Development

Samer Saab, founder of Wala, accepts the Zambezi Prize competition’s $100,000 grand prize award.

South Africa startup Wala wins Zambezi Prize for micropayments platform

Legatum Center’s award for innovation in financial inclusion plays a key role in MIT’s push to expand African engagement.

September 18, 2018

Prosper Nyovanie, a 2017-19 Legatum Fellow, trains local community members in Boshof, South Africa, to build a utility-scale photovoltaic power plant.

Legatum Fellows build on 10-year legacy of impact

New cohort of student entrepreneurs will advance a growing tradition of driving sustainable, scalable change in the developing world.

August 21, 2018

The MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy is an online series of courses designed for learners like Alan Al Yussef, who seek to have a direct impact on major social issues through an empirical, data-driven approach.

Turning an economics education into solutions with impact

MITx MicroMasters learner Alan Al Yussef is working to improve lives in the Middle East through a career in development economics.

August 14, 2018

Siqi Zheng is an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning whose work examines the dynamic connections between what she calls urban “vibrancy” — economic and job growth, for instance — and urban “amenities,” such as transit, clean air, schools, housing, and restaurants.

The city is her lab

Siqi Zheng studies the economics of China’s urban explosion.

July 3, 2018

MIT startup teams meet with Chinese industry partners at the China Future City Lab demo day.

China Venture Workshop announces first cohort

Ten teams will collaborate with local partners, pilot solutions to urban challenges.

May 31, 2018

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India

How much does infrastructure boost an economy?

MIT economist’s historical study details how railroads helped India trade and grow.

April 26, 2018

Person holds up device with lens near their eye

Tata Center adds eight new projects to its 2018-2019 portfolio

MIT principal investigators will receive funding and support for projects seeking an impact in the developing world.

April 12, 2018

The SPURS Fellows of 1969-1970 pose for a class photo.

Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies celebrates 50th anniversary

SPURS Fellows serve as agents of change in international development.

April 6, 2018

Members of the Workplace Learning at J-WEL Consortium in discussion during the inaugural J-WEL Week in October 2017.

Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab holds second J-WEL Week

Representatives of member organizations and invited guests from 23 countries gather to promote excellence and transformation in global education.

March 19, 2018

After graduating from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in management science, Chun aims to earn a master's degree in engineering science at Oxford University. After he returns to the United States, Chun plans to begin law school with a focus on intellectual property.

Bringing meaningful technologies to market

MIT senior and Rhodes Scholar Matthew Chun wants to promote innovation that enhances quality of life in developing countries.

March 1, 2018

Professor James Kirtley Jr. (left) and Tata Fellow Mohammad Qasim hold a state-of-the-art ceiling fan that they use as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of their motor designs. A variety of instruments generate measurements they use to calculate how much of the power from the fan ends up actually moving air, determining the efficiency of the device.

Making appliances and energy grids more efficient

The Tata Center is building a high-efficiency, affordable electric motor that could have a huge impact in India, home to as many as half a billion ceiling fans.

February 28, 2018

The task force leadership team consists of (right) David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics and associate head of the MIT Department of Economics; (left) David Mindell, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, and professor of aeronautics and astronautics; and (center) Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center...

MIT launches Task Force on the Work of the Future

Institute-wide effort will study the evolution of jobs in an age of technological advancement.

February 27, 2018

A new study found that cities with an orderly pattern, like the street grid seen in most of this map, have a much greater urban heat island effect than those with a more disorderly pattern, such as areas in the upper right.

Urban heat island effects depend on a city’s layout

The way streets and buildings are arranged makes a big difference in how heat builds up, study shows.

February 22, 2018

East Pacific Center Towers, Shenzhen, China.

New connector helps faculty, student startups launch in China

The new connector helps faculty, students, and alumni launch startups in China.

February 14, 2018

MIT economist David Atkin is a scholar whose empirical, tightly focused studies of trade and development have helped experts better understand trade's effects.

A deep dive into the effects of trade

MIT economist David Atkin looks beneath the surface of global commerce.

February 4, 2018

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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