News & Stories

Grace Moore ’21 receives Michel David-Weill Scholarship

Grace Moore ’21, a recent graduate of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), is the first from MIT to receive the prestigious Michel David-Weill Scholarship, which provides funding for graduate study at Sciences Po in Paris, France. The scholarship carries an approximate monetary value of $80,000 and covers the cost of tuition and living expenses. The scholarship’s eponym, […]

Diving into the global problem of technology waste

While green energy solutions often rely on new technology, MIT students who took class STS.032 (Energy, Environment, and Society) in fall 2020 discovered that even many promising innovations share a downside — electronics waste (e-waste). “We’ve been using energy technologies that work well for our needs now, but we don’t think about what happens 30 […]

Six MIT SHASS educators receive 2021 Levitan Teaching Awards

Six individuals have received the James A. and Ruth Levitan Teaching Award for 2021. The award, given annually by the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), honors superlative teachers across the school, who have been nominated by MIT students themselves. The 2021 winners are: Daniel Clark of the Department of Economics, Sara […]

Portable technology offers boost for nuclear security, arms control

About five years ago, Areg Danagoulian, associate professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), became intrigued by a technique developed by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory that uses a neutron beam to identify unknown materials. “They could look into a black box containing uranium and say what kind and how much,” says Danagoulian, […]

Evaluating the competition between autonomous vehicles and public transit

The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicles technology in recent years has changed transport systems and consumer habits globally. As countries worldwide see a surge in the use of autonomous vehicles, the rise of shared autonomous mobility on demand (AMoD) service is likely to be next on the cards. Public transit, a critical component of urban […]

Exploring the future of humanitarian technology

The year 2030 serves as the resolution to the United Nation’s Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda, adopted in 2015 by all UN member states including the United States, mobilizes global efforts to protect the planet, end poverty, foster peace, and safeguard the rights of all people. Nine years out from the target date, the […]

When masks reveal

A Covid-19 mask is typically seen as a form of protection. But what if our masks became opportunities for exposure — the physical expression of our thoughts, preoccupations, and the way we relate to the turbulence of the outside world? That was the challenge faced by MIT undergraduate students assigned to design a mask that […]

Study reveals a universal travel pattern across four continents

What explains how often people travel to a particular place? Your intuition might suggest that distance is a key factor, but empirical evidence can help urban studies researchers answer the question more definitively. A new paper by an MIT team, drawing on global data, finds that people visit places more frequently when they have to […]

Mastering online learning to level up

A number of pervasive myths surround online learning: that it’s isolating, that the quality of instruction is innately lower than in an in-person classroom, or that it’s only for those who can’t succeed in traditional educational settings. Abigael Bamgboye, an accomplished and highly self-motivated university graduate who just completed the MITx MicroMasters Data and Economic […]

Twelve from MIT awarded 2021 Fulbright Fellowships

Twelve MIT student affiliates have won fellowships for the Fulbright 2021-22 grant year. Their host country destinations include Brazil, Iceland, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, and Taiwan, where they will conduct research, earn a graduate degree, or teach English. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program […]