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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Desirée Plata and Justin Steil win Edgerton...
MIT associate professors Desirée Plata and Justin Steil have been named recipients of the 2020-21 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award. The award’s selection committee chose to recognize both faculty members for their excellence in service, mentorship, and research that impacts critical societal challenges in environmental sustainability and social justice. The annual Edgerton Faculty Award was established in 1982 as a tribute to Institute Professor Emeritus Harold E. Edgerton in recognition of his active support of junior faculty members....

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From diabetes to Covid-19, Better World (Health)...
“MIT’s work to understand and improve human health spans decades and covers the Institute,” said W. Eric L. Grimson PhD ’80, at MIT Better World (Health), a virtual gathering in February. “More than a third of the faculty representing every department at MIT engage in research directly related to health science and innovation.” Grimson, who is MIT’s chancellor for academic advancement and the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering, spoke of the many achievements of Institute scholars in the human health arena: “Serving as...

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Study: Sex differences in Covid-19 mortality vary...
Men have been more susceptible than women to the Covid-19 virus since the start of the pandemic. At a glance, that suggests sex-based biological differences shape the way people respond to the disease. But a newly published study indicates societal factors in the U.S. play an even bigger role. One of the study’s findings is that Black women are up to four times more likely to die of Covid-19 than white men are. Additionally, Black men have the highest...

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Innovative design thinking for a fast-changing world
Blade Kotelly is a senior lecturer at MIT on design thinking, user interfaces, and innovation whose enthusiasm for cars is intertwined with his passion for innovative design. Despite Kotelly’s love affair with the internal combustion engine, he realizes the technology is heading for endangered species list. “We are going to see a huge shift to electric cars, not just for the environment but because the total operating cost is lower,” he says. Kotelly’s brain may have convinced him batteries...

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MIT launches new data privacy-focused initiative
Strategic use of data is vital for progress in science, commerce, and even politics, but at the same time, citizens are demanding more responsible, respectful use of personal data. Internet users have never felt more helpless about how their data are being used: Surveys show that the vast majority of U.S. adults feel that they have little to no control over the data that the government and private companies collect about them. In response to these concerns, new privacy...

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Electrifying cement with nanocarbon black
Since its invention several millennia ago, concrete has become instrumental to the advancement of civilization, finding use in countless construction applications — from bridges to buildings. And yet, despite centuries of innovation, its function has remained primarily structural. A multiyear effort by MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) researchers, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), has aimed to change that. Their collaboration promises to make concrete more sustainable by adding novel functionalities — namely, electron...

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President Reif urges two-track strategy to achieve...
Ambitious goals are often called moonshots, but the challenge of addressing climate change will be even more monumental. This “Earthshot,” as MIT President L. Rafael Reif calls it in an op-ed published today in The Boston Globe, is an enormously complex problem with no single right answer, no clear finish line, multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities, and no central authority empowered to solve it. The “super wicked problem” of bringing the global economy to net-zero carbon and adapting to...

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From entrepreneur to climate policy advocate
Kiara Wahnschafft started her first company at age 16. After her classmate passed away from a drunk driving accident, Wahnschafft couldn’t stop thinking about ways technology could have saved a life. With two other students, she built a prototype for a car key that works only after the driver passes a breathalyzer test. Wahnschafft went on to create a company called SafeStart Technologies, ultimately patenting the product and winning several competitions. The experience was Wahnschafft’s introduction to a unique...

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Annual KSA meeting envisions Kendall Square coming...
No community has been immune to the hardships of the last year. But there have been bright spots. In response to the global pandemic, scientists developed effective vaccines. In response to tragic killings, people have begun important conversations about racial injustice and equity. In response to social isolation, we’ve adopted new digital platforms and community-building initiatives. In many ways, Kendall Square has been a microcosm for those responses. The community has leaned into issues around inclusion, striven to support...

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Letter from President Reif: Caring for each...
The following letter was sent to the MIT community today by President L. Rafael Reif. To the members of the MIT community, On Monday, the trial of Derek Chauvin will move to closing arguments, amid continued anguish across the country over systemic racism and violence against people of color.  I write now to acknowledge the pain, frustration, exhaustion and profound weight of this moment, to recognize the impact across our community, especially for people of color, and to offer...

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3 Questions: Deborah Liverman on helping students...
MIT Career Advising and Professional Development (CAPD) has a simple mission statement: engaging undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, and postdocs in self-discovery to craft lives that are intellectually challenging, personally enriching, and of service to the world. With increased career uncertainty due to the pandemic, Deborah Liverman, executive director for CAPD, shares how the office can help students navigate a path to fulfilling work. Q: How is CAPD supporting students now that recruitment for employment and graduate school is virtual? ...

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MIT juniors Yu Jing Chen and Max...
MIT students Yu Jing Chen and Max Williamson have been selected as 2021 Truman Scholars. Truman Scholars demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to a career in government or the nonprofit sector, and academic excellence. Chen and Williamson join 62 other scholars who were selected from 845 candidates. MIT President L. Rafael Reif personally informed both students that they were selected for this competitive scholarship, telling them, “This year it was so competitive and this is so important,...

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Toward deep-learning models that can reason about...
Whatever business a company may be in, software plays an increasingly vital role, from managing inventory to interfacing with customers. Software developers, as a result, are in greater demand than ever, and that’s driving the push to automate some of the easier tasks that take up their time.  Productivity tools like Eclipse and Visual Studio suggest snippets of code that developers can easily drop into their work as they write. These automated features are powered by sophisticated language models...

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A method to assess Covid-19 transmission risks...
Two MIT professors have proposed a new approach to estimating the risks of exposure to Covid-19 under different indoor settings. The guideline they developed suggests a limit for exposure time, based on the number of people, the size of the space, the kinds of activity, whether masks are worn, and the ventilation and filtration rates. Their model offers a detailed, physics-based guideline for policymakers, businesses, schools, and individuals trying to gauge their own risks. The guideline, appearing this week...

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Counting pedestrians to make pedestrians count
A key portion of MIT’s campus overlaps with Kendall Square, the bustling area in East Cambridge where students, residents, and tech employees scurry around in between classes, meetings, and meals. Where are they all going? Is there a way to make sense of this daily flurry of foot traffic? In fact, there is: MIT Associate Professor Andres Sevtsuk has made Kendall Square the basis of a newly published model of pedestrian movement that could help planners and developers better...

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