School of Engineering

Wired reporter Parker Hall spotlights Lila Snyder SM '96, PhD '98 and her impact as CEO of Bose. Snyder  "helped turn a rickety start in the wireless earbud and Bluetooth speaker space into some of the sleekest, best-sounding models on the market," explains Hall. "In a world where management consultants and tech executives are known for stripping companies for parts and raising prices, Snyder and a slimmed-down Bose have maintained the brand’s noise-canceling superiority in the face of stiff competition from Apple, Sony, and others.”

Prof. Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, has been named to the top spot in the Supply Chain Digital list of the top 10 supply chain influencers. Sheffi’s “expertise in systems optimization, risk analysis and supply chain management is covered in his extensive body of work,” writes Libby Hargreaves for Supply Chain Digital. “His consultancy with top enterprises cements him as the leading voice in shaping modern supply chain strategies and addressing emerging industry challenges.” 

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about the challenges and risks posed by implementing automation, amid the dockworkers strike. Sheffi emphasized the importance of gradually introducing new technologies and offering workers training to work with AI. “There will be new jobs,” says Sheffi. “And we want the current workers to be able to get these new jobs.” 

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Associated Press reporter Cathy Bussewitz about how automation could impact the workforce, specifically dockworkers. “You cannot bet against the march of technology,” says Sheffi. “You cannot ban automation, because it will creep up in other places... The trick is to make it over time, not do it haphazardly.” 

Researchers at MIT have found large language models “often struggle to handle more complex problems that require true understanding,” reports Kirimgeray Kirimli for Forbes. “This underscores the need for future versions of LLMs to go beyond just these basic, shared capabilities,” writes Kirimli. 

Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Nature reporter Michael Greshko about the reopening of Three Mile Island, a former Pennsylvania nuclear power plant that will now be used to generate power for artificial intelligence. “It’s further confirmation of the value of nuclear, and, if the deal is right — if the price is right — then it makes business sense, as well,” says Buongiorno. 

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method that “enables robots to intuitively identify relevant areas of a scene based on specific tasks,” reports Baba Tamim for Interesting Engineering. “The tech adopts a distinctive strategy to make robots effective and efficient at sorting a cluttered environment, such as finding a specific brand of mustard on a messy kitchen counter,” explains Tamim. 

Yamilée Toussaint '08 has founded STEM From Dance – a dance program that combines STEM education and the performing arts as part of an effort to make STEM fields more accessible and engaging. The program currently works with girls of color in cities around the country. “I believe that the solution to some of the world’s most pressing problems relies on these girls being in the room because they have a different set of life experiences,” says Toussaint. “They’re creative, they’re intellectual, they’re curious, they’re artistic, and they’re going to bring a different set of ideas to the table, so we must make sure that they are included.”

Prof. Regina Barzilay has received the WebMD Health Heros award for her work developing a new system that uses AI to detect breast cancer up to 5 years earlier, reports WHDH. “We do have a right to know our risk and then we, together with our healthcare providers, need to manage them,” says Barzilay. 

MIT has been named the number 2 university in the nation on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the country’s top universities and colleges, reports Ross Cristantiello for Boston.com 

MIT has been named to the second spot in U.S News & World Report’s “Best National University Rankings,” reports Frank O’Laughlin for Boston 25 News.

MIT was named the number 2 university in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the best colleges and universities in the country, reports Travis Andersen for The Boston Globe.

Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, and Nico Enriquez, a graduate student at Stanford, make the case that the United States should not only be building more efficient AI software and better computer chips, but also creating “interstate-type corridors to transmit sufficient, reliable power to our data centers.” They emphasize: “The United States has the talent, investor base, corporations and research institutions to write the most advanced AI models. But without a powerful data highway system, our great technology advances will be confined to back roads.”

Seonghoon Woo PhD '15, Jongwon Choi PhD '17, Young Suk Jo SM '13, PhD '16, and Hyunho Kim SM '14, PhD '18 have co-founded Amogy – a startup company that is using ammonia produced by renewable energy as a carbon-free way to fuel a tugboat, report Jennifer McDermott and Michael Hill for The Associated Press. “Without solving the problem, it’s not going to be possible to make the planet sustainable,” says Woo. “I don’t think this is the problem of the next generation. This is a really big problem for our generation.”

CNN visits the lab of Prof. Canan Dagdeviren to learn more about her work developing wearable ultrasound devices that could help screen for early-stage breast cancer, monitor kidney health, and detect other cancers deep within the body. “Wearable technology will grow rapidly in the near future,” says Dagdeviren. “But in the far future, they will be one of the most powerful tools that we will be seeing in our daily life.”