Recent News | Institute Community & Equity Office

Meet Carla LynDale Bishop: MIT & Black Public Media's Inaugural Joint Fellowship Recipient

This new fellowship opportunity is a result of a strong partnership between ODL and Black Public Media that commenced over a year ago, and MIT CAST, which makes artist residencies at MIT possible.

MIT Open Documentary Lab October 23, 2020

Student organizers of the Get Out the Vote Fest participate in the "voter mobilization festival" held on Oct. 11.

Get Out the Vote Fest attracts 1,000 viewers ahead of November election

MIT student groups come together to host “voter mobilization festival” featuring Institute leaders, famed artists, and elected officials.

PKG Center MIT News Office October 21, 2020

This past summer, the third-largest blast the world has ever seen shook the city of Beirut, Lebanon. Credits: Photo: Beirut, Dana Dabbousi

MIT community unites for Beirut explosion relief efforts

MIT Lebanese Student Association and MIT Arab Alumni Association join forces to raise money for the Beirut Emergency Fund.

Division of Student Life MIT News Office October 16, 2020

Left to right: Alex Encinas, MIT junior in mechanical engineering; Mwachoni El-Yahkim of the University of Nairobi; Eric Verploegen, research engineer at MIT D-Lab; Boniface Manambo of the University of Nairobi; Christine Padalino, MIT junior in chemical engineering; and Madeline Bundy, MIT senior in chemical engineering, stand in front of an evaporative cooling chamber they built at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

Designing off-grid refrigeration technologies for crop storage in Kenya

A team of MIT researchers is using the thermodynamic properties of water evaporation to bring off-grid cold storage of produce to remote, arid regions.

Oona Gaffney MIT News Office October 16, 2020

“The more I talk to recent graduates, the more I realize that there’s so many powerful people that slept in the same bed as I have. They struggled with the same classes, the same feelings, but now they’re leaders and scholars,” MIT’s senior class president Kofi Blake says

Kofi Blake is bringing people together

“There’s no greater feeling than when you’re with all your classmates and they’re having a great time,” says MIT’s senior class president.

Hannah Meiseles MIT News Office October 13, 2020

Mentorship program encourages underrepresented graduate applicants in EECS

Program pairs student mentors in electrical engineering and computer science with applicants from underrepresented backgrounds.

Jane Halpern MIT News Office October 13, 2020

Snapshots from the MIT Hacking Racism in Healthcare Listening Summit listening sessions feature members of the organizing committee (left to right) Angel Rich, Freddy Nguyen, Emre Ergecen, and Yusuf Henriques

3Q: Addressing structural racism in health care as an innovation opportunity

Postdoc Freddy Nguyen, grad student Emre Ergecen, and Visiting Assistant Professor Charles Senteio describe collective actions to tackle health inequities and disparities.

ICEO MIT News Office October 9, 2020

Illustration, blue and yellow of silhouettes at work, Erin Robinson

3 ways leaders can make Black lives matter in the workplace

Ensuring Black lives matter in the workplace requires perspective taking, thoughtful leadership, and structural and symbolic changes within a company.

Meredith Somers MIT Sloan October 8, 2020

Vector Art, woman with curly hair and graphs in her glasses.

3 mantras for women in data

Women in the data industry know what it’s like to be the only woman in the room — and how their field would benefit from more diversity.

Sara Brown MIT Sloan October 6, 2020

Amgen Professor of Biology Emerita Nancy Hopkins pioneered zebrafish as a model system for research, and catalyzed an investigation that evolved into a groundbreaking report in 1999 that spurred changes at MIT and beyond.

3 Questions: Nancy Hopkins on improving gender equality in academia

Molecular biologist and professor emerita advocates for more inclusive science and advises how to get there.

Raleigh McElvery MIT News Office September 30, 2020

Exploration-based algorithms can improve hiring quality and diversity

Identifying job candidates who stand out from the pack yields a more diverse short list for interviews than traditional resume screening practices.

Brian Eastwood MIT Sloan September 30, 2020

Left to right, top row: Eric Schmidt, Daron Acemoglu, Ursula Burns. Bottom row: James Manyika, Indra Nooyi, Bruce Walker

Industry and scientific leaders examine Covid-19-era inequities, emphasize rapid testing

At MIT Forefront, panelists discuss health care and work during a pandemic — and the role for business where government falls short.

MIT Resource Development MIT News Office September 28, 2020

MIT and Indigenous Peoples Day

In an email to the MIT community, President L. Rafael Reif announces that the Institute will change the name of the October holiday.

MIT News Office MIT News Office September 25, 2020

"The beauty of the Iñupiaq language is that the perspective and the wisdom of my ancestors has been preserved in the language," says graduate student Annauk Olin, seen here with her husband and son. "If we lose our language, we lose our ability to see into the minds of the people who were able to thrive — for millennia — in one of the harshest climates in the world.”

Saving Iñupiaq

Linguistics graduate student Annauk Olin is helping her Alaska Native community preserve their language and navigate the severe impact of climate change.

MIT SHASS MIT News Office September 25, 2020

Ibrahim Cissé, Ruth Lehmann, and Silvi Rouskin awarded 2021 Vilcek Prize

Prize recognizes contributions to biomedical research made by immigrant scientists.

Raleigh McElvery | Sandi Miller MIT News Office September 25, 2020

Kelsey Merrill (left) with Shea Lomardo (right), co-chairs of MITvote, on Super Tuesday 2020

Student leaders and PKG Center team up to encourage civic engagement this November

Bolstered by campus partnerships and TurboVote, the student-led group MITvote is working to increase voter turnout.

PKG Center MIT News Office September 21, 2020

Portrait courtesy of Katlyn Turner. Right photo: “Calutron Girls,” 1945, Wikimedia Commons / Ed Westcott, American Museum of Science and Energy. Edited by MIT News.

3Q: Fighting racism in the nuclear community

MIT’s Katlyn Turner and four other nuclear scientists issue a call for antiracist actions within their profession.

David Chandler MIT News Office September 19, 2020

The game “Passage Home” puts the player into the first-person perspective of “Tiffany,” a talented and hard-working Black student who is falsely accused of plagiarism by her white female English teacher, “Mrs. Smith.” Credits:Image courtesy of MIT CSAIL.

Examining racial attitudes in virtual spaces through gaming

Computational model developed at MIT builds off of 2019 research examining colorblind racial attitudes through a video game.

Rachel Gordon MIT News Office September 17, 2020

The Media Lab houses 22 different research groups spanning subjects that include robotics, neuroscience, physical protheses, cognitive enhancement, education, music, sustainable urban living, the study of human networks, and more.

MIT Media Lab charts a course for the future

The high-profile research lab is retaining its unique form of creativity while building trust and inclusion.

Peter Dizikes MIT News Office September 9, 2020

Stephanie Lampkin started Blendoor in 2015 to match employers with diverse talent through anonymized profiles — no names, photos, or ages driving bias in hiring.

This CEO wields transparency and openness to crowdsource ideas

Use openness and transparency to your advantage by testing ideas with clients, customers, family, and anyone else you meet.

Meredith Somers MIT Sloan September 9, 2020