Spotlight: May 2, 2025
Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.
Research and Education that Matters
Via @mitsupplychain on Instagram: “Congratulations to our talented, driven, and photogenic Master’s students for all they have accomplished in their time here at MIT; it’s hard to believe we’ll be saying goodbye to them in just one more short month!”
Thomas Peacock studies deep-sea mining’s environmental impact, aiming to balance resource needs for clean energy with ocean health. He asks: “Can it be less impactful to mine some of these resources from the ocean, rather than from land?”
MIT Lincoln Laboratory is developing AI tools to help US Air Force planning. Using natural language processing to analyze chat messages “creates opportunities for artificial intelligence to enhance our workflows,” Col. Joseph Monaco says.
Undergraduate Jackson Bliey created a TikTok video that captures the essence of this year’s Campus Preview Weekend in just 45 seconds. Held every April, CPW is 3.14 days of fun, crafts, panels, and new friends for admitted MIT undergraduates.
In a key step toward practical quantum computing, engineers have achieved extremely strong nonlinear light-matter coupling in a quantum circuit. The work could make quantum processors about 10 times faster than current designs.
When farmers apply pesticides to their crops, 30 to 50 percent of the chemicals end up in the air or soil instead of on the plants. Researchers have now developed a much more precise way to deliver substances to plants: tiny needles made of silk.