News

MIT J-WAFS announces 2022 seed grant recipients

May 20, 2022

The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT has awarded eight MIT principal investigators with 2022 J-WAFS seed grants. The grants support innovative MIT research that has the potential to have significant impact on water- and food-related challenges. The only program at MIT that is dedicated to water- and food-related research, […]

3 Questions: Provost Cynthia Barnhart on MIT’s community of excellence

May 19, 2022

With the MIT values statement recently published and MIT’s Strategic Action Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion nearly complete, Provost Cynthia Barnhart provides her thoughts on the importance of diversity within the context of MIT’s commitment to excellence.  Q: Why is MIT pursuing a plan to address diversity, equity, and inclusion? A: Over decades, MIT […]

Thirteen from MIT awarded 2022 Fulbright Fellowships

May 19, 2022

Thirteen MIT undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni have been awarded Fulbright fellowships to pursue projects overseas in the 2022-23 grant year. Another MIT affiliate was offered an award but has not yet decided whether to accept, and others were named alternates and may be promoted in the coming weeks. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of […]

Living better with algorithms

May 18, 2022

Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) student Sarah Cen remembers the lecture that sent her down the track to an upstream question. At a talk on ethical artificial intelligence, the speaker brought up a variation on the famous trolley problem, which outlines a philosophical choice between two undesirable outcomes. The speaker’s scenario: Say a […]

MIT community stands together against hate

May 18, 2022

Members of the MIT community gathered on the steps of the Stratton Student Center on May 17 to support each other in the wake of yet another mass shooting targeting the Black community, this time in Buffalo, New York. As MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote in his letter to the community about the violence, […]

MIT Sloan students learn about civil rights history with a tour of the Deep South

May 17, 2022

An independent study project this spring provided eight MIT students with a unique opportunity to learn about some of the most consequential events in U.S. civil rights history. The eight students — Courtney Jacobovits, Naman Galhotra, Clyde-Blaise Niba, Chavie Sharfman Sosa, Johana Muriel Grajales, Jordan Dominguez, Patrick Akujobi, and Vanessa Labrador — are all MBA […]

Eleanor Freund receives Jeanne Guillemin Prize

May 17, 2022

The daughter of an American diplomat, Eleanor Freund spent most of her childhood living abroad in such places as Madagascar, Ghana, South Africa, and Austria. These experiences, she explains, led to an early interest in politics and international relations. “Whether in South Africa, which was emerging from decades of racial discrimination and violence under apartheid, […]

Can artificial intelligence overcome the challenges of the health care system?

May 17, 2022

Even as rapid improvements in artificial intelligence have led to speculation over significant changes in the health care landscape, the adoption of AI in health care has been minimal. A 2020 survey by Brookings, for example, found that less than 1 percent of job postings in health care required AI-related skills. The Abdul Latif Jameel […]

Solar-powered desalination device wins MIT $100K competition

May 16, 2022

The winner of this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is commercializing a new water desalination technology. Nona Desalination says it has developed a device capable of producing enough drinking water for 10 people at half the cost and with 1/10th the power of other water desalination devices. The device is roughly the size and weight […]

MIT Climate “Plug-In” highlights first year of progress on MIT’s climate plan

May 12, 2022

In a combined in-person and virtual event on Monday, members of the three working groups established last year under MIT’s “Fast Forward” climate action plan reported on the work they’ve been doing to meet the plan’s goals, including reaching zero direct carbon emissions by 2026. Introducing the session, Vice President for Research Maria Zuber said […]