Author: Ms. R.

Amama has lived in a rural region of northern Ghana all her life. In 2022, she went into labor with her first child. Women traditionally give birth at home with the help of a local birthing attendant, but Amama experienced last-minute complications, and the decision was made to go to a hospital. Unfortunately, there were no ambulances in the community and the nearest hospital was 30 minutes away, so Amama was forced to take a motorcycle taxi, leaving her……

Read More

MIT researchers have created a periodic table that shows how more than 20 classical machine-learning algorithms are connected. The new framework sheds light on how scientists could fuse strategies from different methods to improve existing AI models or come up with new ones. For instance, the researchers used their framework to combine elements of two different algorithms to create a new image-classification algorithm that performed 8 percent better than current state-of-the-art approaches. The periodic table stems from one key……

Read More

Kripa Varanasi, professor of mechanical engineering, was named faculty director of the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, effective March 1. “Kripa is widely recognized for his significant contributions in the field of interfacial science, thermal fluids, electrochemical systems, and advanced materials. It’s remarkable to see the tangible impact Kripa’s ventures have made across such a wide range of fields,” says Anantha P. Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering, chief innovation and strategy officer, and Vannevar Bush Professor of……

Read More

Essential for many industries ranging from Hollywood computer-generated imagery to product design, 3D modeling tools often use text or image prompts to dictate different aspects of visual appearance, like color and form. As much as this makes sense as a first point of contact, these systems are still limited in their realism due to their neglect of something central to the human experience: touch. Fundamental to the uniqueness of physical objects are their tactile properties, such as roughness, bumpiness,……

Read More

Globally, and especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a significant portion of the population lacks access to essential health-care services. Although there are many contributing factors that create barriers to access, in many LMICs failing or obsolete equipment plays a significant role. “Those of us who have investigated health-care systems in LMICs are familiar with so-called ‘equipment graveyards,’” says Nevan Hanumara SM ’06, PhD ’12, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, describing piles of broken, imported……

Read More

What happens when a fashion legend taps into the transformative power of artificial intelligence? For more than five decades, fashion designer and entrepreneur Norma Kamali has pioneered bold industry shifts, creating iconic silhouettes worn by celebrities including Whitney Houston and Jessica Biel. Now, she is embracing a new frontier — one that merges creativity with algorithms and AI to redefine the future of her industry. Through MIT Professional Education’s online “Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation” course, which she……

Read More

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet some 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly crumbling to pieces. The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, although it circles about 20 times closer to its star than Mercury does to the sun, completing an orbit every 30.5 hours. At such close proximity to its star, the planet is likely covered in magma that is boiling off into space. As the roasting planet whizzes around its star, it is shedding……

Read More