Rhodes Scholars + humidity and Covid + programming world champions

MIT Weekly November 19, 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](. Rhodes Scholars #[Headshots of Jack Cook, Matthew Kearney, and Jupneet Singh, placed side by side]( Left to right: Jack Cook, Matthew Kearney, and Jupneet Singh Jack Cook ’22, Matthew Kearney, and Jupneet Singh have been selected for the 2023 cohort of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship program. They will begin fully funded postgraduate studies at Oxford University in the U.K. next fall. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines MIT wins world finals of the 45th International Collegiate Programming Contest Students reflect on their top performance in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which ended a 44-year drought for MIT. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Keeping indoor humidity levels at a “sweet spot” may reduce the spread of Covid-19 A new study links very dry and very humid indoor environments with worse Covid-19 outcomes. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Uncovering the rich connections between South Asia and MIT Showcased in a new exhibit, student research explores the long history of South Asians at the Institute. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Expanding horizons through astronomy and art Whether spending late nights at the observatory or working on animated films, senior Skylar Larsen is reaching for the stars. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( A Launch for Native Alumni Aaron Ashley ’16 is an MIT-trained rocket scientist — and also the first president of the Indigenous Alumni of MIT group. “Our individual traditions are very different, but there’s a shared desire to learn and preserve our Native culture,” he says. [Full story via Slice of MIT→]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT # [Tweet via @MattWBZ→]( In the Media Kendall Square remains a work in progress. Here’s what’s under construction // The Boston Globe Boston Globe correspondent Scott Kirsner explores the development underway in Kendall Square with Michael Owu, managing director of real estate for the MIT Investment Management Company, and Sarah Gallop, co-director of the MIT Office of Government and Community Relations. “If you haven’t been to Kendall recently, it’s turning into a real neighborhood,” writes Kirsner. “On our walk, we passed two barber shops, a florist, a grocery store, and a Dig restaurant I hadn’t noticed. We also ducked into the subterranean MIT Press Bookstore, recently relocated and newly renovated.” [Full story via The Boston Globe →]( A mountain, a tower, a thermos of molten salt. These are the batteries that could power our renewable future. // Vox Dharik Mallapragada, principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, discusses the pressing need to find new ways to store renewable energy. “No single technology is going to make this happen,” says Mallapragada. “We have to think about it as a jigsaw puzzle, where every piece plays its role in the system.” [Full story via Vox→]( Elite universities aim to attract more community college transfer students via new pipeline // Forbes MIT is part of the Transfer Scholars Network (TSN), an initiative aimed at opening a pipeline for transfer students between community colleges and four-year colleges. “As a part of TSN, we hope to send a message to community college students everywhere that you belong and you can succeed at a school like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” says Jeremy Weprich, senior assistant director of admissions. [Full story via Forbes→]( The company making steaks out of thin air // CNN Lisa Dyson PhD ’04 founded a company called Air Protein, which is developing a technique to make a meat substitute “using just microbes, water, renewable energy and elements found in the air.” [Full story via CNN→]( Portraits of Black Life in the South # Photographer {NAME} Lee ’72 traversed the American South in the 1980s, documenting scenes that caught his eye. In a new monograph with 88 photos from this project, Lee calls his MIT mentor, Minor White, “an oasis in a sea of science and technology.” [Full story via MIT Technology Review→]( Watch This # [Camdenton LASER 3284]( is a FIRST Robotics team from Camdenton, Missouri. In 2019, the group initiated the #WalkLikeWoodie hashtag on social media to honor the legacy of the late MIT professor [Woodie Flowers](. They then spent a year gathering thousands of photos of people wearing Converse sneakers to honor Flowers, who was known for his Converse kicks. The resulting photos, seen in this new video, come from 44 different U.S. states, 4 Canadian provinces, and 10 countries. “Nobody can fill his shoes,” the team writes on their YouTube page, “but we should walk in his path.” [Watch the video→]( Scene at MIT # A re-imagined version of the 18th century “Ballet des Porcelaines,” centering the Asian American experience and challenging racial typecasting of the original, was recently staged at MIT with support from the MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology ([CAST](. “MIT might be known for its emphasis on STEM, but the arts, humanities, and social sciences are also central to our undergraduate curriculum,” says Jeffrey Ravel, a professor of history and a specialist in 18th century French theater and political culture. This performance, he emphasizes, “is part of our ongoing campus conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion, investigating the historical context of the pervasive issues that affect cultural production today.” [Full story via MIT News→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [a very special MIT sandwich](. 🥪 Thank you for reading! In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, the MIT Weekly will return Dec. 3. Thanks for reading, and have a restful break! —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