CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * A faster way to solve complex planning problems When some commuter trains arrive at the end of the line, they must travel to a switching platform to be turned around so they can depart the station later, often from a different platform than the one at which they arrived. Engineers use software programs called algorithmic solvers to plan these movements, but at a station with thou  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * A visual pathway in the brain may do more than recognize objects When visual information enters the brain, it travels through two pathways that process different aspects of the input. For decades, scientists have hypothesized that one of these pathways, the ventral visual stream, is responsible for recognizing objects, and that it might have been optimized by evolution to do just t  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Beneath the biotech boom It's considered a scientific landmark: A 1975 meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, shaped a new safety regime for recombinant DNA, ensuring that researchers would apply caution to gene splicing. Those ideas have been so useful that in the decades since, when new topics in scientific safety arise, there are still calls for   more

BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 17 -- Boston University issued the following news: * * * Is the United States Heading for an Economic Crisis? A worried panel of Boston University economists fielded questions from the community on Tuesday to help make sense of rapidly changing policies and societal impact By Jessica Colarossi On Tuesday evening, Boston University students and professors crammed into a Bay State Road classroom designed to hold 140 people, eager to hear answers to a not-so-simpl  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Bridging Earth and space, and art and science, with global voices On board Intuitive Machines' Athena spacecraft, which made a moon landing on March 6, were cutting-edge MIT payloads : a depth-mapping camera and a mini-rover called "AstroAnt." Also on that craft were the words and voices of people from around the world speaking in dozens of languages. These were etched on a 2-inch   more

AMHERST, Massachusetts, April 17 -- Hampshire College issued the following news: * * * NYC Commissioner and Alum Manuel Castro 02F to Deliver 2025 Commencement Address Hampshire is proud to announce that Manuel "Manny" Castro 02F, nationally recognized immigrant rights advocate, nonprofit and public sector leader, and proud Hampshire alum, will deliver the keynote address at the College's 2025 Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 11 a.m. In his commencement address, Castro wil  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news on April 15, 2025: * * * MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a workhorse for national security The US Air Force and MIT renew contract for operating the federally funded R&D center, a long-standing asset for defense innovation and prototyping. By Kylie Foy, MIT Lincoln Laboratory In 1949, the U.S. Air Force called upon MIT with an urgent need. Soviet aircraft carrying atomic bombs were capable of  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news on April 15, 2025: * * * Bridging Earth and space, and art and science, with global voices Professor Craig Carter's precision design for a student-led project now on the moon encodes messages from around the world on a silicon wafer. By Jason Sparapani, Department of Materials Science and Engineering On board Intuitive Machines' Athena spacecraft, which made a moon landing on March 6, w  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Faster way to solve complex planning problems By eliminating redundant computations, a new data-driven method can streamline processes like scheduling trains, routing delivery drivers, or assigning airline crews. By Adam Zewe, MIT News When some commuter trains arrive at the end of the line, they must travel to a switching platform to be turned around so they can depart the stati  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news on April 15, 2025: * * * Shaping future generations of STEM professionals through mentorship Two MIT staff members were recently recognized with U.S. presidential awards for STEM mentoring, underscoring their invaluable service to the Institute community and to future scholars. By Lydia Huth, Tracy Jean-Chronberg, MIT Career Advising and Professional Development, Lemelson-MIT Program In  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Beneath the biotech boom MIT historian Robin Scheffler's research shows how local regulations helped create certainty and safety principles that enabled an industry's massive growth. By Peter Dizikes, MIT News It's considered a scientific landmark: A 1975 meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, shaped a new safety regime for recombinant DNA, ensuri  more

BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 16 -- Gov. Maura Healey, D-Massachusetts, issued the following news release: * * * Number of Families in Shelter Falls Below 5,000 Following Governor Healey's Reforms Boston -- The number of families in Emergency Assistance Shelter fell below 5,000 this week for the first time since July 2023. The number of hotels used for Emergency Shelter has been cut by more than half and is on track to eliminate the use of hotels by the end of the year. Approximately 75 percen  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a workhorse for national security In 1949, the U.S. Air Force called upon MIT with an urgent need. Soviet aircraft carrying atomic bombs were capable of reaching the U.S. homeland, and the nation was defenseless. A dedicated center -- MIT Lincoln Laboratory -- was established. The brightest minds from MIT came together in service to the nation, making scie  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Restoring healthy gene expression with programmable therapeutics Many diseases are caused by dysfunctional gene expression that leads to too much or too little of a given protein. Efforts to cure those diseases include everything from editing genes to inserting new genetic snippets into cells to injecting the missing proteins directly into patients. CAMP4 is taking a different ap  more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Shaping future generations of STEM professionals through mentorship In a 2014 essay on mentorship in The Chronicle of Higher Education, American scholar Leonard Cassuto wrote: "In Greek myth, Mentor was a wise man who earned the trust of Odysseus, who selected him to educate his son, Telemachus. The word has a legacy: 'Mentor' is a title that should be earned." Earlier this year,   more

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 17 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued the following news: * * * Special subject invites first-year students to get their feet wet working with underwater vehicles When Michael Benjamin, principal research scientist in the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering, arrived at MIT 25 years ago, only professors and postdocs were allowed to touch the department's underwater vehicles. The vehicles were expensive, he explains, and required extensive training   more

BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 16 -- Gov. Maura Healey, D-Massachusetts, issued the following news release: * * * Trump Administration Cancels $90 Million in Disaster Prevention Aid for Massachusetts Communities Boston -- Governor Maura Healey is criticizing the Trump Administration's cancellation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program, also known as BRIC, which provides disaster prevention aid to municipalities across Massachusetts. This action revokes $90 milli  more