It was an eventful journey round the solar for MIT this 12 months, from President Sally Kornbluth’s inauguration and Mark Rober’s Commencement 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. Below are highlights of a few of the uplifting folks, breakthroughs, and concepts from MIT that made headlines in 2023.
The reward: 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 through CBS News
Trio wins Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on quantum dots, used in electronics and medical imaging
“The motivation really is the basic science. A basic understanding, the curiosity of ‘how does the world work?’” mentioned 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 through the Associated 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 through Radio Boston
MIT through neighborhood school? Transfer college students discover a new path to a level
Undergraduate Subin Kim shared his expertise transferring from neighborhood school to MIT by means of the Transfer Scholars Network, which is geared toward serving to neighborhood school college students discover a path to four-year universities.
Full story through 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 More” podcast. “I view [the climate crisis] as an existential issue to the extent that if we don’t take action there, all of the many, many other things that we’re working on, not that they’ll be irrelevant, but they’ll pale in comparison,” Kornbluth mentioned.
Full story through The Boston Globe
It’s the finish of a world as we all know it
Astronomers from MIT, Harvard University, Caltech and elsewhere noticed a dying star swallowing a big planet. Postdoc Kishalay De defined that: “Finding an event like this really puts all of the theories that have been out there to the most stringent tests possible. It really opens up this entire new field of research.”
Full story through The New York Times
Frontiers of AI
Hey, Alexa, what ought to college students find out about AI?
The Day of AI is a program developed by the MIT RAISE initiative geared toward introducing and educating Okay-12 college students about AI. “We want students to be informed, responsible users and informed, responsible designers of these technologies,” mentioned Professor Cynthia Breazeal, dean of digital studying at MIT.
Full story through The New York Times
AI tipping level
Four school members from throughout MIT — Professors Song Han, Simon Johnson, Yoon Kim and Rosalind Picard — described the alternatives and dangers posed by the fast developments in the subject of AI.
Full story through Curiosity Stream
A glance into the way forward for AI at MIT’s robotics laboratory
Professor Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, mentioned the way forward for synthetic intelligence, robotics, and machine studying, emphasizing the significance of balancing the improvement of latest applied sciences with the want to make sure they’re deployed in a manner that advantages humanity.
Full story through Mashable
Health care suppliers say synthetic intelligence may remodel medication
Professor Regina Barzilay spoke about her work creating new AI programs that may very well be used to assist diagnose breast and lung most cancers earlier than the cancers are detectable to the human eye.
Full story through Chronicle
Is AI coming on your job? Tech consultants weigh in: “They don’t replace human labor”
Professor David Autor mentioned how the rise of synthetic intelligence may change the high quality of jobs accessible.
Full story through CBS News
Big tech is dangerous. Big AI will probably be worse.
Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson made the case that “rather than machine intelligence, what we need is ‘machine usefulness,’ which emphasizes the ability of computers to augment human capabilities.”
Full story through The New York Times
Engineering pleasure
MIT’s 3D-printed hearts may pump new life into custom-made therapies
MIT engineers developed a way for 3D printing a mushy, versatile, custom-designed reproduction of a affected person’s coronary heart.
Full story through WBUR
Mystery 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 materials self-healing properties.
Full story through CNN
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 at the “leading edge of a push to transform 3D printing from a niche technology — best known for new-product prototyping and art-class experimentation — into an industrial force.”
Full story through The Boston Globe
Catalyzing local weather improvements
Can Boston’s power innovators save the world?
Boston Magazine reporter Rowan Jacobsen spotlighted how MIT school, college students, and alumni are main the cost in clear power startups. “When it comes to game-changing breakthroughs in energy, three letters keep surfacing again and again: MIT,” writes Jacobsen.
Full story through Boston Magazine
MIT analysis may very well be sport changer in combating water shortages
MIT researchers found {that a} widespread hydrogel used in beauty lotions, industrial coatings, and pharmaceutical capsules can take up moisture from the environment whilst the temperature rises. “For a planet that’s getting hotter, this could be a game-changing discovery.”
Full story through NBC Boston
Energy-storing concrete may type foundations for solar-powered houses
MIT engineers uncovered a brand new manner of making an power supercapacitor by combining cement, carbon black, and water that would at some point be used to energy houses or electrical automobiles.
Full story through 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 scale back further power calls for brought on by extra widespread EV adoption.
Full story through Fast Company
Building higher buildings
Professor John Fernández examined learn how to scale back the local weather footprints of houses and workplace buildings, recommending creating hermetic constructions, switching to cleaner heating sources, utilizing extra environmentally pleasant constructing supplies, and retrofitting present houses and places of work.
Full story through The New York Times
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 watch the altering situations of sea ice.
Full story through The Boston Globe
Healing well being options
How Boston is thrashing most cancers
MIT researchers are creating drug-delivery nanoparticles geared toward concentrating on most cancers cells with out disturbing wholesome cells. Essentially, the nanoparticles are “engineered for selectivity,” defined Professor Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
Full story through Boston Magazine
A brand new antibiotic, found with synthetic intelligence, could defeat a harmful superbug
Using a machine-learning algorithm, researchers from MIT found a sort of antibiotic that’s efficient towards a specific pressure of drug-resistant micro organism.
Full story through CNN
To detect breast most cancers sooner, an MIT professor designs an ultrasound bra
MIT researchers designed a wearable ultrasound machine that attaches to a bra and may very well be used to detect early-stage breast tumors.
Full story through STAT
The quest for a change to activate starvation
An ingestible tablet developed by MIT scientists can increase ranges of hormones to assist improve urge for food and reduce nausea in sufferers with gastroparesis.
Full story through Wired
Here’s learn how to use goals for inventive inspiration
MIT scientists discovered that the earlier levels of sleep are key to sparking creativity and that individuals will be guided to dream about particular subjects, additional boosting creativity.
Full story through 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 man-made intelligence-assisted musical instrument developed by Nina Masuelli ’23.
Full story through The Boston Globe
Surfacing the tales hidden in migration information
Associate Professor Sarah Williams mentioned the Civic Data Design Lab’s “Motivational Tapestry,” a big woven artwork piece that makes use of information from the United Nations World Food Program to visually symbolize the particular person motivations of 1,624 Central Americans who’ve migrated to the U.S.
Full story through Metropolis
Augmented reality-infused manufacturing of Wagner’s “Parsifal” opens Bayreuth Festival
Professor Jay Scheib’s augmented reality-infused manufacturing of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” introduced “fantastical images” to viewers members.
Full story through the Associated 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 at the middle of the Messier 87 galaxy, displaying the “launching point of a colossal jet of high-energy particles shooting outward into space.”
Full story through 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 through Curiosity Stream
Nergis Mavalvala helped detect the first gravitational wave. Her work doesn’t cease there
Professor Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the School of Science, mentioned her work trying to find gravitational waves, the significance of skepticism in scientific analysis, and why she enjoys working with younger folks.
Full story through Wired
Hitting the books
“The Transcendent Brain” review: Beyond ones and zeroes
In his e book “The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science,” Alan Lightman, a professor of the follow of humanities, displayed his reward for “distilling complex ideas and emotions to their bright essence.”
Full story through The Wall Street Journal
What occurs when CEOs deal with employees higher? Companies (and employees) win.
Professor of the follow Zeynep Ton revealed a e book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” and is “on a mission to change how company leaders think, and how they treat their employees.”
Full story through The Boston Globe
How to wage conflict on conspiracy theories
Professor Adam Berinsky’s e book, “Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight it,” examined “attitudes toward both politics and health, both of which are undermined by distrust and misinformation in ways that cause harm to both individuals and society.”
Full story through 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 across the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands,” which explores the tradition of hackathons and entrepreneurship in Mexico.
Full story through Marketplace
Cultivating neighborhood
The Indigenous rocketeer
Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year pupil at MIT, mentioned her work main MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket group at the 2023 First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition.
Full story through Nature
“You totally got this,” YouTube star and former NASA engineer Mark Rober tells MIT graduates
During his Commencement deal with at MIT, Mark Rober urged graduates to embrace their accomplishments and boldly face any challenges they encounter.
Full story through The Boston Globe
MIT Juggling Club going robust after half century
After nearly 50 years, the MIT Juggling Club, 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 come back toss a ball (or three) into the air.
Full story through Cambridge Day
Volpe Transportation Center opens as a part of $750 million deal between MIT and feds
The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Kendall Square was the first constructing to open in MIT’s redevelopment of the 14-acre Volpe website that can finally embrace “research labs, retail, affordable housing, and open space, with the goal of not only encouraging innovation, but also enhancing the surrounding community.”
Full story through The Boston Globe
Sparking dialog
The way forward for AI innovation and the position of teachers 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 essential to assist sort out main world challenges.
Full story through The Boston Globe
Moving the needle on provide chain sustainability
Professor Yossi Sheffi examined a number of methods firms may use to assist enhance provide chain sustainability, together with redesigning last-mile deliveries, influencing shopper decisions and incentivizing returnable containers.
Full story through The Hill
Expelled from the mountain prime?
Sylvester James Gates Jr. ’73, PhD ’77 made the case that “diverse learning environments expose students to a broader range of perspectives, enhance education, and inculcate creativity and innovative habits of mind.”
Full story through Science
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 may very well be utilized to girls’s sports activities.
Full story through Sports Business Journal
We’re already paying for common well being care. Why don’t we’ve got it?
Professor Amy Finkelstein asserted that the resolution to medical health insurance reform in the U.S. is “universal coverage that is automatic, free and basic.”
Full story through The New York Times
The web may very well be so good. Really.
Professor Deb Roy described how “new kinds of social networks can be designed for constructive communication — for listening, dialogue, deliberation, and mediation — and they can actually work.”
Full story through The Atlantic
Fostering academic excellence
MIT college students give legendary linear algebra professor standing ovation in final lecture
After 63 years of educating 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 am so grateful to everyone who likes linear algebra and sees its importance. So many universities (and even high schools) now appreciate how beautiful it is and how valuable it is,” mentioned Strang.
Full story through USA Today
“Brave Behind Bars”: Reshaping the lives of inmates by means of coding courses
Graduate college students Martin Nisser and Marisa Gaetz co-founded Brave Behind Bars, a program designed to offer incarcerated people with coding and digital literacy expertise to higher put together them for all times after jail.
Full story through MSNBC
Melrose TikTook person “Ms. Nuclear Energy” educating about nuclear energy by means of social media
Graduate pupil Kaylee Cunningham mentioned her work utilizing social media to assist educate and inform the public about nuclear power.
Full story through CBS Boston