Is AI coming on your job? Tech specialists weigh in: “They don’t change human labor”
Professor David Autor mentioned how the rise of synthetic intelligence may change the standard of jobs accessible.
Full story by way of CBS Information
Large tech is dangerous. Large AI will likely be worse.
Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson made the case that “fairly than machine intelligence, what we want is ‘machine usefulness,’ which emphasizes the power of computer systems to reinforce human capabilities.”
Full story by way of The New York Instances
Engineering pleasure
MIT’s 3D-printed hearts may pump new life into custom-made therapies
MIT engineers developed a way for 3D printing a delicate, versatile, custom-designed duplicate of a affected person’s coronary heart.
Full story by way of WBUR
Thriller of why Roman buildings have survived so lengthy has been unraveled, scientists say
Scientists from MIT and different establishments found that historic Romans used lime clasts when manufacturing concrete, giving the fabric self-healing properties.
Full story by way of CNN
Essentially the most fascinating startup in America is in Massachusetts. You’ve in all probability by no means heard of it.
VulcanForms, an MIT startup, is on the “vanguard of a push to rework 3D printing from a distinct segment know-how — greatest identified for new-product prototyping and art-class experimentation — into an industrial pressure.”
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Catalyzing local weather improvements
Can Boston’s power innovators save the world?
Boston Journal reporter Rowan Jacobsen spotlighted how MIT college, college students, and alumni are main the cost in clear power startups. “In the case of game-changing breakthroughs in power, three letters maintain surfacing repeatedly: MIT,” writes Jacobsen.
Full story by way of Boston Journal
MIT analysis could possibly be sport changer in combating water shortages
MIT researchers found {that a} frequent hydrogel utilized in beauty lotions, industrial coatings, and pharmaceutical capsules can take up moisture from the environment even because the temperature rises. “For a planet that’s getting hotter, this could possibly be a game-changing discovery.”
Full story by way of NBC Boston
Vitality-storing concrete may kind foundations for solar-powered houses
MIT engineers uncovered a brand new means of making an power supercapacitor by combining cement, carbon black, and water that would someday be used to energy houses or electrical automobiles.
Full story by way of New Scientist
MIT researchers sort out key query of EV adoption: When to cost?
MIT scientists discovered that delayed charging and strategic placement of EV charging stations may assist cut back extra power calls for attributable to extra widespread EV adoption.
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Constructing higher buildings
Professor John Fernández examined the best way to cut back the local weather footprints of houses and workplace buildings, recommending creating hermetic buildings, switching to cleaner heating sources, utilizing extra environmentally pleasant constructing supplies, and retrofitting current houses and workplaces.
Full story by way of The New York Instances
They’re constructing an “ice penetrator” on a hillside in Westford
Researchers from MIT’s Haystack Observatory constructed an “ice penetrator,” a tool designed to observe the altering circumstances of sea ice.
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Therapeutic well being options
How Boston is thrashing most cancers
MIT researchers are growing drug-delivery nanoparticles geared toward focusing on most cancers cells with out disturbing wholesome cells. Primarily, the nanoparticles are “engineered for selectivity,” defined Professor Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Division of Chemical Engineering.
Full story by way of Boston Journal
A brand new antibiotic, found with synthetic intelligence, might defeat a harmful superbug
Utilizing a machine-learning algorithm, researchers from MIT found a kind of antibiotic that’s efficient towards a specific pressure of drug-resistant micro organism.
Full story by way of CNN
To detect breast most cancers sooner, an MIT professor designs an ultrasound bra
MIT researchers designed a wearable ultrasound system that attaches to a bra and could possibly be used to detect early-stage breast tumors.
Full story by way of STAT
The search for a change to activate starvation
An ingestible tablet developed by MIT scientists can elevate ranges of hormones to assist improve urge for food and reduce nausea in sufferers with gastroparesis.
Full story by way of Wired
Right here’s the best way to use desires for inventive inspiration
MIT scientists discovered that the sooner phases of sleep are key to sparking creativity and that folks may be guided to dream about particular subjects, additional boosting creativity.
Full story by way of Scientific American
Astounding artwork
An AI opera from 1987 reboots for a brand new technology
Professor Tod Machover mentioned the restaging of his opera “VALIS” at MIT, which featured a synthetic intelligence-assisted musical instrument developed by Nina Masuelli ’23.
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Surfacing the tales hidden in migration information
Affiliate Professor Sarah Williams mentioned the Civic Information Design Lab’s “Motivational Tapestry,” a big woven artwork piece that makes use of information from the United Nations World Meals Program to visually symbolize the person motivations of 1,624 Central People who’ve migrated to the U.S.
Full story by way of Metropolis
Augmented reality-infused manufacturing of Wagner’s “Parsifal” opens Bayreuth Competition
Professor Jay Scheib’s augmented reality-infused manufacturing of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” introduced “fantastical photographs” to viewers members.
Full story by way of the Related Press
Understanding our universe
New picture reveals violent occasions close to a supermassive black gap
Scientists captured a brand new picture of M87*, the black gap on the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, exhibiting the “launching level of a colossal jet of high-energy particles capturing outward into area.”
Full story by way of Reuters
Gravitational waves: A brand new universe
MIT researchers Lisa Barsotti, Deep Chatterjee, and Victoria Xu explored how advances in gravitational wave detection are enabling a greater understanding of the universe.
Full story by way of Curiosity Stream
Nergis Mavalvala helped detect the primary gravitational wave. Her work doesn’t cease there
Professor Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the Faculty of Science, mentioned her work looking for gravitational waves, the significance of skepticism in scientific analysis, and why she enjoys working with younger folks.
Full story by way of Wired
Hitting the books
“The Transcendent Mind” assessment: Past ones and zeroes
In his e-book “The Transcendent Mind: Spirituality within the Age of Science,” Alan Lightman, a professor of the follow of humanities, displayed his present for “distilling advanced concepts and feelings to their brilliant essence.”
Full story by way of The Wall Avenue Journal
What occurs when CEOs deal with staff higher? Corporations (and staff) win.
Professor of the follow Zeynep Ton revealed a e-book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” and is “on a mission to alter how firm leaders suppose, and the way they deal with their staff.”
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Methods to wage conflict on conspiracy theories
Professor Adam Berinsky’s e-book, “Political Rumors: Why We Settle for Misinformation and Methods to Combat it,” examined “attitudes towards each politics and well being, each of that are undermined by mistrust and misinformation in ways in which trigger hurt to each people and society.”
Full story by way of Politico
What it takes for Mexican coders to cross the cultural border with Silicon Valley
Assistant Professor Héctor Beltrán mentioned his new e-book, “Code Work: Hacking throughout the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands,” which explores the tradition of hackathons and entrepreneurship in Mexico.
Full story by way of Market
Cultivating group
The Indigenous rocketeer
Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year scholar at MIT, mentioned her work main MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket group on the 2023 First Nations Launch Nationwide Rocket Competitors.
Full story by way of Nature
“You completely acquired this,” YouTube star and former NASA engineer Mark Rober tells MIT graduates
Throughout his Graduation deal with at MIT, Mark Rober urged graduates to embrace their accomplishments and boldly face any challenges they encounter.
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
MIT Juggling Membership going sturdy after half century
After nearly 50 years, the MIT Juggling Membership, which was based in 1975 after which merged with a unicycle membership, is the oldest drop-in juggling membership in steady operation and nonetheless welcomes any aspiring jugglers to return toss a ball (or three) into the air.
Full story by way of Cambridge Day
Volpe Transportation Middle opens as a part of $750 million deal between MIT and feds
The John A. Volpe Nationwide Transportation Methods Middle in Kendall Sq. was the primary constructing to open in MIT’s redevelopment of the 14-acre Volpe website that may in the end embody “analysis labs, retail, inexpensive housing, and open area, with the objective of not solely encouraging innovation, but additionally enhancing the encompassing group.”
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Sparking dialog
The way forward for AI innovation and the position of lecturers in shaping it
Professor Daniela Rus emphasised the central position universities play in fostering innovation and the significance of guaranteeing universities have the computing sources obligatory to assist sort out main international challenges.
Full story by way of The Boston Globe
Shifting the needle on provide chain sustainability
Professor Yossi Sheffi examined a number of methods corporations may use to assist enhance provide chain sustainability, together with redesigning last-mile deliveries, influencing shopper selections and incentivizing returnable containers.
Full story by way of The Hill
Expelled from the mountain high?
Sylvester James Gates Jr. ’73, PhD ’77 made the case that “various studying environments expose college students to a broader vary of views, improve training, and inculcate creativity and progressive habits of thoughts.”
Full story by way of Science
Advertising and marketing magic of “Barbie” film has classes for girls’s sports activities
MIT Sloan Lecturer Shira Springer explored how the success of the “Barbie” film could possibly be utilized to ladies’s sports activities.
Full story by way of Sports activities Enterprise Journal
We’re already paying for common well being care. Why don’t now we have it?
Professor Amy Finkelstein asserted that the answer to medical insurance reform within the U.S. is “common protection that’s computerized, free and fundamental.”
Full story by way of The New York Instances
The web could possibly be so good. Actually.
Professor Deb Roy described how “new sorts of social networks may be designed for constructive communication — for listening, dialogue, deliberation, and mediation — and so they can really work.”
Full story by way of The Atlantic
Fostering instructional excellence
MIT college students give legendary linear algebra professor standing ovation in final lecture
After 63 years of instructing and over 10 million views of his on-line lectures, Professor Gilbert Strang acquired a standing ovation after his final lecture on linear algebra. “I’m so grateful to everybody who likes linear algebra and sees its significance. So many universities (and even excessive faculties) now respect how lovely it’s and the way worthwhile it’s,” stated Strang.
Full story by way of USA At this time
“Courageous Behind Bars”: Reshaping the lives of inmates by coding lessons
Graduate college students Martin Nisser and Marisa Gaetz co-founded Courageous Behind Bars, a program designed to offer incarcerated people with coding and digital literacy abilities to higher put together them for all times after jail.
Full story by way of MSNBC
Melrose TikTok consumer “Ms. Nuclear Vitality” instructing about nuclear energy by social media
Graduate scholar Kaylee Cunningham mentioned her work utilizing social media to assist educate and inform the general public about nuclear power.
Full story by way of CBS Boston
