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Transportation policymaking in Chinese cities
MITEI / MIT News
Jinhua Zhao (Urban Studies and Planning) and Joanna Moody (MITEI) found that Chinese cities that have similar urban development trends adopt the same types of transportation policies. Their novel methodology of combining data and text analysis can be applied to other rapidly developing countries.
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Low-tech water wand finds contaminated drinking water
Scientific American
Researchers from MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, including former MIT Tata Fellow Emily Hanhauser, have developed a low-cost water collection device that could enable mail-in testing to detect heavy metals in water.
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MIT study explores the future of personal mobility
MIT Industrial Liaison Program
Joanna Moody and Randall Field of MITEI's Mobility Systems Center talk with the MIT Industrial Liaison Program about the future of personal transportation and pathways for transitioning to low-carbon systems in this article and companion video.
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Nuclear fusion startup gets $84 million to enter next phase
Bloomberg
MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised $84 million dollars in its latest round of funding, putting the company on track for a demonstration reactor by 2025.
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Solar energy farms could offer second life for electric vehicle batteries
MIT News
A modeling study by Tonio Buonassisi (Mechanical Engineering) shows that electric vehicle batteries could have a useful and profitable second life as backup storage for grid-scale solar photovoltaic installations.
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MIT 100K Launch finalists
MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition
AgZen, a startup with ties to the MIT Tata Center, was the runner up to the MIT 100K entrepreneurship competition. The company aims to reduce pesticide usage by up to 50% using their new spray and formulation technology.
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Study unveils details of how a widely used catalyst splits water
MIT News
A multi-university team of researchers including MIT's Yang Shao-Horn (Materials Science and Engineering) and recent MIT graduate students unveil how ruthenium oxide—a catalyst extensively used in industrial processes—splits water.
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U.S. Department of Energy rushes to build advanced nuclear reactors
Science Magazine
Jacopo Buongiorno (Nuclear Science and Engineering) comments on the Department of Energy’s announcement on helping to build two new prototype nuclear reactors within the next seven years. “This can be a game changer,” he says. “It’s time for the community to go from designing paper reactors to building demonstrations.”
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Six from MIT awarded research funding to address Covid-19
MIT News
Angela Belcher (Biological Engineering) will research novel nanocarbon materials that could filtrate/neutralize dangerous viruses and bacteria in order to protect medical professionals and civilians from Covid-19.
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đź“ş WHAT TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO
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Podcast: A decade in energy
MITEI
John Reilly (Sloan School of Management, Joint Program) talks with Lisa Jacobson, the president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and Ethan Zindler, the head of the Americas team at BloombergNEF, about developments in energy over the past decade.
Now you can engage with us on Lyceum, a new app that makes it easy to discover great educational podcasts and chat with other podcast listeners. Download the app and search for MIT Energy Initiative. We'll see you there.
Listen.
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Energy innovation webinar series
MITEI / MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP)
Throughout May, MIT ILP and MITEI hosted a special webinar series with energy researchers and thought leaders on topics such as decarbonization in a post-coronavirus world, redox flow batteries for grid storage, carbon capture, and more. Recordings from all three webinars are now available.
Webinar 1 (May 6): Energy transitions and economics
Webinar 2 (May 13): Innovations in critical low-carbon technologies
Webinar 3 (May 21): Energy storage systems
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Plastics and the environment: Science meets public policy
June 18-19, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI)
ESI will host a two-day virtual workshop convening scientists, policy makers, foundations, and the business community on the issue of mitigating the environmental harms of plastic pollution. Attendees will participate in panel and plenary sessions; converse during and after the conference through online chat-rooms; join breakout sessions with focuses on materials science, recycling, and local, national, and international policy making; and receive networking information and a documentary video about the workshop.
Learn more and register.
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If we are serious about addressing climate change as a country, we need to recognize that any policy has to be bipartisan; it will need to hit 60 votes in the Senate. Very quickly—within the next few years—we need to develop a set of robust bipartisan policies that can move us toward decarbonization by mid-century.”
—Addison Stark, SM ’10, PhD ’15 is working to bridge the Democratic-Republican divide on climate change at the Bipartisan Policy Center. |
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Ruthenium Oxide
A crystalline compound that is used in many industrial processes and plays a particularly important role in catalyzing a chemical reaction that splits molecules of water and releases oxygen. The catalytic process that uses ruthenium oxide is called an oxygen revolution reaction and is crucial for producing hydrogen and ammonia for energy use, making synthetic carbon-neutral fuels, and making metals from metal oxides.
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