The White House announced Wednesday that Institute Professor Paula Hammond will join the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. “It’s very meaningful for me to have a chance to have an advisory role at that level,” she says.

The startup Figur8, founded by Nan-Wei Gong SM ’09, PhD ’13, offers a wearable sensor system to improve diagnosis and treatment of muscle injuries. “Our vision is to create a self-diagnostic tool that patients can use with their doctors,” she says.

In a new project, anthropologist Christine Walley and filmmaker Chris Boebel explore the social impacts of deinstrustrialization. Focused on Chicago steelworkers in the 1970s and 1980s, the effort opens a new window into America’s industrial heyday.

“The Guardians: Unite the Realms,” a video game created by the Media Lab’s Craig Ferguson, has won Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design award in the Wellness category. The game employs behavioral activation techniques to address mental health.

In 2016, Meicen Sun recognized that “control of digital information will lie at the heart of all the big questions and big contentions in politics.” Now her work suggests the success of China’s internet controls may spark similar efforts elsewhere.

CNN reported that Kristoff Misquitta won the 2020 Genes in Space contest for work to understand how the liver functions in space. “Hopefully we can use this as a platform to someday develop more advanced and different types of medications,” he said.