MIT spinout Affectiva Inc. has developed a new system that can study a driver’s face to help assess their mental state, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Bray explains that the system “analyzes facial expressions to determine if a driver is distracted, angry, scared, sleepy, or drunk.”
Robotic furniture produced by MIT spinout Ori, which created a furniture system that reconfigures itself with the push of a button or voice commands, could be the solution to living in small spaces, writes Candace Jackson for The New York Times.
As part of the InCube entrepreneurial challenge, a team of MIT students is living in a glass cube for five days as they work on developing a better ambulance, reports Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. Gene Keselman, executive director of the MIT Innovation Initiative, explains that the glass cube offers passersby a glimpse at what “the entrepreneurial journey looks like.”
CBS Boston highlights five MIT students who are living and working inside a glass cube on the MIT campus for four days as part of an entrepreneurial hackathon focused on developing the ambulance of the future.
Five visiting students are living and working in a glass cube as they work on developing the ambulance of the future as part of an InCube entrepreneurial challenge, reports Jadiann Thompson for WHDH-TV. “The goal is really to make this a four-day intensive stay in the cube,” graduate student Phillippe Nicollier explains.
In an article for The New York Times about the most effective ways to supply aid to impoverished populations in developing countries, Marc Gunther highlights GiveDirectly, a nonprofit co-founded by graduate students from MIT and Harvard. Gunther explains that GiveDirectly aims to “reshape international giving by using cash as a kind of ‘index fund’ of development against which actively managed interventions can be measured.”
Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine, speaks with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang about tough tech and why The Engine is committed to fostering startups focused on the world’s biggest problems. Rae explains that The Engine invests in companies that often “need time to be nurtured, time to work out technical risk, but the results can be transformational to the world.”
MIT startup Skydio has launched a platform that allows users to create custom software that can be applied to the company’s autonomous drone, reports Nick Statt for The Verge. The platform will let “app makers and drone enthusiasts develop custom software that takes advantage of the device’s bevy of cameras and sensors, as well as its sophisticated computer vision software and machine learning algorithms.”
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters highlights how MIT researchers have developed a robot that can swim through pipes and identify leaks. Peters writes that alumnus You Wu estimates that “if half of the leaks in the world could be found and fixed, that would recover enough water to support 1 billion people.”
MIT alumnus You Wu has spent six years perfecting robots that can travel through pipes to identify water leaks, writes Anne Quito for Quartz. “Over 240,000 water pipes burst in the US each year, with each incident costing an average of $200,000 in infrastructure damage,” notes Quito.
In an article for The New York Times about how scientists are developing new ways to treat disease using bacteria, Carl Zimmer highlights how MIT startup Synlogic is developing what could be the first FDA-approved synthetic biology-based medical treatment for a disease called phenylketonuria.
Prof. Donald Sadoway speaks with Forbes contributor Arne Alsin about the future of sustainable energy and battery design. “We definitely have to be bolder in our innovation when it comes to what goes beyond lithium-ion,” says Sadoway. “We have to apply the criterion ‘If successful, how big is the impact?’ And we have to have the courage to fail.”
Wired reporter Jack Stewart explores the technology behind Boston-based startup WaveSense, which applies ground-penetrating radar developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to give self-driving cars a way to map where they are without relying on visual clues or GPS. The technology, writes Stewart, was “first deployed in 2013 to help troops navigate in Afghanistan, where staying on path and avoiding landmines is a matter of life and death.”
Media Lab researchers have developed a desk that transforms based on the user’s mood, reports Madis Kabash for Quartz. Kabash explains that the desk collects, “over 30 biological signals including heart-rate, facial-expressions, and posture,” and then adjusts lighting, changes images on a screen and plays different sounds on a speaker to help the user destress.
Writing for The Boston Globe, Scott Kirsner highlights Perch, a company founded by alumnus Jacob Rothman to help improve safety for weightlifters. Kirsner explains that Perch developed a system for an iPad that allows users to, “log in to a weightlifting station and access a personal routine, which can be crafted by a coach.”