News

MADMEC winner identifies sustainable greenhouse-cooling materials

October 13, 2022

The winners of this year’s MADMEC competition identified a class of materials that could offer a more efficient way to keep greenhouses cool. After Covid-19 put the materials science competition on pause for two years, on Tuesday SmartClime, a team made up of three MIT graduate students, took home the first place, $10,000 prize. The […]

Making quantum computers more accurate

October 13, 2022

In Building 13 on MIT’s campus, there sits a half-a-million-dollar piece of equipment that looks like a long stretched-out chandelier, with a series of gold discs connected by thin silver pipes. The equipment, known as a dilution refrigerator, is a key player in PhD student Alex Greene’s research, as it houses all their experiments. “My […]

Ben Bernanke PhD ’79 awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences

October 10, 2022

Ben S. Bernanke PhD ’79, an economist who applied his scholarly experience to his work as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve during the economic and financial-sector crisis of 2008-2009, has been awarded a share of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences […]

Simulating neutron behavior in nuclear reactors

October 6, 2022

Amelia Trainer applied to MIT because she lost a bet. As part of what the fourth-year nuclear science and engineering (NSE) doctoral student labels her “teenage rebellious phase,” Trainer was quite convinced she would just be wasting the application fee were she to submit an application. She wasn’t even “super sure” she wanted to go […]

A factory for FrEDs at MIT

October 5, 2022

MIT is famous as a factory of ideas. You could also call MIT a factory for learning. But for one group of students over the past year MIT has been, in fact, a factory. The team of graduate students designed and built — entirely within an MIT lab — an assembly factory for a low-cost, […]

Documentary featuring Professor Sara Seager wins Emmy Award

October 5, 2022

A number of MIT affiliates featured prominently at the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards presented by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences — including the winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary. “The Hunt for Planet B” — which focuses, in part, on Sara Seager, MIT’s Class of […]

A diploma, a discovery, and an historic legacy

October 4, 2022

History and the future joined forces on Friday at a campus event honoring Robert Robinson Taylor, MIT’s first Black graduate and the first accredited Black architect in the United States. The gathering also highlighted new collaborations between MIT and Tuskegee University. The event featured remarks from former White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is Taylor’s […]

Innovation in the classroom

October 3, 2022

The 2022–23 school year is underway, and MIT’s instructors and teaching assistants are back in the classroom and laboratories. Each time they supplement their in-class lecture with a video, organize a new learning exercise, or even post their syllabi on Canvas, Sheryl Barnes hopes MIT Open Learning’s Residential Education group made their jobs easier. “Faculty […]

MIT events illuminate critical need for menstruation science

October 3, 2022

More than 70 MIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered in MIT’s Killian Court recently to “Stand Up and Be Counted (for Women’s Health),” with a strong representation of individuals concerned about gynecology disorders such as endometriosis and adenomyosis. An estimated 20-25 percent of MIT women — about 2,000-2,500 total — are affected by one or more menstrual disorders in ways […]

Wiggling toward bio-inspired machine intelligence

October 2, 2022

Juncal Arbelaiz Mugica is a native of Spain, where octopus is a common menu item. However, Arbelaiz appreciates octopus and similar creatures in a different way, with her research into soft-robotics theory.  More than half of an octopus’ nerves are distributed through its eight arms, each of which has some degree of autonomy. This distributed […]