Books under attack, then and now
Richard Ovenden was dressed appropriately for the start of Banned Books Week. He proudly displayed the American Library Association’s “Free people read freely” T-shirt as he approached the podium at Hayden Library on Oct. 2. Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford, spoke about the willful destruction of recorded knowledge for an event titled […]
Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks about nuclear power’s role at a critical moment in history
On Sept. 22, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), delivered the 2023 David J. Rose Lecture in Nuclear Technology at MIT. This lecture series was started nearly 40 years ago in honor of the late Professor David Rose — a nuclear engineering professor and fusion technology pioneer. In addition to […]
School of Engineering third quarter 2023 awards
Faculty and researchers across MIT’s School of Engineering receive many awards in recognition of their scholarship, service, and overall excellence. The School of Engineering periodically recognizes their achievements by highlighting the honors, prizes, and medals won by faculty and research scientists working in our academic departments, labs, and centers. Jacopo Buongiorno in the Department of Nuclear Science and […]
Shape-shifting fiber can produce morphing fabrics
Instead of needing a coat for each season, imagine having a jacket that would dynamically change shape so it becomes more insulating to keep you warm as the temperature drops. A programmable, actuating fiber developed by an interdisciplinary team of MIT researchers could someday make this vision a reality. Known as FibeRobo, the fiber contracts […]
Morris Chang ’52, SM ’53 describes the secrets of semiconductor success
Groundbreaking technologist Morris Chang ’52, SM ’53 discussed the key elements behind Taiwan’s long-term ascendancy in semiconductor manufacturing, while speaking to a large campus audience in an MIT talk on Tuesday. Chang is the influential founder and former longtime head of TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has become the world’s leading microchip maker. […]
Smart irrigation technology covers “more crop per drop”
In agriculture today, robots and drones can monitor fields, temperature and moisture sensors can be automated to meet crop needs, and a host of other systems and devices make farms more efficient, resource-conscious, and profitable. The use of precision agriculture, as these technologies are collectively known, offers significant advantages. However, because the technology can be […]
National Society of Black Physicists Annual Conference
The NSBP Conference is the largest academic meeting of minority physicists in the United States. The 2023 NSBP Conference will consist of three days of educational sessions, exhibitions, interactive networking opportunities, a hybrid/virtual component, as well as student career fair and poster sessions on cutting edge issues related to current trends in physics, and science.
Four from MIT awarded National Medals of Technology, Science
The White House honored four MIT affiliates today with the nation’s highest awards for scientists and innovators. At a ceremony this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced the recipients of this year’s National Medals of Technology and Innovation and National Medals of Science. James Fujimoto ’79, SM ’81, PhD ’84, the Elihu Thomson Professor in Electrical […]
Bringing the environment to the forefront of engineering
In a recent podcast interview with MIT President Sally Kornbluth, Associate Professor Desirée Plata described her childhood pastime of roaming the backyards and businesses of her grandmother’s hometown of Gray, Maine. Through her wanderings, Plata noticed a disturbing pattern. “I was 7 or 8 when I caught wind of all the illness,” Plata recalls. “It […]
Graduate student benefits
The following summary helps graduate students understand their eligibility for various benefits and resources (e.g., child grants, dental insurance, etc.) in light of the MIT and MIT GSU collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Specifically, the information below provides a high-level snapshot of benefit eligibility based upon appointment/funding status and degree type. Click on each appointment/funding status […]
Celebrating Kendall Square’s past and shaping its future
Kendall Square’s community took a deep dive into the history and future of the region at the Kendall Square Association’s 15th annual meeting on Oct. 19. It’s no secret that Kendall Square, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, moves fast. The event, titled “Looking Back, Looking Ahead,” gave community members a chance to pause and reflect on […]
Opening pathways for future supply chain leaders
Sit down with Maria Jesus Saenz of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) to discuss her professional achievements and priorities, and you’re likely to come away with two questions: How has she become a thought leader in so many areas — from logistics strategies and supply chain education to human-AI collaboration and digital […]
Building on an enduring bond
Robert Robinson Taylor’s impressive legacy straddles two institutions. There’s MIT, where he studied architecture and became the Institute’s first African American graduate; and then there is Tuskegee University, originally the Tuskegee Institute, where Taylor spent most of his career, heading the architecture department of the historically Black college, helping to shape its educational philosophy that […]
To excel at engineering design, generative AI must learn to innovate, study finds
ChatGPT and other deep generative models are proving to be uncanny mimics. These AI supermodels can churn out poems, finish symphonies, and create new videos and images by automatically learning from millions of examples of previous works. These enormously powerful and versatile tools excel at generating new content that resembles everything they’ve seen before. But […]
A new way to integrate data with physical objects
To get a sense of what StructCode is all about, says Mustafa Doğa Doğan, think of Superman. Not the “faster than a speeding bullet” and “more powerful than a locomotive” version, but a Superman, or Superwoman, who sees the world differently from ordinary mortals — someone who can look around a room and glean all […]
Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu Wins A.SK Social Science Award
Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor and the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in MIT’s School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, is the 2023 recipient of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center’s A.SK Social Science Award, one of the most highly endowed international awards in the social sciences. Acemoglu received the award for “his vastly […]
Analyzing pathways to persuasion
As political conversations shift online, Chloe Wittenberg PhD ’23 is learning how the information Americans consume shapes their attitudes and beliefs. An MIT postdoc in political science who recently earned her doctorate at the Institute, Wittenberg is interested in comparing the persuasive powers of video-based political content to text-based content. As Americans increasingly turn to […]
Presidential Graduate Fellows Reception honors 2023 cohort
On Tuesday, October 10, Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz and the Office of Graduate Education co-hosted the annual Presidential Graduate Fellows Reception. MIT established this prestigious program to recruit the most outstanding students worldwide to pursue graduate studies at the Institute. The 24th cohort of fellows were honored with speeches and certificates. Students enjoyed the celebration […]
Ariel Furst and Fan Wang receive 2023 National Institutes of Health awards
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to MIT’s Ariel Furst and Fan Wang, through its High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Research program awarded 85 new research grants to support exceptionally creative scientists pursuing highly innovative behavioral and biomedical research projects. Ariel Furst was selected as the recipient of the NIH […]
Designing a revolution
It is widely recognized that the period in the early 1970s in which Salvador Allende was president of Chile was a moment of political innovation, when people thought they could bring about socialist transformation peacefully and within existing democratic institutions. “People thought that this would be a political third way,” says Eden Medina, an associate […]
Printing a new approach to fusion power plant materials
When Alexander O’Brien sent in his application for graduate school at MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, he had a germ of a research idea already brewing. So when he received a phone call from Professor Mingda Li, he shared it: The student from Arkansas wanted to explore the design of materials that could […]
From MIT to Burning Man: The Living Knitwork Pavilion
Set against the vast and surreal backdrop of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, Burning Man is an annual gathering that transforms the flat, barren expanse into a vibrant playground for artistic and creative expression. Here, “Burners” come to both witness and contribute to the ephemeral Black Rock City, which participants build anew each year. […]
How to Get Unstuck introduces to 50+ graduate students to support structures
Last month Beth Marois, Assistant Dean for Graduate Support and Advising, presented at an event at Warehouse put on by Claudia and Dave Darmofal and the rest of the residence hall leadership team. Entitled “How to Get Unstuck,” the event included dinner, a giveaway, and an introduction to various support structures on campus including GradSupport […]
Nathaniel Hendren wants to understand the conditions of opportunity
The U.S. is a land of opportunity, but it’s a complicated thing. People in the workforce today are much less likely to earn more than their parents did, compared to people born around 1940. Some parts of the country generate much more economic mobility than others. And even with other matters being equal, there are […]
Organizing “spaghetti” software so it can be easily modified
As a software engineer, Dan Sturtevant SM ’08, PhD ’13 had jobs where making a small change to a codebase was easy — and jobs where a similarly small change would cause other, seemingly random parts of the codebase to break down or malfunction. Making these changes could remind Sturtevant what he liked about being […]
With Psyche, a journey to an ancient asteroid is set to begin
If all goes well, on Thursday morning a NASA mission with extensive connections to MIT will be headed to a metal world. Psyche, a van-sized spacecraft with winglike solar panels, is scheduled to blast off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket tomorrow at 10:16 a.m. Eastern Time. Psyche’s destination is a potato-shaped asteroid by the […]
Twelve with MIT ties elected to the National Academy of Medicine for 2023
The National Academy of Medicine announced the election of 100 new members to join their esteemed ranks in 2023, among them five MIT faculty members and seven additional affiliates. MIT professors Daniel Anderson, Regina Barzilay, Guoping Feng, Darrell Irvine, and Morgen Shen were among the new members. Justin Hanes PhD ’96, Said Ibrahim MBA ’16, […]
One of MIT’s “best-kept secrets” offers an outlet for creative writing
They gather every Monday at noon from disparate corners of MIT. The group includes faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, alumni, and even spouses. Their discussions revolve around mythical dystopias, half-remembered dreams, and gripping personal dramas. An outsider overhearing fragments of conversation might not know what to make of the eclectic group. Given MIT’s […]
A reciprocal relationship with the land in Hawaiʻi
Aja Grande grew up on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu, between the Kona and ʻEwa districts, nurtured by her community and the natural environment. Her family has lived in Hawaiʻi for generations; while she is not “Kanaka ʻŌiwi,” of native Hawaiian descent, she is proud to trace her family’s history to the time of the […]
MIT SHASS Diversity Predoctoral Fellowship Program welcomes 2023-24 class
The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) Diversity Predoctoral Fellowship program recently welcomed its 2023-24 class. The purpose of the program is to enhance diversity in SHASS and to provide fellows with additional professional support and mentoring as they enter the field. The fellowships are intended to support scholars from a wide range of backgrounds, […]
Photos: Moungi Bawendi’s first day as a Nobel laureate
Today, MIT Professor Moungi Bawendi won a share of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for his role in developing quantum dots — nanoscale particles that can emit exceedingly bright light. Bawendi, a professor of chemistry who has been on the MIT faculty since 1990, told MIT News this morning that he felt “surprise and […]
Celebrating Indigenous voices at MIT
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, we want to highlight recent scholarship at MIT celebrating Indigenous knowledge and identities. Please read about the exceptional work of graduate students, visiting scholars and MIT programs celebrating Indigenous culture. Steven Gonzalez, PhD candidate in HASTS, has published his first book, “Sordidez,” a science fiction novella on rebuilding, healing, […]
MIT Professor Moungi Bawendi shares Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Moungi Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a leader in the development of tiny particles known as quantum dots, has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2023. He will share the prize with Louis Brus of Columbia University and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology, Inc. The researchers were honored for […]
“A whole world of potential learners and potential knowledge to gain”
When Aya Khalifa came to MIT from Egypt for her master’s degree in chemical engineering, she adapted well to a new educational system thanks to class 10.MBC (Math Boot Camp for Engineers). This online resource was developed by the MIT Digital Learning Lab (DLL) and the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering for first-year graduate students […]
Improving accessibility of online graphics for blind users
The beauty of a nice infographic published alongside a news or magazine story is that it makes numeric data more accessible to the average reader. But for blind and visually impaired users, such graphics often have the opposite effect. For visually impaired users — who frequently rely on screen-reading software that speaks words or numbers […]
