April 24, 2021
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Climate Policy Advocate
 
An interest in entrepreneurship and programming led Kiara Wahnschafft to MIT. She is now leveraging her economics and mechanical engineering majors as she advocates for evidence-based climate action, on campus and in Washington.
Top Headlines
President Reif urges a two-track strategy to achieve global climate goals in 30 years
In a Boston Globe op-ed, MIT’s president argues that the U.S. must invest in new breakthroughs while also deploying all available tools today.
MIT Heat Island
Aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, MOXIE creates oxygen on Mars
Thanks to an MIT-designed instrument, a NASA mission has produced oxygen on another planet for the first time.
MIT Heat Island
Letter from President Reif: Caring for each other amid the Chauvin trial
MIT’s president writes to the community about devoting time and space for observing a highly charged moment.
Keeping humanity central to solving climate change
MIT scholars are helping to solve the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the world’s energy and climate challenges.
MIT Heat Island
Electrifying cement with nanocarbon black
A collaboration between MIT and CNRS has yielded a cement that conducts electricity and generates heat.
MIT Heat Island
#ThisisMIT
In the Media
This fashion label is making clothes out of air pollution // Fast Company
MIT startup Graviky Labs is collaborating with the fashion label Pangaia to create clothing featuring graphics made from pollution sucked out of the air. “It’s an entirely new approach to carbon capture,” says Graviky Labs co-founder Anirudh Sharma SM ’14.
How to replace everything in the industrialized world // Vox Conversations
Associate Professor Jessika Trancik speaks about the many aspects involved with transforming our world in response to climate change and shifting to clean energy technologies.
“We couldn’t be happier,” MIT grad says after Mars helicopter completes first flight // The Boston Globe
“It’s a dream come true to be working on this project for all these years and be even more lucky that the whole team is able to see it come to fruition,” says Theodore “Teddy” Tzanetos ’12, SM ’13 of the Ingenuity helicopter’s successful first flight on Mars. “We all are hoping this is going to be a stepping stone, a foundation for future missions to come.”
Digital leaders: Top universities for digital entrepreneurship // Times Higher Education
MIT has been ranked the top university in the world for digital entrepreneurship in a new ranking by Times Higher Education and the French consultancy Emerging. Times Higher Education notes that MIT “has a strong reputation for teaching and learning in science and technology courses. As well as undergraduate and postgraduate courses, MIT also offers a range of executive courses in digital business strategy, AI and business analytics.”
Watch This
MIT students are enjoying more time outdoors these days, exploring the beauty and intelligence of nature while reflecting on the importance of preserving our Earth for future generations. This video from the School of Engineering highlights five students on an outdoor adventure in honor of Earth Day.
Breathing Pavilion
We end this week with a moving installation from Ekene Ijeoma, assistant professor of media arts and sciences and director of the Poetic Justice research group at the MIT Media Lab. “Breathing Pavilion,” a project of Studio Ijeoma, comprises a 30-foot circle of 20 9-foot illuminated inflatable columns that slowly change in brightness to mimic a deep-breathing technique designed to bring calm. The work is meant to acknowledge both Covid-19 as well as systemic racial injustice in the United States. It is on display through May 11 in Brooklyn, NY.
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