Life after stroke + deep learning + girls in mathematics

MIT Weekly October 29, 2022 Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.  Want a daily dose of MIT in your inbox? [Subscribe to the MIT Daily](. Rebuilding After Stroke # Debra Meyerson and her husband, Steve Zuckerman, led a team of cyclists on a cross-country trip to bring attention to the challenges of recovering from stroke. A stroke left Debra Meyerson ’79, SM ’80 paralyzed on one side and unable to talk. Now, she has found her voice and is speaking out about stroke recovery and the lack of support for the mental and emotional aspects of healing. [Full story via Slice of MIT]( | [Watch video]( Top Headlines Deep learning with light A new method uses optics to accelerate machine-learning computations on smart speakers and other low-power connected devices. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Q&A: Melissa Nobles on guest-editing Nature to examine racism in science The MIT chancellor and colleagues are leading a special project examining how bias has distorted the scientific enterprise — and how to make things better. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Celebrating the life of undergraduate Mohamed Magdi Taha The rising junior in Course 6-9 was “brave and compassionate” and strove to lift up others. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Building with nanoparticles, from the bottom up Researchers develop a technique for precisely arranging nanoscale particles on a surface, such as a silicon chip, that doesn’t damage the material. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( The tenured engineers of 2022 Fourteen faculty members have been granted tenure in five departments across the MIT School of Engineering. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT # [Follow @mit on TikTok→]( In the Media How to save democracy // The Atlantic A new study co-authored by MIT researchers explores 25 different methods for reducing partisan animosity, support for antidemocratic values and tolerance for political violence. The researchers found that “partisan animosity seemed to have little relation to antidemocratic attitudes, and interventions that reduced animosity didn’t always do much to reduce those antidemocratic views.” [Full story via The Atlantic→]( Meet the MIT grad students stopping by Dunkin’s in cities across Massachusetts // WHDH Graduate students James “Jimmy” McRae and Bert Vandereydt are on a mission to visit every Dunkin’ Donuts in Massachusetts. “Seeing some older ones, some newer ones. Getting like local cuisine on the way,” Vandereydt said. “We had pizza in the North Shore, roast beef in the North Shore ... it’s a lot of fun.” [Full story via WHDH→]( All aboard Amsterdam’s autonomous trash boat // Bloomberg MIT and Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions researchers have been developing an electric autonomous trash boat. The boats “could reduce noise, pollution, and congestion, thus improving the quality of Amsterdam’s historic cityscape.” [Full story via Bloomberg→]( Cell biologist from Duke named new president of MIT // Associated Press “Maybe above all, I was drawn here because this is a moment when humanity faces huge global problems, problems that urgently demand the world’s most skillful minds and hands,” says Sally Kornbluth, MIT’s 18th president-elect. “In short, I believe this is MIT’s moment. I could not imagine a greater privilege than helping the people of MIT seize its full potential.” [Full story via The Associated Press→]( Scene at MIT # Out of approximately 240 contestants at the 2022 [Math Prize for Girls]( held annually at MIT, 17 took home prizes. Jessica Wan, a junior from Florida (kneeling at far right), received the top $50,000 prize for the second contest in a row. (She also won in 2019, before the contest took a hiatus due to Covid-19.) MIT Department of Mathematics head Michel Goemans notes, “This competition encourages more girls to be passionate about mathematics and interested in STEM careers, and this is certainly much-needed.” [Full story via MIT News→]( Digit 1,000,000 Number of enrollments recently surpassed by the MITxMicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management, which has also issued 57,000 course certificates and 3,700 program credentials [Full story via MIT News→]( [“] Every company would offer a minimum of six months of paid parental leave, have salary transparency to ensure all women are paid equally, and would cover the cost for women to freeze their eggs so they can have a child at the right time for them. —Samantha Joseph MBA ’09, a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on what she would change about workplaces, societal norms, or public policies that would most benefit women in the workforce [Full story via MIT Sloan→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [a Picasso at MIT](. ⚒️ Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a happy Halloween weekend! —MIT News Office [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] Massachusetts Institute of Technology This email was sent to {EMAIL} because of your affiliation with MIT, or because you signed up for our newsletters. [subscribe]( [update preferences]( [unsubscribe]( [view in browser]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( MIT News Office · 77 Massachusetts Avenue · Cambridge, MA 02139 · USA