News & Stories

Virtual bootcamps recruit from a wider world

Any past participant of MIT Bootcamps can tell you that the program lives up to the intensity implied by its name. But they’d also be quick to say that the military analogy extends even further — to an enduring camaraderie that tends to bind its members together for years after their experience has ended, across […]

MIT and Danish university students unite to envision a more sustainable future

Climate action is among the top priorities for the Institute and one that demands global solutions. With Denmark’s reputation as a leader in sustainable thinking, finding a way to bring the two together presented a natural synergy for the MIT-Denmark program. Part of MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), MIT-Denmark connects students and faculty […]

Improving sanitation for the world’s most vulnerable people

Last year, women visiting a neonatal clinic at a hospital in Kiboga, Uganda, began using two waterless, standalone bathrooms that offered a cleaner and more private alternative to the pit latrines that are standard in the region. The deployment was the culmination of years of work by the startup change:WATER Labs, co-founded by two MIT […]

Connecting machines in remote regions

On Nov. 26, seven fishermen aboard a small fishing boat off the coast of Maharashtra in western India were struck with panic when their vessel was damaged and began to sink. The panic was warranted: The boat was too far from shore to radio for help. Tens of thousands of fishermen find themselves in a […]

2020 MIT Water Summit brings international audiences together to discuss resilience

Earlier this semester, the MIT student group The Water Club gathered to discuss topics for their eighth annual MIT Water Summit. Given the dramatic challenges of 2020, the group knew this year’s decision was particularly weighty. Commenting on the process, Laura Chen, a junior in chemical engineering and director of the 2020 Water Summit, recalled, […]

MISTI shifts to fully remote global internships and cultural experiences amid pandemic

The 10.5-hour time difference between the eastern United States and India may seem like it would pose a challenge to collaborative teamwork. However, MIT junior Robert Koirala and sophomore Grace Smith quickly got used to scheduling team meetings as late as 11 p.m. as remote interns for India-based Ek Kadam Aur Foundation for Education and […]

Twenty years of cultivating tech entrepreneurs

In 2010, Clarisse Iribagiza was studying computer engineering at the University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology. She was intrigued to hear about a program on the fundamentals of technological entrepreneurship offered by the MIT Global Startup Labs (GSL) at her college. “I had never heard of startups, but I wanted to understand what […]

Shaping universities to be engines of economic development

Universities perform best as engines of economic development when they systematically exchange knowledge with their partners in industry and government, according to a new book co-authored by an MIT professor and former university president. At the moment, this “exchange” too often operates like a one-way street, the authors write, with universities sending graduates and research […]

Report outlines route toward better jobs, wider prosperity

Decades of technological change have polarized the earnings of the American workforce, helping highly educated white-collar workers thrive, while hollowing out the middle class. Yet present-day advances like robots and artificial intelligence do not spell doom for middle-tier or lower-wage workers, since innovations create jobs as well. With better policies in place, more people could […]

MIT celebrates Women’s Entrepreneurship Month

The women’s entrepreneurial experience at MIT started in 1870, when Ellen Henrietta Swallow first set foot on campus as an “experimental student.” Some 30 years later, she became the second president of the MIT Women’s Association, organized with her help “to promote greater fellowship among Institute women.” In the years since, the immeasurable contribution of […]