From Oct.23-24,a delegation consisting of 21 MIT students,one MIT postdoc,and four students from the University of the District of Columbia met in Washington for the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s Executive Visit Days(ExVD).Now in its 13th cycle,this trip offers aplatform where university students and young researchers can connect with officials and scientists from different federal agencies,discuss issues related to science and technology policy,and learn about the role the federal government plays in addressing these issues.The delegation visited seven different agencies,as well as the MIT Washington Office,where the group held virtual calls with personnel from the National Institutes of Health and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.Visits to the National Science Foundation,Department of Energy Office of Science,White House Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP),Environmental Protection Agency,and National Aeronautics and Space Administration then followed over the course of two days.The series of meetings,facilitated by the MIT Science Policy Initiative(SPI),offered awindow into the current activities of each agency and how individuals can engage with science policy through the lens of each particular agency.The Science Policy Initiative is an organization of students and postdocs whose core goal is not only to grow interest at MIT and in the community at large in science policy,but also to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the policymakers of today and the scientists of tomorrow.One of the various trips organized by SPI every year,ExVD allows students to gain insight into the work of federal agencies,while also offering the chance to meet with representatives from these agencies,many of whom are MIT alumni,and discuss their paths toward careers in science policy.Additionally,ExVD serves as an opportunity for participants to network with students,postdocs,and professionals outside of their fields but united by common interests in science policy.“I believe it is critical for students with vital technical expertise to gain asense of the realities of policymaking,”says Phillip Christoffersen,a PhD student researching AI in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and SPI ExVD 2023 chair.“Due to the many complexities of modern life,we are simultaneously reaching tipping points in many fields—AI,climate change,biotechnology,among many others.For this reason,science and science policy must increasingly move in lockstep for the good of society,and it falls on us as scientists-in-training to make that happen.”One example of the delegation’s visits was to the White House OSTP,located directly next to the West Wing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.This special agency of fewer than 200 staff,most of whom are either in rotation or on loan from other federal agencies,directly reports to the president on all matters related to science and policy.The atmosphere at the White House complex and the exchanges with Kei Koizumi,principal deputy director for policy at OSTP,deeply inspired the students and showcased the vast impact science can have on federal policy.The overall sentiment among the ExVD participants has been that of reborn motivation,having become inspired to participate in policy matters,either as aportion of their graduate research or in their future career.The ExVD 2023 cohort is thankful to the MIT Washington office,whose generous support was crucial to making this trip areality.Furthermore,the delegation thanks the MIT Science Policy Initiative’s leadership team for organizing this trip,enabling an extremely meaningful experience. 查看详细>>

J-PAL North America,a regional office of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab(J-PAL),has announced six new partnerships with government agencies and leading nonprofits through the State and Local Evaluation Incubator and the Housing Stability Evaluation Incubator,launched in August 2022.These collaborators span the contiguous United States and represent awide range of social policy areas.Over the next several months,organizations will work with J-PAL North America staff and affiliated researchers to design arandomized evaluation of one of their policies or programs.Randomized evaluations,in which participants are randomly assigned to either receive the program in question or“treatment as usual,”are unique in their ability to demonstrate the causal impact of aprogram.The goal of these evaluation incubators is to help organizations generate and utilize evidence to answer critical policy questions on state and local efforts to reduce poverty or addressing homelessness and housing stability.Three collaborators aim to reduce homelessness and foster housing stability.One Roof,the coordinating agency for central Alabama’s Continuum of Care,seeks to evaluate the efficacy of anew risk assessment questionnaire for individuals experiencing homelessness upon engaging with the Coordinated Entry(CE)system.Jennifer Harrell,director of coordinated entry at One Roof,shares that“the CE program serving Central Alabama hopes to use the locally driven,evidenced-based data results learned from the randomized evaluation to begin the redesign process of the CE system to bring about more equitable housing outcomes for folks experiencing homelessness.”The Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia(LASEV)provides legal services to low-income Virginians.“LASEV is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with J-PAL to develop evidence-based strategies in response to the eviction crisis facing the low-income families in our service area,”says Grants Manager Holly Yates.Through the Housing Stability Evaluation Incubator,LASEV will design an evaluation to assess the impact of providing legal information and reminders to individuals and families facing eviction.Washington’s Pierce County Human Services(PCHS)plans to assess the impact of their Eviction Prevention program,which provides wraparound case management,financial counseling,and funds to low-income households who are behind on rent.Heather Moss,director of PCHS,explains that“this evaluation of our program will help the county understand how best to use our limited resources to help neighbors at risk of losing their housing.” 查看详细>>

Participating in an intensive three-week lab in Yucatán,Mexico,changed how MIT junior Penelope Herrero-Marques views her role as an engineer.The January trip was the first step in anew partnership between MIT D-Lab and Perkins School for the Blind,a Massachusetts-based national service provider and international nonprofit that strives to make education accessible to all children.As an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering at MIT,Herrero-Marques deeply connected with her studies,yet always felt that something was missing until she got involved with D-Lab.“I needed the ability to think about social impact more,”she says.“What I’ll remember the most from this trip was recognizing the value and beauty of simple technology.”Herrero-Marques and four other students joined Libby Hsu,associate director of academics at MIT D-Lab,in the immersive experience.Their goal was to collaborate with local partners to design individualized adaptive solutions to help children with multiple disabilities access education.Last year in Mérida,Yucatán,Perkins opened its first international workshop that builds adaptive devices and tools.The organization aims to launch similar spaces in additional regions.“Our vision for the future is to become aMexican leader in the design and construction of low-cost adaptive designs for students with disabilities in the state of Yucatán,”says Ernesto Santana Palma,the workshop’s manager who welcomed the D-Lab group,designed,and iterated alongside them.Listening before co-designing Founded in 2002,D-Lab is open to all MIT students and offers opportunities to co-design in collaboration with local partners to help alleviate poverty-related challenges.Hsu explained that rather than arriving in Mexico with awork plan,the group spent their first week visiting local homes and schools and engaging with their“clients,”the children,their caregivers,and educators,and getting to know the culture of Yucatán,a state with one of the largest Indigenous populations in Mexico.“We first had to learn about cultural expectations,which materials were available locally,and hear about Indigenous and other regional construction methods,”says Hsu.Students were overwhelmed by the obvious need,and impressed by how educators and caregivers invented makeshift hacks to help the children engage in daily activities like eating,bathing,getting to school,or sitting up to learn.Although future trips will address other needs,the group ultimately chose two to focus on for the remaining two weeks:They aimed to add foot and leg support on existing wheelchairs,and they wanted to offer caregivers asafer way to bathe children with mobility issues. 查看详细>>

On April 11,MIT announced five multiyear flagship projects in the first-ever Climate Grand Challenges,a new initiative to tackle complex climate problems and deliver breakthrough solutions to the world as quickly as possible.This article is the fourth in afive-part series highlighting the most promising concepts to emerge from the competition and the interdisciplinary research teams behind them.The impact of our changing climate on agriculture and food security—and how contemporary agriculture contributes to climate change—is at the forefront of MIT’s multidisciplinary project“Revolutionizing agriculture with low-emissions,resilient crops.”The project The project is one of five flagship winners in the Climate Grand Challenges competition,and brings together researchers from the departments of Biology,Biological Engineering,Chemical Engineering,and Civil and Environmental Engineering.“Our team’s research seeks to address two connected challenges:first,the need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by agricultural fertilizer;second,the fact that the yields of many current agricultural crops will decrease,due to the effects of climate change on plant metabolism,”says the project’s faculty lead,Christopher Voigt,the Daniel I.C.Wang Professor in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering.“We are pursuing six interdisciplinary projects that are each key to our overall goal of developing low-emissions methods for fertilizing plants that are bioengineered to be more resilient and productive in achanging climate.”Whitehead Institute members Mary Gehring and Jing-Ke Weng,plant biologists who are also associate professors in MIT’s Department of Biology,will lead two of those projects. 查看详细>>

Launched in spring 2018,the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future brought together multidisciplinary researchers throughout the Institute to examine how to harness technological innovations for social benefit.This research culminated in the report,“The Work of the Future:Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines.”The Institute is now looking ahead and working to incorporate the Work of the Future agenda into the fabric of MIT,as well as to encourage firms,regions,and institutions more broadly to engage in the“how”of the agenda.The discussion was moderated by David Autor,co-chair of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future and Ford Professor of Economics,and focused on interactions between work and rapidly advancing technology—and opportunities to enhance both. 查看详细>>

You have two weeks in acity that is 8,000 miles away from everything familiar to you.Alongside you are 34 of the best minds selected from both MIT and Hong Kong universities.There is one goal:build products that will transform an underserved district.This objective was set by the staff of the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node,who believed that by putting theory into practice,they could design aprogram that grounded action learning to local inquiry—they call it the MIT Entrepreneurship and Maker Skills Integrator(MEMSI).This program is featured in Kowloon East,a unique area of Hong Kong with sponsors who have avested interest in its prospects for revitalization.Professor Charles Sodini,the Clarence J.LeBel Professor in Electrical Engineering and faculty director of the Innovation Node,says the location provides“a terrific experience for students to discover opportunities against abackdrop of socio-economic and environmental challenges.”Product ideas and proposed startups are avaluable resource to both the sponsors and the community.In response to these challenges,students form interdisciplinary teams to examine wide-ranging themes across smart mobility,sustainability,and wellness.Participants experience the chaos and excitement of entrepreneurship:making critical early decisions,building relationships with stakeholders and prospective customers,and using insights to converge ideas into tangible solutions.By the end of the program,the MEMSI teams build proof-of-concept prototypes and pitch their business plans to over 100 attendees at ashowcase held in Hong Kong. 查看详细>>

When the Covid-19 crisis hit the United States this March,MIT neuroscientist Jill Crittenden wanted to help.One of her greatest concerns was the shortage of face masks,which are akey weapon for health care providers,frontline service workers,and the public to protect against respiratory transmission of Covid-19.For those caring for Covid-19 patients,face masks that provide anear-100 percent seal are essential.These critical pieces of equipment,called N95 masks,are now scarce,and health-care workers are now faced with reusing potentially contaminated masks.To address this,Crittenden joined ateam of 60 scientists and engineers,students,and clinicians drawn from universities and the private sector to synthesize the scientific literature about mask decontamination and create aset of best practices for bad times.The group has now unveiled awebsite,N95decon.org,which provides asummary of this critical information.“I first heard about the group from Larissa Little,a Harvard graduate student with John Doyle,”explains Crittenden,who is aresearch scientist in Ann Graybiel‘s lab at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.“The three of us began communicating because we are all also members of the Boston-based MGB Covid-19 Innovation Center,and we agreed that helping to assess the flood of information on N95 decontamination would be an important contribution.” 查看详细>>

As food demand rises due to growing populations with changing consumption patterns in Africa and around the globe,increased agricultural output is crucial.Since most agriculture across the African continent is currently rain-fed,increased availability of irrigation—especially water-and energy-efficient systems like drip irrigation—can help.Two research teams at MIT have been invested in this challenge,exploring solutions in Senegal from different disciplinary standpoints.But it was not until this fall,when the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab(J-WAFS)facilitated aconnection between the two teams,that they learned of their overlapping interests and how each group’s research could support the other.At MIT,J-WAFS is astrong proponent of convergence research practices to help drive solutions to the Earth’s pressing water and food systems challenges.Convergence research is driven by specific complex problems that involve deep integration across disciplines.J-WAFS funds MIT research across all five schools and emphasizes collaboration through their grants and other research support across the Institute.J-WAFS was uniquely positioned to know about these two research efforts—one based in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and one in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning(DUSP)—that were both conducting fieldwork on irrigation in Senegal.Upon realizing that each project was unaware of the other’s efforts,J-WAFS was able to engineer aresearch exchange in order to support the success of two distinct projects on irrigation technology and access in Africa. 查看详细>>

This fall,J-PAL North America partnered with TalkingPoints,an education technology non-profit,and the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab(BIP Lab)at the University of Chicago,to evaluate the TalkingPoints multilingual family engagement platform.The platform will be assessed through ayear-long randomized evaluation that will be conducted in more than 50 third-grade classrooms across the country.This evaluation will produce insights on whether the TalkingPoints platform increases parental engagement,and if so,whether there is aresulting increase in children’s executive function—a precursor to improved academic outcomes across all education levels such as literacy,numeracy,and high school graduation rates.Beginning in 2015,local and federal law began requiring schools to provide programming intended to promote parental engagement in their children’s education.TalkingPoints was founded that year to drive student success—especially in underserved,diverse communities—by using accessible technology to unlock the potential of families to support their children‘s education.TalkingPoints developed amultilingual family engagement platform that allows educators to communicate directly with English and non-English speaking parents.Currently,it supports two-way messaging in more than 100 languages and provides tips for communicating with teachers and other information about their children’s education. 查看详细>>

“He was here to dream,and Isaid‘OK,let‘s dream together,‘”recalls Professor Mircea Dinc?of his first encounter with Automobili Lamborghini Head of Development Riccardo Parenti in February 2017.Two years later,the team is celebrating its first major collaborative victory by filing ajoint patent.The new patented material was synthesized by Dinc?’s lab in the Department of Chemistry,with the support of Automobili Lamborghini’s Concept Development Department,and will serve as the technological base for anew generation of supercapacitors.By increasing the surface area exposed to electric charge in relation to mass and volume,the patent promises to increase energy density by up to 100 percent when compared to existing technology.This is abig leap,even when compared to Lamborghini’s cutting-edge supercapacitors,and,more broadly,a game-changer in high-performance motor sport.A second collaboration,with Professor John Anastasios Hart’s team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,pursues new design principles for high-performance battery materials that can be integrated into the vehicle structure,and is on schedule to deliver its first prototypes in the next year.Together,these collaborations are key in meeting the performance targets Lamborghini set for its Terzo Millennio car. 查看详细>>