Bloomberg reporter Magdalena del Valle spotlights Regent, an all-electric sea glider startup founded by alumni Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker. Regent is combining electric propulsion and hydrofoils to, “offer a carbon-free alternative for overwater routes such as New York to Boston, Los Angeles to San Diego, or Miami to the Bahamas,” writes del Valle.
MIT researchers have developed a, “new laser-based technique that could speed up the discovery of promising metamaterials for real-world applications,” reports Andrew Corselli for Tech Briefs. The technique “offers a safe, reliable, and high-throughput way to dynamically characterize microscale metamaterials, for the first time,” reports Corselli.
Prof. Sara Seager and her colleagues have discovered “a six-pack of planets, formed at least 4 billion years ago,” that orbit a nearby sun-like star named HD110067, reports Joel Achenbach for The Washington Post. “Occasionally, nature reveals an absolute gem,” says Seager. “HD 110067 is an immediate astronomical Rosetta stone – offering a key system to help unlock some mysteries of planet formation and evolution.”
Alumnus Dave Dussault founded Snapchill, a hot coffee company that uses technology to brew, “the best of both hot coffee and cold brew,” reports Grant Welker for NBC Boston. “The technology entails brewing the coffee hot, then dropping the temperature in a matter of seconds from more than 200 degrees to just above freezing,” explains Welker. “It's done using what Dussault said is essentially the same technology used in a refrigerator.”
Four faculty members from across MIT - Professors Song Han, Simon Johnson, Yoon Kim and Rosalind Picard - speak with Curiosity Stream about the opportunities and risks posed by the rapid advancements in the field of AI. “We do want to think about which human capabilities we treasure,” says Picard. She adds that during the Covid-19 pandemic, “we saw a lot of loss of people's ability to communicate with one another face-to-face when their world moved online. I think we need to be thoughtful and intentional about what we're building with the technology and whether it's diminishing who we are or enhancing it.”
Regent, a company co-founded by alumni Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker, has developed an all-electric sea glider, a low flying plane that operates only over water, reports Alan Ohnsman for Forbes. “We’ve seen airlines and the aviation field pick up a lot,” says Thalheimer. “We're starting to see airlines really think of themselves as transportation operators, thinking about that whole end-to-end customer journey. And seagliders can fit really nicely into that picture.”
Forbes contributor Lucio Ribeiro spotlights Andrew Ng MS '98 and Jaime Teevan SM '01, PhD '07 as two of eight “AI superheroes whose work is transforming technology and challenges our understanding of what’s possible.” Ng is the CEO is Landing AI, and “his efforts in educating the masses about AI through platforms like Coursera, which he co-founded, have democratized AI knowledge, bridging the gap between academia and industry,” writes Ribeiro. Teevan’s “work is focused on making AI more accessible and useful to people in their everyday lives.”
MIT researchers have “used an algorithm to sort through millions of genomes to find new, rare types of CRISPR systems that could eventually be adapted into genome-editing tools,” writes Sara Reardon for Nature. “We are just amazed at the diversity of CRISPR systems,” says Prof. Feng Zhang. “Doing this analysis kind of allows us to kill two birds with one stone: both study biology and also potentially find useful things.”
Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang has been named to the TIME 100 Climate list, which highlights the world’s most influential climate leaders in business. “When it comes to cleantech, if it won’t scale, it doesn’t matter,” Chiang says. “This is a team sport—companies large and small, and governments state and federal, need to work together to get these new technologies out there where they can have impact.”
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno speaks with Danny Lewis, host of The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” podcast, about the future of nuclear power plants. “As countries, regions, businesses contemplate their future plans for reducing carbon emissions, nuclear is one technology that they have got to consider,” says Buongiorno. “It's an incredibly dense energy source, so you don't need a big supply chain that continuously feeds the power plant with fuel, the same way that you would with coal, for example. Also, the machine itself, the reactor is very, very compact.”
Grace Colón PhD '95, a board member of the MIT Corporation, writes for The Hill about how to transform cities into biotech innovations hubs. “The best path to biotech success will be different for each city,” writes Colón. “But by building on institutional strengths, investing in workers, and knocking down barriers to success, there’s no reason more of them can’t get there.”
Forbes reporter Nancy Wang spotlights Tara Bishop '97 and Eileen Tanghal '97, co-founders of Black Opal Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on health tech. “Tara and Eileen’s story at Black Opal Ventures is a testament to how diversity and innovation can disrupt traditional landscapes,” writes Wang. “Their pioneering strategies and investments herald a new era for healthcare venture capitalism, where diversity and technology converge to create a more inclusive and impactful future.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a swallowable “technopill” that can monitor vital signs from inside the body, reports Dennis Thompson for HealthDay. “The ability to facilitate diagnosis and monitor many conditions without having to go into a hospital can provide patients with easier access to healthcare and support treatment,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
Prof. Russ Tedrake and Max Bajracharya '21 MEng '21 speak with TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater about the impact of generative AI on the future of robotics. “Generative AI has the potential to bring revolutionary new capabilities to robotics,” says Tedrake. “Not only are we able to communicate with robots in natural language, but connecting to internet-scale language and image data is giving robots a much more robust understanding and reasoning about the world.”