MIT graduate students rescued and reunited a stolen dog with its owner after it was abandoned following a carjacking, reports Timothy Nazzaro for Boston 25. “After recovering the dog, the MIT students contacted the dog’s owner using the information on the pooch’s collar tags,” writes Nazzaro. “The owner was reunited with ‘Millie,’ the pup, at MIT and was very grateful to the students who stepped in to save her."
Chronicle visits the new MIT Museum, highlighting a number of exhibits, including one exploring the research behind the hunt for gravitational waves and another that examines the impacts humans are having on the environment. “We try to be a window, going both ways, between MIT and the rest of the public,” explains Prof. John Durant, director of the MIT Museum. “We’re also trying to get people to have a glimpse of how a world-class research institution actually works.”
Nicole Obi MCP ’95, SM ’95, head of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, speaks with Boston Magazine reporter Jonathan Soroff about how Massachusetts can level the playing field for entrepreneurs. “We’re at this point of racial awakening, and a lot of people might not be comfortable with it, but they get it,” says Obi. “Being in this moment makes me really excited to be part of the solution and to create a more equitable future for Massachusetts.”
Boston Globe reporters Maddie Browning and Abigail Lee highlight the “Women Take the Reel Film Festival,” an annual event that spotlights “women-directed films that grapple with social issues like gender or sexuality.” The festival is hosted by the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality at MIT, and each screening features a discussion and Q&A session.
Artist Alison Nguyen’s exhibition, “History as Hypnosis” - a video installation that “surfaces themes of alienation and assimilation through three narratives” - opens this weekend at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, reports Jenn Stanley for WBUR. “Nguyen’s work explores digital media’s psychological effects on the public,” writes Stanley, “reflecting on how images are produced, circulated and consumed in mainstream U.S. culture.”
MIT OpenSpace is hosting their annual Winter Family Day on February 25, 2023, reports Hanna Ali for WBUR. “The event promises hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) programming for all ages, as well as live, local music, games and food trucks,” writes Ali.
The Women’s and Gender Studies program is hosting the annual “Women Take the Reel Film Festival” throughout March, reports Natalie Gale for Boston.com. “Each film or documentary is free and open to the public and focuses on women’s issues,” writes Gale.
Prof. David Hsu speaks with WBUR reporter Paula Moura about the importance of providing equitable access to electric vehicle charging stations. “The city definitely should provide equal access to services to everybody,” says Hsu. “There are barriers to doing that, but the government’s job is to overcome those barriers for everybody.”
Stir World reporter Sunena Maju spotlights “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere,” an exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center that explores the “collaborative potential of living materials.” Maju writes that the exhibit “brings a new perspective to marrying science and art,” and “invites people to reexamine human relationships to the planet’s biosphere, through the lens of symbiosis.”
Boston Magazine reporter Kyle Paoletta spotlights Arthur Jemison MCP ’94, the Chief of Planning and Director of the Boston Planning and Development Agency. “People making the decision every day to be together and to grow together: I’ve always wanted to be in the middle of that,” says Jemison. “Building that bridge.”
Collage New Music, Boston’s longest-running contemporary music group, will be performing at MIT’s Killian Hall on March 12, 2023, reports Lloyd Schwartz for WBUR. Schwartz also notes that Professor Emerita Ellen Harris will be introducing the Boston Camerata production of “Dido and Aeneas” on March 18 at Pickman Hall.
PBS host Jared Bowen highlights the scientific advancements on display at the MIT Museum. “We’re here to turn MIT inside out,” says Prof. John Durant, director of the MIT Museum. “We want people to understand what contemporary research and innovation are all about and what they mean for everyday life.”
Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman spotlights how The Engine has “backed a number of promising climate-tech startups” and has “helped attract many other investors to climate tech.” Additionally “three-quarters of startups backed by The Engine had a founder or chief executive from an underrepresented minority group, and 44 percent had a woman in one of those roles,” Pressman notes. “From our point of view, it is unacceptable not to believe that people of very diverse backgrounds should be the next founders,” says Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah emphasizes the importance of representation in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which featured Riri Williams (Ironheart) as a Black female engineer at MIT. Attiah notes that she is “grateful that ‘Black Panther 2’ exists to show us what #BlackGirlGenius looks like.”