Recent News | Institute Community & Equity Office

MBA student Brittny Chong pitches her startup ONA at the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in 2019. Photo: Courtesy Brittny Chong

A Passion for Positive Change

Brittny Chong seeks social action through immersive technologies and data analytics.

Christine Thielman MIT Spectrum November 24, 2020

For MIT senior Mimi Wahid, exploring her identity through writing has increased her passion for environmental justice and clarified her desire to serve rural Southern communities like her hometown.

A storyteller dedicated to environmental justice

Exploring her identity through writing has clarified senior Mimi Wahid’s desire to serve rural Southern communities like her hometown.

Hannah Meiseles MIT News Office November 6, 2020

Thomas Searles, a condensed matter physicist and MLK Scholar at MIT, hopes to encourage more HBCU students to pursue graduate study at MIT. “If there’s anything that I can do to help with that ... I think that would be awesome.”

For Thomas Searles, a passion for people and science at HBCUs and MIT

Physicist and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar is examining the optical properties of semimetals to understand how light interacts with quantum materials.

Alison Gold MIT News Office November 5, 2020

MIT celebrates Women's Entrepreneurship Month

Innovation and entrepreneurship organizations campus-wide celebrate MIT's female entrepreneurs in November.

David Sweeney MIT News Office November 5, 2020

Activist and scholar Angela Davis addresses racism in MIT webcast

Davis, in conversation with Senior Associate Dean Blanche Staton, fields questions from the MIT community about the current moment of racial reckoning.

Elizabeth Thompson MIT News Office October 30, 2020

Illustration of lightbulb, Credit: Mimi Phan / Shutterstock

For entrepreneurs of color, Boston lacks access and capital

From venture capital to city contracts, opportunity is limited for minority-owned enterprises in Boston.

Kara Baskin MIT Sloan October 26, 2020

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

Mary Hutcheson Page (Class of 1888), Katharine Dexter McCormick (Class of 1904

“I burned with indignation”

In the early 1900s, Florence Luscomb, Katharine Dexter McCormick, and other MIT alumnae worked tirelessly to secure the right to vote for women.

Anna Nowgrodzki Technology Review October 20, 2020

Anita Carleton, Division Director, Carnegie Melon University

This Carnegie Mellon director fosters inclusivity through example

“If we want men to change their attitudes toward women, we have to lead by showing what an inclusive and accepting environment looks like.”

Meredith Somers MIT Sloan October 19, 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