Said and Done

ETHICS, COMPUTING, AND AI

Publications from Hello World, Hello MIT, a celebration for the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Welcome: Susan Silbey, Chair of the MIT Faculty 
"We hope to integrate computing with just about every other subject at MIT...This is a serious assignment, one that could have global consequences."
Full remarks  |  Video

Panel: The path to ethical, socially-beneficial artificial intelligence
Introduced by Dean Melissa Nobles, leaders from government, philanthropy, academia, and industry said that collaboration is key to ensure that AI serves the public good.
Story  |  Video

Coda: A post-panel conversation
Melissa Nobles, Joi Ito, and Jennifer Chayes spoke with reporters about MIT's vision for the new college.
Story

Dean Melissa Nobles emphasized that the goal of the new college is to advance computation and to give all students a greater “awareness of the larger political, social context in which we’re all living.” This is the MIT vision for developing “bilinguals” — engineers, humanists, scientists, scholars, civic leaders, professionals, and policymakers who have both technical expertise and an understanding of complex societal issues.

IN THE MEDIA + AWARDS
 

STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY

MUSIC + INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
En Pie De Lucha | Festival Jazz Ensemble in Puerto Rico
Members of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and saxophone giant Miguel Zenón recently visited Puerto Rico for a series of concerts, music workshops, and classroom presentations.
Story by MTA


GLOBAL STUDIES
Nghiem invites MIT community to practice mindfulness
Sister Dang Nghiem described the Buddhist practice of mindfulness as well as the concept of "interbeing" — the interconnectedness of all life — to a large, attentive audience.
Story by GSL


MIT BILINGUALS
Understanding the world as a whole | Rhodes Scholar Sarah Tress '19
Tress, a MechE major who aims to help reduce poverty, cites a concentration in ethics, and classes in policy, and the humanities as major influences. “I can't imagine being an effective engineer attempting to reduce poverty without understanding the complexity of poverty,” she says. “MIT's HASS classes have helped me understand the world as a whole.”
Story at MIT News



Sarah Tress '19; photo by Melanie Gonick

“I can't imagine being an effective engineer attempting to reduce poverty without understanding the complexity of poverty,” says Tress. "MIT's HASS classes have helped me understand the world as a whole.”

RESEARCH

LABOR ECONOMICS
Why aren’t U.S. cities working for the working class? | David Autor
Cities no longer provide an abundance of middle-skill jobs for workers without college degrees.
Conversation at MIT News

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND TECHNOLOGY
How bad was Chernobyl? | Kate Brown
Brown, a historian of science who has written extensively about the Soviet Union and nuclear technology, explores the issue in a new book, Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future.
Story at MIT News  |  About the book

HISTORY
MIT History launches seminar series on Digital Humanities
"Writ large, the series is a space to reflect on our engagement with the new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing."
Story at MIT SHASS
 

Ghost Shipping Paths: analysis of the whaling industry; Benjamin Schmidt, NU Lab

ECONOMICS
Study: Democracy fosters economic growth | Daron Acemoglu
Researchers find vast gains in productivity after countries democratize.
Story by Peter Dizikes at MIT News

HISTORY
Sustaining and transforming | Profile of Lerna Ekmekçioğlu
Ekmekçioğlu studies how pioneering 19th and 20th century Armenian women helped keep their communities intact, even while transforming them by introducing feminist ideas.
Story at MIT News

J-PAL NORTH AMERICA
Does education technology really help student learning?
A new J-PAL publication analyses 126 studies to help decision-makers understand how education technology can help — or hinder — student learning.
Story  |  Summary: Evidence Review with Visuals and Charts
 

AWARDS

FACULTY
Three SHASS professors receive 2019 MacVicar Faculty Fellowships
Joshua Angrist (Economics), Erik Demaine (Computer Science), Graham Jones (Anthropology), and T.L. Taylor (Comparative Media Studies) receive the Institute's highest honor in undergraduate teaching.
Story at MIT News

All Recent Awards
 

FORTHCOMING EVENT

Jordan Hall; photo courtesy of the New England Conservatory