MIT News Newsletter

	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 31, 2017
MIT News: around campus
A weekly digest of the Institute’s community news

David Hesslink: Taking his passion to the major leagues

Winningest pitcher in MIT history and baseball analytics ace will join Seattle Mariners’ operations office after graduation.

Danielle Olson: Building empathy through computer science and art

CSAIL PhD student creates immersive media to help users understand each other’s backgrounds and feelings.

MIT Video Productions nominated for New England Emmy Award

Film “A Bold Move” documents MIT’s move to Cambridge, honors its leaders and visionaries.

Media Lab announces 2017 Director’s Fellows

Nine new Director’s Fellows bring their diverse experiences to a global network empowered by technology created at the MIT Media Lab.

Breaking down walls between the ivory tower and prison

The MIT Prison Initiative provides an academic framework for undergraduates and local inmates to explore the human condition.

Sustainability Connect 2017 brings MIT together to balance needs of the present and future

Third annual conference explores innovation, social justice, and the Institute as a living lab for sustainability.

In the Media

Writing for NOVA Next, Annette Choi talks with MITEI Director Robert Armstrong and research scientist Apurba Sakti about the value of developing energy storage solutions to maximize the potential of renewable energy technologies and make the electric grid more reliable, flexible, and adaptable.

Graduate student Joy Buolamwini speaks with Guardian reporter Ian Tucker about her work fighting algorithmic biases. Buolamwini explains that she is, “trying to identify bias, to point out cases where bias can occur so people can know what to look out for, but also develop tools where the creators of systems can check for a bias in their design.”

MIT professor and former U.S. Sec. of Energy, Ernest Moniz, contributed this op-ed in The Hill, voicing his concerns about what President Trump's proposed budget means for U.S. energy security and low-carbon innovation. The administration's stance, he says, is "at odds with the preponderance of scientific evidence and the positions of almost all other nations of the world."

Anant Agarwal, president of edX, speaks with Goldie Blumenstyk of The Chronicle of Higher Education about edX’s commitment to expanding access to education. EdX is focused on maximizing, “the impact and the good that we can do to the world,” says Agarwal, adding that edX is working with universities to “reimagine education, both on university campuses and online.”