Author: Ms. R.

Computer hackers who break into websites, change the code, and do harm are very real. But MIT Code for Good members want to do just the opposite. This group of mostly electrical engineering and computer science majors (EECS, Course 6) wants to help important causes. Each semester, club members consult with nonprofits in the Boston area to support their technical needs. Formed in 2016, the club currently has 20 undergraduate members, but graduate students are also welcome. The work……

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Doctoral studies at MIT aren’t a calling for everyone, but they can be for anyone who has had opportunities to discover that science and technology research is their passion and to build the experience and skills to succeed. For Taylor Baum, Josefina Correa Menéndez, and Karla Alejandra Montejo, three graduate students in just one lab of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, a pivotal opportunity came via the MIT Summer Research Program in Biology and Neuroscience (MSRP-Bio). When……

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The road to effective cancer vaccines has been long and difficult.   Although initial attempts to use a vaccine to treat cancer date back to the 1910s, the first effective therapeutic vaccine would not emerge until about a century later, when Sipuleucel-T was used to treat prostate cancer in 2010. While the FDA-approved prostate cancer vaccine generated much excitement, its success has proven difficult to replicate. T-VEC, used to treat metastatic melanoma, is the only other cancer therapeutic vaccine approved……

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MIT scientists and their colleagues have created a simple superconducting device that could transfer current through electronic devices much more efficiently than is possible today. As a result, the new diode, a kind of switch, could dramatically cut the amount of energy used in high-power computing systems, a major problem that is estimated to become much worse. Even though it is in the early stages of development, the diode is more than twice as efficient as similar ones reported……

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Artificial neural networks, ubiquitous machine-learning models that can be trained to complete many tasks, are so called because their architecture is inspired by the way biological neurons process information in the human brain. About six years ago, scientists discovered a new type of more powerful neural network model known as a transformer. These models can achieve unprecedented performance, such as by generating text from prompts with near-human-like accuracy. A transformer underlies AI systems such as ChatGPT and Bard, for……

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Stop me if you’ve seen this before: a black and white pixelated square in lieu of a physical menu at a restaurant. QR codes are seemingly ubiquitous in everyday life. Whether you see one on a coupon at the grocery store, a flyer on a bulletin board, or the wall at a museum exhibit, each code contains embedded data.  Unfortunately, QR codes in physical spaces are sometimes replaced or tampered with to trick you into giving away your data……

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Misinformation pervades U.S. politics. The outcome of the 2020 presidential election is perhaps the most pressing case in point. Every serious-minded academic and legal inquiry into the subject — including two cases that came before the U.S. Supreme Court — has rejected former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he did not lose the election. Major media organizations now routinely label these statements “lies.” Yet Trump’s unfounded claims have gained wide traction among his followers. “The evidence against claims that……

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