AgeLab

Boston Magazine reporter Wyndham Lewis spotlights the MIT AgeLab, where researchers are focused on making aging better by studying age-related issues so “products can be modified accordingly for older people, allowing them to do the things they’ve always done." AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin explains: “MIT is about envisioning and inventing the future. I want the AgeLab to write a new narrative of a 100-year life.” He adds that it’s about “setting the agenda for what 100 good years could be.”

Writing for Fast Company, graduate student Sheng-Hung Lee and Devin Liddell of Teague highlight four types of AI technologies that could aid senior citizens in their homes. “To better understand how seniors want AIs and robots to help in their homes, we asked them,” they write.  “We recruited seniors from the MIT AgeLab’s research cohort—each around 70 years old and in the early stages of retirement—and then engaged in wide-ranging conversations about their aspirations and fears about these technologies.”

A study by research specialist Samantha Bray analyzes “the career impact on 460 working women aged 50 to 60 who began caregiving for an aging parent or parent-in-law,” reports Michelle Travis for Forbes. “Parental caregiving may act as a shock to women’s financial health at a critical career stage,” says Brady. “Parental caregiving often begins at a time in an individual’s career when they are at their maximum earning potential.”

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Boston Magazine reporter Jaci Conry about research and initiatives underway in the greater Boston area that could make the region a “longevity hub.” Coughlin explains: “Few people are prepared for how long retirement will be. We want them to consider what their social portfolio might entail as they age, along with mobility and seeing their home as a service platform with sensors and devices that can help you age in place.”  

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, shares the importance of having conversations about intergenerational family wealth transfers to help avoid disputes in inheritances plans, report Anne Tergesen and Dalvin Brown for The Wall Street Journal. "The only way to avoid causing stress, surprise or anger to people is to have these discussions gradually over time," says Coughlin.

WCVB reporter Jessica Brown spotlights how researchers from the MIT AgeLab explored the most effective way to communicate with elderly individuals about driver retirement. The researchers found that “35% of older drivers are more likely to listen to a spouse who asks them to give up the keys,” explains Brown. 

In an article for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, makes the case that people typically “look at retirement as leaving work, but we don't often think ahead of what else we might be leaving behind.” Coughlin emphasizes that retirees should not “forget to review your social portfolio’s retirement readiness and determine if you have saved and invested adequately in the social assets you will need in life after work.”

Writing for MarketWatch, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, examines how the revival of nuclear power could be beneficial for older workers with expertise in the industry. “The myth of older workers taking up space must end in every industry, but in a high-stakes sector such as nuclear power, older workers aren’t taking up space — they are a critical part of the future," writes Coughlin. 

Writing for MarketWatch, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes that the dockworker strike was “emblematic of broader shifts in the American workforce and the integration of technology in the workplace. As older generations retire and younger ones seek more flexible, technology-driven careers, traditional industries must adapt or be left behind.”

A new study by researchers from MIT and elsewhere has found that “most drivers are likely to multitask and get distracted if their vehicles are equipped with partial automation software,” reports William Gavin for Quartz. The researchers “studied how drivers with cars that have the technology behaved after it was enabled,” explains Gavin.

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, explores how many envision retirement as a long vacation, but notes setting realistic expectations is important to avoid surprises. “Instead, longevity planning is about preparing for what, how, where, and with whom to live in older age," Coughlin writes. "We're talking about crafting a plan to produce your best possible life in older age, not just planning and financing a really long summer vacation." 

Joesph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, speaks with Atlantic reporter Charley Locke about how retirement can result in feelings of identity loss and can present cognitive and emotional health challenges. “When people are at the center of their universe through their job, we don’t have a storyline or a place in our society that is attractive enough to say, ‘Maybe I’ve had enough,’” says Coughlin. “You’re showing people the door with no direction.” 

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Forbes’ Jann Freed about the importance of social connections in retirement. We focus on money and financial security, but we should also be considering “the social capital (friends) we will need to remain connected, engaged, to have fun, and to manage the many challenges older age will bring,” says Coughlin.

 Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with PRX’s On Shifting Ground podcast host Ray Suarez about the potential impacts of greater life expectancy. “You are going to see a lot more technology in old age,” says Coughlin. “Not simply to remind you to take your meds or take your blood pressure, but actually to enable you to stay in your home longer, to bring information to you, to make things more convenient.”

In a cartoon for The Boston Globe, Sage Stossel spotlights how during the Cambridge Science Festival researchers from the MIT AgeLab spoke about their work during a special presentation at the Cambridge Senior Center. As part of an effort to spur innovations aimed at improving the quality of life for people in their later years, AgeLab researchers have “pursued an array of projects, from researching safer, more automated driving systems to collaborating on ‘smart home’ innovations for facilitating aging in place to the development of interactive robo-pets.”