Baby Boomers are counting on technology to make aging easier, writes Robert Weisman for The Boston Globe. Prof. Joe Coughlin’s work at the AgeLab, and companies by Prof. Bob Langer and Prof. Leonard Guarente, are cited for their attempts to do just that.
Prof. Richard Schmalensee speaks with Forbes’ David Slocum about his book “Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms.” Schmalensee explains that the fundamentals of new businesses “are similar to those of old, familiar ones — from how they price, to how they solve the…problem of getting both groups of customers on board. New startups can then learn from old successful ones.”
Prof. Vladimir Bulović, associate dean for innovation, speaks with Paul McDougall of Scientific American about developing a solar-powered smart phone. “You want something that can be reasonably efficient at a reasonable cost so it doesn’t change the paradigm of what your cell phone costs,” says Bulović.
In an article for Forbes, Nish Acharya examines MIT’s entrepreneurial culture, highlighting how the Institute supports innovators through a variety of programs on campus. Acharya writes that “other universities can learn from MIT how it has empowered its students, faculty and alumni to build their ideas by strategically, and formally, leveraging the institutional capabilities of MIT.”
The Boston Globe’s Kathleen Conti profiles Rendever Health, a startup from two Sloan alums that is “developing virtual reality programs to provide entertainment in assisted living facilities, and down the road, to test and treat seniors for the effects of aging.”
Bloomberg West broadcasts live from the MIT campus in a special segment highlighting cutting-edge research underway across campus and MIT’s role in driving innovation. “In general, technology can help people,” says Prof. John Leonard. “That’s one of the things I believe as an MIT professor is that technology can make the world a better place.”
During a special live broadcast from the MIT campus, President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang about MIT’s innovation ecosystem and the future of education. Reif explains that students come to MIT because “they want to use their skills to do something important for the world, to make the world better.”
Fortune reporter Katie Fehrenbacher features MIT startup Grove Labs in a piece about companies aimed at making our day-to-day lives more sustainable. Fehrenbacher explains that Grove's aquaponics-based gardening systems are aimed at providing “eco-minded customers a way to grow their own food.”
MIT researchers have developed an application to help improve driver safety, according to the Associated Press. The app, “measures driving behaviors including speeding, acceleration, hard turning, harsh braking and phone distractions. The results can then be reviewed…and scores posted on a leaderboard where drivers can compare one another.”
A team of MIT researchers has been selected as the winner of the Koch Institute research-grant pitch competition for their work on developing a diagnostic platform for early-stage leukemia, reports Amanda Hoover for Boston.com. Hoover explains that the diagnostic method would “single out individual cells during blood tests, highlighting those affected by leukemia.”
Huffington Post reporter Carolyn Gregoire writes that MIT spinoff Synlogic is working on reprogramming gut bacteria to act as a living therapeutic. “It’s become really clear that the bacteria living in us and on us affect our bodies in a variety of different ways — in ways that we never imagined,” explains Prof. Timothy Lu.
Prof. Emilio Frazzoli speaks with Nicole Dungca of The Boston Globe about his new startup nuTonomy, which is developing a fleet of driverless taxis for Singapore. Frazzoli explains that he feels the biggest impact of autonomous vehicles is in “really changing the way we think of personal mobility, or mobility, in general.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that a team of MIT students has developed an app that provides shoppers with a nutrition receipt for grocery store purchases. The app is based on an algorithm that could “parse through data from the USDA’s National Nutrient Database, assessing the nutritional value of each item in the shopper’s cart.”
MIT startup nuTonomy is developing driverless taxis to serve as a form of public transit in Singapore, reports Nyshka Chandran for CNBC. “The driverless taxis will follow optimal paths for picking up and dropping off passengers to reduce traffic congestion,” Chandran explains.
Fortune reporter Robert Hackett writes that MIT spinoff nuTonomy is developing a fleet of driverless taxis for Singapore. Hackett writes that the company “could become the first to operate fully self-driving cars, known as ‘level four,’ in a city commercially.”