Groundwater Hydrology - Diffusion Sampling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:08:40 GMT

Q&A with Denis Leblanc: Sample collection, diffusion sampling, contaminant storage, water lifting, multi-level samplers, contaminant plume cleanup.

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Active Mass Transfer

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:53 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Adsorption: Graphing Over Time

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Ashumit Pond Introduction

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Pond formation history, groundwater flow-through ponds, phosphorous contamination.

Groundwater Hydrology - Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Differential head monometer test.

Groundwater Hydrology - Seepage Meter 1

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:52 GMT

Measuring flux, seepage meters.

Groundwater Discharge - Iron and Manganese Presence

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Pond description and background; groundwater discharge into lake, dissolved iron and manganese contamination.

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Advection with Dispersion

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Cranberry Bog

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Growing and harvesting cranberries in the Cape Cod cranberry marshes, locating plume discharges.

Groundwater Hydrology - Water Sampling and Pumping

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:45 GMT

Water sampling and pumping basics at the sewage disposal beds.

Groundwater Hydrology: Animations: Diffusive Mass Transfer

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:28 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology: Manual Well Drilling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:28 GMT

Groundwater Hydrology - Large-scale Aquifer Sampling

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Multi-level samplers (15,000 sampling points), bromide tracer injection.Multi-level samplers (15,000 sampling points), bromide tracer injection.

Groundwater Hydrology: Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Multi-level sampler, Henry sampler, plume discharge, solute movement in the pond, neutralization of contaminants, sampling and monitoring devices.

Groundwater Hydrology: Seepage Meter 2

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:07:27 GMT

Results of seepage meter test (after 10 minutes), water collection, nutrient outflow tests.

In situ spectroscopic studies of metal oxide electrodes during water oxidation

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:30:56 GMT

Speaker:

John Kitchin, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting may be in integral part of future energy storage strategies by enabling energy storage in chemical bonds. One of the primary sources of inefficiency in the water splitting reaction is the oxygen evolution reaction, which has high reaction barriers that require additional applied electric potential to drive the reactions at practical rates. The most active electrode materials in acid electrolytes include ruthenium and iridium oxides, which are expensive but necessary for stability. In alkaline environments, many base metal oxides become stable, although they are still less active than Ru and Ir oxides. It has been known that small amounts of Fe can promote the electrochemical activity of nickel oxides, making it almost as active as cobalt oxide. We have investigated the mechanisms behind the promotion using in situ Raman and synchrotron spectroscopies as well as ex situ characterization techniques. Interestingly, we found the electrode changes under oxygen evolution conditions, turning from an oxide to an oxyhydroxide phase. Furthermore, the composition of the electrolyte has a significant effect on the oxygen evolution activity. We will discuss these results and their implications in finding better oxygen evolution electrocatalysts.

Recorded on March 12, 2013

Community Water Solutions: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs to End the World Water Crisis

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:43:39 GMT

Learn more about Community Water Solutions, an MIT-founded non-profit that empowers women in Ghana to launch profitable water businesses.

Scanning droplets

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:07:04 GMT

Animation showing how the base of a water droplet forms small "necks" as it moves across a surface that has pillars etched on it.

Staying afloat: the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:31:20 GMT

In the annual Head of the Zesiger, students design and then race boats constructed solely out of cardboard, paint and tape.

Turning Flood Water into Drinking Water

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:05:36 GMT

A Thai company called SOS has developed a mobile unit that can purify contaminated water in the aftermath of a flood.

Humidification, Dehumidification, Desalination

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:12 GMT

A brief discussion with John Lienhard, the Samuel C. Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Improving Efficiencies and Economics of Traditional Desalination Processes

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:12 GMT

A brief discussion with John Lienhard, the Samuel C. Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

MIT Water Technology Research: Applications for Industry and Public Utilities

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:12 GMT

A brief discussion with John Lienhard, the Samuel C. Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Water Scarcity and Desalination

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:12 GMT

A brief discussion with John Lienhard, the Samuel C. Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Technology Water Supply, Desalination and Energy

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:06:51 GMT

Recorded 12/15/11

Cleaning up oil spills with magnets

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:10:37 GMT

MIT researchers have developed a new technique for magnetically separating oil and water that could be used to clean up spills.

Ocean currents from space

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:30:16 GMT

Surface ocean currents as seen from a satellite altimeter. White areas represent strong currents; blue areas weak currents.

A new approach to water desalination

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:30:14 GMT

MIT researchers are using graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the element carbon, in the quest to make the earth's oceans a viable source of potable water.

At the intersection of biology and physics in the ocean

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:30:11 GMT

Mick Follows is a Senior Research Scientist in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate, part of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, at MIT. Together with the other members of the Marine Biogeochemical Modeling group (researchers Stephanie Dutkiewicz, and Oliver Jahn, postdocs Sergio Vallina, and Anne-Willem Omta, and graduate students Sophie Clayton, Chris Kempes, Emily Zakum and Keisuke Inomura) he is trying to understand the global carbon cycle and global plankton populations using a combination of simple models, data analysis and numerical simulations of the ocean.

A major focus of the group’s current work is The Darwin Project: An interdisciplinary, interdeparmental effort at MIT to model marine ecosystems and understand how they are regulated by, and feedback upon, the environment.

In this video, which grew out of a Plenary Lecture at the Spring 2012, American Geophysical Union, Ocean Sciences meeting in Salt Lake City,UT, "Modeling Marine Microbes: From Molecules to Ecosystems", Mick talks about the past, present and future of marine ecosystem modeling. In particular he explains how his group uses numerical simulations to understand the organization of plankton populations and how advances in cell biology and microbiology might inform future models.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to the ECCO2 and Darwin Project teams for their contributions to this work. Particular thanks goes to Oliver Jahn for creating the animations used in this video.

Video credit: Helen Hill

Terrascope - Mission 2016

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:03:48 GMT

Solving Complex Problems (12.000) is designed to provide students the opportunity to work as part of a team to propose solutions to a complex or “unsolveable” problem that requires a strongly interdisciplinary approach. Over the past four years we have focused on large problems related to the environmental health and sustainability of the planet.....from collapse of the global fisheries, to access to clean fresh water, to stemming the rise of greenhouse gases, to feeding nine billion people. A common theme is that almost all proposed solutions will cost enormous amounts of money and thus we will be forced to prioritize! This year we will focus on strategic natural resources.

Read more about Terrascope and Mission 2016.

Dr. Ashok Gadgil - 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation Winner

Thu, 03 May 2012 07:03:13 GMT

Video profile of Dr. Ashok Gadgil, winner of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation for scientific solutions to the global water crisis, and energy and fuel efficiency.

2012 Freeman Lecture: "Climate Change and Water Resources: Characterizing Uncertainties for Decision Makers"

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:30:09 GMT

Richard N. Palmer, Ph.D.
Department Head and Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Recorded 4/23/12

Scientific evidence tells us that global climate is changing. However, precise impacts on natural and man-made systems are less certain. Estimating climate change impact on river flow, water supply reliability, and ecosystem response requires careful application of global or regional circulation models, hydrologic models, and ecosystem response models. This presentation addresses each type of model, but focuses on characterizing climate information uncertainty when advising large-scale, public decision making. We begin by describing forecasted impacts of climate change on the US. Next, techniques to translate these broad climate shifts to the watershed scale in a fashion useful for decision making are described. We then address how best to frame this information for decision makers.

The presentation contains examples of the use of general circulation model output in past water resources studies. The examples highlight how stakeholder engagement in evaluating potential climate change impacts significantly improves the understanding of uncertainty, increasing the likelihood that the results will be used in real decision making. The presentation concludes by discussing limits of these techniques and suggests how such limits may be overcome by the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Flocculation

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:03:19 GMT

Making clean and tasty water with cool science!

Climate

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:19 GMT

With Ronald Prinn

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Process and Report of the ERC

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:19 GMT

With Dara Entekhabi

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Provost's Welcome and Introduction to the ERC

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:19 GMT

L. Rafael Reif discusses the Environmental Research Council (ERC)

Basic Research with Real-World Impact

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

Community and Communication: Open Panel Discussion

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

From left to right: John Lienhard, John Sterman, Ernest Moniz, Ronald Prinn, L. Rafael Reif, Dara Entekhabi, James Yoder, Sallie "Penny" Chisholm, James Wescoat, John Marshall

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Contamination Mitigation

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

Ecological Resilience

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With Sallie "Penny" Chisholm

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Industry: Synthetic Chemicals and Materials in the Environment: Do We Need a New Way to Design These Products?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With Philip Gschwend

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Life Sciences: The Human Body: Superhighway of Environmental Gene Flow

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With Eric Alm

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Social Policy: Can Adaptation Save Us from Climate Change?

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With Michael Greenstone

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Sustainable Societies

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With John Sterman

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Technology: Water Supply, Desalination and Energy

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With John Lienhard

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Water

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:03:18 GMT

With James Wescoat

About the event
With its daylong MIT Environmental Research Forum held on December 15, 2011, the Environmental Research Council (ERC) fulfilled its charge from Provost L. Rafael Reif to "provide a detailed blueprint for building a strong environmental initiative" at MIT.

Coinciding with the Provost's December 7 release of the ERC Report: Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative, the forum brought to life the council's vision for a new approach to environmental problem solving — one that integrates MIT's "core strengths in scientific, engineering and social research to better understand the global environment and manage our role in it through technological and social innovation."

Optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles (AUV)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:03:38 GMT

Sometimes the fastest pathway from point A to point B is not a straight line: for example, if you're underwater and contending with strong and shifting currents.

Making nanodroplets drop faster

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:30:08 GMT

MIT mechanical engineering graduate student Nenad Miljkovic on condensation, nanodroplet formation, and new nanopatterned surfaces.

Desalination: The Key to Clean Drinking Water?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:30:06 GMT

More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. Sea water is one possible solution. MIT Professor of Mechanical Engineering John Lienhard offered his thoughts on desalination and answered questions from the MIT alumni.

Climate's Dusty Clues

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:23:41 GMT

David McGee is a paleoclimatologist whose work focuses on reconstructing past changes in extra tropical atmospheric circulation and hydrology. He has explored this area through studies of dust blown out of the world's drylands and deposited in the ocean; changes in dryland water balance as reflected in closed-basin lakes; and studies of precipitation source and amount recorded in stalagmites. These studies involve a variety of types of data, but at the center of all of them are uranium-series isotopes, which are used for dating in terrestrial deposits and determination of accumulation rates in marine sediments. David joins the PAOC faculty as an assistant professor in January 2012. He comes to MIT from a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Minnesota, where he held a joint appointment at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Surface Tension

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:00:36 GMT

This video explores water surface tension.

First, I will drop a paper clip on the surface of water, and as you may guess it will sink. Second, I will put it on the surface very gently, and surprisingly this time it will stay on the surface! Then, I will add some soap foam to the surface area near the clip, and you will see what happens to the paper clip!
After these experiments, I will simply explain the concept of water surface tension.

Making Ice Cream with Salt: The Effect of Salt on the Freezing and Boiling Points of Water

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:59:37 GMT

This video examines how adding solutes can change the freezing and boiling points of water.

Does Water Conduct Electricity

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:54:12 GMT

In this video we investigate why neither pure water nor pure salt conduct electricity but salt water does. We demonstrate this using a simple circuit and a variety of fluids.

Sorcery 1.01 - Sorcerer's Apprentices Needed

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:18:31 GMT

Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas. Piano arrangement on hand-punched paper. A dynamic, magical, mesmerizing piano roll rendition. Performed and interpreted on a player piano from the 1920s. We also performed this music roll on a player organ for a peak experience. Not for the faint-hearted. No Harry, you're at MIT, now.

Robofish

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:23:22 GMT

Flow visualization (color alterations of fluorescent die movie) of small size caranguiform prototype (bass), swimming frequency = 1 Hz.

Read more at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/robo-fish-0824.html

ALB006: The Quality of Water

Thu, 19 May 2011 20:12:54 GMT

Video by: Caterina Scaramelli
Water in the Mystic Watershed runs through a rich urban fabric of densely populated towns, and picks up different pollutants on the way. Every month, at dawn, a group of "Citizen scientists", residents committed to the vision of a liveable Mystic, sample water quality in different parts of the watershed. Their effort is coordinated by the Mystic River Watershed Association. This film follows the meaning of water quality sampling for two "citizen scientists" on the Alewife Brook.

Celebrating Science and Engineering Breakthroughs II

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

03/28/2011 3:30 PM KresgeAngela Belcher, Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Biological Engineering; Christine Ortiz, Dean for Graduate Education MIT, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Sara Seager, Professor of Physics and Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, MIT:; Dr. Maria T. Zuber, E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, Head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT ; Description: Four women who have made ground"breaking contributions in different disciplines describe their research, which has not only involved 'thinking outside the box,' but in some cases persevering in the face of skepticism. Two presenters work on the frontier of biological systems and materials science, and find both inspiration and practical subject matter in aquatic life forms. For Angela Belcher, the abalone offers a model for development of organic/inorganic hybrid structures. The shell of this creature, which is 3000 times tougher than its purely geological counterpart, consists of stacks of calcium carbonate in precise geometries, made from just 20 different amino acids, says Belcher. Some years ago, she had the insight that it might be possible to fabricate hybrid materials, kind of like an abalone, "at a living/nonliving interface." She set about creating an organism that could build structures like battery electrodes, using bacterial hosts injected with viruses that had an affinity for a particular material. "When I said I was trying to develop a genetic link between semiconductor materials and biology, I was told I was insane," says Belcher. "But it came out OK." Undaunted, Belcher is now developing biological batteries with virus"sized electrodes and other devices for environmental and medical applications. Christine Ortiz can probe structural biological materials down to the molecular level. She wants to understand the bio"mechanical architecture of organisms inside and out that contribute to their ability to withstand harsh conditions such as high temperatures and pressures, and physical blasts, and find ways of emulating these systems for human use. She was drawn to biological materials "because of their complexity and beauty," and collected a lab full of live, exotic animal models. She fastened on one particularly helpful organism: the three"spined stickleback fish whose flexible ceramic armor resists penetration. Ortiz examined this fish armor all the way to a nano scale, to understand and possibly recreate its unique geometry, strength, load"bearing capacity, and flexibility. She is discovering "some uniform, universal design principles" that may come in handy developing better protective devices for people. Two planetary scientists describe their bold ventures. A physicist by training, Sara Seager became interested in exoplanets in 1996. "People were still uncertain these were real, and said, don't work on this." Increasing numbers of candidate planets began to emerge, as detection techniques improved. Seager was refining her own search strategy, investigating distant chemical signatures of exoplanet atmospheres, and found a home at MIT in 2007, where "people are really open to new ideas that the rest of the world thinks are crazy and impossible." She connected with space systems engineering, and a team of eager students in the "technologically challenging" quest of "finding Earths suitable for follow"up observations." They are designing a fleet of inexpensive nanosatellites to launch into low"earth orbit to detect possible exoplanets. Seager describes an imagined Earth"like planet, orbiting close to its sun. With one side locked in permanent night, and one side in permanent day, "it might not be such a great place to visit." Maria Zuber seems convinced that Mars, so inhospitable at the moment, at one point offered the right conditions for life. She walks through the 3+ billion year Martian history, with an early period featuring astonishingly prolific volcanic flows ("10 thousand Mauna Loas worth of volcanism"), which yielded CO2 for the atmosphere, water for the surface, and ample warmth. The current surface of the planet, she shows, reveals evidence of this water, with riverbeds and mudcracks. Liquid water remains, but beneath the surface, where it is warmer. While there is "an incredible emotional bias" to discover Earth"like life on Mars, Zuber knows it will look different. She's seeking "life in extreme environments," and sniffing for ribosomal RNA -- the stuff of "extraterrestrial genomes." She has eager accomplices: "It's fantastic to be at a place like MIT where when you say you want to do something like look for life on Mars, people actually want to help you rather than tell you you're out of your mind." About the Speaker(s): In 2006, Angela Belcher was named 2006 Research Leader of the Year and a member of the Scientific American 50," the magazine's annual list of individuals, teams, companies and other organizations whose accomplishments demonstrate outstanding technological leadership. Belcher was recognized for "the use of custom"evolved viruses to advance nanotechnology," according to the magazine. Belcher won a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 2004 and has also received the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (2000), and the Du Pont Young Investigators Award (1999). Prior to MIT, Belcher was an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas, Austin. She received her B.S. in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Ph.D. from the same institution in 1997. Host(s): Office of the President, MIT150 Inventional Wisdom

Ellen Swallow Richards

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:17:29 GMT

In 1887, the State Board of Health of Massachusetts began a comprehensive and unprecedented survey of the state's water supplies. Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman admitted to MIT and the Institute's first female instructor, worked as a key contributor for the survey. Richards supervised the examination of over twenty thousand samples of water and, as a result, Massachusetts established the first water-quality standards in America.

Master's student Arthur Gueneau models potential impacts on agricultural yield

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:07:05 GMT

A Masters student in MIT's Technology and Policy Program, Joint Program research assistant Arthur Gueneau studies the impacts of climate change on agriculture. Originally from France, Arthur is driven by the question: "How do we feed the world? How do we feed nine billion people in 2050?" This is a particularly important question given changing climatic conditions.

Seeking to improve our understanding of how climate change will impact future agricultural yields, Arthur is currently in the process of validating a new model, called CliCrop, which calculates crop yields based upon climatic information. To do this, he plugs historical meteorological data for a given year into CliCrop and then compares the model's projected crop yields with actual crop data that was recorded in that year. By comparing the model's outputs with actual historical crop yield data, Arthur can verify how accurately the model calculates agricultural yield based upon climatic variables, such as precipitation and temperature.

His findings for far? "The model seems to be relevant; it seems to be working."

Once CliCrop is validated, the next step will be to insert global climate projections into the model to see how future changes in precipitation and temperature will affect regional agricultural yields. Improving our understanding of how climate change will impact crop production throughout the world will allow us to better prepare for the effects of 'climate stress' on the food system and to develop new policies and adaptation strategies accordingly.

When asked about his work with the Joint Program, Arthur says, "I love what I am doing because it is really interesting and it has lots of impacts." For this reason, he plans to continue studying the potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and is particularly interested in exploring possible adaptation strategies for increasing agricultural resilience to climate stress.

Excellence is a Shared Path: Working Together for Justice and the Quality of Life

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

02/09/2011 7:30 AM Walker Morss HallKhalea Robinson, '11; Pierre Fuller, 'GDescription: In their brief remarks honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two students strike the theme of collaboration. They touch on the importance of humility and listening to one's inner voice while pursuing a shared vision of justice and equality. When she first came to MIT, Khalea Robinson was set to become a builder of bridges and skyscrapers. "Their visibility and permanence appealed to me." But a talk she attended on some of the world's pressing problems shook her commitment to this path. Access to clean water, and other issues, should surely count more than her own private engineering goals, she imagined. But after taking introductory courses in environmental and civil engineering, she realized that she "couldn't simply fall in line wherever there was a call, because there are so many calls, all of them worthy." Robinson felt that she should instead look for a field that would "bring forth my initiative, passion, drive, insight and courage," while also promoting justice and fairness. In a world "full of complex problems that need to be solved by many people," Robinson believes each of us "has a distinct voice that can and must be raised." Pierre Fuller finds a model in Biblical scripture's Nehemiah, who called on his people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem one brick at a time, "each man contributing according to his ability." Fuller recounts that when acquaintances call him a "genius" because he studies at MIT, he points to the help he received during his childhood in Flint, Michigan: his grandmother, a hospital cleaner; a barber friend with a drug record; and his mother -- "who guided me with equal doses of love and tender encouragement, and a wooden paddle and a backhand that would rival Serena Williams." Just as Fuller attributes his success to a collective that made unique contributions to his upbringing, he sees the project of building a better world as a function of individuals working together in humility, suppressing personal ambitions, and "replacing a savior mentality with a serving mentality." The technological innovations MIT sees as the foundation of the future are "only a brick, a small portion of the wall that is to sustain our community." The academic elite, says Fuller, must seek solutions for communities they serve. All of us "must humble our hearts" to work for "those who come after us, as we have been served by those who come before." About the Speaker(s): A native of St. Kitts and Nevis, Khalea Robinson has been deeply involved with social policy issues. In 2008 she participated in MIT's Presidential Policies Initiative to raise awareness among national candidates of the greatest issues facing the U.S., including education and mortgage reform. Pierre Fuller earned a B.S. in civil engeering and in architecture from Lawrence Technological University, and his S.M. in civil engineering from MIT. His current research focuses on applying computing techniques to solve problems in building construction and operations. Fuller has served as a teaching assistant at MIT, and is involved with various youth outreach programs, including MIT's STEM science enrichment program for middle school children.Host(s): Office of the President, MIT Annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Water droplet impact

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:30:43 GMT

This video from a high-speed camera shows a droplet being deposited on a superhydrophobic surface, just before it separates from the dropper. At the moment of separation, ripples move down through the droplet, showing the deceleration caused by impact with the surface, which causes a brief burst of high pressure. Read more about the research at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/droplets-0121.html

Rebuilding Haiti

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/29/2010 4:00 PM 34"101Paul Farmer, Founder, Partners in HealthDescription: Difficult as it is to look beyond the acute misery of Haiti's current crisis, Paul Farmer proposes that aid agencies and others concerned with rebuilding focus on the nation's "old, chronic problems." There's no shortage of recovery ideas, he says, but these will go nowhere if they do not also advance the long"neglected, basic rights of Haitians. Farmer describes efforts to respond to Haiti's disastrous earthquake of January 2010, which killed hundreds of thousands, left 1.3 million homeless and much of the capital in ruins. Today, nearly a year later, the generous pledges of international aid have yet to materialize, says Farmer, and the peril has expanded to include a cholera outbreak. This picture is all the bleaker for the deaths of many of Farmer's collaborators. The earthquake destroyed invaluable "human infrastructure", says Farmer, including all the nursing students at Haiti's one public nursing school. Farmer has been working in Haiti for more than a decade, attempting to address not just malnutrition, HIV and tuberculosis, but larger issues such as Haitians' lack of access to clean water, public education and healthcare. He would like to see international aid groups and foreign powers involved with Haiti recognize these issues in a meaningful way. Farmer's long"standing strategy has been to engage Haiti's public sector, or what remains after years of military and U.S. proxy rule, in the fight for these rights. He says, "There is always a role for the promotion of basic rightsThe question is how to do this in the field, not just win an argument in seminar." The earthquake has profoundly deepened Haiti's need for essential public institutions. The 1,000"plus tent cities housing more than a million people in Port au Prince are swelling, not diminishing, because people cannot find potable water anywhere else, and most have no idea where their next meal will come from. Yet there is a push to expel people from their tents and tarps, says Farmer, as if that will somehow speed construction of more permanent residences. Many plans are afoot for such housing, he says -- but few that take into account the desires of Haitians, who should have agency in shaping their own future. Rebuilding Haiti, Farmer believes, means "rebuilding aid machinery which is very broken, and often a damaging thing." He is forging new alliances among Haitians and other aid partners, including Cubans and evangelical groups from the U.S., around water projects, and a new hospital that will be "big, green and public." Says Farmer, "We must make common cause with those seeking to provide basic rights." About the Speaker(s): Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international charity organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He is medical director of a charity hospital, the Clinique Bon Sauveur, in rural Haiti and he is also the UN Deputy Special Envoy to for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton. Farmer has written extensively about health and human rights, and about the role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases. He is the author of Pathologies of Power (University of California Press, 2003); Infections and Inequalities (University of California Press, 1998); The Uses of Haiti (Common Courage Press, 1994); and AIDS and Accusation (University of California Press, 1992). In addition, he is co"editor of Women, Poverty, and AIDS, (Common Courage Press, 1996) and of The Global Impact of Drug"Resistant Tuberculosis (Harvard Medical School and Open Society Institute, 1999). Farmer is the recipient of the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association's Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, and the Heinz Humanitarian Award. In 1993, he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in recognition of his work. Farmer is the subject of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House, 2003). Farmer received his Bachelor's degree from Duke University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Program in Science, Technology and Society

Re-Engineering Buildings: Innovations in Building Technology

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/01/2010 11:00 AM e14"633Tony Ciochetti, Chairman, MIT Center for Real Estate; John Ochsendorf, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture; Alex (Sandy) Pentland, PhD '82, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, and Director of Human Dynamics Research, MIT Media Lab; Sarah Slaughter, 82, SM'87, PhD 91, Associate Director for Buildings & Infrastructure, MIT Energy InitiativeDescription: The built environment consumes a very large share of the nation's energy, and so offers rich opportunities for reducing our overall carbon footprint. MIT researchers share innovations that could soon radically alter the energy profile, as well as form and function, of buildings. Their work may prove invaluable to those in the real estate or construction industries seeking not just efficiency, but a good investment. Pumping gas into a car, we can get a good sense of its energy costs, says John Ochsendorf. But when it comes to buildings, which are huge capital investments, "we have practically no literacy" around energy performance. Now we are entering a "new frontier," says Ochsendorf, as pressure builds to achieve substantial, swift reductions in energy consumption. He is helping to develop new metrics for measuring the amount of energy a building uses over its entire lifespan, from construction through many years of occupancy. Ochsendorf maps the material and energy flow involved in producing a can of Coke, from the extraction of minerals for aluminum smelting, to the French beets used in its sugar syrup, and suggests that this level of detail should be available for our buildings as well. This means "lifecycle assessment with rigorous benchmarking of building performance," down to the CO2 emissions per square foot. Ochsendorf is working with concrete and cement manufacturers to help them achieve steep reductions quickly, and to design buildings that use local waste material such as clay, and operate with zero net energy use. The value of buildings derives from their capacity to "protect and enhance the health, safety and well"being of occupants and communities," says Sarah Slaughter. There are measurable benefits, too: Acoustically quiet classrooms improve student retention, and reinforced buildings can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. Slaughter is interested in using "low impact development" for healthy, resilient buildings. She takes a "system of systems" approach, examining first the interaction of systems within a building. Could use of rainwater capture, for instance, decrease the need for non"potable water, or could "daylight harvesting" permit the downsizing of artificial lighting? Slaughter next considers the building's connections to the larger environment, including its neighborhood and region. She sees a "value"added chain" that ultimately includes municipalities and state and federal agencies. By targeting the right links in the chain, one can achieve both performance enhancement and cost efficiencies. This leads to "clearly demonstrable bottom"line benefits -- less than a year payback for some upgrades" as well as improved buildings that "allow people to complete their organizational missions more effectively." Alex (Sandy) Pentland hopes to make buildings more productive and efficient, but focuses on people rather than structures. He has devised methods for mapping human activities, following cellphone and other wireless signals. For example, Pentland can track face to face meetings taking place in an organization, and troubleshoot areas of low"productivity. He describes changing the time for coffee breaks in a Bank of America call center, and saving that business $15 million. He has detailed how "tribes" of people move about in cities, and can make astonishingly accurate predictions about where and when these groups go to eat and the kinds of things they buy. Real estate developers could look at transportation patterns, for instance, and build stores in places convenient to a target group. These tools are powerful enough to reveal socioeconomic patterns, such as crime rates, disease and even life expectancy among different groups. Data mapping, believes Pentland, will prove increasingly useful to many institutions, although it presents some perils around privacy issues. About the Speaker(s): Tony Ciochetti leads the Center for Real Estate's mission to improve the global built environment through industry relevant research and to promote more informed professional practice. Prior to his appointment at MIT, Ciochetti was the Director of the Center for Real Estate Development and a Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Ciochetti is also a visiting Professor in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University in England. His teaching areas of expertise include Commercial Real Estate Development and Real Estate Finance. He has created or taught courses in these areas at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, the University of Wisconsin"Madison, Indiana University, and the University of North Carolina"Chapel Hill. Ciochetti's research interests lie in two broad areas: commercial mortgage credit risk and the role of real estate within pension plan portfolios. His work has appeared in leading scholarly journals, including Real Estate Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, among others. Ciochetti is currently the President of the Real Estate Research Institute, where he is also an academic fellow, and serves on the Board of Directors of Real Estate Economics. Ciochetti received his B.A. in Finance from the University of Oregon, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin"Madison. Host(s): School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Center for Real Estate

Looking Ahead to the Future of NASA

Mon, 10 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

05/10/2010 3:00 PM 32"123Gen. Charles Bolden, NASA AdministratorDescription: From the MIT News Office: NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. defended President Barack Obama's controversial plans for the U.S. space agency's future and touted the president's plan to invest billions of dollars in basic science research. Some in Congress have criticized Obama's proposal to cancel the Constellation program, which would have sent humans to the moon by 2020, saying such a move will effectively cede U.S. space leadership to other nations. But Bolden noted that the White House's plan would also invest an additional $6 billion in NASA over the next five years, including a 60"percent increase in earth sciences research funding, as well as a 20"percent increase in planetary sciences research. Such an expansion could revitalize NASA's ties with institutions like MIT, which has played an instrumental role in the agency since NASA was founded in 1958. Bolden said NASA was going through what he called a "difficult, but very interesting" period. As a former astronaut who completed four space flights, Bolden expressed sadness about the prospect of ending NASA's space"shuttle fleet, admitting he is "emotionally attached" to the shuttle program. But he insisted that NASA is "committed" to Obama's new era of space exploration, which calls for a flexible path approach for NASA to gain progressively more experience, such as a lunar fly"by or exploration of asteroids, before making a trip to Mars. The plan also calls for developing a "heavy"lift" system to launch spacecraft into deep space, as well as technologies to protect humans from long"term radiation. In the future, NASA would lease vehicles from private companies to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. "The president, with my full agreement, made a change - a big change," Bolden said of Obama's decision to undertake a new direction for NASA, adding that the agency's fundamental goal "to boldly advance the human presence beyond the cradle of Earth," has not changed, and that Mars remains an "especially compelling target." Bolden outlined several tracks that NASA has proposed to achieve its goals, such as developing robotic technologies to scout new targets and test precision landings. He said the agency remains focused on using the International Space Station to learn more about human health issues, referring to ongoing work by ISS researchers to develop a salmonella vaccine. He pledged NASA's commitment to develop a commercial launch industry for carrying humans into low Earth orbit, but said that the agency was still fine"tuning specific operations details, such as whether a crew would be trained at NASA facilities. He also said the agency was honoring Obama's request to collaborate with other countries like Saudi Arabia to foster science research. When pressed to name a timetable for a manned mission to Mars, Bolden said it was "pretty vague," but that if NASA started to develop the architecture for a heavy"lift launch vehicle right now, it could be as soon as the early 2020s that a spacecraft orbits the moon, and maybe 2025 for a spacecraft or robot to land on an asteroid. Those advances could make travel to Mars a reality by 2030, he said. Host(s): School of Engineering, Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium

The Interaction Between Poverty, Growth and Democracy

Mon, 03 May 2010 04:00:00 GMT

05/03/2010 12:00 PM Wong AuditoriumPresident Alejandro Toledo, President of Peru 2001"2006Description: Alejandro Toledo has remained a passionate advocate of reform since departing the presidency of Peru in 2006. In his home country, he embodied the possibility of transformation, having risen from poverty in an Andean village to top political power, where he initiated a process of economic and social change for Peru. Now he serves as a kind of roving ambassador on behalf of the most deprived populations in Latin America. Toledo is advancing a particular initiative, the "Social Agenda for Democracy in Latin America," which asserts an inextricable link between effective, inclusive political institutions, and economic justice. "If we're not able to reduce high levels of poverty, inequality and social exclusion, then poverty can conspire against democracy," says Toledo. Natural resources are not a solution, but actually a burden, he believes. Many nations rich in mineral or agricultural wealth, including Peru, have very low standards of living. Inequitable foreign exchange and trade, buttressed by corrupt leaders, often robs these nations of their treasure, and of any chance for investing in development at home. The poor remain poor and, with no way of achieving a decent income or meeting their basic needs, hopeless. They "lose faith in democracy," says Toledo. The path out of poverty and corruption represents an opportunity and challenge for Latin America, says Toledo. Citizens must demand that their institutions be accountable, and political leaders must provide a plan for economic development that incorporates "explicit social policies that go beyond trickle down." Topping Toledo's agenda is quality education. Investing in the minds of people is a long"term proposition, acknowledges Toledo, and many politicians "don't have the patience, when they know the return will take 18 to 20 years before the kid turns out to be an engineer." But only education can "bring a family, a region, a nation, into a world of opportunity." Educated populations create citizens "with a sense of solidarity," who can work their way out of indigence and engage meaningfully in a democracy. Toledo also wants sustainable development in Latin America, so future generations can enjoy clean water and healthy forests. He is a fan of microfinance as well: "You give me $1 to invest in a poor woman ... and we begin changing the face of the world." He encourages fellow Latin Americans in the audience to return: "Latin America is a promising continent, but ... it will only play a crucial role in the world economy and democracy if you are there." About the Speaker(s): Alejandro Toledo was born in a remote village in the Peruvian Andes, one of 16 brothers and sisters from a family of extreme poverty. At the age of six, he worked as a shoe shiner and sold newspapers. By chance, he had access to a decent education, and went on to earn a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration from the University of San Francisco, and two masters degrees and a Ph.D. in the Economics of Human Resources, all from Stanford University. He worked as the Director of Peru's Economic Development Institute, and in positions at the World Bank, the Inter"American Development Bank in Washington, and the United Nations in New York before running for president of Peru. After his presidential term, Toledo left Peru and served as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University from 2006 to 2008. During this period, he was also a Payne Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a CDDRL (Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law) Visiting Scholar. More recently, Toledo was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., and also a Non"Resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution < br> Toledo founded and continues to serve as the President of the Global Center for Development and Democracy, which is based in Latin America, the United States, and the European Union. Host(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship

From Relief to Reconstruction — Practical and Policy Challenges

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Oxfam's Raymond Offenheiser scrutinizes what will ultimately be "crucial to the outcome, in the Haitian context, of a successful recovery and rehabilitation by the Haitian people and for the Haitian nation-distributed leadership.

2006 Freeman Lecture: "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Midst of Chaos and Caducity: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:37:54 GMT

Eugene Z. Stakhiv, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Midst of Chaos and Caducity: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"

"A Tale of Two Waters" presented by Yang Zhang

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:59:56 GMT

NSE Doctoral Research Expo On March 10, Student Street in MIT's Stata Center was transformed into a forum for ideas and dialogue. It was the site of the Doctoral Research Expo hosted by the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. The inaugural Expo brought together students from all areas of research within the Department. Following the poster session, graduate students Yang Zhang, Antoine Cerfon, and David Carpenter, who had been selected to represent the three main areas of the Department -- Nuclear Science and Technology, Fission, and Fusion -- each presented a 40 minutes talk on their research. The videos of these presentations are posted in this collection.

Sampling MIT at the MIT Museum: Water Splitting

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:03:07 GMT

MIT Professor Daniel Nocera and his research team are in a race to make inexpensive energy from the sun - and they want to do it soon. Using plant photosynthesis as their inspiration, this exhibit shows how they can now use the sun's energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases in a safe and simple way.

Global Citizen Interview Seed Grant Team

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:12:44 GMT

Project: Results from water quality tests performed with affordable and accessible kits will be compiled in a searchable database for access by policy makers and researchers. Financial sustainability will be achieved by selling test kits online and through regional distributors, and by commissions earned from connecting communities to local water treatment providers. This summer, the team will evaluate water test kit prototypes in a series of demonstrations for potential clients in Western China.

Michael Pritchard, entrepreneur and inventor of the world's first ultra-filtration bottle

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:15:28 GMT

Inventor, LIFESAVER bottle Managing Director, Hydronic Solutions Ltd. Michael W. Pritchard M.W.M.Soc is a British inventor, entrepreneur and public speaker. Michael was born in Epsom, Surrey in 1967. He was educated at Gordonstoun School in Scotland and went to the University of Redlands in California USA. At the age of 18 he competed at international level for England winning a gold medal as part of the 4x100 metre relay team. Michael started his business career selling Apple computers into the then fledgling desktop publishing market. He remained within the computer industry for approximately 10 years. He worked in the city as Business Development Director for the Wace Group PLC and then in 1998 co-founded ZagMe.com a mobile marketing company. In 2000 Michael started his own business. As well as owning a successful property business, Michael is Managing Director of Hydronic Solutions (Europe) Ltd a specialist water treatment and legionella risk assessment company. He is best known for developing the LIFESAVER® bottle, the world's first ultra-filtration bottle, which allows local sources of water to be safely drunk. Michael developed the bottle in response to tragic waste of life and serious humanitarian problems caused by the lack of safe drinking water in the wake of the Tsunami disaster in 2004. He has appeared at various high profile conferences and exhibitions, calling for access to clean, safe drinking water for all.

Inventor: Scot Frank - WatMap

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:55:01 GMT

Scot Frank co-inventor of WatMap, an online database that allows people to post water quality information around the world.

BLOSSOMS - Sustainable Energy: "Can Water be the Future Fuel!?!" (Arabic)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:27:36 GMT

The main objective of this video lesson is to bring the students' attention to the importance of basic and natural sciences in our lives. The lesson will introduce a topic (sustainable energy) that is related mainly to chemistry and is not usually covered directly in a high school curriculum. It is hoped that this lesson will show students how important and useful the natural and basic sciences are not only for our daily lives, but also for sustainable development.

Carbon and Energy Efficient Supply Chains

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

10/27/2009 4:00 PM 32"124Edgar Blanco, Research Director at the MIT Center for Transportation & LogisticsDescription: Consumers will soon be able to quantify the carbon footprint of products they consume, and that could begin to change consumer behavior. The common banana you buy, say organic or not, is probably labeled by the country or origin. Increasingly, you might see a second sticker adorning your beloved yellow fruit _ it will be a tally of the banana's total carbon emissions as it moved from farm to table. That single number is not a simple one. If the bananas you bought this week were transported from Indonesia by boat__they have a different carbon footprint than the bunch you consumed last month grown, say in Mexico, and moved by rail. Behind this labeling system are a complex supply chain, logistics, and transportation considerations. And behind the measurement of this network is the research of Edgar Blanco and his colleagues at MIT. He begins with a consumer perspective. Beginning in 2006, in reaction to climate change, consumers, many large companies and the media wanted to assess the full environmental impact of finished products, be they bananas, potato chips, or cars. Blanco compares the measurement of the carbon trail for consumer goods to, "developing a really large map of what happens behind the product". He challenges, " If you have a number (of how much emissions a product creates), what should you do about it?... Partially, the exercise gives consumer information, but it is also vital so that you have information about emissions, so you can do something about redesigning the supply chain." The measurement of the carbon trail is vastly complex, and goes well beyond knowing the CO2 emissions produced by the transport sector. In one exercise, the research team compared the carbon footprint of bottled water manufactured and shipped in the U.S. versus bottled water originating in Fiji but sold in the U.S. The product imported from Fiji turned out to have a lower carbon footprint. Despite the 4,800 miles of ocean transport, the thermal/solar/wind energy used by the Pacific Islands plant was cleaner than the U.S. plant manufacturing relying on energy from fossil fuels. In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to explore a measuring system to help mitigate pollution from U.S. shippers and carriers. For trucks the task was daunting because there were more than three million vehicles and 800,000 separate carriers involved. However, it was also important because trucks move close to 70% of all U.S. freight and therefore remain a growing contributor of greenhouse gases. Blanco's research on supply chains and CO2 emissions helped the EPA act a broker between shippers and carriers. In 2004 the EPA launched a program called "Smart Way" with 100 firms. Today it has grown to more than 1,200 partners. The EPA hopes that as more shippers and carriers join "Smart Way" there will be positive network effects. And, importantly, system models show that a ton of CO2 reduced by the Smart Way program is a less expensive option than other carbon trading schemes. Smart Way is also among consumer programs that have helped develop a carbon labeling system. Blanco says the carbon and energy efficient supply chain analysis develops tools so that shippers have the ability to better select carriers. In a global world, in which many partners operate using many alternative routes and multiple location points, a single number is a singular achievement. These research methods are now being diffused internationally. Depending on the societal importance consumers place on C02 and the amount they will pay to reduce it, the models have the potential to change how and what banana reaches your breakfast table, as well as everything else. About the Speaker(s): Research Director, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics Executive Director, MIT SCALE Latin America Edgar Blanco is a Research Director at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and is the Executive Director of the MIT SCALE Network in Latin America. His current research focus is the design of environmentally efficient supply chains. He also leads research initiatives on supply chain innovations in emerging markets, disruptive mobile technologies in value chains and optimization of humanitarian operations. Dr. Blanco has more than thirteen years of experience in designing and improving logistics and supply chain systems, including the application of operations research techniques, statistical methods, GIS technologies and software solutions to deliver significant savings in business operations. Prior to joining MIT, he was leading the Inventory Optimization practice at Retek (now Oracle Retail). He received his Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His educational background includes a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Universidad de los Andes (Bogot^, Colombia) and a M.S. in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology.Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

Personalized Energy

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/15/2009 2:00 PM E19Daniel Nocera, The Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry; ; ; Description: Daniel Nocera is swimming very hard against the current of mainstream energy research. While many scientists are figuring out how to scale up wind, geothermal or biomass systems, Nocera is focusing on "personalized" energy units that can be manufactured, distributed and installed on the cheap. His main concern lies with the increasing energy demands of six billion people, primarily from developing nations, who will be marching onto the world stage by 2050 and likely doubling the planet's energy consumption, from around 13 to 26 terawatts (that's trillion watts). A "solution to the energy challenge rests in providing the non"legacy (developing) world a carbon"neutral, sustainable energy supply," says Nocera. Nocera's science isn't about making big or efficient systems. For non"legacy populations, "cost means everything and efficiency is secondary." Nocera's metrics look at cost in terms of energy stored per weight of something, and so he plots a Boeing 777 plane, etching tools, and Big Macs on the same cost curve. Priced out this way, cars cost around $1 million. Pursuing this logic, Nocera wants to build large quantities of small energy systems and get them into the developing world before giant infrastructure"based energy takes root. Nocera's vision builds on major research breakthroughs: He has figured out how to harness critical biological processes that may bring widespread solar power closer to reality. Nocera's innovations include replicating in the lab the process of photosynthesis in plants, using sunlight to split water molecules and store energy. "Chemically, I'm not doing anything in a sophisticated wayjust taking water, rearranging bonds and making fuel." A liter of water, energized by sunlight from a photovoltaic cell, can store 13 megajoules. The 3.2 million liters in MIT's pool could yield 43 terawatts _ enough energy "to take care of all of you." Nocera's photosynthesis uses a cobalt"phosphate cocktail that mimics the mineral"based catalytic process in a plant, and "keeps fixing itself," running endlessly on such humble fuels as Charles River water. His process even yields pure drinking water from waste. Nocera's goal is to make each home its own power station, with photovoltaic arrays on the roof feeding the catalytic reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Some of these elements are still pricey or unreliable -- in particular, fuel cells and photovoltaics are troublesome -- yet he envisions villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing one of his basic systems for $800. While Nocera acknowledges his critics, he views them as institution"bound naysayers: "I always say when the scientists stop fighting, then you're screwed." About the Speaker(s): Daniel Nocera is at the forefront of research on renewable energy at the molecular level, focusing on mechanisms of energy conversion involving the water molecule. In 2005, Nocera was awarded the Italgas Prize, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Nocera has received the American Institute of Chemists Award, and was appointed a Presidential Young Investigator and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Accounts of Chemical Research, Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Comments in Inorganic Chemistry. He was the inaugural Editor of Inorganic Chemistry Communications. Nocera received his B.S. in 1979 from Rutgers University, and his Ph.D. from CalTech in 1984. He joined MIT in 1997.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships

Toward India 2020: Challenges and Opportunities

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/09/2009 11:00 AM Bartos theaterDr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Indian Planning CommissionDescription: People sometimes ask Montek Singh Ahluwalia questions loaded with "aspirational objectives," such as when India will "get rid of poverty." Few are as well equipped to respond as Ahluwalia, one of the architects of India's breathtaking economic transformation. The current income of an average Indian citizen is about 1/15th that of a U.S. citizen. Ahluwalia envisions increasing India's per capita income ten fold. He sees this as a matter of "simple arithmetic." To achieve this advance, India must sustain GDP growth of 9% a year (which corresponds to a 7%/year growth in personal income) -- for 32 years. By 2040, India's 1.5 billion people could be living more like Americans. "Regrettably, I won't be around to see it," says Ahluwalia. By 2020, though, assuming such sustained economic growth, he would be around to witness "more modest results." Indians would double their annual income to $6,600, and the nation would be able to "provide a basic level of services to the vast majority of its population," essentially leaving behind its problems of poverty. This kind of growth, "an extremely worthwhile objective" for India, would also leave its mark on the rest of the world. It would inspire other emerging economies, for one thing. It would also shift the balance of power in global trade, with the combined economies of India and China taking on the U.S. So can India really achieve this kind of relentless economic progress? Ahluwalia's not sure, but invokes the successes of Japan, Korea and China, and sees reasons for optimism. Over the past eight years, India's averaged a 7.2% GDP growth rate, and looks likely to land on its feet after the current worldwide recession. On the other hand, the nation's vibrant democracy (420 million voted in the most recent elections) can make agreement on economic policy and its implementation difficult. Ahluwalia is "not complaining," but acknowledges that this kind of participative society "means we're taking longer to get done what needs to be done." He sees institutional strengths that will enable India to push its development agenda forward: a sense of confidence pervades Indian society; past reforms have "unleashed tremendous energy in the private sector;" the economy has opened up to greater domestic and foreign markets; and in spite of changes in government, the general economic policies continue to evolve. Ahluwalia acknowledges that defeating poverty may not address everyone's goals for success. The true objective for India, he believes, is "inclusive growth," an equitable and constructive distribution of economic gains via market forces, government and public means. About the Speaker(s): Montek Singh Ahluwalia has also served as a member of the Indian Planning Commission and member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He had previously held positions as Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Commerce Secretary; Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance. Ahluwalia became the first Director of the Independent Evaluation Office, International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2001. On June 16, 2004, he was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission and was reappointed to the post in June 2009 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2007, Ahluwalia became a member of the Group of Thirty, an international body of the world's most senior and influential economists. He earned his B.A. (Hons) degree in New Delhi and his M.A. and M. Phil. degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His published work includes papers in professional journals and contributions to books. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Global MIT

Ripple Tank: Interference of Two Point Sources

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:46:49 GMT

A ripple tank is placed above a mirror and a projection screen. Two synchronous point sources, whose frequency can be varied, tap the surface of the water and produce circular waves. The interference pattern of the waves including the lines of nodes can be observed on the screen.

Scot Frank

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:01:07 GMT

Scot Frank is a co-inventor of SolSource, a portable solar concentrator that can be used for heating the home, cooking and electricity generation. It was created to withstand the high winds of remote mountainous regions. Scot Frank and fellow teammates of SolSource Tibet received an IDEAS Award from the MIT IDEAS Competition in 2008 for their innovative design of the solar concentrator. In 2009, Scot found himself on two IDEAS teams, HeatSource and Global Citizen Water Initiative, in which both teams received awards to continue their work and implementation of their ideas. Scot has also received two other Public Service Fellowships that helped to inform his project work in solar and heat energy and water quality issues.

Kate Clopek: Community Water Solutions

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:12:52 GMT

Katherine Clopeck SM '09 participated in the MIT Public Service Fellowship program. Kate followed-up on a project she began the summer of 2008 to bring safe drinking water to rural villages and also empower the women of the villages to take up an entrepreneurial role in selling clean water in Ghana. This past January, Independent Activities Period (IAP), Kate and her team assessed the success of their pilot project and investigated possibilities for expansion into new villages.

The Next Giant Leaps in Space Exploration

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT

06/11/2009 3:00 PM KresgeDr. Maria T. Zuber, E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, Head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT ; ; Dr. Edward F. Crawley, Ford Professor of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, MIT; James H. Crocker, Vice President and General Manager, Sensing & Exploration Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.; Richard Garriott, private astronaut, Vice Chairman of Space Adventures ; Dr. James Garvin, Chief Scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA ; Dr. David W. Thompson, Chairman & CEO of Orbital Sciences Corporation ; Dr. Erika Wagner, Lecturer, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MITDescription: From satellite"enabled radio and TV to climate tracking, space has become a "ubiquitous capability in our lifetime," as Edward Crawley puts it. But he also notes there is uncertainty about the future of U.S. spaceflight, which closely follows the "cadence" of political elections. Symposium panelists both predict and suggest directions the nation's public and private space programs might take. As a child, keynote speaker Maria Zuber "wrote long letters to the Apollo astronauts," and her early enthusiasm never waned. A geophysicist involved in missions investigating distant worlds, Zuber's take on space exploration is both pragmatic and adventurous. She seeks "an achievable future in space," with an exploration program that is "reality based." She advocates a "bold, diverse agenda" that includes extended use of the International Space Station for conducting science on human physiology and behavior; exploring the impact of the sun on Earth climate and space weather; gathering data on the constitution of the universe; detailed characterization of terrestrial planets; a renewed commitment to Earth observation (we have better data on Mars' ice caps than on our own); and seeking extra"terrestrial life. This ambitious portfolio means we may send humans to space for "objectives that are worth the risk." NASA should mix big and small missions, remembering that it's "crucial to inspire and train the next generation." Ultimately, says Zuber, "It's great to be a dreamer, but the only good space mission is one that really works, and is practical and implementable." NASA scientist James Garvin describes his agency's plans to pursue the legacy of Apollo, by developing new capabilities to carry people into space, and supporting significant research, such as tracking carbon in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Says Garvin, "Somewhere there is a sweet spot between robotic spaceflight that does grand science ... and human spaceflight that enables those" missions. The private space industry will play an increasing role in fulfilling the spaceflight dreams of ordinary people, believes Richard Garriott, one of the few lucky citizens to take the ride (via a Soyuz craft). He cites the surge in space plane companies, which may ultimately make spaceflight routine. While there's "a reasonable probability there will be fatalities," Garriott accepts the risks. "Ultimately only by democratizing access to space, by having multiple vendors competing to keep the price down, and safety up, will we ultimately find the best access to space." To engage American youth in space exploration, Erika Wagner says we "need to take back the storyline and discuss challenging things." 18"24 year olds are not captivated by the Apollo mission to the moon, and to inspire them about the future, they need to understand we "go to space because it's a difficult thing." To get this point across means using social media such as Flickr and YouTube, as well as flying students into space. "It's time for space exploration to become interactive again." Commercial space ventures, built on a series of incremental improvements, have become a phenomenally successful industry in the last 40 years, says David Thompson. Customers spend between $15"25 per month on such products and services as direct broadcast TV and handheld satellite navigators. This dwarfs the per capita expenditure on government space exploration or defense activities. Thompson looks for more of an intersection between the well"financed commercial, and needier public, sectors of space enterprise, with anticipated benefits for both. The problem is not how we build space vehicles, "but how we procure them," states James Crocker. Purchasing and launching such expensive devices one at a time continues to inhibit capability. Crocker's company, Lockheed, is trying to economize through smarter software, weight" and volume"reduction of space"bound technology, and reuse of expensive parts (including some avionics in NASA's new Ares rocket). He hopes that innovative ways to bring down costs "while not as cheap as flying from here to Europe on an airliner," might get to the point where "we can do more with the dollars the public is willing to spend." About the Speaker(s): Edward Crawley is also the director of the Bernard M. Gordon _ MIT Engineering Leadership Program. His research focuses on the domain of architecture, design, and decision support in complex technical systems. He is currently engaged with NASA on the design of its lunar and Earth observing systems, and with BP on oil exploration system designs. Crawley is a former head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was a finalist in the NASA astronaut selection in 1980. He received an S.B. (1976) and an S.M. (1978) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an Sc.D. (1981) in Aerospace Structures from MIT. Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), and is a member of three national academies of engineering: the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering, and the US National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by Chalmers University, Sweden in 2006.Host(s): School of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Luminescent Solar Concentrators Explained

Tue, 19 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/19/2009 6:00 PM MuseumMarc Baldo, Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDescription: Researchers are well along in designing a highly efficient, inexpensive solar cell, but the big barrier to the dissemination of solar power in society remains the problem of installation, says Marc Baldo. As an engineer, Baldo expresses confidence that "we're going to mow down" the problem of producing a great solar cell and making it cheap. His own lab has developed a unique approach that's found enthusiastic support from the federal government and others. Unlike conventional solar cells that use a single material such as silicon to perform both functions of absorbing light and converting it into electricity, Baldo's cell "separates the functions and optimizes both." His solar concentrator utilizes inexpensive material like glass or plastic onto which a thin film of dye has been painted. Sunlight strikes this surface, and the dye, which can be "tuned" or colored to trap specific wavelengths of light, emits light back to solar cells along the edge of the plate. There are enormous advantages derived from this design: The glass or plastic (considerably cheaper than silicon) catches diffuse light, so there's no need to track the sun, and it concentrates the sunlight much more efficiently than conventional solar cells. But solar concentrators alone don't signal the start of a new solar age. Baldo addresses the considerable uncertainty around the broad deployment of solar power. Installation costs for single homes appear formidably high, perhaps 2/3rd the cost of the entire system. Colossal solar fields that might replace fossil fuel burning plants must ship their energy across vast distances, losing electricity along the way. And right now the national power grid isn't set up to handle the fluctuations in energy that large"scale intermittent energy sources such as solar or wind present. Clouds are a "big pain" for grid operators, says Baldo. He believes the best start for solar will be in commercial and industrial installations such as the rooftops of factories, supermarkets or warehouses, sites where there's no loss moving power around, and where managers are already seeking ways to save on lighting and refrigeration, including smart electronics. His cost"effective concentrators could find their way to such installations in several years. In addition to solar concentrators, Baldo is researching biological models for making solar cells more efficient: He just received a $19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study exciton circuitry in plants -- how plants capture light in packets of energy and direct the energy to where it's needed. Says Baldo, "This exciton is the last, great unexplored territory in solar cells." About the Speaker(s): Marc A. Baldo is a principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE. His research interests include molecular electronics, electrical and exciton transport in organic materials, energy transfer, metal"organic contacts, heterogeneous integration of biological materials, and novel organic transistors. Baldo received his B. Eng. (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Sydney in 1995 with first class honors and university medal, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In 2002 he joined MIT as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

Nanoscale Engineering for High Performance Solar Cells

Tue, 12 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/12/2009 6:00 PM MuseumVladimir Bulovic, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Description: How much energy does it take to turn on a lightbulb? Way too much in the U.S., where 22% of all electricity gets channeled into illuminating homes, businesses and thoroughfares. Vladimir Bulovic wants to end the exorbitant use of power for lighting, and simultaneously brighten our lives more pleasantly, with the application of nanostructure materials called quantum dots. Incandescent bulbs, he tells the MIT Museum audience, are hugely wasteful, with just 5% efficiency converting electricity to light. Fluorescents do the job somewhat better, and light emitting diodes better still, but these more efficient bulbs often emit colors that feel harsh to the eye. Bulovic and other researchers have been designing a fix for both the color and power conversion problems, a new kind of photo cell based on special inorganic crystals called quantum dots. The size of a human hair sliced lengthwise 5,000 times (10 nanometers), these crystals fluoresce in precise, predictable colors at different sizes: bigger chunks look red, smaller ones look blue. Bulovic has been experimenting with nanocrystal suspensions -- applying a thin film of quantum dot solution onto a surface that can be excited by shining light or by electricity. "By tuning mixtures of quantum dots, we can makeany color of the rainbow." New sorts of lights, and displays with "fantastic responsiveness" and true blacks are emerging from this research, along with power consumption half that of today's LCDs and plasma screens, and the potential of reducing energy use 20 fold down the road. Some versions of photo cells could be used in laptops, and the technology has the capacity to scale up fairly quickly. The world, well on its way to 9 billion people (many of whom still clamor for electric power), and a climate crisis, desperately needs this kind of new technology, believes Bulovic. He wonders if nanostructure materials might help with some of the hurdles engineers have encountered in scaling up solar energy solutions. For instance, the silicon used in most photovoltaics could be made more efficient by using films consisting of nanostructures that capture spectra of light that silicon can't. While solar won't solve the world's energy problems alone, it figures to be one very prominent solution, and Bulovic hopes nanotechnology will help generate energy independence, "in a controlled, clean way," helping to "uplift the world." About the Speaker(s): Vladimir Bulovic is a principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. Bulovic joined the faculty of MIT in 2000 as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Prior to joining MIT, Bulovic was a Senior Scientist and Project Head of Strategic Technology Development at Universal Display Corporation (UDC). At UDC he worked on the application of organic materials to LEDs for full color flat panel displays and thin film photovoltaics for solar cell and detector applications. Prior to joining UDC he worked in Princeton's POEM Center as a graduate researcher (1993"1998) and research associate (1998"1999). Bulovic's current research interests include studies of physical properties of organic and organic/inorganic nanodot composite thin films and structures, and development of novel optoelectronic organic and hybrid nano"scale devices. In 2004, Bulovic was named as one of the TR100, the list of top young innovators in technology named annually by Technology Review magazine. In the same year, he also was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for scientists and engineers at the beginning of their research careers. He graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. (1991), M.A. (1995), and Ph.D. (1998) in Electrical Engineering. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

The Energy Problem and the Interplay Between Basic and Applied Research

Tue, 12 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/12/2009 4:00 PM 10"250Steven Chu, Secretary of EnergyDescription: The situation facing our planet could hardly be more dire: There's increasingly dangerous competition among nations for ever scarce energy resources, and climate change is racing ahead of predictions. Although Steven Chu believes "We are getting close to where it's very nervous time," he also sees "reason for hope." Just as science in the 1970s produced a "green revolution" in agricultural productivity, preventing mass starvation in a swelling global population, Chu is counting on transformative scientific and engineering ideas to achieve sustainable energy and cap climate change. As chief architect of new policy, and with tens of billions of dollars to pump into his vision, Chu is targeting key areas. Number one on his list: energy efficiency and conservation. Since buildings use 40% of the nation's total energy, designing more efficient homes and offices will make a big difference. There are "tune ups" possible for existing buildings, and software that can direct lighting, heating and cooling where it's needed that can achieve 50% plus energy savings, and won't break the bank. Says Chu, "This is truly low"hanging fruit, but we have to build the tools that allow architects and structural engineers to get on with it." On the supply side, Chu has his heart set on transformative technologies such as nanotech breakthroughs in solar power. He's looking for ways to scale up biomass fuel production, now that synthetic biology can make microbes manufacture gas"like fuels. Noting in particular the work of MIT's Dan Nocera, Chu says he "wants to use nature as an inspiration, but go beyond nature," performing artificial photosynthesis to create new hydrocarbons. And as the U.S. and China continue dependence on coal, figuring out how to capture and sequester carbon from these plants figures "high on the list of things we must do." He's again hoping researchers will find some analog to nature's ability to grab and neutralize CO2. The ideal environment for jumpstarting such urgent scientific efforts, believes Chu, is something like Bell Labs, where Chu himself worked. The Labs performed "mission"driven research" around communications and for U.S. war efforts, but along the way also developed the transistor, information theory, radio astronomy, and lasers, among many examples. These scientist"led labs emphasized exchange of ideas and rapid infusion of research funds to the most promising work. This led to inventions that in turn transformed the U.S. economy. Chu envisions energy lab equivalents that "deliver the goods" along with fundamental science, "so you can have the Nobel Prize and save the world at the same time." About the Speaker(s): Steven Chu was sworn into office on January 21, 2009. Prior to his appointment, he was a professor of Physics and of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu joined the Physics Department faculty at U.C. Berkeley in 2004. He had served earlier as professor of Physics at Stanford University. Before 1987, he was at Bell Laboratories where he conducted the research that led to his 1997 Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with Claude Cohen"Tannoudji and William D. Phillips, for methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. Chu is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academia Sinica, and is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of the Korean Academy of Science and Engineering. He serves on the Boards of the Hewlett Foundation, the University of Rochester, and NVIDIA. He served on the Augustine Committee that produced the report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" in 2006. Chu received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976 and was a post"doctoral fellow there until 1978. He got his B.S. in 1970 from the University of Rochester. Host(s): Office of the President, Office of the President

Energy Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Opportunities

Thu, 07 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/07/2009 4:30 PM Sheraton BostonWilliam Aulet, SM '94, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Jacques Beaudry"Losique, SM '92, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Energy; U.S. Department of Energy; ; Christina Lampe"Onnerud, Founder and CEO, Boston"Power; ; Robert Metcalfe, '68, General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners; Founder, 3Com Corporation; Matthew Nordan, President and Co"Founder; Lux Research Inc.; Description: There are ample opportunities for new energy entrepreneurs, these panelists agree, but motivation and certain kinds of know"how play key roles in bringing new ventures to fruition. Idealism led Christina Lampe"Onnerud to "go into the energy space" at 23, but "inertia" surrounding the energy business may intimidate today's entrepreneurs. Her Boston"Power company, which makes "green" lithium"ion batteries, has forged good relations with policymakers, and now hopes that these politicians will be "brave enough" to "put frameworks out 20 years." In addition to long"term policy changes, Lampe"Onnerud is counting on a continuous influx of good scientists and engineers to drive her company forward. She encourages everyone with new ideas or the capacity to provide leadership to respond "to the biggest opportunity and threat we have." Jacques Beaudry"Losique warns would"be energy entrepreneurs they're up against a highly regulated environment. An offshore wind turbine might require 39 different permits, and it can take as long as 14 years to get approval for a transmission line. Beaudry"Losique promises that government is now working "to better align interests so we can move faster bringing these solutions to the table." Energy entrepreneurs should arm themselves with experienced staff who can navigate regulatory channels. They should also build consortia and partnerships with foundations, government and university labs, other manufacturers and buyers. The administration "is making a huge commitment to energy efficiency and smart buildings" and views wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, as "all hot." Compared to entrepreneurial ventures in IT and life sciences, clean energy startups demand "more money, more time and more late stage risk," says Matthew Nordan. Biomass or coal gasification technologies might require a billion dollars for a pilot plant, which "is a level of risk so high that investors won't sign that check." Many technologies intended to solve one problem end up creating another, or encounter bottlenecks as they scale up, such as the limited supply of precious metals required for the magnets of wind turbines. Some entrepreneurs find success in unique niches, though, such as those seeking to recover waste metal byproducts of tar sand operations. But Nordan warns of a big shake up, as the recent discovery of a massive pocket of natural gas in the U.S. will make competition even steeper for new energy contenders like solar and wind. Robert Metcalfe finds a lack of "human capital" in current energy ventures. The talented CEOs "who have started five companies" are in short supply in energy, which also haven't widely adopted partnering as a useful model. To Metcalfe, the energy problem "looks more and more like a networking problem," which demands a smart grid with lots of storage. This should present entrepreneurs with novel areas to explore. Large utilities may prove obstructive: "We must find ways to get around them, either recruit them or destroy them." He's optimistic there will be breakthroughs in such technologies as fuel cells, and that "when we solve energy, it will be cheap and abundant, and we will use much more of it." About the Speaker(s): William Auletis also Entrepreneur in Residence at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. He has 25 years of experience in technology business operations and financing. He started his career at IBM and then ran two private companies, Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies. Aulet now works with students and start"up companies to build strategies and operating plans that will create sustainable value. He currently has a specific interest in energy where he conceived, developed and teaches a new graduate class at MIT called "Energy Ventures," writes on the topic for Xconomy.com, and consults for large and small companies in the field. Aulet also conceived, created and serves as the Chairman of the MIT Clean Energy Prize. He has given workshops to many corporate and government entities on innovation, entrepreneurship and corporate venture capital including the US Department of Energy where he has served on their Review Board for Entrepreneurship Grants. In Janaury 2008, Aulet was a featured speaker at the seminal first World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a Sloan Fellow.Host(s): Alumni Association, MIT Enterprise Forum

Harlan County, Kentucky: What Happened to Elmer's Fishpond?

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:58:01 GMT

Elmer Lloyd, a proud former coal miner, struggles to come to terms with his prize fishpond becoming a polluted acid pond at the hands of a coal company.

Harlan County, Kentucky: McKinley Sumner's Disappearing Backyard

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:53:30 GMT

McKinley Sumner heard a sound his backyard one day, and realized something wasn't right. When he walked to the edge of his property line, he found tractors from the abutting coal mine digging into his land. Soon he saw his local creek, once clean and healthy, turn brown and muddy. This is the story of McKinley Sumner's fight to protect his property.

CityScope Peru: Elizabeth's Story

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:12:15 GMT

Elizabeth is a 12-year-old girl from Tambo de Mora, Peru. in 2007, her town was destroyed by an earthquake. Hear her words, and see the pictures she has taken of her town in this short audio slideshow.

CityScope Peru

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:07:37 GMT

In the spring semester of 2008, a mixed class of grad and undergrad students, including architects, urban planners, and engineers, worked in Tambo de Mora, a town on Peru's southern coast that was ruined by a earthquake a year before our visit. This is the story of the class.

Leading an Environmentally Sustainable Enterprise

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:00:00 GMT

04/09/2009 12:00 PM Wong AuditoriumMartin D. Madaus, Chairman, President & CEO, Millipore CorporationDescription: Climate change poses perhaps the premiere threat to coming generations, says Martin Madaus, but to avoid its worst impacts, we must confront the issue now. To that end, Madaus exhorts business leaders to focus immediately on building environmental sustainability into their operations, as he has begun to do at Millipore. The challenge is figuring out how to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at safe levels while expanding economies worldwide. In practice, reconciling these objectives involves squeezing more productivity out of each ton of carbon by a factor of 10. "The good news," says Madaus, is that "this is actually doable." Reaching this level of "carbon productivity" entails major public/private spending, but, says Madaus, "This is certainly a good investment, particularly when you consider the mitigation cost of climate catastrophe, which would be unbelievably expensive for all of us." While government must play a role in establishing regulations and incentives -- especially by imposing an unpopular but essential higher carbon tax -- industries of all kinds must integrate sustainability as a business practice. Madaus offers Millipore as an example of how "being at the cutting edge of environmentalism is a good business idea." His company has focused on changes in products and packaging, and reducing waste in energy, water and waste. In its biotech tool research and production facilities, Millipore figured out how to upgrade boilers, generators, lighting systems, compressed air piping, and use wind energy to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 15% since 2006. "The amazing part of this, it was so doable, because there was so much inefficiency and waste of energy." Millipore's return on new infrastructure investment came in less than two years. Millipore also developed compostable bio"plastic lab devices, recycling programs for customers, and paradoxically, a disposable product (replacing a large, stainless steel vessel), which ends up saving energy and water throughout its lifecycle. Beyond innovations in product lines and operational efficiency, Madaus says he wants "to make an impact on people's lives so their habits change." Millipore offers incentives for employee to use hybrid vehicles and to make their homes energy efficient, and encourages staff to come forward with ideas for sustainable living. "I wish we could make energy saving and eco"efficiency really cool and interesting; today it's still viewed as a tool, a behavior change." These small steps are just the start, and Madaus sees a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases as entirely feasible -- and not just at Millipore. "If anyone tells you it can't be done because they're growing their company, they're full of it." About the Speaker(s): Martin D. Madaus joined Millipore Corporation in January 2005 as President and Chief Executive Officer and became Chairman of the Board in March 2005. Millipore Corporation, with revenues of approximately $1.5 billion, focuses on two business segments: biopharmaceutical manufacturing and life science research and analytical laboratories. Madaus came to Millipore from Roche Diagnostics Corporation where, as President and Chief Executive Officer (2000"2004), he was responsible for the North American Operations. Prior to that (1999), he was Vice President of Business Development for Roche Molecular Diagnostics. Madaus joined Roche in 1998 when he was general manager of Boehringer Mannheim Canada in Montreal, Quebec. Madaus is a director of Predictive Biosciences, the Massachusetts High Technology Council, the New England Healthcare Institute, the Massachusetts Workforce Development Investment Board, and the YMCA of Greater Boston. Madaus is a native of Hamburg, Germany (naturalized American citizen), and holds a D.V.M. and Ph.D. in veterinary medicine.Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Nate Lewis - Sunlight-driven hydrogen formation by membrane-supported photoelectrochemical water splitting

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:39:02 GMT

This seminar was presented on March 10, 2009 as part of the MITEI Seminar Series. This talk will discuss the research frontier involved with the development of an integrated system based on semiconductor nanowires that act as artificial photosynthetic pigments, which bridge a membrane and are coupled to catalysts that both reduce water to hydrogen and oxidize water to oxygen. Dr. Nathan Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry, has been on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology since 1988 and has served as Professor since 1991. He has also served as the Principal Investigator of the Beckman Institute Molecular Materials Resource Center at Caltech since 1992. From 1981 to 1986, he was on the faculty at Stanford, as an assistant professor from 1981 to 1985 and as a tenured Associate Professor from 1986 to 1988. Dr. Lewis received his Ph.D in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MITEI thanks CERA for its sponsorship of the Seminar Series.

Planet Water: Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:00:00 GMT

03/30/2009 4:30 PM 32"123Rafael L. Bras, '72, MS '74, ScD '75, Edward A Abdun"Nur Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Description: If he doesn't have the whole world in his hands, Rafael Bras certainly grasps more pieces of the gigantic puzzle than most of us. Often credited with launching the science of hydrology -- the study of water's crucial role in Earth systems -- Bras has developed passions for pretty much the rest of the Earth sciences as well. In this fond, valedictory lecture to MIT (he's recently taken the post of Dean of Engineering at UC Irvine), Bras describes some of the research problems that have long fascinated him. Bras enjoys wrapping his mind around big things, such as the size of the world's oceans, whose numbers are in the billions of cubic kilometers. What interests Bras even more are the ways huge amounts of water cycle from the atmosphere as rain, into the soil, as runoff to the sea, and back again. He says "a lot of what we depend on is the result of differences between large numbers. It is those differences between very large numbers that makes it so uncertain, variable and so sensitive to our intervention or changes." The physics behind the various water cycles involves vast and continuous transfers of energy: rain changes soil moisture, which changes the amount of radiation the earth reflects, which affects evaporation, which changes the convection potential energy, which impacts cloudiness, which leads again to rain. It's a "very nonlinear, very interacting cycle," says Bras, which is "elegant and quite pretty." Bras helped lay out the models for these cycles. His studies describe how nature seems to prefer extremes like flood and drought, and how in river basins all over the world, nature favors fractal organization and minimal energy expenditure. Other observation and modeling projects may have consequences for the future of the planet: A nine"year study of an Amazon region that sampled cloud cover from a satellite every three hours demonstrated that deforested regions produce shallow clouds less likely to produce rain, while deeply forested regions generate deep clouds. He has been captivated for the last 10 years by "the intertwined dance between vegetation, landscape hydrology and radiation," how soil moisture accommodates certain kinds of plants, which then change the properties of soil, which changes the drainage capability of water, which over time alters entire landscapes. Concludes Bras, "This beautiful trip through hydrology has been made exciting by all these things I did not know, which came through the exercise of research, trying things and finding things. It is all a result of chance and necessity; things adjust themselves." About the Speaker(s): Rafael L. Bras recently became Dean of the School of Engineering at U.C. Irvine, after 32 years on the MIT faculty. He came to MIT as a freshman, and earned his graduate degrees at MIT as well, joining the faculty in 1976. He has served as Chair of the MIT Faculty, and head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Bras has worked for many government and private institutions, including the Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation; and the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council. He served as chairman of the Earth Systems Sciences and Applications Committee of NASA, as well as the NASA Advisory Committee. Bras is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and is an elected fellow of the AAAS and AMS, among other organizations. He currently chairs a panel of experts supervising the design of a multibillion dollar project to protect Venice from floods. He has also advanced ideas about the impact of deforestation in the Amazon on regional and continental climates.Host(s): Office of the President, Office of the President

John Peter Nshimyimana, Legatum Fellow

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:26:42 GMT

John Peter Nshimyimana talks about the business he would like to start in his homeland. His idea is to provide clean water solutions to the rural villages in Rwanda.

MIT Water War 2008

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:16:55 GMT

The annual East Campus versus West Campus water war during Orientation 2008

Water boatman breathes underwater

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:01:08 GMT

The water boatman uses a thin layer of air as an "external lung" allowing it to breathe underwater. New MIT research has shown that many insects' water-repellent coats trap a thin layer of air on their bodies, allowing them to store and absorb oxygen from the surrounding water. More

Video courtesy John Bush, MIT

Supporting Community Water Systems by Selling Art for Water

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:46:57 GMT

An introduction to Sacha Yaku and its work on the potable water system of an indigenous community in Ecuador. Sacha Yaku is now starting an "Art for Water" program to tell the story of Santa Ana in the United States and by selling traditional jewelry and pottery to raise money for the water system. The program was started by a pair of MIT undergraduates in 2006 (Froylan Sifuentes ChemE '09 and Kendra Johnson 1E '09).

Nerinx Hall High School InvenTeam: Presentation

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:33:25 GMT

Nerinx Hall High School from Webster Groves, Mo., received a 2006 InvenTeam grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program to invent the Water Treatment and Transportation Apparatus (WTTA). The InvenTeam presented its prototype at MIT, upon completion of the grant. Inspired by two students who visited southern Mexico during a spring-break service trip, this device is designed to ease the burden on women who are tasked with hauling five-gallon buckets of water to their homes and provide cleaner water for their households' use.

CNN "Innovators" - Susan Murcott

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:51:06 GMT

The CNN series "Innovators" spotlights MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Senior Lecturer Susan Murcott and her work to bring clean water to developing countries. It highlights the innovation of the Kanchan [Note: Kanchan should have superscript TM and should be in italics if you can do that] Arsenic Filter, which she, together with a team of Nepali partners and a former student, Tommy Ngai, invented in 2002. The Kanchan [italics] filter removes both arsenic and microbial contamination from drinking water is one example of the pioneering work she and others are engaged in - the design and dissemination of household drinking water treatment and safe storage systems - a new cluster of innovative technologies to bring safe water to people everywhere. See also: http://web.mit.edu/watsan

digital water pavillion in use 2

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:19:39 GMT

digital water pavillion in use in front of the 2008 Wolrd Expo in Zaragoza

digital water pavillion in use

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:09:16 GMT

digital water pavillion in use in front of the Zaragoza 2008 World Expo

MIT Physics Demo -- Conductivity of Ionized Water

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:53:07 GMT

A light bulb is placed in series with two copper plates immersed in de-ionized water. Touching the plates closes the circuit, lighting the bulb.

When kosher salt is dropped into the de-ionized water, the salt dissolves, causing ions to be dispersed throughout the liquid. The free ions allow current to flow through the water, which completes the circuit and lights the bulb.

Most water we encounter in everyday life is not de-ionized and contains impurities with dissolved ions. This is why we know water as a good conductor, and why we shouldn't use electronic devices around a bathtub, for example.

Recent Videos tagged 'Water' on MIT Video

Groundwater Hydrology - Diffusion Sampling

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Active Mass Transfer

Groundwater Hydrology - Adsorption: Graphing Over Time

Groundwater Hydrology - Ashumit Pond Introduction

Groundwater Hydrology - Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Groundwater Hydrology - Seepage Meter 1

Groundwater Discharge - Iron and Manganese Presence

Groundwater Hydrology - Animations: Advection with Dispersion

Groundwater Hydrology - Cranberry Bog

Groundwater Hydrology - Water Sampling and Pumping

Groundwater Hydrology: Animations: Diffusive Mass Transfer

Groundwater Hydrology: Manual Well Drilling

Groundwater Hydrology - Large-scale Aquifer Sampling

Groundwater Hydrology: Sampling and Monitoring Devices

Groundwater Hydrology: Seepage Meter 2

In situ spectroscopic studies of metal oxide electrodes during water oxidation

Community Water Solutions: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs to End the World Water Crisis

Scanning droplets

Staying afloat: the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta

Turning Flood Water into Drinking Water

Humidification, Dehumidification, Desalination

Improving Efficiencies and Economics of Traditional Desalination Processes

MIT Water Technology Research: Applications for Industry and Public Utilities

Water Scarcity and Desalination

Technology Water Supply, Desalination and Energy

Cleaning up oil spills with magnets

Ocean currents from space

A new approach to water desalination

At the intersection of biology and physics in the ocean

Terrascope - Mission 2016

Dr. Ashok Gadgil - 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation Winner

2012 Freeman Lecture: "Climate Change and Water Resources: Characterizing Uncertainties for Decision Makers"

Flocculation

Climate

Process and Report of the ERC

Provost's Welcome and Introduction to the ERC

Basic Research with Real-World Impact

Community and Communication: Open Panel Discussion

Contamination Mitigation

Ecological Resilience

Industry: Synthetic Chemicals and Materials in the Environment: Do We Need a New Way to Design These Products?

Life Sciences: The Human Body: Superhighway of Environmental Gene Flow

Social Policy: Can Adaptation Save Us from Climate Change?

Sustainable Societies

Technology: Water Supply, Desalination and Energy

Water

Optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles (AUV)

Making nanodroplets drop faster

Desalination: The Key to Clean Drinking Water?

Climate's Dusty Clues

Surface Tension

Making Ice Cream with Salt: The Effect of Salt on the Freezing and Boiling Points of Water

Does Water Conduct Electricity

Sorcery 1.01 - Sorcerer's Apprentices Needed

Robofish

ALB006: The Quality of Water

Celebrating Science and Engineering Breakthroughs II

Ellen Swallow Richards

Master's student Arthur Gueneau models potential impacts on agricultural yield

Excellence is a Shared Path: Working Together for Justice and the Quality of Life

Water droplet impact

Rebuilding Haiti

Re-Engineering Buildings: Innovations in Building Technology

Looking Ahead to the Future of NASA

The Interaction Between Poverty, Growth and Democracy

From Relief to Reconstruction — Practical and Policy Challenges

2006 Freeman Lecture: "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Midst of Chaos and Caducity: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina"

"A Tale of Two Waters" presented by Yang Zhang

Sampling MIT at the MIT Museum: Water Splitting

Global Citizen Interview Seed Grant Team

Michael Pritchard, entrepreneur and inventor of the world's first ultra-filtration bottle

Inventor: Scot Frank - WatMap

BLOSSOMS - Sustainable Energy: "Can Water be the Future Fuel!?!" (Arabic)

Carbon and Energy Efficient Supply Chains

Personalized Energy

Toward India 2020: Challenges and Opportunities

Ripple Tank: Interference of Two Point Sources

Scot Frank

Kate Clopek: Community Water Solutions