Chronicle
Let’s take a better take a look at MIT: It’s alarming to see such a posh, vital institution subject to the whims of today’s politics
columnist George F. Will reflects on MIT and his view of “the damage that could be done to America’s meritocracy by policies motivated by hostility toward institutions vital to it.” Will notes that MIT has an “astonishing economic multiplier effect: MIT graduates have founded corporations which have generated almost $1.9 trillion in annual revenue (a sum almost equal to Russia’s GDP) and 4.6 million jobs.”
Full story via The Washington Post
At MIT, groundbreaking ideas mix science and breast cancer detection innovation
visited MIT this spring to learn more about how the Institute “nurtures groundbreaking efforts, reminding us that creativity and science thrive together, inspiring future advancements in engineering, medicine, and beyond.”
Full story via Chronicle
New MIT provost looks to construct more bridges with CEOs
Provost Anantha Chandrakasan shares his energy and enthusiasm for MIT, and his goals for the Institute.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Five things New England researchers helped develop with federal funding
Professors John Guttag and David Mindell discuss MIT’s long history of developing foundational technologies — including the web and the primary widely used electronic navigation system — with the support of federal funding.
Full story via The Boston Globe
Bostonians of the Year 2025: First responders, university presidents, and others who exemplified courage
President Sally Kornbluth is honored by as considered one of the Bostonians of the Year, a listing that spotlights individuals across the region who, in selecting the difficult path, “showed us what strength looks like.” Kornbluth was recognized for her work being of the “most distinguished voices rallying to guard academic freedom.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Practical education and workforce preparation
College students flock to a brand new major: AI
MIT’s recent Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making major is aimed toward teaching students to “develop AI systems and study how technologies like robots interact with humans and the environment.”
Full story via New York Times
50 colleges with the perfect ROI
MIT has been named among the many top colleges within the country for return on investmentMIT “is need-blind and full-need for undergraduate students. Six out of 10 students receive financial aid, and almost 88% of the Class of 2025 graduated debt-free.”
Full story via Boston 25
Desirée Plata: Chemist, oceanographer, engineer, entrepreneur
Professor Desirée Plata explains that she is most pleased with her work as an educator. “The faculty of the world are training the subsequent generation of researchers,” says Plata. “We need a trained workforce. We need patient chemists who want to unravel vital problems.”
Full story via Chemical & Engineering News
Taking a quantum leap
MIT launches quantum initiative to tackle challenges in science, health care, national security
MIT is “taking a quantum leap with the launch of the brand new MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT). “There is not a more vital technological field without delay than quantum with its enormous potential for impact on each fundamental research and practical problems,” said President Sally Kornbluth.
Full story via State House News Service
Peter Shor on how quantum tech can assist climate
Professor Peter Shor helps disentangle quantum technologies.
Full story via The Quantum Kid
MIT researchers develop device to enable direct communication between multiple quantum processors
MIT researchers made a key advance within the creation of a practical quantum computer.
Full story via Military & Aerospace Electronics
Fortifying national security and aiding disaster response
Nano-material breakthrough could revolutionize night vision
MIT researchers developed “a brand new approach to make large ultrathin infrared sensors that don’t need cryogenic cooling and will seriously change night vision for the military.”
Full story via Defense One
MIT researchers develop robot designed to assist first-responders in disaster situations
Researchers at MIT engineered SPROUT (Soft Pathfinding Robotic Observation Unit), a robot aimed toward assisting first-responders.
Full story via WHDH
MIT scientists make “smart” clothes that warn you whenever you’re sick
As a part of an effort to assist keep service members secure, MIT scientists created a programmable fiber that could be stitched into clothing to assist monitor the wearer’s health.
Full story via FOX 28
MIT Lincoln Lab develops ocean-mapping technology
MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers are developing “automated electric vessels to map the ocean floor and improve search and rescue missions.”
Full story via Chronicle
Transformative tech
This MIT scientist is rewiring robots to maintain the humanity in tech
Professor Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, discusses her work revolutionizing the sphere of robotics by bringing “empathy into engineering and proving that responsibility is as radical and as commercially attractive as unguarded innovation.”
Full story via Forbes
Watch this tiny robot somersault through the air like an insect
Professor Kevin Chen designed a tiny, insect-sized aerial microrobot.
Full story via Science
It’s actually really hard to make a robot, guys
Professor Pulkit Agrawal delves intohis work engineering a simulator that could be used to coach robots.
Full story via NPR
Shape-shifting fabrics and programmable materials redefine design at MIT
Associate Professor Skylar Tibbits is embedding intelligence into the materials around us, while Professor Caitlin Mueller and Sandy Curth PhD ’25 are digging into eco-friendly construction.
Full story via Chronicle
Building a healthier future
MIT launches pediatric research hub to deal with access gaps
The Hood Pediatric Innovation Hub is addressing “underinvestment in pediatric healthcare innovations.”
Full story via Boston Business Journal
Bionic knee helps amputees walk naturally again
Professor Hugh Herr developed a prosthetic that might increase mobility for above-the-knee amputees. “The bionic knee developed by MIT doesn’t just restore function, it redefines it.”
Full story via Fox News
MIT drug hunters are using AI to design completely recent antibiotics
Professor James Collins is using AI to develop recent compounds to combat antibiotic resistance.
Full story via Fast Company
Innovative once-weekly capsule helps quell schizophrenia symptoms
A brand new pill from the lab of Associate Professor Giovanni Traverso “can greatly simplify the drug schedule faced by schizophrenia patients.”
Full story via Newsmax
Renewing American manufacturing
US manufacturing is in “pretty bad shape.” MIT hopes to alter that.
MIT launched the Initiative for New Manufacturing to assist “construct the tools and talent to shape a more productive and sustainable future for manufacturing.”
Full story via Manufacturing Dive
Giving US manufacturing a lift
Ben Armstrong of the MIT Industrial Performance Center discusses how one can reinvigorate manufacturing in America.
Full story via Marketplace
New England corporations are sparking an industrial revolution. Here’s how one can harness it.
Professor David Mindell spotlights how “a brand new wave of commercial corporations, many in New England, are leveraging recent technologies to create jobs and empower employees.”
Full story via The Boston Globe
Improving aging
My day as an 80-year-old. What an age-simulation suit taught me.
To get a greater sense of the experience of aging, reporter Amy Dockser Marcus donned the MIT AgeLab’s age-simulation suit and launched into multiple activities.
Full story via The Wall Street Journal
New mobile robot helps seniors walk safely and forestall falls
A mobile robot created by MIT engineers is designed to assist prevent falls. “It’s easy to see how something like this might make an enormous difference for seniors wanting to remain independent.”
Full story via Fox News
The senior population is booming. Caregiving is struggling to maintain up
Professor Jonathan Gruber discusses the labor shortages impacting senior care.
Full story via CNBC
Upping our energy resilience
New MIT collaboration with GE Vernova goals to speed up energy transition
“A fantastic amount of innovation happens in academia. We have an extended view into the longer term,” says Provost Anantha Chandrakasan of the MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance.
Full story via The Boston Globe
The environmental impacts of generative AI
Noman Bashir, a fellow with MIT’s Climate and Sustainability Consortium, explores the environmental impacts of generative AI.
Full story via Fox 13
Is the clean energy economy doomed?
Professor Christopher Knittel discusses how the U.S. could be in the perfect position for global energy dominance.
Full story via Marketplace
Advancing American employees
WTH can we do to stop a second China shock? Professor David Autor explains
Professor David Autor shares his research examining the long-term impact of China entering the World Trade Organization, how the U.S. can protect vital industries from unfair trade practices, and the potential impacts of AI on employees.
Full story via American Enterprise Institute
The fight over robots threatening American jobs
Professor Daron Acemoglu highlights the economic and societal implications of integrating automation within the workforce, advocating for policies aimed toward assisting employees.
Full story via Financial Times
Moving toward automation
Research Scientist Eva Ponce of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics notes that robotics and AI technologies are “replacing some jobs — particularly more manual tasks including heavy lifting — but have also offered recent opportunities inside warehouse operations.”
Full story via Financial Times
Planetary defense and out-of-this world exploration
MIT researchers create recent asteroid detection methods to assist protect Earth
Associate Professor Julien de Wit and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov discuss their work developing a brand new method to trace asteroids that might impact Earth.
Full story via WBZ Radio
What happens to the bodies of NASA astronauts returning to Earth?
Professor Dava Newman speaks about how long-duration stays in space can affect the human body.
Full story via News Nation
Lunar lander Athena is packed and able to explore the moon. Here’s what on board
MIT engineers sent three payloads into space on a course set for the moon’s south polar region.
Full story via USA Today
Scanning the heavens on the Vatican Observatory
Br. Guy Consolmagno ’74, SM ’75, director of the Vatican Observatory, and graduate student Isabella Macias share their experiences studying astronomy and planetary formation on the Vatican Observatory. “The Vatican has such a deep, wealthy history of working with astronomers,” says Macias. “It shows that science is just not just for global superpowers around the globe, however it’s for college students, it’s for humanity.”
Full story via CBS News Sunday Morning
The story of real-life rocket scientists
Professor Kerri Cahoy takes viewers on an out-of-this-world journey into how a university internship inspired her research on space and satellites.
Full story via Bloomberg Television
On the air
While digital currency initiatives expand, we ask: What’s the longer term of money?
Neha Narula, director of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, examines the longer term of money as using digital currencies expands.
Full story via USA Today
The high stakes of the AI economy
Professor Asu Ozdaglar, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and deputy dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, explores AI’s opportunities and risks — and whether it could possibly be regulated without stifling progress.
Full story via Is Business Broken?
The LIGO Lab is pushing the boundaries of gravitational-wave research
Associate Professor Matt Evans explores the longer term of gravitational wave research and the way Cosmic Explorer, the next-generation gravitational wave observatory, will help unearth secrets of the early universe.
Full story via Scientific American
Space junk: The impact of world warming on satellites
Graduate student Will Parker discusses his research examining the impact of climate change on satellites.
Full story via USA Today
Endometriosis is common. Why is getting diagnosed so hard?
Professor Linda Griffith shares her work studying endometriosis and her efforts to enhance healthcare for ladies.
Full story via Science Friday
There’s nothing small about this nanoscale research
Professor Vladimir Bulović takes listeners on a tour of MIT.nano, MIT’s “clean laboratory facility that’s critical to nanoscale research, from microelectronics to medical nanotechnology.”
Full story via Scientific American
Marrying science and athletics
The MIT scientist behind the “torpedo bats” which might be blowing up baseball
Aaron Leanhardt PhD ’03 went from an MIT graduate student who was a part of a research team that “cooled sodium gas to the bottom temperature ever recorded in human history” to inventor of the torpedo baseball bat, “perhaps essentially the most significant development in bat technology in a long time.”
Full story via The Wall Street Journal
Engineering athletes redefine routine
After suffering a concussion during her sophomore yr, Emiko Pope ’25 was inspired to explore the effectiveness of concussion headbands.
Full story via American Society of Mechanical Engineers
“I missed talking math with people”: why John Urschel left the NFL for MIT
Assistant Professor John Urschel shares his decision to call an audible and leave his NFL profession to deal with his love for math at MIT.
Full story via The Guardian
Making an announcement, MIT’s football team dons extra head padding for safety
It’s a bit of apparatus that will turn into more widely used as research continues into its effectiveness — including from not less than considered one of the players on the present team.
Full story via GBH Morning Edition
Agricultural efficiency
New MIT breakthrough could save farmers billions on pesticides
MIT engineers developed a system that helps pesticides adhere more effectively to plant leaves, allowing farmers to make use of fewer chemicals.
Full story via Michigan Farm News
Bug-sized robots could help pollination on future farms
Insect-sized robots crafted by MIT researchers could sooner or later be used to assist with farming practices like artificial pollination.
Full story via Reuters
See how MIT researchers harvest water from the air
An ultrasonic device created by MIT engineers can extract clean drinking water from atmospheric moisture.
Full story via CNN
Appreciating art
Meet the engineer using deep learning to revive Renaissance art
Graduate student Alex Kachkine talks about his work applying AI to develop a restoration method for damaged artwork.
Full story via Nature
MIT’s Linde Music Building opens with a free festival
“The extent of art-making on the MIT campus is the same as that of a significant city,” says Institute Professor Marcus Thompson. “It’s a miracle that it’s all right here, by people in science and technology who’re absorbed in making a recent world and who also value the past, present and way forward for music and the humanities.”
Full story via Cambridge Day
“Remembering the Future” on display on the MIT Museum
The “Remembering the Future” exhibit on the MIT Museum includes a sculptural installation that uses “climate data from the last ice age to the current, in addition to projected future environments, to create a geometrical design.”
Full story via The New York Times
