From: MIT World on Thu, Jul 07 2011 5:11 PM

In three presentations that look back to digital-age milestones, and glimpse ahead to what may come next, speakers share some previously undisclosed stories, great enthusiasms, and a few concerns. Nicholas Negroponte tells a few “dirty secrets” about the start of the MIT Media Lab, including the...

From: MIT World on Wed, Jun 29 2011 1:16 AM

Winners of the A.M.Turing Award, the Nobel Prize of computing, describe their singular contributions to the field, and their works’ impact. They also find time to discuss the current and future state of computer science. Moderator Stephen Ward starts with 1990 prize winner Fernando Corbato, who ...

From: MIT World on Mon, Jun 13 2011 2:26 PM

Drew Davidson likes to play with blocks in his sandbox, as he demonstrates in a show-and-tell to interactive media colleagues. In this case, the playground is an online game called Minecraft, a two-year-young internet sensation with millions of followers, developed single-handedly by a programme...

From: MIT World on Mon, Jun 06 2011 10:19 AM

Amy Bruckman finds the accomplishments of such online collaborations as Wikipedia, Apache and Firefox “nothing less than astounding,” and is both eagerly seeking and hoping to foster the next creative group Internet sensation. In her lab’s empirical studies, Bruckman has dissected different type...

From: MIT World on Mon, Jun 06 2011 10:19 AM

The ultimate questions for this Sandbox 2011 panel, posed by moderator Alan Gershenfeld, are “Where is technology not working? When is technology not the answer?” That’s a bold agenda for a panel of children’s media creators and a roomful of other producers in the industry, from Sesame Workshop,...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

In 2009, MIT launched an unusual academic venture, an interdisciplinary minor devoted to energy studies. A panel of MIT professors discuss their aspirations and work to date shepherding this new program into existence. Vladimir Bulovic gives full credit to students for jumpstarting the energy mi...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

In spite of the “sickening human and social devastation on full display” in northern Japan, moderator Richard Samuels wonders, “Is it possible to follow the train of cause and effect into the future imagining what happens from here on?” In this session convened just days after the March 11th ear...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

The drive to make American universities more diverse shows some success, but consistent and meaningful inclusion of under-represented minorities seems elusive, according to four academics whose own experiences help illuminate the problem. “The civil rights agenda is challenged today in many ways...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

Four women who have made ground-breaking contributions in different disciplines describe their research, which has not only involved ‘thinking outside the box,’ but in some cases persevering in the face of skepticism. Two presenters work on the frontier of biological systems and materials scienc...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

The world economic order has shifted considerably since 1990, when Daniel Roos and his coauthors wrote The Machine that Changed the World, the story of lean production in the auto industry. Once dominant as a global industry, car manufacturing “has undergone tremendous stress,” says Roos, and ha...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

In search of better-burning fuels, or more accurate projections of climate change, researchers inevitably work through multiple models, sometimes at great cost. Youssef Marzouk hopes to provide energy and environmental scientists constructive and efficient new approaches to modeling complex engi...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

With frightening evidence for climate change mounting around the globe, from droughts and massive forest fires to melting glaciers and rising sea levels, you might think nations would wish to work together to meet such a grave threat. Instead, as U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern reports, there...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 30 2011 1:59 AM

The Obama Administration’s recently unveiled plan for transforming American education through technology does not envision “plugging kids in and making them smarter,” declares Karen Cator. Instead, it focuses on leveraging aspects of digital technology “to create way more compelling environments...

From: MIT World on Tue, May 24 2011 6:11 AM

“I don’t remember Apollo at all,” confesses Robert Braun, NASA’s chief technologist. “I feel really bad about it.” Nevertheless, he has spent a lot of time reading and thinking about the mission to the moon, and its significance not just for space exploration, but for the nation’s innovative edg...

From: MIT World on Tue, May 24 2011 6:11 AM

It’s Day 95 in MIT’s 150 days of sesquicentennial celebration, and all thoughts turn to the evolution of computer science and MIT’s pivotal role in that history. As Victor Zue puts it so succinctly, “Computers sure have changed.” They are even invading biology, and President Hockfield (who is al...

From: MIT World on Mon, May 23 2011 9:30 PM

It’s Day 95 in MIT’s 150 days of sesquicentennial celebration, and all thoughts turn to the evolution of computer science and MIT’s pivotal role in that history. As Victor Zue puts it so succinctly, “Computers sure have changed.” They are even invading biology, and President Hockfield (who is al...

From: MIT World on Fri, May 20 2011 1:55 PM

“I don’t remember Apollo at all,” confesses Robert Braun, NASA’s chief technologist. “I feel really bad about it.” Nevertheless, he has spent a lot of time reading and thinking about the mission to the moon, and its significance not just for space exploration, but for the nation’s innovative edg...

From: MIT World on Wed, Apr 27 2011 11:38 AM

The world economic order has shifted considerably since 1990, when Daniel Roos and his coauthors wrote The Machine that Changed the World, the story of lean production in the auto industry. Once dominant as a global industry, car manufacturing “has undergone tremendous stress,” says Roos, and ha...

From: MIT World on Wed, Apr 20 2011 11:58 AM

It is a complicated matter mapping the movement of pollution in the atmosphere, but Noelle Eckley Selin models not just the chemistry of the atmosphere as it absorbs emissions and responds to climate change, but its potential impact over time on human health and world economies. She takes a syst...

From: MIT World on Thu, Apr 07 2011 10:35 PM

In 2009, MIT launched an unusual academic venture, an interdisciplinary minor devoted to energy studies. A panel of MIT professors discuss their aspirations and work to date shepherding this new program into existence. Vladimir Bulovic gives full credit to students for jumpstarting the energy mi...