The MIT Electron-conductive Cement-based Materials Hub(EC^3 Hub),an outgrowth of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub(CSHub),has been established by afive-year sponsored research agreement with the Aizawa Concrete Corp.In particular,the EC^3 Hub will investigate the infrastructure applications of multifunctional concrete—concrete having capacities beyond serving as astructural element,such as functioning as a“battery”for renewable energy.Enabled by the MIT Industrial Liaison Program,the newly formed EC^3 Hub represents alarge industry-academia collaboration between the MIT CSHub,researchers across MIT,and aJapanese industry consortium led by Aizawa Concrete,a leader in the more sustainable development of concrete structures,which is funding the effort.Under this agreement,the EC^3 Hub will focus on two key areas of research:developing self-heating pavement systems and energy storage solutions for sustainable infrastructure systems.“It is an honor for Aizawa Concrete to be associated with the scaling up of this transformational technology from MIT labs to the industrial scale,”says Aizawa Concrete CEO Yoshihiro Aizawa.“This is aproject we believe will have afundamental impact not only on the decarbonization of the industry,but on our societies at large.”By running current through carbon black-doped concrete pavements,the EC^3 Hub’s technology could allow cities and municipalities to de-ice road and sidewalk surfaces at scale,improving safety for drivers and pedestrians in icy conditions.The potential for concrete to store energy from renewable sources—a topic widely covered by news outlets—could allow concrete to serve as a“battery”for technologies such as solar,wind,and tidal power generation,which cannot produce aconsistent amount of energy(for example,when acloudy day inhibits asolar panel’s output).Due to the scarcity of the ingredients used in many batteries,such as lithium-ion cells,this technology offers an alternative for renewable energy storage at scale. 查看详细>>

MIT has placed second in U.S.News and World Report’s annual rankings of the nation’s best colleges and universities,announced today.As in past years,MIT’s engineering program continues to lead the list of undergraduate engineering programs at adoctoral institution.The Institute also placed first in five out of 10 engineering disciplines.U.S.News also placed MIT first in its evaluation of undergraduate computer science programs.The Institute placed first in four out of 10 computer science disciplines.MIT remains the No.2 undergraduate business program,a ranking it shares this year with the University of California at Berkeley.Among business subfields,MIT is ranked first in three out of nine specialties.Within the magazine’s rankings of“academic programs to look for,”MIT topped the list in the category of undergraduate research and creative projects.The Institute also ranks as the third most innovative national university,according to the U.S.News peer assessment survey of top academics.MIT placed first in five engineering specialties:aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering;chemical engineering;electrical/electronic/communication engineering;materials engineering;and mechanical engineering.It placed within the top five in four other engineering areas:bioengineering/biomedical engineering,computer engineering;civil engineering,and environmental/environmental health engineering.Other schools in the top five overall for undergraduate engineering programs are Stanford University,Georgia Tech,UC Berkeley,and Caltech.In computer science,MIT placed first in four specialties:biocomputing/bioinformatics/biotechnology;computer systems;programming languages;and theory.It placed in the top five of five disciplines:artificial intelligence;cybersecurity(shared with Carnegie Mellon University);data analytics/science;mobile/web applications;and software engineering(shared with Stanford and UC Berkeley).Other schools in the top five overall for undergraduate computer science programs are Carnegie Mellon,Stanford,UC Berkeley,and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Among undergraduate business specialties,the MIT Sloan School of Management leads in analytics;production/operations management;and quantitative analysis/methods.It also placed within the top five in three other categories:entrepreneurship;finance;and supply chain management.The No.1-ranked undergraduate business program overall is at the University of Pennsylvania;other schools ranking in the top five include UC Berkeley,the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,New York University,and the University of Texas at Austin. 查看详细>>

The MIT biology community recently welcomed eight postdocs—Catalyst Fellows—to campus as part of the inaugural Catalyst Symposium.Catalysts speed up reactions,and the symposium aims to accelerate progress in inclusive diversity—not just at MIT,but at top research institutions across the country,according to Professor Amy Keating,head of the Department of Biology.“To make new discoveries and expand our understanding of life,we seek colleagues and trainees who are curious,persistent,creative,ingenious,insightful,determined,collaborative,generous,and ambitious,”Keating says.“To find these exceptional people,we have to look broadly.We have to look further than we have in the past.”The symposium is part of an effort to expose outstanding candidates from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in academic research to the biology department.The three-day symposium included research talks by the Catalyst Fellows,one-on-one meetings with faculty members,panel discussions on the faculty search process and the experiences of junior faculty in the department,and social events.Each Catalyst Fellow was paired with afaculty mentor.The research talks ranged from molecular to behavioral:Krishna Mudumbi from Yale School of Medicine presented“Probing the kinetics of EGFR signaling:Why timing is important;”Coral Yishan Zhou from the University of California at Berkeley presented“Mechanisms of mitotic chromosome scaling in Xenopus;”Andre Toussaint from Columbia University presented“Neurobiology of addiction and tactile sensation;”So?a Quinodoz from Princeton University presented“Probing nuclear organization and functions of condensates at genome-wide scale;”Junior West from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine presented“Claudin 7restricts cancer invasion and metastasis by suppressing smooth muscle actin networks;”Shan Meltzer from Harvard Medical School presented“Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Touch Circuit Formation;”JoséReyes from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presented“Catching p53 in the act of tumor suppression;”and Begüm Aydin from The Rockefeller University presented“Cellular Plasticity in the Enteric Nervous System.”Iain Cheeseman,associate department head,Herman and Margaret Sokol Professor of Biology,and core member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,says what stood out about the event was the“fantastic celebration of amazing science.”“I loved the presentations as well as the beautiful range of different science approaches,research questions,and ideas,”he says.“These talks focused on research areas that are not currently represented in our department,so it was great to have this exposure to these new ways of thinking and to hear from these future leaders.”Cheeseman was also afaculty mentor for Catalyst Fellow Yishan Zhou.Each Catalyst Fellow was paired with afaculty member based on shared scientific interests and matched with those who could provide support and feedback on the fellow’s academic journeys.Fellows were selected based on nominations from current faculty and their scientific match within the department.They began their time at MIT connecting with their faculty mentors over dinner and then gave presentations about their research the following day.Lively Q&A sessions followed each talk,which formed the basis for further conversations and potential collaborations.The department also organized panels of junior and senior faculty.The fellows heard from junior faculty who recently experienced the job search process,and from senior faculty who were involved in deciding which candidates would be invited for interviews.The aim of both panels was to provide the fellows insights that would help them succeed in their own job searches."The Catalyst Symposium has been agreat opportunity to bring incredibly talented postdocs from across the country to share their research with our community.Our long-term goal is to promote and support scientists from underrepresented groups in their transition to faculty positions—many of the connections and collaborations that emerge from these three days will hopefully help us realize this goal,”says associate professor of biology and core member of the Whitehead Institute Sebastian Lourido.Lourido was on the organizing committee for the event.The event also provided an opportunity for current graduate students to interact with the Catalyst Fellows;some were curious about what factors went into the fellows’selection of apostdoctoral position. 查看详细>>

MIT has again been named the world’s top university by the QS World University Rankings,which were announced today.This is the 11th year in arow MIT has received this distinction.The full 2022 edition of the rankings—published by Quacquarelli Symonds,an organization specializing in education and study abroad—can be found at TopUniversities.com.The QS rankings were based on academic reputation,employer reputation,citations per faculty,student-to-faculty ratio,proportion of international faculty,and proportion of international students.MIT was also ranked the world’s top university in 12 of the subject areas ranked by QS,as announced in April of this year.The Institute received aNo.1 ranking in the following QS subject areas:Architecture/Built Environment;Chemistry;Computer Science and Information Systems;Chemical Engineering;Civil and Structural Engineering;Electrical and Electronic Engineering;Materials Science;Mechanical,Aeronautical,and Manufacturing Engineering;Linguistics;Mathematics;Physics and Astronomy;and Statistics and Operational Research.MIT also placed second in two subject areas:Biological Sciences;and Economics and Econometrics. 查看详细>>

Seven members of the MIT faculty are among 118 early-career researchers recently named recipients of the 2022 Sloan Research Fellowships by the Alfred P.Sloan Foundation.Representing the departments of Chemistry,Economics,Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,Mathematics,and Physics,the honorees will each receive atwo-year,$75,000 fellowship to advance their research.Including this year’s recipients,a total of 309 MIT faculty have received Sloan Research Fellowships since the first fellowships were awarded in 1955."Today‘s Sloan Research Fellows represent the scientific leaders of tomorrow,"says Adam F.Falk,president of the Alfred P.Sloan Foundation."As formidable young scholars,they are already shaping the research agenda within their respective fields—and their trailblazing won‘t end here."2022 Sloan Fellow Netta Engelhardt,the Biedenharn Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics,is aresearcher in the Center for Theoretical Physics.She researches the dynamics of black holes in quantum gravity,and uses holography to study the interplay between gravity and quantum information.Her primary focus is on the black hole information paradox—that is,black holes seemed to be destroying information that,according to quantum physics,cannot be destroyed.She also studies the thermodynamic behavior of black holes and the validity of so-called cosmic censorship conjecture,which hypothesizes that singularities that result from gravitational collapse are always hidden behind event horizons.Manya Ghobadi is aTIBCO Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an investigator in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.A computer systems researcher with anetworking focus,she has worked on abroad set of topics;many of the technologies she has helped develop are part of real-world systems.Her research interests include reconfigurable networks,networks for machine learning,data center networks,high-performance cloud infrastructure,network optimization,hardware-software co-design,optical networks.Phillip Isola,the Bonnie and Marty(1964)Tenenbaum Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an investigator in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.He explores why we represent the world the way we do,and how we can replicate these abilities in machines through computer vision,machine learning,and artificial intelligence.His group’s current research topics include representation learning,generative modeling,and multiagent systems—as well as the applications and misuses of these systems. 查看详细>>

When General Richard D.Clarke,commander of the U.S.Special Operations Command(USSOCOM),visited MIT in fall 2019,he had artificial intelligence on the mind.As the commander of amilitary organization tasked with advancing U.S.policy objectives as well as predicting and mitigating future security threats,he knew that the acceleration and proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies worldwide would change the landscape on which USSOCOM would have to act.Clarke met with Anantha P.Chandrakasan,dean of the School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,and after touring multiple labs both agreed that MIT—as ahub for AI innovation—would be an ideal institution to help USSOCOM rise to the challenge.Thus,a new collaboration between the MIT School of Engineering,MIT Professional Education,and USSOCOM was born:a six-week AI and machine learning crash course designed for special operations personnel.“There has been tremendous growth in the fields of computing and artificial intelligence over the past few years,”says Chandrakasan.“It was an honor to craft this course in collaboration with U.S.Special Operations Command and MIT Professional Education,and to convene experts from across the spectrum of engineering and science disciplines,to present the full power of artificial intelligence to course participants.”In speaking to course participants,Clarke underscored his view that the nature of threats,and how U.S.Special Operations defends against them,will be fundamentally affected by AI.“This includes,perhaps most profoundly,potential game-changing impacts to how we can see the environment,make decisions,execute mission command,and operate in information-space and cyberspace.”Due to the ubiquitous applications of AI and machine learning,the course was taught by MIT faculty as well as military and industry representatives from across many disciplines,including electrical and mechanical engineering,computer science,brain and cognitive science,aeronautics and astronautics,and economics.“We assembled alineup of people who we believe are some of the top leaders in the field,”says faculty co-organizer of the USSOCOM course and associate professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT,Sertac Karaman.“All of them are able to come in and contribute aunique perspective.This was just meant to be an introduction…but there was still alot to cover.”The potential applications of AI,spanning civilian and military uses,are diverse,and include advances in areas like restorative and regenerative medical care,cyber resiliency,natural language processing,computer vision,and autonomous robotics.A fireside chat with MIT President L.Rafael Reif and Eric Schmidt,co-founder of Schmidt Futures and former chair and CEO of Google,who is also an MIT innovation fellow,painted aparticularly vivid picture of the way that AI will inform future conflicts.“It’s quite obvious that the cyber wars of the future will be largely AI-driven,”Schmidt told course participants.“In other words,they’ll be very vicious and they’ll be over in about 1millisecond.”However,the capabilities of AI represented only one aspect of the course.The faculty also emphasized the ethical,social,and logistical issues inherent in the implementation of AI.“People don‘t know,actually,[that]some existing technology is quite fragile.It can make mistakes,”says Karaman.“And in the Department of Defense domain,that could be extremely damaging to their mission.”AI is vulnerable to both intentional tampering and attacks as well as mistakes caused by programming and data oversights.For instance,images can be intentionally distorted in ways that are imperceptible to humans,but will mislead AI.In another example,a programmer could“train”AI to navigate traffic under ideal conditions,only to have the program malfunction in an area where traffic signs have been vandalized. 查看详细>>

Currently,less than 7percent of high school graduates in the African nation of Eswatini proceed to higher education,according to a2020 UNICEF study.This troubling fact led Thandolwethu Dlamini,a graduate student in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program,to found The Knowledge Institute(TKI),which earned a$20,000 grant at the 20th annual MIT IDEAS Social Innovation Awards on April 25.TKI is developing amobile platform to simplify and streamline the college application process for high schoolers in Eswatini,Dlamini’s home country.Nearly 60 percent of Eswatini’s population lives below the poverty line and additional education could substantially improve the lives of many of the country’s young people.“This is an investment in the youth and in the future of Eswatini”said Dlamani upon receiving the award.“We are extremely grateful for IDEAS for believing in our project and helping us throughout the entire IDEAS program as we were refining everything.” 查看详细>>

Every minute,a person just sitting or standing without moving sheds 100,000 particles that are 500 nanometers or larger.Is that person exercising?Now it’s 10 million particles per minute,says Jorg Scholvin,assistant director of user services for Fab.nano.That’s why users of the MIT.nano cleanroom—which is controlled to have fewer than 100 such particles per cubic foot of air—wear full-body“bunnysuits”and other specialized garments to maintain the pristine environment required for nanoscale research.Scholvin shared this lesson on gowning up during avirtual series of tours of the facility that was one of five courses highlighting the breadth of MIT.nano’s capabilities,initiated during MIT’s Independent Activities Period(IAP).The courses,several of which will be offered again this semester,also included alive nanofabrication demo and virtual classes on 360-degree photography,biomechanics in everyday life,and storytelling for science and engineering communication. 查看详细>>

Climate action is among the top priorities for the Institute and one that demands global solutions.With Denmark’s reputation as aleader in sustainable thinking,finding away to bring the two together presented anatural synergy for the MIT-Denmark program.Part of MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives(MISTI),MIT-Denmark connects students and faculty with institutions and industry in Denmark to advance critical research,build new technologies,and create innovative partnerships.Despite the recent challenges due to pandemic-imposed travel restrictions,developing these meaningful international collaborations continues to be atop priority for both MIT students and their counterparts abroad.The Green Campus Challenge was launched with these goals in mind,tasking student teams to develop proposals to make amore sustainable campus and also broaden their cross-cultural competencies and learn about how sustainability is perceived in another culture. 查看详细>>

The gender disparity in biotech really got Sangeeta Bhatia’s attention while she was on sabbatical.Bhatia had taken ayear to focus on her startup biotech company,Glympse Bio.The startup,inspired by bioengineering breakthroughs in Bhatia’s lab at MIT,advances biosensing technology and is now well-funded.But in 2018,Bhatia had to do what all startup founders have to do—pitch ideas and court investors.“I‘ve been agender equity advocate my whole career,”says Bhatia,the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,and amember of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.“When Ibecame an entrepreneur…it just landed on me so heavily,almost every room that Ipitched was aroom full of men.There were very few women holding the keys to the capital my company needed.”Bhatia,in collaboration with MIT professor of neuroscience and President Emerita Susan Hockfield and preeminent MIT Amgen Professor of Biology Emerita Nancy Hopkins,launched the Future Founders Initiative in 2020 to increase the number of female faculty members who start biotechnology companies.The initiative has ambitious goals,including increasing the fraction of MIT female faculty who found companies from less than 10 percent to 25 percent by 2024.The first phase of the initiative kicked off last fall semester with Future Founders Boot Camp,led by Bhatia and Harvey Lodish,professor of biology and biomedical engineering;it is aremote bimonthly series of talks from successful academics who have started companies to translate technologies from their laboratories into therapeutics,medical devices,and diagnostics for unmet medical needs.In the second phase,the Future Founders organizers plan to cultivate acohort of potential founders recruited from the Boot Camp series.This will involve facilitating networking and community building among the cohort and also offering a“Startup 101”workshop series. 查看详细>>