News & Stories

Benjamin Chang: Might technology tip the global scales?

The United States and China seem locked in an ever-tightening embrace, superpowers entangled in a web of economic and military concerns. “Every issue critical to world order — whether climate change, terrorism, or trade — is clearly and closely intertwined with U.S.-China relations,” says Benjamin Chang, a fourth-year PhD candidate in political science concentrating in […]

3 Questions: Kang Zhou on the lessons of Chinese calligraphy

Kang Zhou is a lecturer in Chinese in MIT Global Languages. His class, 21G.111 (Chinese Calligraphy), teaches the fundamentals of one of the best-known traditional arts during the Institute’s Independent Activities Period in January. Students taking this class may be learning Chinese as a second language but are not required to speak the language to […]

Three MIT seniors to join 2021 class of Schwarzman Scholars

Three MIT seniors, Mariam Dogar, Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi, and Jessica Quaye, and alumna Jessica Wang ’16, MEng ’17 are recipients of this year’s Schwarzman Scholarship distinguished fellowship. Another alumna was also awarded a scholarship but is waiting to make a public announcement until she has shared the news with her employer. The five winners were selected […]

Expanding education: From Africa to Cambridge and back again

For Mgcini “Keith” Phuthi ’19, spending a summer in Africa was more than a trip back to his home continent after graduation. It was an opportunity to directly impact national policy regarding education in the country of Sierra Leone. Originally from Zimbabwe, Phuthi, who majored in physics and minored in mechanical engineering, was looking for […]

Homegrown help: Seeding a culture of innovation in Nigeria

Nigeria may not be known as a global hub for innovation, but officials there hope someday it will be. And they’ve recruited MIT Professional Education to help jump-start the process. In September, more than 80 top federal civil service officials from across ministries, departments and government agencies in Nigeria gathered in the capital city of […]

Scaling up a cleaner-burning alternative for cookstoves

For millions of people globally, cooking in their own homes can be detrimental to their health, and sometimes deadly. The World Health Organization estimates that 3.8 million people a year die as a result of the soot and smoke generated in traditional wood-burning cookstoves. Women and children in particular are at risk of pneumonia, stroke, […]

MIT expands global supply chain research with opening of new facilities in Ningbo, China

The Ningbo Supply Chain Innovation Institute China (NSCIIC) has strengthened its role as China’s premier center for supply chain research and education with the appointment of Jiequn “Jay” Guo as center director, and the opening of new facilities at its Meishan campus near the port of Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Guo has pledged to expand NSCIIC’s […]

Learning about China by learning its language

Among MIT students who didn’t grow up speaking Chinese, few are able to discuss “machine learning models” in passable Mandarin. But that is just what computer science and engineering senior Max Allen is able to do, and this ability comes as a result of academic work, stints abroad, an internship, and also just having the […]

Bridging the information gap in solar energy

Just 30 seconds into their walk to the town center of Kitale, in Kenya, where they would later conduct a focus group about locally available solar energy options, Elise Harrington and her research partner came across a vendor selling a counterfeit solar lantern. Because they had been studying these very products, they knew immediately it […]

Making high-quality education accessible to all

One of the earliest interactive course videos offered by MIT BLOSSOMS (Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies) looks at the physics of donkey carts — used frequently in the streets of Pakistan. The lesson, created by Naveed Malik ‘81, looks at Newton’s Third Law of Motion, teaching how gravity can affect how two […]