Media Lab

In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Benjamin Powers highlights Affectiva and Koko, two MIT startups developing AI systems that respond to human emotions.

MIT researchers have developed a new method to shrink 3-D printed objects, reports Douglas Heaven for New Scientist. The technique can be used to create a wide variety of shapes using different materials. “In the 1970s hobbyists built their own computers at home,” explains Prof. Edward Boyden. “Maybe people can now make their own chips.”

Scientific American reporter Gary Stix highlights a study by researchers from the MIT Media Lab that examines the “underlying dynamics of collective attention and memory, traced as a bi-exponential curve (a steep drop followed by a slow decline over time).”

Writing for Wired, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, writes about the need for creating more open, global datasets for such critical issues as air quality monitoring. “We need to start using data for more than commercial exploitation,” argues Ito, “deploying it to understand the long-term effects of policy, and create transparency around those in power—not of private citizens.”

Popular Mechanics reporter Jill Kiedaisch writes that MIT researchers have developed a plant cyborg, named Elowan, that can move itself towards sources of light. Kiedaisch writes that Elowan “could elevate how we interface with the world around us, leveraging the natural abilities of plants to inform how we animals express our own agency to live, and keep living, perhaps a bit more symbiotically.”

Reporting for WBUR, Amelia Mason spotlights a collaboration between graduate student Ben Bloomberg and Jacob Collier, a singer and former MIT artist-in-residence. Bloomberg explains that he and Collier aim to use technology as a means to augment human capabilities, explaining that, “technology should do things that technology is good at, and the people should do things that people are good at.”

Media Lab researchers have created a new robotic plant, dubbed Elowan, that acts like a light sensor, reports Katharine Schwab for Fast Company. Schwab explains that the new plant-robot hybrid, “shows that technologists can use signals that already exist in nature–like the plant’s light-sensing capacity–to create an entirely new kind of organic interface.”

Motherboard reporter Caroline Haskins writes that Media Lab researchers have developed a new plant-robot hybrid that uses electrodes, a robot and wheels so that it can move itself towards light. Haskins explains that “bioelectrochemical signals from the plant that respond to light…are routed to a robot underneath the plant, and wheels take the plant to a spot best-suited for its survival.”

In an article for Forbes, Andrew Raupp highlights a pilot program debuted by MIT last year that allows students the option to receive a tamper-free version of their diploma digitally using Bitcoin’s blockchain technology. Raupp writes that, “Unlike a paper diploma, which could be easily lost or falsified, blockchain ensures that this important piece of data is never lost.”

Gizmodo reporter Jennings Brown writes that researchers from the MIT Media Lab are developing a machine learning system that can develop addresses for regions of the planet that don’t have a recognized address system. Brown explains that the researchers “compared their results to an unmapped suburban region and found that their system labeled more than 80 percent of the populated portions.”

Forbes reporter Samar Marwan speaks with Rana el Kaliouby, CEO and cofounder of the MIT startup Affectiva, about her work developing new technology that can read human facial expressions. Marwan explains that el Kaliouby and Prof. Rosalind Picard started developing the technology at MIT, “to focus on helping children on the autism spectrum better understand how other people were feeling.”

Prof. Ethan Zuckerman, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, speaks with Vox about the potential cognitive impact of using new digital technologies. “The interesting question is what are the real problems and how do we address them and make them better?” says Zuckerman. “How would you mitigate those harmful effects? What are the positive effects we want out of it?”

In an article for STAT, Prof. Kevin Esvelt argues that non-profits should be the only entities allowed to develop and use new genome editing technologies. Esvelt writes that when it comes to controversial new technologies like gene drive, “keeping early applications in the nonprofit realm could help us make wiser decisions about whether, when, and how to move forward.”

The Media Lab presented its Disobedience Award to several leading figures behind the #MeToo movement, including two scientists who have helped to raise awareness about sexual harassment in the field of science, reports Meredith Wadman for Science.

Prof. Tod Machover speaks with WBUR’s Andrea Shea about his new opera, which uses technology and music to tell the story of composer Arnold Schoenberg. Machover notes that opera, “was always a kind of funky experimental form where it was the place to combine narrative and visuals and engineering stage sets and music that worked — as a listening experience.”