The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is developing a Drug Repurposing Hub, which looks to “acquire samples of every drug ever developed to see if they can be used to treat diseases besides those for which they were intended,” writes Jonathan Saltzman for The Boston Globe.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit MIT this Friday “to headline the annual meeting of the school's Solve initiative,” reports the Associated Press. Trudeau’s appearance at Solve, which “connects tech entrepreneurs with leaders in government, business and academia to tackle world problems,” will mark his first visit to Cambridge since becoming prime minister.
In a commentary on CNBC, graduate student J. Daniel Kim and a co-author describe research with Prof. Pierre Azoulay and the U.S. Census Bureau on the average age of successful entrepreneurs. By working with the U.S. Census Bureau, they were able “to examine all businesses launched in the U.S. between 2007 and 2014, encompassing 2.7 million founders.”
New research from Sloan finds that entrepreneurs in their 40s are more successful than those in their 20s, writes Amy Wilkinson for The Wall Street Journal. The researchers also show that older company founders “were 125% more successful if they were previously employed in the particular sector in which they were starting a new business,” explains Wilkinson.
Katie Kindelan of Good Morning America reports on the “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” hackathon at the Media Lab, which examined physical, socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting new mothers. “We really thought, ‘How do we attack this problem from all angles, not just technology and design but also policy and access,’” explains researcher Alexis Hope.
Greg Epstein speaks with Rachel Kraus of Mashable about serving as the Institute’s first humanist chaplain, and offers a “sample required reading list” for “humanists in and around the world of technology which will shape our future.”
Writing for Slate, Sloan alumna Kate Krontiris highlights the issues facing women who breastfeed and previews a hackathon taking place this weekend at the MIT Media Lab. “We are convening hundreds of engineers and designers, doulas and doctors, midwives and mamas to make the breast pump not suck as well as hack other barriers to breastfeeding."
In this one-minute read for Fast Company, Michael Grothaus quips that “40 is the new 20,” based on a new working paper by Sloan Prof. Pierre Azoulay and graduate student Daniel Kim. They found that “when it comes to entrepreneurship, the average successful business founder is 42 years old,” reports Grothaus.
Writing in The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray examines a bracelet designed by three MIT alumni that “functions like a personal thermostat, cooling you off when you’re hot or warming you up when it’s chilly.” Called Embr Wave, it offers a “sudden surge of heat or cold that makes us feel better, even though our core temperature has hardly changed,” Bray explains.
Media Lab spinout “Ori” has developed what its founder Hasier Larrea SM ’15 calls a “Swiss Army knife for studio apartments,” writes Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. A “robotic furniture system,” the compact 8 by 5 foot design can equip even the smallest rooms with a bed, multiple desks, closet, and entertainment system.
Endor, a spin-out that originally began at the Media Lab, has acquired $45 million in token pre-sales for its “blockchain-based predictive analytics technology” notes Reuters. “Endor’s platform allows users to key in questions and get predictions as answers. Its tokens can be spent by individuals and data owners to access predictions.”
The Forbes Boston Business Council recommends the Martin Trust Center as “a great resource for early-stage Boston tech startups,” says Council member Ted Chan. “[C]onnections to people who have found success before are invaluable as you develop as a technology executive.”
Sloan sophomore Kai Kloepfer developed a “prototype of a biometrically secured ‘smart gun’ that could be fired only by its owner,” writes Mark Wallace for Fast Company. “We have to physically integrate our technology into the handgun,” Kloepfer says. “So that means attaching circuit boards and incorporating batteries. There has to be physical space made.”
In a new working paper, Prof. Daron Acemoglu and his co-author argue that the rise in automation is linked to the aging of the blue-collar population. “The study shows that workers feeling the brunt of automation in lost jobs and lower wages are between the ages of 36 and 55. Those findings should make it easier for policy makers to track down the most affected workers—and help them survive the robot rush,” writes Ana Campoy for Quartz.
Prof. Bill Aulet and Aman Advani ’13, CEO of Ministry of Supply, speak with Brian Burnell of NECN about The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and why it’s a great resource for students. "We came in with enough humility to know that we didn’t know what was next,” said Advani, “and that’s where the Trust Center was such a helpful resource.”