Building with mud + clean energy + coffee class ☕

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MIT Weekly
February 1, 2025
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
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Building with Mud

Two people watch a robot arm print a 3D cement wall.

Builders pour concrete into temporary molds called formwork. Researchers have now invented a way to make these structures out of on-site soil. “It has the potential for immediate impact and doesn’t require changing the nature of the construction industry,” says PhD student Sandy Curth.

Full story via MIT News →

Top Headlines

A new vaccine approach could help combat future coronavirus pandemics

The nanoparticle-based vaccine shows promise against many variants of SARS-CoV-2, as well as related sarbecoviruses that could jump to humans.

Full story via MIT News →

A platform to expedite clean energy projects

Station A, founded by MIT alumni, makes the process of buying clean energy simple for property owners.

Full story via MIT News →

Coffee fix: MIT students decode the science behind the perfect cup

An undergraduate class blends science, hands-on experimentation, and a love for coffee to fuel curiosity.

Full story via MIT News →

How one brain circuit encodes memories of both places and events

A new computational model explains how neurons linked to spatial navigation can also help store episodic memories.

Full story via MIT News →

Expanding robot perception

Associate Professor Luca Carlone is working to give robots a more human-like awareness of their environment.

Full story via MIT News →

Faces of MIT: Melissa Smith PhD ’12

The associate group leader at MIT Lincoln Laboratory strongly believes in the power of collaboration and how it seeds innovation.

Full story via MIT News →

#ThisisMIT

A person rides a bicycle within an apparatus attached to a basketball hoop. Text via @‌mitarchitecture: @‌thehoopcycle is a mobile art installation designed to inspire connection through play. The mobile hoop combines contemporary basketball, the vertical rim of its pre-Columbian precursor (2500-100 BCE), and a tricycle. This remix transforms how players score points, slam dunk, alley oop, and the rules of the game. Created by artist and Senior Researcher at MIT Marisa Morán Jahn (@‌marisa_jahn) and architect and MIT Professor Rafi Segal (@‌segal_rafi), HOOPcycle is designed to spark a dialogue around equity, space, and community-building. This innovative installation invites people of all ages to rethink and reclaim public spaces, transforming streets and common areas into inclusive zones for gathering, play, and cross-cultural connection.

Follow @mitarchitecture on Instagram→

In the Media

How Boston is poised to become the nation’s leading longevity hub // Boston Magazine

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, discusses research and initiatives underway in the greater Boston area that could make the region a “longevity hub.”

Full story via Boston Magazine→

How to make oxygen on the moon // BBC News

Graduate student Palak Patel discusses her work designing an “experimental molten regolith electrolysis system, for extracting oxygen and metal from the lunar soil.”

Full story via BBC News→

Desirée Plata: Chemist, oceanographer, engineer, entrepreneur // C&EN

In a profile of Desirée Plata, the associate professor of civil and environmental engineering discusses her work “trying to make our chemical processes and industries compatible with human and ecological health.”

Full story via C&EN→

Two mysterious fast radio bursts originated from wildly different places in space // CNN

MIT astronomers have analyzed the scintillation produced by a fast radio burst (FRB) to help identify the location of the pulses.

Full story via CNN→

Watch This

Professor Peter Shor formed a strong interest in mathematics from an early age, recalling a fascination with Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Games” column for Scientific American. While pursuing his PhD in applied mathematics at MIT, Shor realized that studying physics and computer science supplemented his understanding of quantum mechanics, ultimately leading him to develop what is now known as Shor’s algorithm, a quantum factoring algorithm for finding the prime factors of an integer. Shor encourages aspiring researchers “to get a really broad background, even if you think it’s going to be irrelevant.”

Watch the video→

Digit

26,345

Number of miles flown during the first flight around the world on biplanes built by Donald Douglas, Class of 1914, the first graduate of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Learn more→

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