News & Stories

From entrepreneur to climate policy advocate

Kiara Wahnschafft started her first company at age 16. After her classmate passed away from a drunk driving accident, Wahnschafft couldn’t stop thinking about ways technology could have saved a life. With two other students, she built a prototype for a car key that works only after the driver passes a breathalyzer test. Wahnschafft went […]

Alumni in Greater China boost MIT’s PPE efforts

When coronavirus cases in Massachusetts began to increase in early March, the MIT community sprang into action. By late March, more than 50 MIT departments, labs, and centers had donated extra, unopened personal protective equipment (PPE) to support area hospitals and frontline health-care workers in need. An MIT Medical outreach team — led by Elazer R. Edelman, […]

MIT team draws on supply chain expertise to help protect health workers from Covid-19

A team led by MIT faculty has helped bring much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to New England, as part of the larger regional effort to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The group, which calls itself the Covid-19 Policy Alliance, has been working on multiple projects, including equipment delivery, over the last several weeks. “One goal of […]

A force for health equity

After spending three weeks in Kenya working on water issues with Maasai women, Kendyll Hicks was ready to declare it her favorite among the international projects she’s participated in through MIT. As a volunteer with the nonprofit Mama Maji, Hicks spoke about clean water, menstrual hygiene, and reproductive health with local women, sharing information that […]

It all adds up

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is more than a math competition for high schoolers: It’s also a springboard for subsequent success. The MIT delegation that annually dominates the Putnam Mathematical Competition is largely composed of alumni of the IMO and related math competitions. Many of these mathletes remain involved by producing training or prep courses […]

Scaling up a cleaner-burning alternative for cookstoves

For millions of people globally, cooking in their own homes can be detrimental to their health, and sometimes deadly. The World Health Organization estimates that 3.8 million people a year die as a result of the soot and smoke generated in traditional wood-burning cookstoves. Women and children in particular are at risk of pneumonia, stroke, […]

3 Questions: Kate Trimble on experiential learning at MIT

Kate Trimble officially took the helm of the Office of Experiential Learning (OEL) on Dec. 1, but she is no stranger to the Institute. Since 2016, Trimble has been the associate dean for the Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Public Service Center, where she focused on energizing and expanding the PKG center’s mission of inspiring and […]