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Mohammad Haft-Javaherian planned to spend an hour at the Green AI Hackathon — just long enough to get acquainted with MIT’s new supercomputer, Satori. Three days later, he walked away with $1,000 for his winning strategy to shrink the carbon footprint of artificial intelligence models trained to detect heart disease. “I never thought about the kilowatt-hours I was […] More
In 2010, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began restoring the Broad Meadows salt marsh in Quincy, Massachusetts. The marsh, which had grown over with invasive reeds and needed to be dredged, abutted the Broad Meadows Middle School, and its three-year transformation fascinated one inquisitive student. “I was always super curious about what sorts of […] More
When a hot plume of rock rises through the Earth’s mantle to puncture the overlying crust, it can create not only a volcanic ocean island, but also a swell in the ocean floor hundreds to thousands of kilometers long. Over time the island is carried away by the underlying tectonic plate, and the plume pops […] More
Now in their seventh year, the Professor Amar G. Bose Research Grants support visionary projects that represent intellectual curiosity and a pioneering spirit. Three MIT faculty members have each been awarded one of these prestigious awards for 2019 to pursue diverse questions in the humanities, biology, and engineering. At a ceremony hosted by MIT President […] More
It’s estimated that there are approximately 80,000 industrial chemicals currently in use, in products such as clothing, cleaning solutions, carpets, and furniture. For the vast majority of these chemicals, scientists have little or no information about their potential to cause cancer. The detection of DNA damage in cells can predict whether cancer will develop, but […] More
Elsa Olivetti’s interest in materials science began when she was an engineering science major at the University of Virginia. Initially unable to settle on any one form of engineering, she took an introduction to materials science class on a whim. She loved the way materials science let her examine everyday material, like a block of […] More
To meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change — keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally capping it at 1.5 C — humanity will ultimately need to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. To date, emissions reduction efforts have largely focused on decarbonizing the […] More
The generation of electricity is a huge contributor to the world’s emissions of climate-altering greenhouse gases, producing some 25 percent globally. That’s because more than two-thirds of the world’s electricity is still being produced by burning fossil fuels. But progress in a variety of areas could allow for drastic reductions in those emissions, as several […] More
