Alexander Bratianu-Badea SM '15 co-founded De-Ice, a startup creating a new and efficient way to thaw aircrafts, reports Kate Duffy for Bloomberg. Bratianu-Badea says, “De-Ice’s strips stick onto the plane with aerospace-grade, acrylic-based adhesive backing. During regulatory tests, the system was exposed to different temperatures, humidifies and chemicals. Even UV light and submersion in a heated oil bath couldn’t damage it.”
Vox’s Rachel DuRose highlights the work of Noam Angrist BS ’13 and his co-founder Moitshepi Matsheng, who were included in the outlet’s 2023 Future Perfect 50 list for their nonprofit Youth Impact, which aims to reduce HIV transmission in Botswana. “The nonprofit is based out of Botswana’s capital of Gaborone and aims to bridge the gap between research and action, taking data-backed health and education solutions and scaling them,” writes DuRose.
Dr. Dara Norman '88, incoming president of the American Astronomical Society, speaks with Swapna Krishna at Wired about data access, scientific merit and her time at MIT. “During one key moment, as an undergraduate at MIT, she looked through a telescope during a class and saw Jupiter for the first time,” writes Krishna. “It was just amazing. It looked like all the pictures, and I was hooked,” says Norman.
Joy Buolamwini PhD '22 joins Tonya Mosley on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast to discuss her new book, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines. "With the adoption of AI systems, at first I thought we were looking at a mirror, but now I believe we're looking into a kaleidoscope of distortion," Buolamwini says. "Because the technologies we believe to be bringing us into the future are actually taking us back from the progress already made."
Alumnus Dave Dussault founded Snapchill, a hot coffee company that uses technology to brew, “the best of both hot coffee and cold brew,” reports Grant Welker for NBC Boston. “The technology entails brewing the coffee hot, then dropping the temperature in a matter of seconds from more than 200 degrees to just above freezing,” explains Welker. “It's done using what Dussault said is essentially the same technology used in a refrigerator.”
Regent, a company co-founded by alumni Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker, has developed an all-electric sea glider, a low flying plane that operates only over water, reports Alan Ohnsman for Forbes. “We’ve seen airlines and the aviation field pick up a lot,” says Thalheimer. “We're starting to see airlines really think of themselves as transportation operators, thinking about that whole end-to-end customer journey. And seagliders can fit really nicely into that picture.”
Forbes contributor Lucio Ribeiro spotlights Andrew Ng MS '98 and Jaime Teevan SM '01, PhD '07 as two of eight “AI superheroes whose work is transforming technology and challenges our understanding of what’s possible.” Ng is the CEO is Landing AI, and “his efforts in educating the masses about AI through platforms like Coursera, which he co-founded, have democratized AI knowledge, bridging the gap between academia and industry,” writes Ribeiro. Teevan’s “work is focused on making AI more accessible and useful to people in their everyday lives.”
Grace Colón PhD '95, a board member of the MIT Corporation, writes for The Hill about how to transform cities into biotech innovations hubs. “The best path to biotech success will be different for each city,” writes Colón. “But by building on institutional strengths, investing in workers, and knocking down barriers to success, there’s no reason more of them can’t get there.”
Jasmina Aganovic '09 speaks with MSNBC reporter Daniela Pierre-Bravo about her mission to transform the beauty industry by creating more sustainable products through her startup Arcaea. “The way that I’ve always viewed this industry is that it touches almost every single human being on this planet every single day,” says Aganovic. The beauty industry also, “plays such an important emotional role in our day-to-day lives in terms of self-expression and self-care, the ability to escape when things are a little bit tough, those like little small indulgences.”
George Hadjigeorgiou MSc '98 co-founded Zoe, a personalized nutrition program that “aims to improve gut and metabolic health,” reports Julia Kollewe for The Guardian. “Zoe has identified almost 5,000 never-before-seen gut bacteria,” writes Kollewe. “Of those, 100 were strongly associated with health across all 35,000 participants – 50 good and 50 bad. This feeds into the app and members’ personalized scores will be updated over time”
New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty spotlights DUSP graduate student Nick Allen MS '17 and his work advocating for Land-value taxes (LVT) in distressed US cities.
Augmental, an MIT spinoff, has created MouthPad, a tongue-controlled, computer mouse pad designed for people with disabilities, reports Zoya Hasan and Alex York for Forbes. The device is a “hands-free, custom fit mouthpiece for device control,” explains Hasan and York.
Aleena Nadeem '16 founded EduFi, a fintech startup that provides a straightforward process for students in Pakistan to take out loans to help finance their education, reports Kate Park for TechCrunch. “Education offers hope and can change the lives of people. I am one example of millions out there,” says Nadeem.
Lisa Su BS, MS ’91, PhD ’94, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has been named to the Forbes 2023 Future of Work list for her, “technological chops and management savvy [techniques that] helped orchestrate a case-study worthy turnaround at AMD,” reports Jena McGregor for Forbes. The Forbes list, “highlights 50 leaders, executives, thinkers and teams rethinking the world of work at a time when everything – from the job market’s future to AI’s impact to a college degree’s value – feels more uncertain than ever.”