MIT Integration Bee Hosts 44th Annual Competition
"Integration Bee is a very embedded part of MIT culture…It's the only place where you hear 3, 2, 1 Integrate."
Tiny Disks, Big Impact: Wireless Brain Therapy with Magnetic Nanodiscs
Your brain is a massive game of well-choreographed pinball. At every instant, a hundred billion neurons fire through a hundred trillion synaptic connections. It’s an incredibly complicated system ― and things can go wrong. In Parkinson’s disease, misfiring neurons cause tremors and uncontrollable movements. One possible treatment is Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS): using implanted electrodes that send electrical impulses to specific brain areas responsible for motor control, DBS essentially resets parts of the pinball board. By hijacking neural signals, it’s been shown to reduce symptoms and improve motor function. However, DBS’s applicability is limited by its invasiveness. The surgery can cause hemorrhages and infection, and the target, commonly a region called the subthalamic nucleus, is buried deep inside the folds of the brain.
Materials, Medicine, and Molecules: Five with ties to MIT Awarded National Medals of Science, Technology and Innovation
President Joe Biden honors five from MIT as recipients of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Forging ahead in alloy design using machine learning
Predicting atomic behavior in advanced alloys paves the way for targeted material design.
Play Seriously: The teaching that defines MIT’s iconic 2.009
What does it mean to “play seriously?”
MIT Science Bowl Hosts Sixth High School Invitational
On Nov. 16, 26-100 brimmed with energy as high school participants, teachers, guardians, and MIT student volunteers gathered for the annual MIT Science Bowl Invitational. Hailing from across the United States, 48 teams, including those from as far as California and Washington, filled the rows of the auditorium, ready to compete.
In Conversation with Dr. Henry Cohn: Three Perspectives on the Fourier Series
Whether you are an 18.03 student or a math enthusiast, chances are you have heard about the Fourier series.
Faces everywhere: pareidolia in machine learning
Look at an electrical outlet, and you can almost see a little shocked face: two slits for eyes, and a ground-socket mouth.
Meet Nergis Mavalvala PhD ’97, Dean of the School of Science
Learn about Dean Mavalvala’s journey to MIT from Pakistan, her “Mind Blown” notebook of ideas, the Life Sciences and Health Collaborative, and her perspectives on how MIT has evolved.
realtalk@MIT: Using AI to bring human conversation to life
A new Media Lab program uses AI to create audio medleys from small group conversations. The goal is to build trust and understanding in the MIT community.
Digital simulations help robots learn real-world tasks
A novel approach to training robots using 3D scans of real environments paves the path for robust and accessible home robotics.
Seeing is Believing, Hearing is Revealing
A MIT and Northwestern study finds humans are more adept at spotting political deepfakes than previously thought.
Dr. Francis Collins presents The Road to Wisdom at the 2024 Boston Book Festival
Collins: “It’s not a book that I really felt a strong urge to try to put together until it seemed it was pretty much impossible for me to resist.”
MIT Assistant Professor Ariel Furst Stars in Chemistry Shorts Documentary
Lessons in Microbes, Redox Reactions, and Careers in Science
Designing a Realistic Tissue-Mimicking Bladder: Improving Imaging Devices and Opening up New Recipes for Creating Model Organs
A new study on building an acoustically and mechanically accurate synthetic bladder model may become a more reliable tool for testing imaging devices.
Fireside Chat with Dan Riccio: Former Apple Executive Shares Reflections on his Journey
Riccio: “I always wanted to be the first person to get there in the morning and the last person to be there at night. When anything came up, I wouldn't wait… It’s just how I was.”
Meet Anantha Chandrakasan, Dean of Engineering
Chandrakasan: “I was rejected by MIT. I remember being on a call with the MIT graduate office. I was emotional about the rejection—I think I cried—but they were very kind and gave me good advice and valuable support even then.”
Minding the Brain: Professor Mehrdad Jazayeri on brain models research, the HHMI award, and the growth of neuroscience
Mehrdad Jazayeri, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, has recently been named an HHMI Investigator for his research on the mind-brain connection. Having immigrated from Iran and pursued his academic journey at NYU and the University of Washington, Jazayeri's research at MIT combines cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine learning to connect the biological mechanisms of the brain to the computational capacities of the mind.
Decoding the Dogma: Dr. Gene-Wei Li on quantitative analysis of the genome and being named an HHMI Investigator
The Tech sat down with Dr. Gene-Wei Li to talk about working at MIT and his research at the forefront of computational biology.
Growing to greatness: Professor Mary Gehring on plant epigenetics and becoming an HHMI Investigator
Prof. Mary Gehring, a core member of the Whitehead Institute and a professor of biology, explores how epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation influence gene regulation in plants. Her lab’s work, using the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, stands at the frontiers of plant biology research.