Matt Juul writes for Boston Magazine that a team of MIT students and alumni are competing in the Red Bull Flutag competition, which challenges participants to develop human-piloted gliders. Alumnus Mike Tomovich explains that the MIT team was motivated to compete by a desire to share their “passion for engineering and inspiring the next generation of engineers.”
A new imaging technique developed by MIT researchers creates video simulations that people can interact with, writes Charles Choi for Scientific American. “In addition to fueling game development, these advances could help simulate how real bridges and buildings might respond to potentially disastrous situations,” Choi explains.
Graduate student Max Opgenoord and MIT senior Sara Volz are featured in The Improper Bostonian’s list of 25 rising stars, age 25 and under. Opgenoord was honored for his work on the MIT Hyperloop team, and Volz was noted for her work experimenting with algae as a sustainable fuel source.
Alyssa Newcomb writes for NBC News that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows users to interact with virtual objects. Newcomb explains that the “technology could be used to make movies or even by engineers wanting to find out how an old bridge may respond to inclement weather.”
CSAIL researchers have created a tool that allows people to interact with videos, writes Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The technique could “make augmented reality animations integrate even more with the 'reality' part of augmented reality, help engineers model how structures will react when different forces are applied, or as a less expensive way to create special effects.”
Graduate student Anna Wexler writes for The New York Times about people performing low-level electrical stimulation on their brains. “The growth of D.I.Y. brain stimulation stems in part from a larger frustration with the exclusionary institutions of modern medicine, such as the exorbitant price of pharmaceuticals and the glacial pace at which new therapies trickle down to patients.”
In his latest project, Alan Kwan, a student in MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology program, makes umbrellas float through the air like jellyfish using drones, writes Thom Leavy for Popular Science. “People have this perception of drones as weapons and I’m trying to push this work in the direction of the poetic,” says Kwan.
A new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Susan Silbey examines why female students leave the field of engineering. When the researchers analyzed "more than 40 engineering students’ twice-monthly diaries, they found that female students often felt marginalized during group activities,” Inside Higher Ed reports.
Tech reporter Karleigh Moore speaks with Matt Damon, MIT’s 2016 Commencement speaker, about technology, the film industry and how graduates can help make the world a better place. “Start with…what speaks to you and what feels like something you want to spend your time on,” Damon advised. “It requires so much work and so it helps if you love it.”
Boston.com reporter Eric Levenson writes that MIT senior class president Anish Punjabi, “closed his commencement speech at graduation on Friday with a rush of rap riffing on Matt Damon’s film career, sending the actor into hysterics.”
Matt Damon was awarded an honorary MIT Pirate Certificate during MIT’s Commencement, Nicole Hernandez reports for The Boston Globe. The certificate - which is presented to students who complete courses in pistol, archery, sailing and fencing - notes that Damon is “no longer a lily-livered landlubber.”
Chloe Melas reports for CNN on Matt Damon’s address at MIT’s 2016 Commencement exercises. During his speech, Damon called on graduates to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems. "This world has some problems that we need you to drop everything and solve," Damon noted.
During his MIT Commencement address, Matt Damon urged graduates to engage with the world, reports WBUR’s Andrea Shea. Senior class president Anish Punjabi likened MIT students to Will Hunting, the character Damon played in “Good Will Hunting,” noting that “like Will we possess a gift not just for creativity, but more importantly a gift for relentless service and compassion.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, James Sullivan recounts MIT’s 2016 Commencement exercises, which featured an address from actor and filmmaker Matt Damon. In his charge to the graduates, Sullivan noted that MIT President L. Rafael Reif reminded graduates that “heart is what makes the hard problems worth solving. Heart is what makes the data sing with meaning.”
The AP spotlights MIT’s 2016 Commencement exercises, which featured an address from actor and filmmaker Matt Damon. Damon told graduates, “You’ve got to go out and do really interesting things, important things, inventive things, because this world has problems that we need you to drop everything and solve."