Jay London

Every Building Has a Story

by Jay London on April 12, 2012

in Alumni Life,Arts,Design,Engineering,Events,In the News,Media,Research,Uncategorized

Credit: The Freelon Group

It’s said that every building has a story. That sentiment is showcased in an exhibit by Professor Philip Freelon MArch ’77 on display at The Elliot K. Wolk ’57 Gallery.

In “REACH: Architecture of The Freelon Group,” Freelon’s team showcases the processes that lead to the creation of various public sector projects including museums, airports, and university buildings. The exhibit seeks to peel back layers of past projects and give a glimpse of how building creation evolves over time.

The ten projects featured include prominent works such as the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and unique buildings like Atlanta’s Puppetry Museum. Each work is introduced in an infant stage that establishes the building’s seminal idea, and its evolution is traced through drawings, models, and photographs up to completion.

Philip Freelon told TechTV:

“The word ‘reach’ signifies that our projects are reaching out into the community. These projects were commissioned by local governments, state governments, and public sector schools. This is important because every day people–tax payers–can see our work.

The projects you see here bringing a new class of users to the table who are meaningful participants in the process. This exhibit isn’t simply recording what we’ve done, it’s a full glimpse of the thought process leading up to these finished buildings.”

A professor of practice in the School of Architecture + Planning, Freelon is a co-designer of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and received the 2009 AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. In December 2011, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the seven-member U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

He founded the Freelon Group in 1990. Based in Durham, N.C., the 55-person design team’s  projects include the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

Originally scheduled to conclude April 13, the exhibition now runs through June 8.  The Wolk Gallery is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

{ 0 comments }

Is There Room In Your Garage For A Flying Car?

by Jay London on April 11, 2012

in Alumni Life,Design,Energy,Engineering,In the News,Modern Geekhood,Research,Transportation,Travel

Credit: Terrafugia

Are you thinking about purchasing the Transition® Roadable Aircraft, the two-seat flying car developed by a group of MIT alumni? If so, it’s important to remember one thing: retract the wings before pulling into the garage.

From The Associated Press via NPR:

Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia Inc. said (April 2) that its prototype flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle–dubbed the Transition–has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so that it can be driven like a car. Last month, it flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes.

If you’re having visions of George Jetson, think again. The Transition lacks some amenities (no cup holders) and won’t help you avoid traffic–it needs a 1,700-foot runway to get off the ground. But it will give pilots the ability to use the same vehicle to fly in the air and drive on the road, potentially reducing the expensive costs and travel limitations that many personal aviation pilots face.


The Transition, which was introduced at the 2012 New York International Auto Show on April 5, currently retails at $279,000, reaches approximately 70 miles per hour on the road and 115 in the air, and runs off a 23-gallon tank of regular automotive fuel.

Terrafugia’s beginnings trace back to MIT. Co-founder and CEO Carl Dietrich ’99, SM ’03, PhD ’07 won the 2006 Lemelson Student Prize for Innovation for developing the Transition’s concept. Additional co-founders include Dietrich’s wife, Anna Mracek Dietrich ’04, SM ’06, the company’s COO and acting CFO; Samuel Schweighart SM ’01, PhD ’04; Alex B. Min ’91, MBA ‘07; and Arun Prakash MBA ’07. Roughly half of Terrafugia’s 20-person workforce is MIT alumni.

What’s your take? Is there a market for a flying car? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments section below.

{ 1 comment }

MIT Professor Defends Y Chromosome, Amuses Stephen Colbert

by Jay London on April 5, 2012

in Authors,Health,In the News,Research,Science

MIT Professor and Whitehead Institute Director David Page appeared last week on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to dispute a recently prevailing theory that the human Y chromosome is headed for extinction.

Page, who research was published in a February issue of Nature, gave host Stephen Colbert a synopsis of the Y chromosome’s history. Using adjustable rubber tubing and a fabric-covered hair elastic as a visual aid, he attempted to explain the 300 million year evolution of human chromosomes to a comically skeptical Colbert.

From The Colbert Report:

Page: It turns out that, 300 million years ago when we were reptiles, we actually existed as males and females, but we didn’t have sex chromosomes. Whether we developed as a male or a female was determined by the temperature in which we incubated as an embryo.

Colbert: So, in the Garden of Eden, we were the snake?

The interview centered on Colbert’s main concern: whether or not the Y-chromosome would one day cease to exist. “I have heard for years that y chromosome is going away,” he said. “I heard that men would soon be obsolete and we would just be an all-lady planet.”

Page: We found that the rhesus monkey and the (human) Y chromosome carry the same genes…since all men and the rhesus are separated by 25 million years of evolution, it suggests that nothing much has happened to the Y chromosome in 25 million years.

Colbert:  So we’re going to be OK! Alright!

{ 0 comments }

On 60 Minutes, Alumnus Dishes Bitter Truth on Sugar

by Jay London on April 4, 2012

in Alumni Life,Health,In the News,Media,Research

The average American consumes almost seven ounces of sugar every day, or 130 pounds per year. While excess sugar consumption has long been linked to weight gain, new research by Dr. Robert Lustig ’77 indicates that sugar consumption in the U.S. is a public health crisis and can lead to type II diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Lustig appeared on the April 1, 2012 episode of the CBS program 60 Minutes to discuss the serious toll sugar can have on one’s health.

From 60 Minutes (April 1, 2012):

Central to Dr. Lustig’s theory is that we used to get our fructose mostly in small amounts of fruit–which came loaded with fiber that slows absorption and consumption–after all, who can eat 10 oranges at a time? But as sugar and high fructose corn syrup became cheaper to refine and produce, we started gorging on them.

Dr. Lustig believes those sweeteners are helping fuel an increase in the most deadly disease in America: heart disease. For years, he’s been a controversial voice.

Lustig, who was profiled in the March/April 2012 issues of Technology Review magazine, advocates a balanced diet and recommends that women consume only 100 calories of added sugar per day and men no more than 150, or the equivalent to one 12 ounce can of Coca-Cola.

What’s your take? Do you feel that eliminating sugar wrongly vilifies one food and, as the U.S. Sugar Association advocates, more focus should be put on reducing calories and exercising? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments section below.

{ 3 comments }

You Never Know What’s Lurking Around The Corner. Well, Until Now…

by Jay London on March 28, 2012

in Authors,Design,Engineering,In the News,Modern Geekhood,Research,Travel,Uncategorized

The Media Lab’s Camera Culture group, led by associate professor Ramesh Raskar and postdoctoral researcher Andreas Velten, has designed a camera that can see around corners. The research was published in a March issue of Nature Communications.

The camera’s system is similar to a periscope but, rather than using angled mirrors to redirect light, it uses a femtosecond laser and opaque surfaces.  To peer into a room outside of a camera’s line of sight, the laser emits quick bursts of light (measure in quadrillionths of a second) against the wall opposite an open doorway. The light reflects off the wall and into the doorway, bounces around the unseen room, and re-emerges.

From geek.com:

“MIT Media Lab utilizes a laser pulse to bounce photons off surfaces to see what the camera can’t. If the photons hit an object, they bounce back and reach the camera. In so doing, the camera can measure how far away the unseen object is.

The unit MIT labs has used has a time resolution of two picseconds, which means it can detect how far light has traveled with an accuracy of 0.6 millimeters.”

Video courtesy of Nature

The system is repeated several times, bouncing light off different spots on the wall and entering the room at various angles before returning to the camera. By comparing the times at which the light returns to the camera, the system can deduce the distance traveled by the laser. The end result is a low-resolution three-dimensional image that shows the geometry of the unseen area. The current prototype takes several minutes to form an image, but the Media Lab team is working to reduce it to less than 10 seconds.

The Camera Culture team also made headlines in December 2011 when they relased a trillion-frame-per-second video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle.

{ 0 comments }

Tech Innovation on Display at South By Southwest Festival

by Jay London on March 26, 2012

in Design,Energy,Engineering,In the News,Media,Modern Geekhood,Research

The South By Southwest Festival (SXSW), held annually in March, focuses on innovative cultural breakthroughs in music, film, and interactive technologies. As a haven for burgeoning creators and prospective entrepreneurs, it’s no surprise that MIT’s presence was felt throughout the event.

MIT students, alumni, and faculty were honored and presented research at the festival, including three Institute-related groups who won SXSW Accelerator Awards, $4,000 prizes that recognize cutting-edge products released in the last year.

A list of MIT’s involvement at SXSW is below. Did we miss someone who was honored and/or presented? Let us know, and we’ll add it to our MIT@SXSW list.

Sandy Pentland '82

Media Lab Professor Sandy Pentland ’82, Nadav Aharony SM ’08, PhD ’12, ESD, graduate candidate Cody Sumter, and Alan Gardner ’05 won the Accelerator Award in the News-Related Technology category for Funf, an open sensing framework that allows Android developers to easily collect and use information recorded with a mobile device.

Anmol Madan SM ’05, PhD ’10 and Karan Singh MBA ’11, also of the Media Lab, took the Accelerator prize in the Health Technologies category for Ginger.io, a company which harnesses user data from mobile phones to make inferences about health and wellness.

Ash Martin MBA ’10 is co-founder of Viztu Technologies, which creates three-dimensional models of photos and videos and won the Accelerator Award in the Innovative Web Technologies category.

Principal research scientist Judy Brewer and Little Devices Lab program director Jose Gomez-Marquez were honored with a 2012 Dewey Winburn Community Service Award, which, according to SXSW, honors community activists who use new media technologies to help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots in society.

As Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium, Brewer coordinates the development of consensus-based solutions to make the web accessible for people with disabilities.

Gomez-Marquez, the 2009 Technology Review Man of the Year, helped develop the Aerovax Drug Delivery System, a device for mass delivery of inhalable drugs and vaccines to remote populations, and the X out TB program (now Adhere.io), which uses novel diagnostics and mobile technology to increase tuberculosis therapy in developing countries.

Gomez-Marquez also received a SXSW Interactive Scholarship for his work on MEDIK, a medical device set designed for doctors treating patients in areas where electricity and other basic services are unavailable.

Peter Gloor, a research scientist at the Center for Collective Intelligence, presented “Coolhunting and Coolfarming with Social Media” during SXSW’s Interactive Session Spotlight and addressed topics on marketing and advertisements, and the factors and metrics that determine viral-ness or cool-ness.

SXSW selected six MIT-related proposals to be presented during the conference:

{ 0 comments }

After More Than 20 Years, 1980s Video Games Officially Hard

by Jay London on March 22, 2012

in Authors,In the News,Modern Geekhood,Remember When...,Research

If you ever felt guilty about spending too much time playing those old Nintendo video games and never achieving victory, you may have some relief. It’s official: those eight-bit video games were very hard, or at least mathematically difficult.

A research team that includes Professor Erik Demaine and doctoral candidate Alan Guo analyzed the computational complexity of classic Nintendo video games, including the first three Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and the Legend of Zelda franchise. Their math-heavy study, “Classic Nintendo Games are (NP-) Hard,” discovered that many games fall into a category of mathematical problems called “NP-hard,” or equivalent to the most difficult solvable mathematical theory.

From SlashGear:

“Basically, the researchers mapped out every hazard, every bottomless pit, every flying enemy, every bullet bill, as a ‘city’ and discovered that, while there is a mathematical way to solve the most efficient route, it is pretty darn difficult.”

Look familiar?

The team, which also includes Free University of Brussels faculty member Greg Aloupis, asked one basic question: given the starting position, how difficult is it to reach the goal? They determined the games were very similar–each begins at a specific point with a task-completing objective –and are scaled-down versions of another problem, “NP-complete,” or computationally unsolvable. The NP-complete problems are simplified in the games, therefor reverting to NP-hard.

From The New Scientist:

“(It’s the) travelling salesman problem – finding the shortest route between a series of points – which is of real interest in the field of logistics, and also the knapsack problem, used in deciding how to allocate resources. So theoretically you could convert an example of either problem into a Mario level, and play the game to solve it. That approach would be fun, says Demaine, although it would probably be simpler to solve the satisfiability problem directly.”

{ 0 comments }

Do Not Read This While Driving. In Fact, Don’t Even Think About It.

by Jay London on March 20, 2012

in Engineering,Health,In the News,Modern Geekhood,Research,Transportation,Travel

Photo: Fort Rucker, MIT AgeLab

Lawmakers met in Washington earlier this month to debate guidelines that limit driver distractions and simplify electronic devices installed in vehicles, but new research at MIT suggests that drivers don’t need to text, Tweet, or program a GPS to potentially cause havoc on the road.

A group led by MIT AgeLab research scientist Bryan Reimer found that a driver’s ability to focus on a surrounding environment varies depending on the “cognitive demand” of a non-driving activity. Essentially, if a driver’s mind is focused on a non-driving topic, be it an electronic device or an argument at home, the driver’s mind scans the surrounding area for potential hazards much less frequently.

Reimer told USA Today:

“In the past, the emphasis was on whether you’re distracted or not distracted. This is too simple of a categorization. There are levels of cognitive demand, and those levels are statistically distinguishable. The level of thought going on has a relationship to how much a driver is aware of the driving environment.”

The AgeLab research team studied 108 volunteers in ages ranging from 20 to 69 driving a midsize sport utility vehicle on Massachusetts’ Route 93 north. They were given three cognitive memory tasks of varying difficulty. The researched was published in Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in February.

From Wired:

The AgeLab’s test car was fitted with sophisticated sensors that made it possible for researchers to analyze a driver’s cognitive load. Reimer envisions cars of the future equipped with similar technology that can instantly recognize when a driver is in over his or her head. If a car can sense that a driver is exhibiting “tunnel vision,” a car could cue the driver to end a hands-free phone call.

Part of the Engineering Systems Division, MIT AgeLab works to transform technologies into practical solutions that improve how products are designed and services are delivered. In addition to the driving study, the AgeLab has created AGNES (a suit that approximates the motor, visual, flexibility, dexterity, and strength of a person in their mid-70s); AwareCar (a vehicle that monitors driver state); Miss Daisy (a driving simulator used for evaluating cognitive distraction and the effects of disease and medication); and Miss Rosie (a Volkswagen Beetle that evaluates a driver’s capacity for vehicle operation), among others.

{ 0 comments }

Prepare for the Final Four: An MIT Basketball Primer

by Jay London on March 15, 2012

in Alumni Life,Athletics,Campus Culture,Events,In the News,Student Life

Will Tashman '13 (Photo: Tom Gearty)

Update: The MIT men’s basketball team’s historic season came to an end on Friday night in a 71-56 loss to eventual champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Engineers, who finished the season 29-2, led 32-30 early in the second half but a 14-0 run by UWW gave the Warhawks a lead they would not relinquish.

Will Tashman ’13 had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Mitchell Kates ‘13 added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. Congratulations to Coach Anderson and the entire program on the most successful men’s basketball season in Institute history.

For the first time in the program’s 112-year history, MIT is in the Final Four of the NCAA Division III tournament. One win away from the National Championship game, the Engineers ride a 13-game win streak into tomorrow’s showdown with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a Division III power playing in their fifth Final Four. Basketball fever has engulfed campus, and you can watch the game live.

Are you new to–or a few years removed from–the MIT basketball scene? Below are game and viewing information, plus a crib sheet on this year’s squad.

The game: MIT versus University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks, Friday, March 16, 8:00 p.m., Salem Civic Center, Salem, Va.

If MIT wins, they play the winner of Cabrini College and Illinois Wesleyan University in Division III National Championship game on Saturday evening, March 17.

How to watch:

Social media: Join the conversation at the MIT Engineers and MIT Alumni Association Facebook pages. Follow the Engineers and the Alumni Association on Twitter and use the hashtags #MITBasketball, #MarchMadness, and #FinalFour.

Noel Hollingsworth '12 (Photo: Tom Gearty)

The team: The 29-1 Engineers defeated Springfield College, 65-60, on Feb. 26, winning their second consecutive NEWMAC Conference Championship and third title in four years. The team set a record for wins and advanced to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four for the first time.

Head Coach Larry Anderson was named the 2012 NEWMAC Coach of the Year. Three Engineers were selected to the All-Conference First Team: senior Noel Hollingsworth and juniors Mitchell Kates and Will Tashman.

Anderson told d3hoops.com:

“We always had a vision of where we wanted to take this program. We believed we could get to this point and it’s a big accomplishment to make it. We have been treating each game as if it was the national championship game, so our preparation really isn’t going to be any different. We will be ready to play.”

The storylines: Hollingsworth, the 2010 NEWMAC Player of the Year, is the Engineers leading scorer at 17.5 points per game. He exploded for 37 points and 12 rebounds against Farmingdale State in the tournament’s second round.

Kates was the 2012 NEWMAC Tournament MVP, averaging 21.5 points and 4.5 assists over two games. He led the conference in assists in 2011-2012 with 5.4 per game.

Defensive specialist Billy Bender ‘12, who is averaging 9.8 points and 5.5 rebounds, fractured an orbital bone in the first round win over Skidmore and has not played since.

Mitchell Kates '13 (Photo: Tom Gearty)

Sixth man Daniel McCue ’12 started the last three games in Bender’s place. McCue, who did not play from 2008 to 2010 because of hip injuries that required five surgeries, had eight points in the third round win over Franklin & Marshall.

Guard Jamie Karraker, the Engineers’ leading three-point shooter, hit seven threes in the third round win over Staten Island and nailed five threes against Franklin & Marshall.

Tashman is the NEWMAC’s leading rebounder at 9.5 per game. He had 15 rebounds against Skidmore, 16 against Farmingdale State, and 13 against Staten Island.

Trivia: Did you know that Engineers associate head coach Kevin Byrne played professionally in England and Ireland, assistant coach Billy Johnson ’10 played professionally in Costa Rica and Iceland, and assistant coach Paul Grant was drafted by the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, and played for Minnesota, the Milwaukee Bucks, and Utah Jazz?

{ 5 comments }

The Influence of MIT: Dispatches from the 2012 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

by Jay London on March 7, 2012

in Alumni Life,Athletics,Events,In the News,Media,Modern Geekhood,Research

Jeff Ma '94 (left) moderating the "Insider Trading: Sports Bookmaking and Gambling" panel.

It’s no surprise that the Sloan school hosts the world’s largest sports analytics conference. But MIT’s influence on the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference extends far beyond gracious hosting and the event’s Boston location.

MIT researchers, students, and alumni had a large presence throughout the conference. From big name panelists–conference co-chair Daryl Morey ’00, Jeff Ma ’94, and Robbie Allen ’96–to Major League Baseball player agent Scott Boras mentioning that the hiring of a MIT alumni 15 years ago was integral in translating advanced statistics to benefit his clients, MIT’s influence blanketed the event.

Media Lab researchers Santiago Alfaro (center) and Daniel Novy (right) discuss the SlamForce Net.

Media Lab research assistants Santiago Alfaro and Daniel Novy partnered with Peter Scott, vice president of Turner Sports, to present “Slam Force G’s: Quantifying the Force of a Monster Dunk.” The trio discussed SlamForce Net, a Media Lab-designed basketball net that calculates the force and speed of a basketball traveling through it. The net was used to measure the Sprite Intensity Meter during the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and Alfaro and Novy were featured live on television during the contest.

Eugene Shen ’98 co-presented on positive and negative synergies in NBA basketball, which analyzed the skill categories of every NBA player in an effort to decide which players work best alongside each other on the court. A portfolio manager in New York City, Shen’s team used financial techniques to incorporate their data. He discussed the presentation on ESPN’s Numbers Never* Lie television show, which was broadcast live from the conference.

“Part of our motivation is to apply financial techniques to sports,” says Shen, who writes for the basketball website Hooponomics. “We found that when you evaluate players in basketball, it all depends on the players you already have on your team. When you have a stock, you want to see how that stock fits into your existing portfolio.”

Chris Walters presents "To Tank or Not to Tank"

Chris Walters and Tyler Williams, doctoral candidates in the Department of Economics, presented “To Tank or Not to Tank? Evidence from the NBA,” which asked two NBA-related questions: what is the value of receiving the first pick in the NBA draft, and do teams lose intentionally to secure higher draft positions? The duo used a fixed-effects methodology that teased out causal effects to determine the results.

Zaheer Benjamin ’01, director of financial planning for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, uses analytics to drive all aspects of business strategy, from dynamic ticket pricing to measuring the value of corporate partnerships. A conference spectator who has also worked for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, he sees MIT’s influence in sports analytics continuing to grow.

“Before the NBA, I worked in pharmaceutical analytics. I found that the approaches and disciplines of using data to make decisions–something I learned at MIT–is applicable across all industries. Two-third of teams have a dedicated analytics function on the business side, up from one-third a few years ago. The MIT brand is strong. It’s recognized as a solid business foundation with deep analytic expertise.”

For more information on the 2012 conference, see The 2012 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, a.k.a. ‘Dorkapalooza.’

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →