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February 3, 2024
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Battery-Free Sensing
Drawing of a sensor with circuit detail surrounded by lightning bolts
   
A self-powered sensor developed at MIT harvests energy from its environment without any batteries or special wiring. “This is ambient power — energy that I don’t have to make a specific, soldered connection to get. And that makes this sensor very easy to install,” says Professor Steven Leeb. 
Full story via MIT News →
Top Headlines
Study: Stars travel more slowly at Milky Way’s edge
The findings suggest our galaxy’s core may contain less dark matter than previously estimated.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
Researchers demonstrate rapid 3D printing with liquid metal
Their new technique can produce furniture-sized aluminum parts in only minutes.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
Noubar Afeyan PhD ’87 to deliver MIT’s 2024 Commencement address
The inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist has co-founded and developed over 70 life-science and technology startups.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
An MIT study finds the brains of children who grow up in less affluent households are less responsive to rewarding experiences.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
Unlocking history with geology and genetics
PhD student Fatima Husain investigates the co-evolution of life and Earth and works to communicate science to the public.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
New MIT.nano equipment to accelerate innovation in “tough tech” sectors
The advanced fabrication tools will enable the next generation of microelectronics and microsystems while bridging the gap from the lab to commercialization.
Full story via MIT News →
 MIT Heat Island
#ThisisMIT
A group of about 15 students are at individual desks with open laptops, with three students in the foreground. Text via @‌auds_photography: MIT Mystery Hunt photos!
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In the Media
Venture capital fund backed by MIT spins off startup support unit // The Boston Globe
The Engine Accelerator, a spinoff from The Engine, is a new unit designed to help early startups “get off the ground with a deeper level of support, including office and lab space.”
Full story via The Boston Globe →
AI should be a tool, not a curse, for the future of work // The New York Times
New York Times opinion writer Peter Coy spotlights the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, a new effort aimed at analyzing the forces that are eroding job quality for non-college workers and identifying innovative ways to move the economy onto a more equitable trajectory.
Full story via The New York Times→
MIT center gets federal grant // The Boston Globe
A more than $40 million investment to add advanced nanofabrication equipment and functionality to MIT.nano will significantly expand the center’s capabilities.
Full story via The Boston Globe →
Tool for tracing blood cells’ ancestry might one day help predict disease risk // STAT 
Professor Jonathan Weissman and colleagues developed a tool for monitoring changes in human blood cells, which could help researchers predict disease risk.
Full story via STAT→
Watch This
Sydney Sroka points to screen projection of mapping tool behind her while presenting to group in blurry foreground.
The MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) is a partnership between MIT researchers and industry collaborators that aims to mitigate risks from climate change. When faced with the challenge of monitoring geospatial data, including greenhouse emissions and crop yield predictions, Program Scientist Sydney Sroka and others at MCSC worked on a mapping tool that provides a visual understanding of how effective decarbonization can be implemented. Michael Howland, an MIT assistant professor in civil and environment engineering, notes the tool can help in “increasing the interactions between environmental systems and energy systems.”
Watch the video→
Look Back
Monochromatic photograph of Robert Robinson Taylor on a postage stamp from 2015, with the text “Black Heritage” and “Robert Robinson Taylor.”
This Black History Month, we remember Robert Robinson Taylor, a member of MIT’s Class of 1892 and the first academically trained Black architect in the U.S. Among many other accomplishments, Taylor is known for the design and construction of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama — now Tuskegee University — while also overseeing the school’s programs in industrial education and the building trades. Taylor also designed academic and commercial buildings and helped found the Booker Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute in Liberia. In 2015, he was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a stamp in his likeness.
Learn more→
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