Ultrastrong materials + Venice Biennale + campaigning for climate + chess bot

[view in browser]( MIT Weekly [MIT Logo] August 26, 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](. Kirigami-Inspired Materials #[3 photos show a tentacle-like metal object made with the researchers’ kirigami-style methods. It bends left and right.]( Researchers at the [MIT Center for Bits and Atoms]( used kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting and folding, to develop ultrastrong, lightweight materials that have tunable mechanical properties, such as stiffness and flexibility. “This material is like steel cork,” says Professor Neil Gershenfeld. [Full story via MIT News →]( Top Headlines To improve solar and other clean energy tech, look beyond hardware A new study finds system deployment processes have been slow to improve over time — but must be addressed to lower clean energy costs in the future. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( “Can confirm, the Dome is visible from LEO.” Astronaut Woody Hoburg ’08 shares images — and MIT pride — from aboard the ISS. [Full story via MIT AeroAstro→]( [MIT Heat Island]( MIT at the 2023 Venice Biennale The world’s largest and most visited exhibition focusing on architecture is once again featuring work by many MIT faculty, students, and alumni. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( When rumors take flight Professor Adam Berinsky’s new book examines the political misinformation that threatens the US system of government. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Dyanna Jaye: Bringing the urgency of organizing to climate policy The master’s student and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement works toward embedding climate into every level of government. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Q&A: Steven Gonzalez on Indigenous futurist science fiction The HASTS PhD candidate describes his new book, “Sordidez,” a science fiction novella on rebuilding, healing, and indigeneity following civil war and climate disaster. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[Facebook post with photo of the upper left hand corner of the Sunday New York Times Crossword page. The title reads “Use Your Noodle” and Mannal Mohammed’s name printed underneath.]( [Follow @MITnews on Facebook→]( In the Media David Autor: “We have a real design choice about how we deploy AI” // Financial Times Professor David Autor discusses the risks AI poses to the labor market and job quality, but also the technology’s potential to help rebuild middle-class employment. [Full story via the Financial Times→]( The Indigenous rocketeer // Nature Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year student at MIT, discusses her work leading MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket team at the 2023 First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition. [Full story via Nature→]( Opinion: AI can shape society for the better — but humans and machines must work together // The Guardian Professor D. Fox Harrell examines the importance of ensuring AI systems are designed to “reflect the ethically positive culture we truly want.” [Full story via The Guardian→]( How to make sure federal climate money helps everyone // The New York Times This past spring, Professor J. Phillip Thompson and MIT lecturer Elisabeth Reynolds taught a class at MIT that sent students to work with local officials across the country to help identify available federal funding for climate change mitigation. [Full story via The New York Times→]( Watch This #[Video still of Eric Zhou, Claudius Tewari, and Keiji Imai surrounding their robot Mags, a wired chess board with a touchscreen. Imai holds a white chess piece.]( Fancy a game of chess? In this video, rising second-year students Keiji Imai, Claudius Tewari, and Eric Zhou describe Mags, the chess-playing robot that they designed and built along with teammate Gloria Zhu, as part of a workshop from MIT’s [Project Manus](. Mags features a hidden electromagnet underneath its board that enables movement of chess pieces and a touchscreen that displays the chess board’s configuration. [Watch the video→]( [“] If we could just listen to the sand, we might be able to design our cities in a better way. —Skylar Tibbits, associate professor of design research and director of the Self-Assembly Lab, on the “Growing Islands” exhibit at the MIT Museum, which offers visitors a new way to reflect on the dynamics of beach erosion and possible approaches to combating sea-level rise. [Learn more via the School of Architecture and Planning →]( Listen #[Series of white lines connect atop a gray background, while text “The Data-Smart City Pod” is atop a semi-transparent red shield shape. Below that, “From data-smart city solutions” in printed in capitalized letters.]( In a recent episode of the Data-Smart City Solutions podcast from the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, host Steve Goldsmith interviews [Dan Huttenlocher]( MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science and inaugural dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, on artificial intelligence, use cases for generative AI in government, and balancing the human with the digital in a bureaucracy. They discuss the different ways that generative AI could be used by governments, in service of constituents, and what kinds of operational standards are required for the productive and safe use of AI technologies. [Listen to the episode]( This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [making it this far](. 🚉 Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. 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