MIT TALKS MIT Club of Boston

Michael Hecht, Associate Director for Research Management at the MIT Haystack Observatory and the Principal Investigator for the MOXIE oxygen ISRU demonstration experiment on NASA’s Mars 2020 (Perseverance) talks about MIT Haystack’s Observatory and the fascinating work being conducted including the efforts that went in to capture an image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy and how the observatory team is helping make oxygen on Mars for future planned missions to the red planet.  Tune in for this out of this world chat hosted by Vyda Bielkus.

Professor Frank Schilbach talks about his work at MIT in the field of behavioral economics, including his recent work in India on sleep and its impact on productivity, working to help the poor and others improve their lives. Your host is Vyda Bielkus.

In this episode, Heather Kosakowski shares details about her current work at the MIT Brain and Congitive Sciences Department where she is a PhD candidate. Her dissertation research focuses on the development of higher-level visual processes in the awake infant brain. To this end, she invented techniques to increase the quality of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected from awake infants leading to the discovery of face-, body-, and scene-selective responses in infants' ventral visual stream. Kosakowski had a non-traditional career path that included foster care, the Marine Corps, Community College, and being a single mother. This trajectory left Kosakowski with a deep desire for people that feel like outsiders to know there is a place for them, anywhere they want to be. Heather blogs at heatherkosakowski.com/blog/. Information about her recently published paper can be found at https://news.mit.edu/2021/brain-region-faces-development-1115. Your host is Dana Attar.

In this episode, Neil Rasmussen takes us on his life journey starting as a high school student who had an insatiable appetite for fixing things, then completing bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering at MIT, and growing and pivoting APC to become a force in uninterruptible power for computing and other industrial uses. Now retired, Neil provides an important perspective to MIT through his service on the MIT Corporation. He also runs a philanthropic foundation with his wife. Your host is Vyda Bielkus.

In this episode, Ayr Muir the founder of Clover Food Lab shares his journey from graduating from MIT with a Bachelor's and Master's in Materials Science & Engineering to becoming a leading food entrepreneur.  Ayr is the founder of Clover Food Lab, a fast, casual, vegetarian food chain that continues to grow.  Clover was inspired by Ayr's desire to make lasting positive improvement on the environment.  Listen and learn how a purpose driven mission built an incredible business and life.

In this episode of MIT Talks, the highly celebrated professor Regina Barzilay discusses her inspiring personal journey that shaped her career. 
Regina is a Delta Electronics professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in natural language processing, and applications of deep learning to chemistry and oncology. She is a recipient of various awards including the prestigious Macarther grant, also known as the “genius grant”