Living boldly at MIT + tools for data science + simulated aging

MIT Weekly January 28, 2023 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](. Living Boldly at MIT #[Ji kneels near fish tanks filled with star fish and algae. Many black cables emerge from the tanks.]( On top of writing award-winning poetry, senior Catherine Ji has conducted research, performed a cappella, co-led student advocacy efforts, and served as a teaching assistant and mentor. “There are just too many cool things to do here, and never enough time,” she says. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines How Huntington’s disease affects different neurons A new study identifies cells that are the most vulnerable within a brain structure involved in mood and movement. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Sensing with purpose Fadel Adib uses wireless technologies to sense the world in new ways, taking aim at sweeping problems such as food insecurity, climate change, and access to health care. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( MIT Gas Turbine Laboratory prepares to jet into the future With 75 years of aviation industry-focused research and education under its belt, the lab continues to develop propulsion systems for next-generation aircraft. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( When should data scientists try a new technique? A new measure can help scientists decide which estimation method to use when modeling a particular data problem. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( A unique MIT suit helps people better understand the aging experience Students, researchers, and actors don AGNES for a taste of the friction, frustration, and fatigue that older adults often experience. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[Tweet image of Ronald McNair in a blue flight suit with a NASA flag and model rocket in background. Text via @Goodable: When he was 9-years old, Ronald McNair was told he couldn't sign out books from a segregated library. He went on to become a Karate champion, earned a PhD in physics from MIT, and became an astronaut with NASA. Today, the library is named after him.]( [Tweet via @goodable→]( In the Media Could air someday power your flight? Airlines are betting on it. // The New York Times Professor Steven Barrett discusses the pressing need to make air travel more sustainable and his research exploring the impact of contrails on the planet’s temperature. [Full story via The New York Times→]( A look into the future of AI at MIT’s robotics laboratory // Mashable Professor Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, discusses the future of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning, emphasizing the importance of balancing the development of new technologies with the need to ensure they are deployed in a way that benefits humanity. [Full story via Mashable→]( It’s not sci-fi — NASA is funding these mind-blowing projects // Wired Assistant Professor Zachary Cordero and his team are working to develop an in-space manufacturing technique to design a satellite reflector that can monitor storms and precipitation through moisture changes in the atmosphere. [Full story via Wired→]( Destination Boston: City of firsts // NBC 1st Look NBC 1st Look host Chelsea Cabarcas visits MIT to see how faculty, researchers, and students are “pioneering the world of tomorrow.” Cabarcas meets the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle team and the MIT mini cheetah robot that could one day be used in disaster-relief operations. [Full story via NBC 1st Look→]( Watch This #[Two students sit on a hallway bench. On the wall above them are the words "MIT Welcome Center, A Gift of Tina and Hamid (SB 1977, SM 1978) Moghadam "; pink, yellow, and blue lights illuminate the top of the wall.]( MIT Illuminations is a new, colorful installation and introduction to creative computation that expresses the dynamic, vibrant culture of MIT through the medium of programmable light. Located in the new [MIT Welcome Center]( the installation runs on software written by MIT-alumni founded experiential design firm SOSO, and is used as the foundation of an introduction to programming seminar for first-year students. [Watch the video→]( [“] MIT breaks you of any bad habits you might have had. And it gives you the confidence to enter new spaces, a willingness to step into the unknown. In truth, I have a tough time relating the person who started there in the fall of 2006 to the person who left in 2012. It was a dramatic change, in a very positive way. —Bill Near ’10, MEng ’12, who once dreamed of playing in the NHL but went on to found and lead HELIOS, a hockey performance tech firm [Learn more via Slice of MIT→]( Did You Know? # Across a research institution like MIT, there may be many thousands of projects underway across a broad spectrum of organizational units. As a way to help tell the story of the [MIT Media Lab]( work and priorities, the lab’s communications team recently took on the task of visualizing the research groups, initiatives, and programs central to the lab’s mission. Collaborating with the startup Kumu, the team has now launched an interactive map highlighting about 100 projects, each of which connects to at least one of 27 research groups, to at least one of five research themes, and, in many cases, to entities in other parts of MIT. With more than 4,300 individual connections, the breadth of the Media Lab’s undertakings is now on vivid display to anyone with a web browser. [Explore the map→]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [WILG bunnies for the Year of the Rabbit](. 🐇 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. 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