Researchers from MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions have been developing an electric autonomous trash boat, reports Sarah Holder for Bloomberg. The boats “could reduce noise, pollution, and congestion, thus improving the quality of Amsterdam’s historic cityscape.”
MIT and Delta airlines are developing a plan to eliminate persistent contrails, reports Susan Tran for NBC Boston 10. “A possible solution here is to get rid of these clouds flying at different altitudes,” says Tran. “They [researchers] say that up to 90 percent of all contrails could be avoided by flying at different heights.”
Researchers at MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Delta Air Lines are working together to find new ways to eliminate persistent contrails, the white clouds that trail behind airplanes, using an algorithm that predicts altitudes and locations where contrails are likely to form, reports Omose Ighodaro for Bloomberg. “The joint research group has already completed more than 40 testing flights and has plans for live experiment flights and simulations,” writes Ighodaro.
At MIT’s AI Policy Forum Summit, which was focused on exploring the challenges facing the implementation of AI technologies across a variety of sectors, SEC Chair Gary Gensler and MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Dean Daniel Huttenlocher discussed the impact of AI on the world of finance. “If someone is relying on open-AI, that's a concentrated risk and a lot of fintech companies can build on top of it,” Gensler said. “Then you have a node that's every bit as systemically relevant as maybe a stock exchange."
Prof. Peter Shor and three other researchers have won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work in the field of quantum information, reports Martin Finucane for The Boston Globe. Shor “invented the first quantum computer algorithm that was clearly useful. Shor’s algorithm can find the factors of large numbers exponentially faster than is thought to be possible for any classical algorithm,” the Breakthrough Foundation noted in its citation.
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has named Prof. Peter Shor one of the four winners for the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his work in the field of quantum information, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “The laureates honored today embody the remarkable power of fundamental science,” says Yuri Milner, one of the prize founders. “Both to reveal deep truths about the Universe, and to improve human lives.”
Prof. Peter Shor, an expert in quantum algorithms, has been named one of four recipients for the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Ian Sample for The Guardian.
Prof. Peter Shor has been named one of four honorees for this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his contributions to the field of quantum information, reports Daniel Garisto for Scientific American. All of Shor’s work, “led to new views of quantum mechanics and computing,” writes Garisto.
Prof. Peter Shor is one of four winners for this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Zeeya Merali for Nature. Merali writes that Shor’s research “laid the groundwork for the development of ultra-secure communications and computers that might one day outperform standard machines at some tasks.”
MIT researchers have developed a new in-home device that can help monitor Parkinson’s patients by tracking their gait, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “We know very little about the brain and its diseases,” says Professor Dina Katabi. “My goal is to develop non-invasive tools that provide new insights about the functioning of the brain and its diseases.”
Popular Science reporter Philip Kiefer writes that MIT researchers have developed an in-home device that could be used to track the progression of symptoms in Parkinson’s patients. “We can’t really ask patients to come to the clinic every day or every week,” explains graduate student Yingcheng Liu. “This technology gives us the possibility to continuously monitor patients, and provide more objective assessments.”
Research led by Prof. Michael Howland has found that adjusting the orientation of wind turbines on a farm can reduce the wake effect and boost the total output, reports Maria Perez Ortiz for Wired. “Howland and his team’s algorithm first uses atmospheric physics and operational farm data—such as temperature and wind conditions—to estimate the wakes that turbines are creating and how these are impacting other turbines,” writes Ortiz.
As the early images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were revealed in July 2022, astronomers such as Hubble Postdoctoral Scholar Rohan Naidu were able to uncover numerous galaxies within them, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for Scientific American. Naidu recounts how an algorithm he developed “sifted out an object that, on closer inspection, was inexplicably massive and dated back to just 300 million years after the big bang, older than any galaxy ever seen before,” writes O’Callaghan.
Prof. Michael Howland speaks with Camille Bond at E&E News about his research, which suggests that finding the ideal position for individual wind turbines could increase the overall efficiency of the entire wind farm. “If we're expanding wind energy quite substantially, it's important that we design the wind farms in the best way and we control them in the best way to achieve that goal,” said Howland.
Researchers from MIT are working with the Staten Island Performing Provider System to develop an algorithm that can predict who in the system is at risk for an opioid overdose, reports Maddie Bender for the Daily Beast. “In preliminary testing, Conte’s team and MIT Sloan researchers found their model was highly accurate at predicting overdoses and fatal overdoses, even with delays in the data of up to 180 days,” writes Bender.