Prof. Esther Duflo speaks with WBUR’s Fred Thys about MIT’s MicroMasters in development economics. Thys explains that the new MicroMasters program allows students, “to take rigorous courses online for credit, and if they perform well on exams, to apply for a master's degree program on campus.”
MIT alumni Noelle Marcus and Rachel Goor have created a housing app that matches graduate students looking for housing with homeowners looking for assistance with household chores, writes Colleen Flaherty for Inside Higher Ed. Marcus explains that the app could help the “aging population in the U.S. stay in their homes.”
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Arianne Cohen profiles graduate student Joy Buolamwini, who founded the algorithmic Justice League in an effort to make people more aware of the biases embedded in AI systems. “We’re using facial analysis as an exemplar to show how we can include more inclusive training data in the first place,” says Buolamwini of her work.
Jesse Lichtenstein writes for The New York Times about Jonny Sun, a PhD candidate in DUSP, whose humorous Twitter feed, “jomny sun,” has become increasingly popular for offering “comfort, whimsy and an alternative to the rage/panic/schadenfreude/political flame-warring of much online discourse.” “Twitter is often thought of as a shallow, superficial thing,” said Sun, but “there’s a lot of honest pathos and humanity in it.”
Deniz Cam of Forbes highlights MIT graduate Mubarik Mohamoud in an article about students from the Abaarso School in Somaliland, which is aimed at educating the country’s next generation of leaders. After a six-month internship, Mohamoud will return to MIT to pursue a master’s degree in computer science.
Fortune reporter Aaron Pressman highlights how in her address during the 2017 Investiture of Doctoral Hoods, MIT alumna Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, urged doctoral graduates to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. "The world is starving for new ideas and great leaders who will champion those ideas," said Su.
MIT graduate student Manisha Mohan has developed a device, called the Smell Camera, which can record specific scents, writes Antonia DePace for Boston Magazine. Mohan’s struggle with homesickness inspired her to create the Smell Camera, which allows users to capture and store the scent of a particular object.
MIT graduate student Ari Ofsevit has created a chart plotting all the colors from the country’s transit systems to compare the hues, writes The Washington Post’s Martine Powers. “Orange in one city does not mean orange in another,” says Ofsevit.
Wired reporter Nicola Davison spotlights the work of graduate student Dheeraj Roy, whose research is focused on developing new techniques to help Alzheimer’s patients remember lost memories. Davison writes that Roy’s findings offer a potential “strategy for improving memory that could go beyond the modest benefit of available drugs.”
Postdoc Matthew Peterson speaks with WGBH reporter Edgar Herwick about why humans make eye contact. Peterson explains that humans are not good at judging where they are looking when talking to others, adding that the information we use is “highly concentrated in the eye region. So even if we're not looking at the eyes directly, we're using the eyes."
MIT students participating in the Masters of Architecture Options Studio have developed a prototype portable shelter that self-assembles in mid-air, reports Alexandra Simon-Lewis for Wired. Graduate student MyDung Nguyen explains that the goal of the project was to "defy the constraints" that can often impede architectural projects, particularly in areas where space and time are limited.
Graduate student Maimuna Majumder writes for NPR about her research examining what caused an outbreak of the mumps in Arkansas in 2016. Majumder writes that her research shows, “why herd immunity is so important. When we vaccinate, we protect not only ourselves but the most vulnerable members of our communities, too.”
A study by MIT and Harvard researchers provides evidence that a new executive order on immigration could reduce the number of doctors in portions of Appalachia and the Industrial Midwest, reports Sam Petulla for NBC News. "In these places, there are lots of incentives for American-trained doctors and foreign-trained doctors to move and work," explains graduate student Michael Stepner.
Boston Globe reporter Felice Freyer writes that a study by MIT and Harvard researchers examines how an executive order on immigration could impact the number of doctors in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. Doctors from the countries included in the order “handle about 14 million patient visits a year…often settling in areas where American doctors are reluctant to work.”
In an article for Forbes, graduate student Jai Padmakumar discusses whether allergies are a sign of a weak immune system. Allergies occur when your immune system responds too strongly because “your body mistakenly recognizes something that really isn’t bad for you as a pathogen and attacks it,” explains Padmakumar.