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Duane Boning named vice provost for international activities
With extensive international outreach experience as a faculty member and program leader, Boning brings a spirit of curiosity and collaboration to his new role.
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Trying to put the brakes on car ownership
To limit pollution and traffic congestion in Beijing, officials in 2011 imposed a citywide restriction on the number of automobiles residents can purchase annually. That policy has helped limit car sales and emissions. But the system has a loophole: Beijing residents have been going elsewhere in China to purchase cars, then bringing them home. As […]
Climate, security, and racial justice: Biden’s opportunity to advance U.S. Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean
By Luis Gilberto Murillo, Martin Luther King Fellow at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative and former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia (2016-2018), and Caroline White-Nockleby, ESI Research Affiliate The Biden-Harris administration has defined advancing racial justice, tackling global climate change, and furthering peace across the Western Hemisphere as key priorities. These priorities […]
Evaluating the competition between autonomous vehicles and public transit
The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicles technology in recent years has changed transport systems and consumer habits globally. As countries worldwide see a surge in the use of autonomous vehicles, the rise of shared autonomous mobility on demand (AMoD) service is likely to be next on the cards. Public transit, a critical component of urban […]
Exploring the future of humanitarian technology
The year 2030 serves as the resolution to the United Nation’s Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda, adopted in 2015 by all UN member states including the United States, mobilizes global efforts to protect the planet, end poverty, foster peace, and safeguard the rights of all people. Nine years out from the target date, the […]
Q&A: Meditation for Chinese language learners
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, student well-being has become a pressing issue for many instructors. In this interview, Panpan Gao and Kang Zhou, lecturers in Chinese at MIT Global Languages, discuss their project to produce original meditation videos tailored for Chinese language learners. Working with a team of collaborators, they launched their website […]
From gas to solar, bringing meaningful change to Nigeria’s energy systems
Growing up, Awele Uwagwu’s view of energy was deeply influenced by the oil and gas industry. He was born and raised in Port Harcourt, a city on the southern coast of Nigeria, and his hometown shaped his initial interest in understanding the role of energy in our lives. “I basically grew up in a city […]
When masks reveal
A Covid-19 mask is typically seen as a form of protection. But what if our masks became opportunities for exposure — the physical expression of our thoughts, preoccupations, and the way we relate to the turbulence of the outside world? That was the challenge faced by MIT undergraduate students assigned to design a mask that […]
Taking an indirect path into a bright future
Matthew Johnston was a physics senior looking to postpone his entry into adulting. He had an intense four years at MIT; when he wasn’t in class, he was playing baseball and working various tech development gigs. Johnston had led the MIT Engineers baseball team to a conference championship, becoming the first player in his team’s […]
Searching for truth in data from authoritarian regimes
Like most scientists, Minh Trinh has long been preoccupied with trying to understand his surroundings. For Trinh, this curiosity has been directed at the most impactful, yet elusive, force in his early life — the one-party Vietnamese government. Under the Communist Party of Vietnam, many of the decisions that impacted Trinh’s life were made behind […]
Study reveals a universal travel pattern across four continents
What explains how often people travel to a particular place? Your intuition might suggest that distance is a key factor, but empirical evidence can help urban studies researchers answer the question more definitively. A new paper by an MIT team, drawing on global data, finds that people visit places more frequently when they have to […]