News

Introducing MIT HEALS, a life sciences initiative to address pressing health challenges

December 9, 2024

At MIT, collaboration between researchers working in the life sciences and engineering is a frequent occurrence. Under a new initiative launched last week, the Institute plans to strengthen and expand those collaborations to take on some of the most pressing health challenges facing the world.The new MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative, or MIT HEALS, will […]

Want to design the car of the future? Here are 8,000 designs to get you started.

December 5, 2024

Car design is an iterative and proprietary process. Carmakers can spend several years on the design phase for a car, tweaking 3D forms in simulations before building out the most promising designs for physical testing. The details and specs of these tests, including the aerodynamics of a given car design, are typically not made public. […]

MIT delegation mainstreams biodiversity conservation at the UN Biodiversity Convention, COP16

December 4, 2024

For the first time, MIT sent an organized engagement to the global Conference of the Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity, which this year was held Oct. 21 to Nov. 1 in Cali, Colombia. The 10 delegates to COP16 included faculty, researchers, and students from the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), the Department of […]

A new way to create realistic 3D shapes using generative AI

December 4, 2024

Creating realistic 3D models for applications like virtual reality, filmmaking, and engineering design can be a cumbersome process requiring lots of manual trial and error. While generative artificial intelligence models for images can streamline artistic processes by enabling creators to produce lifelike 2D images from text prompts, these models are not designed to generate 3D […]

From refugee to MIT graduate student

December 3, 2024

Mlen-Too Wesley has faded memories of his early childhood in Liberia, but the sharpest one has shaped his life. Wesley was 4 years old when he and his family boarded a military airplane to flee the West African nation. At the time, the country was embroiled in a 14-year civil war that killed approximately 200,000 people, displaced about […]

A data designer driven to collaborate with communities

December 1, 2024

It is fairly common in public discourse for someone to announce, “I brought data to this discussion,” thus casting their own conclusions as empirical and rational. It is less common to ask: Where did the data come from? How was it collected? Why is there data about some things but not others? MIT Associate Professor […]

MIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 14th annual Executive Visit Days

November 26, 2024

From Oct. 21 to 22, a delegation of 21 MIT students and one postdoc met in Washington for the 14th Executive Visit Days (ExVD). Organized by the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) and the MIT Washington Office, ExVD enables students to engage with officials and scientists from federal agencies. Students are given a platform to form […]

Troy Van Voorhis to step down as department head of chemistry

November 26, 2024

Troy Van Voorhis, the Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor of Chemistry, will step down as department head of the Department of Chemistry at the end of this academic year. Van Voorhis has served as department head since 2019, previously serving the department as associate department head since 2015. “Troy has been an invaluable […]

Improving health, one machine learning system at a time

November 25, 2024

Captivated as a child by video games and puzzles, Marzyeh Ghassemi was also fascinated at an early age in health. Luckily, she found a path where she could combine the two interests.  “Although I had considered a career in health care, the pull of computer science and engineering was stronger,” says Ghassemi, an associate professor in […]

Professor Emeritus James Harris, a scholar of Spanish language, dies at 92

November 25, 2024

James Wesley “Jim” Harris PhD ’67, professor emeritus of Spanish and linguistics, passed away on Nov. 10. He was 92. Harris attended the University of Georgia, the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He later earned a master’s degree in linguistics from Louisiana State University and a […]