School of Architecture and Planning

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Karilyn Crockett explores the history of the Home for Aged Colored Women and its residents, noting that “uncovering the stories of these women, many of whom worked for decades as domestic servants for wealthy Boston families, has been a revelation." Crockett explains that: “using US Census records, Ancestry.com, and materials from the Massachusetts Historical Society and National Park Service, students painstakingly sifted through newspapers, birth certificates, and cursive-laden archival records to bring these women to life.” 

Postdoctoral Associate Pat Pataranutaporn speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Heidi Mitchell about his work developing Future You, an online interactive AI platform that “allows users to create a virtual older self—a chatbot that looks like an aged version of the person and is based on an AI text system known as a large language model, then personalized with information that the user puts in.” Pataranutaporn explains: “I want to encourage people to think in the long term, to be less anxious about an unknown future so they can live more authentically today.” 

In a discussion with Metropolis reporter Francisco Brown, Prof. Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, discusses his vision for this year’s festival. “I think the biggest challenge of architecture today, which we are trying to address both with our practice at CRA (Carlo Ratti Associati) and our research at MIT, is to create a better alliance between natural and artificial systems,” Ratti explains. 

Prof. Albert Saiz reflects on a recent study from LendingTree which has found that “single women own more homes than single men in the United States,” reports Claudie Bellanger for Boston.com. Saiz, suggests “that education is a factor, especially in Massachusetts,” writes Bellanger. “The demand for labor in Massachusetts is biased toward highly skilled laborers who have a bachelor’s degree or higher,” says Saiz.

In a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, Vice President for Research Ian Waitz addresses the importance of research staff at the Institute, noting that “research universities educate through research.” Waitz emphasizes: “At MIT, there has been double-digit real growth in our on-campus research enterprise over the past 11 years along with growth in our graduate student body. With that come more people, and while these staff may not be directly involved in student classroom instruction, the research they conduct is crucial to the hands-on education that MIT students receive and to the real-world solutions that originate at the school.”

MIT Profs. Angela Belcher, Emery Brown, Paula Hammond and Feng Zhang have been honored with National Medals of Science and Technology, reports Michael T. Neitzel for Forbes. Additionally, R. Lawrence Edwards '76 received a National Medal of Science and Noubar Afeyan PhD '87, a member of the MIT Corporation, accepted a National Medal on behalf of Moderna. The recipients have been awarded “the nation’s highest honors for exemplary achievements and leadership in science and technology,” explains Neitzel. 

A new study co-authored by Prof. Emeritus Frank Levy that finds chatbot-style artificial intelligence could “fuel a reshaping of the population and labor market map of America,” writes Steve Lohr for The New York Times. Levy and his colleagues found that midsize cities in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and South are “well positioned to use AI to become more productive, helping to draw more people to those areas.” 

Knowable Magazine reporter Katherine Ellison spotlights Future You, a new program developed by researchers at MIT that “offers young people a chance to chat with an online, AI-generated simulation of themselves at age 60.” 

New Yorker reporter Rivka Galchen visits the lab of Prof. Hugh Herr to learn more about his work aimed at the “merging of body and machine.” Herr and his team are developing bionic prosthetics that can be completely controlled by the human brain and are designed to allow users “to walk approximately as quickly and unthinkingly as anyone else.”  Herr imagines a future where “we will be able to sculpt our own brains and bodies, and therefore our own identities and experiences.”

Forbes reporter Tom Teicholz spotlights the artistic work of alumna Lauren Bon. “Over the last two decades, as part of her art practice, Bon has undertaken projects that involve an exploration of urban natural resources in ways that have a positive environmental and societal impact,” writes Teicholz. 

Smithsonian Magazine reporter Michael Snyder spotlights Marion Mahony Griffin,  an “inventive and remarkable architect” who was the second woman to earn an architecture degree from MIT. “A brilliant graphic artist with a deep interest in Japanese printmaking, Mahony created the signature aesthetic of [Frank Llyod] Wright’s perspective drawings, bursting with exquisite detail,” explains Snyder. 

Prof. Hugh Herr speaks with Nature reporter Fred Schwaller about his work developing bionic limbs. Schwaller notes that “Herr’s research team is focusing on surgical techniques and implants that improve on the electrodes used in current bionic-limb systems, which either penetrate the peripheral nerves or wrap around them.” Herr explains: “We’re reimagining how limbs should be amputated and bionic limbs constructed.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed a robot capable of assembling “building blocks called voxels to build an object with almost any shape,” reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “You can get furniture-scale objects really fast in a very sustainable way, because you can reuse these modular components and ask a robot to reassemble them into different large-scale objects,” says graduate student Alexander Htet Kyaw.

Designer and artist Es Devlin has been named the recipient of the 2025 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, reports Arushi Jacob for The Boston Globe. The award recognizes and honors “individuals in the arts, spanning a variety of mediums,” explains Jacobs. “The award aims to invest in the careers of cross-disciplinary artists, like Devlin.” 

Prof. Christopher Reinhart speaks with GBH reporter Craig LeMoult about the feasibility of harvesting energy from the Charles River. Reinhart notes that using renewable heat pumps along with the old, existing steam infrastructure could be a good option for Boston and other cities around the country that have district energy systems. “I think you would see a lot of those, especially with the overall push towards decarbonization,” says Reinhart.