Taekwondo + toward degradable polymers + MIT’s “technical polyglots”

With an eye toward sustainability, MIT researchers developed an expansive biodegradation dataset to help determine whether or not a polymer is biodegradable.

Through coursework, intercollegiate collaboration, and a site visit, MIT students fuse engineering and anthropology to propose innovative energy solutions.

All together, a core group of MIT.nano staffers has more than 400 years of technical experience in nanoscale characterization and fabrication.

Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson make the case that “rather than machine intelligence, what we need is ‘machine usefulness,’ which emphasizes the ability of computers to augment human capabilities. This would be a much more fruitful direction for increasing productivity. By empowering workers and reinforcing human decision making in the production process, it also would strengthen social forces that can stand up to big tech companies.”