November 23, 2019
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.

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Honoring Millie
The courtyard between MIT buildings 4 and 8 and the new MIT.nano facility has been christened the “Improbability Walk,” in honor of the late Institute Professor Mildred “Millie” Dresselhaus. “Millie often used the word ‘improbable’ to describe her success,” says Professor Vladimir Bulović, MIT.nano’s founding director. She “used the simple act of walking across campus as an opportunity to teach, and to learn from her students. Combining the idea of improbable journeys and walking as a form of mentorship ... seemed a fitting tribute.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Top Headlines
Lamborghini and MIT pave the way for the electric supercar of the future
MIT-Italy helps build supercharged partnerships on campus and across the globe.
MIT Heat Island
MIT Energy Initiative report charts pathways for sustainable personal transportation
Technological innovations, policies, and behavioral changes will all be needed to reach Paris climate agreement targets.
MIT Heat Island
Bot can beat humans in multiplayer hidden-role games
Using deductive reasoning, the bot identifies friend or foe to ensure victory over humans in certain online games.
MIT Heat Island
Exploring the human side of health care
Senior and “people person” Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi brings a human touch to caring for people dealing with medical crises.
MIT Heat Island
“From Controversy to Cure” documentary chronicles the biotech boom in Cambridge 🧬
A new film looks at how Kendall Square became a beacon for industries working on treatments for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
#ThisIsMIT
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In the Media
The revealing words people use to describe retirement // The Wall Street Journal
Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, and research scientist Chaiwoo Lee examine how people across the U.S. describe retirement.
New “battery” aims to spark a carbon capture revolution // PBS NewsHour
MIT researchers developed a device that can remove carbon dioxide from the air at any concentration and from mobile sources such as cars and airplanes.
Boston evictions happening “orders of magnitude” more in low-income neighborhoods // WBUR
Research by graduate student David Robinson finds evictions are occurring at much higher rates in low-income, majority-nonwhite neighborhoods in Boston.
What if you didn’t have to wait for your plane to be de-iced? // The Boston Globe
De-Ice co-founder and CEO Alexander Bratianu ’15 developed a novel system to de-ice airplanes by wondering if he could “build something similar to your car’s rear-window defroster, where you press a button, and any frost would go away.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Did You Know?
World Toilet Day, an international observation that highlights the need for sanitation solutions around the globe, took place this week. At present 1 billion people lack access to safe, clean toilets because they lack sewage plumbing. Change:Water Labs, a team participating in the MIT Solve Global Challenges, aims to address this concern with its iThrone Evaporative Toilet. The compact, waterless toilet leverages a fact that NASA has known for decades: 90% of human waste is water. “By dehydrating waste, our membrane acts like shrink-wrap for crap,” says team lead Diana Yousef. The device needs only monthly emptying, ensuring costs remain low. 🚽
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“
The rich and powerful externalize their costs, with the impacts falling disproportionately on those with lower incomes and on communities of color. And that’s simply not right.
—Mike Belliveau ’79, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, which aims to ensure that all people can thrive in a safe environment
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mother of UROP
This year we celebrate 50 years of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, or UROP, which links undergraduate students with hands-on research projects across MIT. Now an indispensable part of the academic culture at MIT, UROP was the brainchild of the late Margaret MacVicar, a professor of physical science and of education. It began with just 25 students; today, nearly 90% of all undergraduates participate, and countless others have replicated the program at their own institutions. MacVicar, who was born this week in 1943, died in September 1991.
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