Prof. S.P. Kothari writes for The Wall Street Journal that federal student loans should be increased for STEM students to help close the science, technology and engineering skills gap. “If the nation is serious about staying competitive in the global race for STEM talent, then targeting student loans is one solution that can and should earn bipartisan support.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Vanessa Nason highlights how students from the Salem public schools participated in a competition to develop code for MIT-designed robots on the International Space Station. “The teams were tasked with solving a challenge developed by MIT students. They worked for five weeks coding small robots to perform maintenance functions on the ISS.”
Boston.com reporter Sanjay Salomon writes that high school students participating in MIT’s Beaver Works Summer Institute spent four weeks learning about the development of self-driving cars. The program culminated with students racing their miniature self-driving cars inside Walker Memorial. Parth Parekh, a 16-year-old student, said the program was both “very challenging and at the same time very fun.”
On August 5, high school students participating in the School of Engineering and Lincoln Lab’s Beaver Works Summer Institute competed in a grand prix for mini autonomous cars, reports Olivia Vanni for BostInno. “Their small self-driving cars not only had to prove fast, but they also had to withstand a course full of hairpin turns and other racing cars."
Washington Post reporter Emily Langer chronicles the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died last week at age 88. Langer explains that Papert “led an early campaign to revolutionize education with the personal computer, a tool he championed not as a classroom gadget but as a key to unlocking a child’s excitement for learning.”
Barb Darrow writes for Fortune about the career of Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, who died July 31. “In the 1960s, when computers were pricey and huge, Papert saw them as a way to help children learn by doing. He developed the Logo programming language for children, who initially used it to program and animate a small robot turtle.”
Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered speaks with Suzanne Massie, wife of the late Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, about Papert’s dedication to using technology to provide children around the world access to education. Massie notes that Papert was “the visionary who first saw the potential of the computer as an instrument of education of children.”
Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, a leading expert on using technology to help children learn, died on July 31, reports Glenn Rifkin for The New York Times. Prof. Mitchel Resnick notes that Papert was “the first person to see that the computer could be used to support children’s learning and development.”
Boston Globe reporter Cristela Guerra writes that Profs. Janet Conrad and Lindley Winslow helped ensure the science in the new “Ghostbusters” was as accurate as possible. “I am very fond of the original ‘Ghostbusters’,” says Conrad. “I have even used ‘Ghostbusters’ as a theme for my colloquium on neutrino physics, since neutrinos are often called the ghost particle.”
Graduate student Jamison Go, who was inspired to become an engineer by watching the show “BattleBots,” is now part of one of four MIT teams competing on the program, writes Jordan Graham for The Boston Herald. “It feels like I’m completing a cycle. To compete on a show which initially inspired me to become an engineer is amazing,” says Go.
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld speaks with Adam Shaw of BBC Horizons about how the fabrication labs he started at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms have spread around the world. Gershenfeld explains that Fab Labs “are places where ordinary people can go and they can turn data into things and things into data,” adding that they are part of the maker revolution.
Prof. Daniel Hastings, director of SMART, writes for Today that in order to tackle complex social issues, policymakers must have an understanding of science. “Many of the issues faced by Singapore and other societies today are social-technical in nature. Having policymakers equipped with a knowledge in science and technology will be essential to meeting Singapore’s ambitions.”
A new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Susan Silbey examines why female students leave the field of engineering. When the researchers analyzed "more than 40 engineering students’ twice-monthly diaries, they found that female students often felt marginalized during group activities,” Inside Higher Ed reports.
Stephanie Couch has been named the new executive director of the Lemelson-MIT program, reports Curt Woodward for The Boston Globe. Woodward notes that Couch “comes to MIT from California State University at East Bay, where she specialized in advancing science, technology, engineering, and math education.”
Vice President for Open Learning Sanjay Sarma speaks with Politico’s Cogan Schneier about MITili, a new initiative aimed at fostering education research. “A defining feature of [MIT] is that when you create a challenge, everyone attacks it in different ways,” explains Sarma. “The integrated approach seems to unleash a lot here.”