MIT Black history + Putnam math champions + ESG investing

Twenty-one of the top 25 finishers are MIT students, including the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize winner.

New research finds that despite flaws, ESG ratings are still a useful way to measure the ethical behavior of companies.

A wireless technique enables a super-cold quantum computer to send and receive data without generating too much error-causing heat.

Artist Alison Nguyen’s exhibition, “History as Hypnosis” — a video installation that “surfaces themes of alienation and assimilation through three narratives” — is now on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center. “Nguyen’s work explores digital media’s psychological effects on the public, reflecting on how images are produced, circulated and consumed in mainstream U.S. culture.”

MIT engineers developed a chip for smartphones that blocks unwanted signals, which could “greatly reduce production costs, make devices smaller and more efficient, and potentially even improve battery life.”