By Dr Qi Dongtao, Senior Research Fellow from the East Asian Institute at NUS

• Lianhe Zaobao, 11 March 2025, Focus, p10

By Yong Pung How Prof Ramkishen S Rajan from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS

• The Business Times, 11 March 2025, p16

• Lianhe Zaobao, 11 March 2025, Singapore, p8

It is a deep question, from deep in our history: When did human language as we know it emerge? A new survey of genomic evidence suggests our unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago. Subsequently, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.

Our species, Homo sapiens, is about 230,000 years old. Estimates of when language originated vary widely, based on different forms of evidence, from fossils to cultural artifacts. The authors of the new analysis took a different approach. They reasoned that since all human languages likely have a common origin — as the researchers strongly think — the key question is how far back in time regional groups began spreading around the world.

“The logic is very simple,” says Shigeru Miyagawa, an MIT professor and co-author of a new paper summarizing the results. “Every population branching across the globe has human language, and all languages are related.” Based on what the genomics data indicate about the geographic divergence of early human populations, he adds, “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”

The paper, “Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago,” appears in Frontiers in Psychology. The co-authors are Miyagawa, who is a professor emeritus of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT; Rob DeSalle, a principal investigator at the American Museum of Natural History’s Institute for Comparative Genomics; Vitor Augusto Nóbrega, a faculty member in linguistics at the University of São Paolo; Remo Nitschke, of the University of Zurich, who worked on the project while at the University of Arizona linguistics department; Mercedes Okumura of the Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology at the University of São Paulo; and Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus of human origins at the American Museum of Natural History.

The new paper examines 15 genetic studies of different varieties, published over the past 18 years: Three used data about the inherited Y chromosome, three examined mitochondrial DNA, and nine were whole-genome studies.

All told, the data from these studies suggest an initial regional branching of humans about 135,000 years ago. That is, after the emergence of Homo sapiens, groups of people subsequently moved apart geographically, and some resulting genetic variations have developed, over time, among the different regional subpopulations. The amount of genetic variation shown in the studies allows researchers to estimate the point in time at which Homo sapiens was still one regionally undivided group.

Miyagawa says the studies collectively provide increasingly converging evidence about when these geographic splits started taking place. The first survey of this type was performed by other scholars in 2017, but they had fewer existing genetic studies to draw upon. Now, there are much more published data available, which when considered together point to 135,000 years ago as the likely time of the first split.

The new meta-analysis was possible because “quantity-wise we have more studies, and quality-wise, it’s a narrower window [of time],” says Miyagawa, who also holds an appointment at the University of São Paolo.

Like many linguists, Miyagawa believes all human languages are demonstrably related to each other, something he has examined in his own work. For instance, in his 2010 book, “Why Agree? Why Move?” he analyzed previously unexplored similarities between English, Japanese, and some of the Bantu languages. There are more than 7,000 identified human languages around the globe.

Some scholars have proposed that language capacity dates back a couple of million years, based on the physiological characteristics of other primates. But to Miyagawa, the question is not when primates could utter certain sounds; it is when humans had the cognitive ability to develop language as we know it, combining vocabulary and grammar into a system generating an infinite amount of rules-based expression.

“Human language is qualitatively different because there are two things, words and syntax, working together to create this very complex system,” Miyagawa says. “No other animal has a parallel structure in their communication system. And that gives us the ability to generate very sophisticated thoughts and to communicate them to others.”

This conception of human language origins also holds that humans had the cognitive capacity for language for some period of time before we constructed our first languages.

“Language is both a cognitive system and a communication system,” Miyagawa says. “My guess is prior to 135,000 years ago, it did start out as a private cognitive system, but relatively quickly that turned into a communications system.”

So, how can we know when distinctively human language was first used? The archaeological record is invaluable in this regard. Roughly 100,000 years ago, the evidence shows, there was a widespread appearance of symbolic activity, from meaningful markings on objects to the use of fire to produce ochre, a decorative red color.

Like our complex, highly generative language, these symbolic activities are engaged in by people, and no other creatures. As the paper notes, “behaviors compatible with language and the consistent exercise of symbolic thinking are detectable only in the archaeological record of H. sapiens.”

Among the co-authors, Tattersall has most prominently propounded the view that language served as a kind of ignition for symbolic thinking and other organized activities.

“Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” Miyagawa says. “Somehow it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.”

To be sure, as the authors acknowledge in the paper, other scholars believe there was a more incremental and broad-based development of new activities around 100,000 years ago, involving materials, tools, and social coordination, with language playing a role in this, but not necessarily being the central force.

For his part, Miyagawa recognizes that there is considerable room for further progress in this area of research, but thinks efforts like the current paper are at least steps toward filling out a more detailed picture of language’s emergence.

“Our approach is very empirically based, grounded in the latest genetic understanding of early homo sapiens,” Miyagawa says. “I think we are on a good research arc, and I hope this will encourage people to look more at human language and evolution.”

This research was, in part, supported by the São Paolo Excellence Chair awarded to Miyagawa by the São Paolo Research Foundation.

Many companies invest heavily in hiring talent to create the high-performance library code that underpins modern artificial intelligence systems. NVIDIA, for instance, developed some of the most advanced high-performance computing (HPC) libraries, creating a competitive moat that has proven difficult for others to breach.

But what if a couple of students, within a few months, could compete with state-of-the-art HPC libraries with a few hundred lines of code, instead of tens or hundreds of thousands?

That’s what researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have shown with a new programming language called Exo 2.

Exo 2 belongs to a new category of programming languages that MIT Professor Jonathan Ragan-Kelley calls “user-schedulable languages” (USLs). Instead of hoping that an opaque compiler will auto-generate the fastest possible code, USLs put programmers in the driver's seat, allowing them to write “schedules” that explicitly control how the compiler generates code. This enables performance engineers to transform simple programs that specify what they want to compute into complex programs that do the same thing as the original specification, but much, much faster.

One of the limitations of existing USLs (like the original Exo) is their relatively fixed set of scheduling operations, which makes it difficult to reuse scheduling code across different “kernels” (the individual components in a high-performance library).

In contrast, Exo 2 enables users to define new scheduling operations externally to the compiler, facilitating the creation of reusable scheduling libraries. Lead author Yuka Ikarashi, an MIT PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science and CSAIL affiliate, says that Exo 2 can reduce total schedule code by a factor of 100 and deliver performance competitive with state-of-the-art implementations on multiple different platforms, including Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) that power many machine learning applications. This makes it an attractive option for engineers in HPC focused on optimizing kernels across different operations, data types, and target architectures.

“It’s a bottom-up approach to automation, rather than doing an ML/AI search over high-performance code,” says Ikarashi. “What that means is that performance engineers and hardware implementers can write their own scheduling library, which is a set of optimization techniques to apply on their hardware to reach the peak performance.”

One major advantage of Exo 2 is that it reduces the amount of coding effort needed at any one time by reusing the scheduling code across applications and hardware targets. The researchers implemented a scheduling library with roughly 2,000 lines of code in Exo 2, encapsulating reusable optimizations that are linear-algebra specific and target-specific (AVX512, AVX2, Neon, and Gemmini hardware accelerators). This library consolidates scheduling efforts across more than 80 high-performance kernels with up to a dozen lines of code each, delivering performance comparable to, or better than, MKL, OpenBLAS, BLIS, and Halide.

Exo 2 includes a novel mechanism called “Cursors” that provides what they call a “stable reference” for pointing at the object code throughout the scheduling process. Ikarashi says that a stable reference is essential for users to encapsulate schedules within a library function, as it renders the scheduling code independent of object-code transformations.

“We believe that USLs should be designed to be user-extensible, rather than having a fixed set of operations,” says Ikarashi. “In this way, a language can grow to support large projects through the implementation of libraries that accommodate diverse optimization requirements and application domains.”

Exo 2’s design allows performance engineers to focus on high-level optimization strategies while ensuring that the underlying object code remains functionally equivalent through the use of safe primitives. In the future, the team hopes to expand Exo 2’s support for different types of hardware accelerators, like GPUs. Several ongoing projects aim to improve the compiler analysis itself, in terms of correctness, compilation time, and expressivity.

Ikarashi and Ragan-Kelley co-authored the paper with graduate students Kevin Qian and Samir Droubi, Alex Reinking of Adobe, and former CSAIL postdoc Gilbert Bernstein, now a professor at the University of Washington. This research was funded, in part, by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. National Science Foundation, while the first author was also supported by Masason, Funai, and Quad Fellowships.

Fourth-year Aravind Krishnan, the inaugural Sarah Katz Award recipient, is working to help shelter residents in Philadelphia better monitor their health.

After finishing a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics, fourth-year Bryan Suh will become a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps.

Geophysicist Douglas Jerolmack has used the mathematical framework developed for understanding fracture patterns on Earth to survey two-dimensional fracture networks across the solar system, which could offer insights into detecting potentially habitable environments on other planets.

Annabelle Jin, a fourth-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 16 recipients selected by the Henry Luce Foundation to be a 2025-26 Luce Scholar.

The University, Philadelphia’s largest private employer, generates economic development across the city, Commonwealth, and region.

At a gathering at Eisenlohr Hall, a portrait of renowned architect Julian Abele and a series of his paintings were unveiled, formally recognizing his design contributions to one of campus’ iconic structures.

For the last two years, the Perelman School of Medicine has partnered with the African Family Health Organization to offer weekly family-medicine/primary care clinics for recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.

Through a community-led partnership project, graduate student Eileen Feng and an interdisciplinary, cross-school team are working with local youth to tailor an AI-supported platform for healing through creative arts.

The Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials, a joint endeavor between Penn Arts Sciences and the Penn Museum, celebrates 10 years of teaching students how to interpret the past in an interdisciplinary context.

At Penn’s Graduate School of Education, the Penn Center for Learning Analytics is piloting an AI teaching assistant that fields students’ syllabus questions, generates assignment feedback, and eases the stress of instructors’ and TAs’ emailing schedules.

More than 60,000 tons of plastic makes the journey down the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean every year. And that doesn’t include what finds its way to the river’s banks, or the microplastics ingested by the region’s abundant and diverse wildlife.

It’s easy to demonize plastic, but it has been crucial in developing the society we live in today. Creating materials that have the benefits of plastics while reducing the harms of traditional production methods is a goal of chemical engineering and materials science labs the world over, including that of Bradley Olsen, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser (1960) Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.

Olsen, a Fulbright Amazonia scholar and the faculty lead of MIT-Brazil, works with communities to develop alternative plastics solutions that can be derived from resources within their own environments.

“The word that we use for this is co-design,” says Olsen. “The idea is, instead of engineers just designing something independently, they engage and jointly design the solution with the stakeholders.”

In this case, the stakeholders were small businesses around Manaus in the Brazilian state of Amazonas curious about the feasibility of bioplastics and other alternative packaging.

“Plastics are inherent to modern life and actually perform key functions and have a really beautiful chemistry that we want to be able to continue to leverage, but we want to do it in a way that is more earth-compatible,” says Desirée Plata, MIT associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

That’s why Plata joined Olsen in creating the course 1.096/10.496 (Design of Sustainable Polymer Systems) in 2021. Now, as a Global Classroom offering under the umbrella of MISTI since 2023, the class brings MIT students to Manaus during the three weeks of Independent Activities Period (IAP).

“In my work running the Global Teaching Labs in Brazil since 2016, MIT students collaborate closely with Brazilian undergraduates,” says Rosabelli Coelho-Keyssar, managing director of MIT-Brazil and MIT-Amazonia, who also runs MIT’s Global Teaching Labs program in Brazil. “This peer-learning model was incorporated into the Global Classroom in Manaus, ensuring that MIT and Brazilian students worked together throughout the course.”

The class leadership worked with climate scientist and MIT alumnus Carlos Nobre PhD ’83, who facilitated introductions to faculty at the Universidade Estadual de Amazonas (UAE), the state university of Amazonas. The group then scouted businesses in the Amazonas region who would be interested in partnering with the students.

“In the first year, it was Comunidade Julião, a community of people living on the edge of the Tarumã Mirim River west of Manaus,” says Olsen. “This year, we worked with Comunidade Para Maravilha, a community living in the dry land forest east of Manaus.”

A tailored solution

Plastic, by definition, is made up of many small carbon-based molecules, called monomers, linked by strong bonds into larger molecules called polymers. Linking different monomers and polymers in different ways creates different plastics — from trash bags to a swimming pool float to the dashboard of a car. Plastics are traditionally made from petroleum byproducts that are easy to link together, stable, and plentiful.

But there are ways to reduce the use of petroleum-based plastics. Packaging can be made from materials found within the local ecosystem, as was the focus of the 2024 class. Or carbon-based monomers can be extracted from high-starch plant matter through a number of techniques, the goal of the 2025 cohort. But plants that grow well in one location might not in another. And bioplastic production facilities can be tricky to install if the necessary resources aren’t immediately available.

“We can design a whole bunch of new sustainable chemical processes, use brand new top-of-the-line catalysts, but if you can’t actually implement them sustainably inside an environment, it falls short on a lot of the overall goals,” says Brian Carrick, a PhD candidate in the Olsen lab and a teaching assistant for the 2025 course offering.

So, identifying local candidates and tailoring the process is key. The 2025 MIT cohort collaborated with students from throughout the Amazonas state to explore the local flora, study its starch content in the lab, and develop a new plastic-making process — all within the three weeks of IAP.

“It’s easy when you have projects like this to get really locked into the MIT vacuum of just doing what sounds really cool, which isn’t always effective or constructive for people actually living in that environment,” says Claire Underwood, a junior chemical-biological engineering major who took the class. “That’s what really drew me into the project, being able to work with people in Brazil.”

The 31 students visited a protected area of the Amazon rainforest on Day One. They also had chances throughout IAP to visit the Amazon River, where the potential impact of their work became clear as they saw plastic waste collecting on its banks.

“That was a really cool aspect to the class, for sure, being able to actually see what we were working towards protecting and what the goal was,” says Underwood.

They interviewed stakeholders, such as farmers who could provide the feedstock and plastics manufacturers who could incorporate new techniques. Then, they got into the classroom, where massive intellectual ground was covered in a crash course on the sustainable design process, the nitty gritty of plastic production, and the Brazilian cultural context on how building such an industry would affect the community. For the final project, they separated into teams to craft preliminary designs of process and plant using a simplified model of these systems.

Connecting across boundaries

Working in another country brought to the fore how interlinked policy, culture, and technical solutions are.

“I know nothing about economics, and especially not Brazilian economics and politics,” says Underwood. But one of the Brazilian students in her group was a management and finance major. “He was super helpful when we were trying to source things and account for inflation and things like that — knowing what was feasible, and not just academically feasible.”

Before they parted at the end of IAP, each team presented their proposals to a panel of company representatives and Brazilian MIT alumni who chose first-, second-, and third-place winners. While more research is needed before comfortably implementing the ideas, the experience seemed to generate legitimate interest in creating a local bioplastics production facility.

Understanding sustainable design concepts and how to do interdisciplinary work is an important skill to learn. Even if these students don’t wind up working on bioplastics in the heart of the Amazon, being able to work with people of different perspectives — be it a different discipline or a different culture — is valuable in virtually every field.

“The exchange of knowledge across different fields and cultures is essential for developing innovative and sustainable solutions to global challenges such as climate change, waste management, and the development of eco-friendly materials,” says Taisa Sampaio, a PhD candidate in materials chemistry at UEA and a co-instructor for the course. “Programs like this are crucial in preparing professionals who are more aware and better equipped to tackle future challenges.”

Right now, Olsen and Plata are focused on harnessing the deep well of connections and resources they have around Manaus, but they hope to develop that kind of network elsewhere to expand this sustainable design exploration to other regions of the world.

“A lot of sustainability solutions are hyperlocal,” says Plata. “Understanding that not all locales are exactly the same is really powerful and important when we’re thinking about sustainability challenges. And it’s probably where we've gone wrong with the one-size-fits-all or silver-bullet solution — seeking that we’ve been doing for the past many decades.”

Collaborations for the 2026 trip are still in development but, as Olsen says, “we hope this is an experience we can continue to offer long into the future, based on how positive it has been for our students and our Brazilian partners.”

Converting one type of cell to another — for example, a skin cell to a neuron — can be done through a process that requires the skin cell to be induced into a “pluripotent” stem cell, then differentiated into a neuron. Researchers at MIT have now devised a simplified process that bypasses the stem cell stage, converting a skin cell directly into a neuron.

Working with mouse cells, the researchers developed a conversion method that is highly efficient and can produce more than 10 neurons from a single skin cell. If replicated in human cells, this approach could enable the generation of large quantities of motor neurons, which could potentially be used to treat patients with spinal cord injuries or diseases that impair mobility.

“We were able to get to yields where we could ask questions about whether these cells can be viable candidates for the cell replacement therapies, which we hope they could be. That’s where these types of reprogramming technologies can take us,” says Katie Galloway, the W. M. Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering.

As a first step toward developing these cells as a therapy, the researchers showed that they could generate motor neurons and engraft them into the brains of mice, where they integrated with host tissue.

Galloway is the senior author of two papers describing the new method, which appear today in Cell Systems. MIT graduate student Nathan Wang is the lead author of both papers.

From skin to neurons

Nearly 20 years ago, scientists in Japan showed that by delivering four transcription factors to skin cells, they could coax them to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Similar to embryonic stem cells, iPSCs can be differentiated into many other cell types. This technique works well, but it takes several weeks, and many of the cells don’t end up fully transitioning to mature cell types.

“Oftentimes, one of the challenges in reprogramming is that cells can get stuck in intermediate states,” Galloway says. “So, we’re using direct conversion, where instead of going through an iPSC intermediate, we’re going directly from a somatic cell to a motor neuron.”

Galloway’s research group and others have demonstrated this type of direct conversion before, but with very low yields — fewer than 1 percent. In Galloway’s previous work, she used a combination of six transcription factors plus two other proteins that stimulate cell proliferation. Each of those eight genes was delivered using a separate viral vector, making it difficult to ensure that each was expressed at the correct level in each cell.

In the first of the new Cell Systems papers, Galloway and her students reported a way to streamline the process so that skin cells can be converted to motor neurons using just three transcription factors, plus the two genes that drive cells into a highly proliferative state.

Using mouse cells, the researchers started with the original six transcription factors and experimented with dropping them out, one at a time, until they reached a combination of three — NGN2, ISL1, and LHX3 — that could successfully complete the conversion to neurons.

Once the number of genes was down to three, the researchers could use a single modified virus to deliver all three of them, allowing them to ensure that each cell expresses each gene at the correct levels.

Using a separate virus, the researchers also delivered genes encoding p53DD and a mutated version of HRAS. These genes drive the skin cells to divide many times before they start converting to neurons, allowing for a much higher yield of neurons, about 1,100 percent.

“If you were to express the transcription factors at really high levels in nonproliferative cells, the reprogramming rates would be really low, but hyperproliferative cells are more receptive. It’s like they’ve been potentiated for conversion, and then they become much more receptive to the levels of the transcription factors,” Galloway says.

The researchers also developed a slightly different combination of transcription factors that allowed them to perform the same direct conversion using human cells, but with a lower efficiency rate — between 10 and 30 percent, the researchers estimate. This process takes about five weeks, which is slightly faster than converting the cells to iPSCs first and then turning them into neurons.

Implanting cells

Once the researchers identified the optimal combination of genes to deliver, they began working on the best ways to deliver them, which was the focus of the second Cell Systems paper.

They tried out three different delivery viruses and found that a retrovirus achieved the most efficient rate of conversion. Reducing the density of cells grown in the dish also helped to improve the overall yield of motor neurons. This optimized process, which takes about two weeks in mouse cells, achieved a yield of more than 1,000 percent.

Working with colleagues at Boston University, the researchers then tested whether these motor neurons could be successfully engrafted into mice. They delivered the cells to a part of the brain known as the striatum, which is involved in motor control and other functions.

After two weeks, the researchers found that many of the neurons had survived and seemed to be forming connections with other brain cells. When grown in a dish, these cells showed measurable electrical activity and calcium signaling, suggesting the ability to communicate with other neurons. The researchers now hope to explore the possibility of implanting these neurons into the spinal cord.

The MIT team also hopes to increase the efficiency of this process for human cell conversion, which could allow for the generation of large quantities of neurons that could be used to treat spinal cord injuries or diseases that affect motor control, such as ALS. Clinical trials using neurons derived from iPSCs to treat ALS are now underway, but expanding the number of cells available for such treatments could make it easier to test and develop them for more widespread use in humans, Galloway says.

The research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

One of the University’s largest events of the year, the NUS120 Open House 2025 held on 8 March 2025 saw over 21,000 visitors pack the Kent Ridge and Bukit Timah campuses for a vibrant, informative and diverse showcase of what NUS has to offer.

Coinciding with NUS’ 120th anniversary this year, the event, which included a six-day virtual segment, provided a glimpse into the distinctive educational approach of Singapore’s first higher education institution and flagship university.

Kicking off the online segment from 1 to 6 March were virtual talks by the Office of Admissions that acquainted prospective students with the University’s educational offerings. These include over 60 bachelor’s degree programmes, interdisciplinary and flexible pathways, as well as opportunities for career development and global experiences. Talks, webinars and social media sessions by NUS Business School, NUS Law and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health were among the other presentations that took place during the online Open House.

The on-campus event saw throngs of prospective students and parents turn up to explore the various facets of NUS’ academic and student life. From programme booths, talks and masterclasses, to student life performances, campus tours and residential showcases, visitors got a taste of the well-rounded experience at NUS.

Nicole Yeo, a graduate from River Valley High School, said, “The Open House has provided me a glimpse into the school culture and I managed to clear my doubts, enabling me to make a more informed decision about my applications.

“I found the booths the most informative as not only were the programme booklets useful, the faculty members and students there were very eager to share with me about their programmes and answer my queries,” said Nicole, who is considering majors in Environmental Studies, Geography and Environmental and Sustainability Engineering.

Engineering the future of robotics

This year, the College of Design and Engineering (CDE) introduced the new Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics and Machine Intelligence, which will receive its first intake in August, at a combined talk for the Robotics & Machine Intelligence, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, and Systems Engineering programmes.

Prospective students learnt how the new robotics engineering specialisation will equip students with versatile skillsets that integrate mechanical, electrical and computer engineering with data science and artificial intelligence. Associate Professor Peter Chan also shared how the programme will prepare students for the future of intelligent robotics, through careers in industries such as defence, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and consumer electronics.

Pavithra Kannan from Raffles Institution, who plans to apply to Mechanical Engineering, found the talk informative. “I managed to learn about the course and possible career prospects. It was interesting to see how diverse the curriculum could be considering you can take different minors and specialisations to truly customise your own curriculum,” she said.

Over at CDE’s talk for Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Industrial Design, lecturers elaborated on the depth and breadth of the comprehensive curricula, faculty expertise, and career prospects for graduates, giving prospective students a well-rounded idea of the diverse skillsets and capabilities they will acquire.

Getting an edge in AI

Making its debut at the Computing showcase was the new Bachelor of Computing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) degree programme, also launching in August. Providing a strong foundation in mathematics, computer science and AI fundamentals, it will enable students to pursue specialisations in areas like robotics, computer vision and bioinformatics, opening doors to careers as AI engineers, machine learning engineers and data scientists.

Students also heard about the Bachelor in Business AI Systems programme. A revamp of the Information Systems degree, it involves solving business problems with AI systems and digital innovation. The programme offers three specialisations – AI governance and management, digital product and platform management, and financial technology – as well as internships with start-ups and multinational companies. 

A convergence of humanities and sciences

The College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), comprising the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) held talks throughout the day on its extensive range of programmes spanning the sciences, social sciences, humanities and languages.

Life Sciences – one of the biggest majors within CHS – presented its comprehensive programme that offers students the option of two specialisations: Biomedical Sciences; and Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity. Along with a range of minors like Aquatic Ecology and Forensic Science, it aims to nurture versatile scientists for careers in fields such as biotechnology, food security and environmental sustainability.

The joint programme talks organised by FASS included a Geography and Global Studies session that compared the two programmes. Highlighting their shared multidisciplinary approach, it contrasted Geography’s focus on the environment and society with Global Studies’ close examination of globalisation’s effects, emphasising the differing skill sets and career paths.   

Interdisciplinary insights

Along with talks and college tours, NUS College, Singapore’s first honours college, hosted special classes to showcase its stimulating interdisciplinary curriculum.

In Dr Roweena Yip’s class, “Tragedy, Culture, and Society”, students examined how societies are transformed by tragic events, using art, literature and pop culture to analyse the concept through historical, political and emotional dimensions. During Dr Chan Kiat Hwa’s class on nuclear waste and their implications on safety and acceptance, students explored the scientific basis of nuclear energy, the different approaches for storage and disposal, and the profound challenge of warning future generations of the long-term risks present in nuclear waste sites.

Prospective students also explored various avenues for artistic expression. In line with the new Arts For All framework, which aims to integrate the arts more deeply into student life and the academic journey at NUS, the myriad of opportunities for participation in the arts were discussed at a talk by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

Various second major programmes and academic pathways were shared, such as the Second Major in Audio Arts and Sciences, which develops students into skilled audio engineers and sound designers with both technical expertise and an understanding of music. Prospective students also heard about the NUS Centre for the Arts’ Second Major in Performing Arts, which prepares students for careers not only in the performing arts but in the arts industry and beyond, through real-world performance experience and vocational learning.

Those interested in starting a healthcare career had the chance to discover NUS’ academic programmes in Nursing, Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy and gain insights from alumni in the industry about their professional journeys. Pharmacy, which offers the only degree programme in Singapore training undergraduates as registered pharmacists, held a talk discussing the multi-faceted roles of pharmacists across different sectors, from healthcare and research to manufacturing and regulation. Nursing’s immersive special class employed virtual reality simulations and hands-on training using a mannequin, giving students the chance to try their hand at various clinical procedures.

At Bukit Timah Campus, students joined Law's ever-popular mock moot and attended masterclasses on legal topics such as criminal justice and international arbitration.

NUS’ strong entrepreneurial culture was also underscored through NUS Enterprise’s showcase of key initiatives like NUS Overseas Colleges, NUS Enterprise Summer and Winter Programmes in Entrepreneurship, and BLOCK71, highlighting the University’s vibrant innovation ecosystem and the many opportunities for budding entrepreneurs to tap on its networks.

For the first time, the programme included a fireside chat featuring Olympic champion Joseph Schooling, which saw him share about his life journey and emphasise the importance of self-belief, family support, and taking calculated risks. He also credited his Olympic achievement to dedication and pushing boundaries— attributes that are core to entrepreneurship.

Spotlight on student and campus life

Visitors at the Student Village were treated to a vibrant kaleidoscope of performances and showcases from diverse student clubs and interest groups, featuring some of NUS’ brightest talents in the performing arts. Serenading visitors across a range of genres including pop, rock, indie and R&B were the Sheares Band and Raffles Hall’s acapella group RHythm, along with other acts.

The performances and activities gave visitors a taste of NUS life beyond academics, driving home the mission of NUS’ latest NUSOne initiative, which aims to encourage greater self-directed personal growth and development among students, as well as synergise the University’s formal classroom learning with out-of-classroom experiences.

Masters, Resident Fellows, and student leaders from the Residential Colleges (RC), Halls, and Houses were also present to offer prospective students the inside scoop through talks, sample classes and guided tours.

NUS’ two newest residential units also made their debut at this year’s Open House. Valour House showcased its active and inclusive culture with an informative booth and exciting games and prizes. Acacia College, an upcoming RC focusing on artificial and human intelligences, shared how students will explore the relationship between AI and all facets of life and work while acquiring AI-related skills.

Besides engaging prospective students with anecdotes of on-campus living and information on their signature initiatives and pastoral care, the hostels also showcased the diverse student life and interest groups available, such as the uplifting band performances by the College of Alice and Peter Tan and Tembusu College.

Amber Lee, a graduate of Victoria Junior College who is considering Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) and Tembusu College, found the RC booths helpful. “There were many professors and students in the programme enthusiastically answering my questions of anything and everything about the RC, such as the professor at the RVRC booth who gave me a very thorough breakdown of modules and type of content taught at RVRC.”

Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, who is Director of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore), Distinguished Professor of Medicine at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Research Director at the Agency for Science, Technology & Research’s (A*STAR) Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, has been elected to the 2025 class of Fellows of the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy. Standings among an exceptional group of 33 newly inducted Fellows this year, he is honoured for his pioneering contributions to cancer research.

Prof Venkitaraman’s research has elucidated the tumour suppressive functions of the hereditary breast cancer gene, BRCA2, in genome maintenance. His work has been instrumental in uncovering the mechanisms responsible for carcinogenesis in BRCA2 mutation carriers, and advancing technologies to accelerate drug discovery, thereby establishing a foundation for the development of novel cancer therapies.

“I am deeply honoured to be elected to the AACR Academy, the world’s oldest and largest cancer research organisation. It is a great privilege to join such a distinguished group of global colleagues who have made transformative contributions for the lasting benefit of patients,” said Prof Venkitaraman.

He added, “This recognition is not mine alone—it also felicitates the achievements of a far-flung family of staff, students, fellows, and collaborators in my team whose contributions and camaraderie have made my work possible. It also underscores the excellence of research conducted at CSI Singapore, made possible through the generous support of our funders and donors. I am proud to be part of the remarkable scientific community at NUS and A*STAR in Singapore, and remain committed to advancing discoveries that improve patient outcomes worldwide.”

The AACR Academy honours outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions in driving innovation and progress in the fight against cancer. Fellows of the AACR Academy serve as a global brain trust of leading experts in cancer science and medicine, working to advance the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, collaboration, communication, advocacy, and funding for cancer research.

Fellows of the AACR Academy are nominated and elected through a meticulous peer-reviewed process that rigorously evaluates each candidate’s scientific achievements and contributions to the global cancer research community. Scientists whose work have made a deep and lasting impact on cancer research and related fields are considered for election and induction into the AACR Academy.

“The 2025 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy perfectly exemplifies the pinnacle of scientific innovation and excellence, with their collective scientific contributions fundamentally advancing our understanding of cancer biology and treatment. We are thrilled to welcome them to our distinguished group of Fellows of the AACR Academy, now numbering 375, and look forward to celebrating their groundbreaking achievements at our upcoming Annual Meeting in April 2025,” said AACR Chief Executive Officer Dr Margaret Foti.

Three outstanding educators have been named MacVicar Faculty Fellows: associate professor in comparative media studies/writing Paloma Duong, associate professor of economics Frank Schilbach, and associate professor of urban studies and planning Justin Steil.

For more than 30 years, the MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program has recognized exemplary and sustained contributions to undergraduate education at MIT. The program is named in honor of Margaret MacVicar, MIT’s first dean for undergraduate education and founder of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Fellows are chosen through a highly competitive, annual nomination process. The MIT Registrar’s Office coordinates and administers the award on behalf of the Office of the Vice Chancellor; nominations are reviewed by an advisory committee, and final selections are made by the provost.

Paloma Duong: Equipping students with a holistic, global worldview

Paloma Duong is the Ford International Career Development Associate Professor of Latin American and Media Studies. Her work has helped to reinvigorate Latin American subject offerings, increase the number of Spanish minors, and build community at the Institute.

Duong brings an interdisciplinary perspective to teaching Latin American culture in dialogue with media theory and political philosophy in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing (CMS/W) program. Her approach is built on a foundation of respect for each student’s unique academic journey and underscores the importance of caring for the whole student, honoring where they can go as intellectuals, and connecting them to a world bigger than themselves.

Senior Alex Wardle says that Professor Duong “broadened my worldview and made me more receptive to new concepts and ideas … her class has deepened my critical thinking skills in a way that very few other classes at MIT have even attempted to.”

Duong’s Spanish language classes and seminars incorporate a wide range of practices — including cultural analyses, artifacts, guest speakers, and hands-on multimedia projects — to help students engage with the material, think critically, and challenge preconceived notions while learning about Latin American history. CMS/W head and professor of science writing Seth Mnookin notes, “students become conversant with region-specific vocabularies, worldviews, and challenges.” This approach makes students feel “deeply respected” and treats them as “learning partners — interlocutors in their own right,” observes Bruno Perreau, the Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies and Language.

Outside the classroom, Duong takes the time to mentor and get to know students by supporting and attending programs connected to MIT Cubanos, Cena a las Seis, and Global Health Alliance. She also serves as an advisor for comparative media studies and Spanish majors, is the undergraduate officer for CMS/W, and is a member of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Education Advisory Committee and the Committee on Curricula.

“Subject areas like Spanish and Latin American Studies play an important role at MIT,” writes T.L. Taylor, professor in comparative media studies/writing and MacVicar Faculty Fellow. “Students find a sense of community and support in these spaces, something that should be at the heart of our attention more than ever these days. We are lucky to have such a dynamic and engaged educator like Professor Duong.”

On receiving this award, Duong says, “I’m positively elated! I’m very grateful to my students and colleagues for the nomination and am honored to become part of such a remarkable group of fellow teachers and mentors. Teaching undergraduates at MIT is always a beautiful challenge and an endless source of learning; I feel super lucky to be in this position.”

Frank Schilbach: Bringing energy and excitement to the curriculum

Frank Schilbach is an associate professor in the Department of Economics. His connection and dedication to undergraduates, combined with his efforts in communicating the importance of economics as a field of study, were key components in the revitalization of Course 14.

When Schilbach arrived at MIT in 2015, there were only three sophomore economics majors. “A less committed teacher would have probably just taken it as a given and got on with their research,” writes professor of economics Abhijit Banerjee. “Frank, instead, took it as a challenge … his patient efforts in convincing students that they need to make economics a part of their general education was a key reason why innovations [to broaden the major] succeeded. The department now has more than 40 sophomores.”

In addition to bolstering enrollment, Schilbach had a hand in curricular improvements. Among them, he created a “next step” for students completing class 14.01 (Principles of Microeconomics) with a revised class 14.13 (Psychology and Economics) that goes beyond classic topics in behavioral economics to explore links with poverty, mental health, happiness, and identity.

Even more significant is the thoughtful and inclusive approach to teaching that Schilbach brings. “He is considerate and careful, listening to everyone, explaining concepts while making students understand that we care about them … it is just a joy to see how the students revel in the activities and the learning,” writes Esther Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics. Erin Grela ’20 notes, “Professor Schilbach goes above and beyond to solicit student feedback so that he can make real-time changes to ensure that his classes are serving his students as best they can.”

His impacts extend beyond MIT as well. Professor of economics David Atkin writes: “Many of these students are inspired by their work with Frank to continue their studies at the graduate level, with an incredible 29 of his students going on to PhD studies at many of the best programs in the country. For someone who has only recently been promoted to a tenured professor, this is a remarkable record of advising.”

“I am delighted to be selected as a MacVicar Fellow,” says Schilbach. “I am thrilled that students find my courses valuable, and it brings me great joy to think that my teaching may help some students improve their well-being and inspire them to use their incredible talents to better the lives of others.”

Justin Steil: Experiential learning meets public service

“I am honored to join the MacVicar Faculty Fellows,” writes associate professor of law and urban planning Justin Steil. “I am deeply grateful to have the chance to teach and learn with such hard-working and creative students who are enthusiastic about collaborating to discover new knowledge and solve hard problems, in the classroom and beyond.”

Professor Steil uses his background as a lawyer, a sociologist, and an urban planner to combine experiential learning with opportunities for public service. In class 11.469 (Urban Sociology in Theory and Practice), he connects students with incarcerated individuals to examine inequality at one of the state’s largest prisons, MCI Norfolk. In another undergraduate seminar, students meet with leaders of local groups like GreenRoots in Chelsea, Massachusetts; Alternatives for Community and Environment in Roxbury, Massachusetts; and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Roxbury to work on urban environmental hazards. Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning and MacVicar Faculty Fellow Lawrence Vale calls Steil’s classes “life-altering.”

In addition to teaching, Steil is also a paramedic and has volunteered as an EMT for MIT Emergency Medical Service (EMS), where he continues to transform routine activities into teachable moments. “There are numerous opportunities at MIT to receive mentorship and perform research. Justin went beyond that. My conversations with Justin have inspired me to go to graduate school to research medical devices in the EMS context,” says Abigail Schipper ’24.

“Justin is truly devoted to the complete education of our undergraduate students in ways that meaningfully serve the broader MIT community as well as the residents of Cambridge and Boston,” says Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Biological Engineering Katharina Ribbeck. Miho Mazereeuw, associate professor of architecture and urbanism and director of the Urban Risk Lab, concurs: “through his teaching, advising, mentoring, and connections with community-based organizations and public agencies, Justin has knit together diverse threads into a coherent undergraduate experience.”

Student testimonials also highlight Steil’s ability to make each student feel special by delivering undivided attention and individualized mentorship. A former student writes: “I was so grateful to have met an instructor who believed in his students so earnestly … despite being one of the busiest people I’ve ever known, [he] … unerringly made the students he works with feel certain that he always has time for them.”

Since joining MIT in 2015, Steil has received a Committed to Caring award in 2018; the Harold E. Edgerton Award for exceptional contributions in research, teaching, and service in 2021; and a First Year Advising Award from the Office of the First Year in 2022.

Learn more about the MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program on the Registrar’s Office website. 

By Xiao Siming, an undergraduate student majoring in Economics and Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS

• Lianhe Zaobao, 7 March 2025, Opinion, p22

By Dr Lance Gore Liangping, Senior Research Fellow from the East Asian Institute at NUS

• Lianhe Zaobao, 7 March 2025, Opinion, p22

For those looking to climb the corporate ladder in the U.S., here’s an idea you might not have considered: debate training.

According to a new research paper, people who learn the basics of debate are more likely to advance to leadership roles in U.S. organizations, compared to those who do not receive this training. One key reason is that being equipped with debate skills makes people more assertive in the workplace.

“Debate training can promote leadership emergence and advancement by fostering individuals’ assertiveness, which is a key, valued leadership characteristic in U.S. organizations,” says MIT Associate Professor Jackson Lu, one of the scholars who conducted the study.

The research is based on two experiments and provides empirical insights into leadership development, a subject more often discussed anecdotally than studied systematically.

“Leadership development is a multi-billion-dollar industry, where people spend a lot of money trying to help individuals emerge as leaders,” Lu says. “But the public doesn’t actually know what would be effective, because there hasn’t been a lot of causal evidence. That’s exactly what we provide.”

The paper, “Breaking Ceilings: Debate Training Promotes Leadership Emergence by Increasing Assertiveness,” was published Monday in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The authors are Lu, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management; Michelle X. Zhao, an undergraduate student at the Olin Business School of Washington University in St. Louis; Hui Liao, a professor and assistant dean at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business; and Lu Doris Zhang, a doctoral student at MIT Sloan.

Assertiveness in the attention economy

The researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, 471 employees in a Fortune 100 firm were randomly assigned to receive either nine weeks of debate training or no training. Examined 18 months later, those receiving debate training were more likely to have advanced to leadership roles, by about 12 percentage points. This effect was statistically explained by increased assertiveness among those with debate training.

The second experiment, conducted with 975 university participants, further tested the causal effects of debate training in a controlled setting. Participants were randomly assigned to receive debate training, an alternative non-debate training, or no training. Consistent with the first experiment, participants receiving the debate training were more likely to emerge as leaders in subsequent group activities, an effect statistically explained by their increased assertiveness.

“The inclusion of a non-debate training condition allowed us to causally claim that debate training, rather than just any training, improved assertiveness and increased leadership emergence,” Zhang says. 

To some people, increasing assertiveness might not seem like an ideal recipe for success in an organizational setting, as it might seem likely to increase tensions or decrease cooperation. But as the authors note, the American Psychological Association conceptualizes assertiveness as “an adaptive style of communication in which individuals express their feelings and needs directly, while maintaining respect for others.”

Lu adds: “Assertiveness is conceptually different from aggressiveness. To speak up in meetings or classrooms, people don’t need to be aggressive jerks. You can ask questions politely, yet still effectively express opinons. Of course, that’s different from not saying anything at all.”

Moreover, in the contemporary world where we all must compete for attention, refined communication skills may be more important than ever.

“Whether it is cutting filler or mastering pacing, knowing how to assert our opinions helps us sound more leader-like,” Zhang says.

How firms identify leaders

The research also finds that debate training benefits people across demographics: Its impact was not significantly different for men or women, for those born in the U.S. or outside it, or for different ethnic groups.

However, the findings raise still other questions about how firms identify leaders. As the results show, individuals might have incentive to seek debate training and other general workplace skills. But how much responsibility do firms have to understand and recognize the many kinds of skills, beyond assertiveness, that employees may have?

“We emphasize that the onus of breaking leadership barriers should not fall on individuals themelves,” Lu says. “Organizations should also recognize and appreciate different communication and leadership styles in the workplace.”

Lu also notes that ongoing work is needed to understand if those firms are properly valuing the attributes of their own leaders.

“There is an important distinction between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness,” Lu says. “Our paper looks at leadership emergence. It’s possible that people who are better listeners, who are more cooperative, and humbler, should also be selected for leadership positions because they are more effective leaders.”

This research was partly funded by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Fourth-year Aravind Krishnan, the inaugural Sarah Katz Award recipient, is working to help shelter residents in Philadelphia better monitor their health.

The University, Philadelphia’s largest private employer, generates economic development across the city, Commonwealth, and region.

For the last two years, the Perelman School of Medicine has partnered with the African Family Health Organization to offer weekly family-medicine/primary care clinics for recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.

Through a community-led partnership project, graduate student Eileen Feng and an interdisciplinary, cross-school team are working with local youth to tailor an AI-supported platform for healing through creative arts.

The University of Melbourne is ranked in the top 50 globally across all five broad subject areas in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

NUS has been placed among the global top 10 for 22 subjects and top 20 for 36 subjects, according to the latest Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS WUR) by Subject 2025 released on 12 March 2025. This marks the highest-ever number of NUS subjects to be ranked among the global top 10.

Notably, NUS boasts six subjects ranking top five in the world. History of Art retained its global number two ranking, while Civil & Structural Engineering as well as Social Policy & Administration both climbed to third place worldwide, reaffirming NUS’ excellence in these fields. Chemical Engineering, Computer Science & Information Systems and Electrical & Electronic Engineering secured fourth place globally.

Nursing made its debut in the global top 10, jumping 12 places to eighth. Pharmacy & Pharmacology also saw a significant improvement, advancing six places to share the eighth spot.

Steady improvements across the board

Among the five broad faculty areas, NUS has achieved a global top 10 position for Social Sciences and Management and a top 20 position for Engineering and Technology. Over the past three years, the University saw a consistent improvement in the rankings across all broad faculty areas, reflecting the University’s strong interdisciplinary focus.

Professor Aaron Thean, Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, said: “We are immensely proud that NUS has achieved its best-ever performance this year in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, with 22 subjects in the global top 10, and 36 subjects in global top 20. The results reflect the University’s consistent trajectory of excellence, with steady improvements in education and research across disciplines over the years. 

In particular, our strong performance across STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Humanities subjects underscores the deep expertise and interdisciplinary approach that define NUS. This achievement is the result of the dedication and hard work of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. As we continue to push boundaries in research, innovation, and education, we remain committed to nurturing future-ready graduates and contributing meaningfully to Singapore and the world.”

NUS leads the pack locally, with three out of five entries from Singapore in world’s top three

The QS WUR by Subject is an independent comparative analysis of the reputation and research output of more than 21,000 academic offerings across 55 subjects and five broad faculty areas. In the 2025 edition, 5,200 institutions from 148 locations were analysed with rankings published for 1,747 institutions.

Mr Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President at QS, said: “Singapore shines in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025, with four entries breaking into the global top three for the first time—highlighting the nation’s rise as a leading hub for world-class education and research.”

According to QS, nearly one-third (30 per cent) of Singapore’s 114 ranked entries secured top 10 positions in their respective subjects—an unparalleled achievement that sets the nation apart from all other countries and territories.

“With just six universities contributing 114 ranked entries—including 12 in the broad faculty areas—Singapore consistently outperforms its scale. Despite its relatively small system, it competes at the highest level globally, delivering excellence in teaching, research, and graduate outcomes,” Mr Sowter added.

Overall, NUS is represented in 41 subjects and five broad faculty areas, highlighting its extensive academic reach and strength in multidisciplinary education and research.

By Dr Fadzil Hamzah, Community Director for the SingHealth Duke-NUS Sport and Exercise Medicine Centre

• Berita Harian, 10 March 2025, p11

• The Straits Times, 10 March 2025, Singapore, pA16

• The Straits Times, 10 March 2025, Singapore, pA16

• The Straits Times, 10 March 2025, World, pA7

By Huang Jiaqi, a student from the Dept of Chinese Language at the Faulty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS

• Lianhe Zaobao, 8 March 2025, Opinion, p14

• 8world Online, 7 March 2025

By Dr Samer Elhajjar, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Marketing at NUS Business School

• CNA Online, 6 March 2025

By Yong Pung How Prof Ramkishen S. Rajan, from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS

• The Business Times, 6 March 2025, p17

By Prof Teo Yik Ying, NUS Vice President for Global Health and Dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS

• The Straits Times, 6 March 2025, Opinion, pB1 & B2

By NUS Business School students, Lee Kah Shing Vanessa, Prissha Nair, Quah Shi Ting, Tan Ethan John and Tang Shaojun Samuel

• The Business Times, 6 March 2025, p18

• The Straits Times, 6 March 2025, Singapore, pA15

Professors Emery Brown and Hamsa Balakrishnan work in vastly different fields, but are united by their deep commitment to mentoring students. While each has contributed to major advancements in their respective areas — statistical neuroscience for Brown, and large-scale transportation systems for Balakrishnan — their students might argue that their greatest impact comes from the guidance, empathy, and personal support they provide. 

Emery Brown: Holistic mentorship

Brown is the Edward Hood Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at MIT and a practicing anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Brown’s experimental research has made important contributions toward understanding the neuroscience of how anesthetics act in the brain to create the states of general anesthesia. 

One of the biggest challenges in academic environments is knowing how to chart a course. Brown takes the time to connect with students individually, helping them identify meaningful pathways that they may not have considered for themselves. In addition to mentoring his graduate students and postdocs, Brown also hosts clinicians and faculty from around the world. Their presence in the lab exposes students to a number of career opportunities and connections outside of MIT’s academic environment.

Brown also continues to support former students beyond their time in his lab, offering guidance on personal and professional development even after they have moved on to other roles. “Knowing that I have Emery at my back as someone I can always turn to … is such a source of confidence and strength as I go forward into my own career,” one nominator wrote. 

When Brown faced a major career decision recently, he turned to his students to ask how his choice might affect them. He met with students individually to understand the personal impact that each might experience. Brown was adamant in ensuring that his professional advancement would not jeopardize his students, and invested a great deal of thought and effort in ensuring a positive outcome for them. 

Brown is deeply committed to the health and well-being of his students, with many nominators sharing examples of his constant support through challenging personal circumstances. When one student reached out to Brown, overwhelmed by research, recent personal loss, and career uncertainty, Brown created a safe space for vulnerable conversations. 

“He listened, supported me, and encouraged me to reflect on my aspirations for the next five years, assuring me that I should pursue them regardless of any obstacles,” the nominator shared. “Following our conversation, I felt more grounded and regained momentum in my research project.”

In summation, his student felt that Brown’s advice was “simple, yet enlightening, and exactly what I needed to hear at that moment.”

Hamsa Balakrishnan: Unequivocal advocacy

Balakrishnan is the William E. Leonhard Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. She leads the Dynamics, Infrastructure Networks, and Mobility (DINaMo) Research Group. Her current research interests are in the design, analysis, and implementation of control and optimization algorithms for large-scale cyber-physical infrastructures, with an emphasis on air transportation systems. 

Her nominators commended Balakrishnan for her efforts to support and advocate for all of her students. In particular, she connects her students to academic mentors within the community, which contributes to their sense of acceptance within the field. 

Balakrishnan’s mindfulness in respecting personal expression and her proactive approach to making everyone feel welcome have made a lasting impact on her students. “Hamsa’s efforts have encouraged me to bring my full self to the workplace,” one student wrote; “I will be forever grateful for her mentorship and kindness as an advisor.”

One student shared their experience of moving from a difficult advising situation to working with Balakrishnan, describing how her mentorship was crucial in the nominator’s successful return to research: “Hamsa’s mentorship has been vital to building up my confidence as a researcher, as she [often] provides helpful guidance and positive affirmation.”

Balakrishnan frequently gives her students freedom to independently explore and develop their research interests. When students wanted to delve into new areas like space research — far removed from her expertise in air traffic management and uncrewed aerial vehicles — Balakrishnan embraced the challenge and learned about these topics in order to provide better guidance. 

One student described how Balakrishnan consistently encouraged the lab to work on topics that interested them. This led the student to develop a novel research topic and publish a first author paper within months of joining the lab. 

Balakrishnan is deeply committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance for her students. She ensures that mentees do not feel compelled to overwork by encouraging them to take time off. Even if students do not have significant updates, Balakrishnan encourages weekly meetings to foster an open line of communication. She helps them set attainable goals, especially when it comes to tasks like paper reading and writing, and never pressures them to work late hours in order to meet paper or conference deadlines. 

After finishing a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics, fourth-year Bryan Suh will become a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps.

Picture this: you wake up on a bright and sunny Wednesday and it’s time for class. All morning you sit attentively in front of the screen and take notes, occasionally checking with your friends when the professor introduces new terms. When the clock strikes twelve, you collect your items, stuff them into your bag and head to the nearest canteen.

After lunch, there is a surprising twist: instead of going to your next class, you head to a family service centre to meet your mentees, whom you’ve been getting to know over the past few weeks. Laughter and fun ensue during the tutoring session, complete with games, quizzes and hard work on both sides, and the day ends on a high note. The best part? Volunteering at the centre counts towards your graduation requirements.

This is not a new concept for students at NUS, many of whom have chosen to participate in initiatives like Teach Singapore (Teach SG) to mentor children and youth from disadvantaged families. Part of a range of community engagement activities under NUSOne, Teach SG aims to promote social mobility and inclusiveness by providing access to positive role models and enhancing learning opportunities.

NUSOne is a new initiative that started in August 2024 and aims to broaden students’ access to and encourage their participation in a wide range of out-of-classroom activities. As part of efforts to transform higher education, it elevates the emphasis on student life activities and develops well-rounded, resilient and dynamic individuals who can thrive and flourish during and beyond their time at University.

Another example is the “Dabble & Discover” (D&D) series, which comprises a variety of workshops ranging from coffee mindfulness to a learn-to-play series on Wednesday afternoons. One such workshop was The Gimbap Roll-volution - Its History & Nutrition, organised by NUS Libraries in collaboration with BeyondFST Classroom (a student society from the Department of Food Science and Technology) and Good Day Café at the Medicine+Science Library. Participants learned about the role of gimbap (Korean rice rolls wrapped in seaweed) in Korean culture, its nutritional benefits and how to roll it. They were also given a primer on how to discover the authoritative resources on food science and technology in NUS Libraries’ collections. Other D&D activities – comprising sports, arts, wellness, and leadership workshops – also offer students opportunities to explore new interests, develop self-awareness, and build friendships.

Beyond a designated day for holistic experiences, opportunities to serve have also been embedded in an informal capacity. The NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine)’s Health, Humanitarian, and Leadership (HHL) Programme provides a space outside the formal curriculum for students to transform their ideas into real-world interventions for underserved communities, empowering them to lead service-learning projects that make a real-world impact.

Project Health Empowerment for Youth (HEY) is a community health initiative by the NUS Medical Society comprising students from various faculties including NUS Medicine, the School of Computing, and the College of Design and Engineering. They aim to enhance the awareness of primary school students on the importance of both physical and mental well-being. 

Together with families, teachers, and friends, HEY members act as pillars of support for these students, “elder brothers and sisters” with whom they can share concerns and challenges that may otherwise be difficult to express. Several workshops have been successfully conducted, with the students participating in health screening sessions and mini games which cover topics such as diet, exercise, phone usage, and environmental awareness. Learning journeys to various locations have also enabled them to forge stronger mentor-mentee bonds.

Founding Project Director of HEY and third-year NUS Medicine student Collin Chu shared that he had been inspired by Teach SG, where he served as a mentor in his first year. “We recognise that primary school students juggle various demands, such as their academics and co-curricular activities, and we hope Project HEY can provide them with useful strategies and resources to adopt a healthier lifestyle,” Collin said. 

“Through HEY, my team and I have learned about the importance of communication not only within the team, but also with beneficiaries and community organisations, as each stakeholder has unique needs and ideas. Moreover, as role models, fostering a conducive learning environment is integral to gaining mentees’ trust, especially when they are still at an early stage of life and require more guidance and support. The experience with HEY has strengthened our motivation to create a positive and sustainable impact,” he added.

SIGNapse is another service-learning initiative that is making an impact. It started as an interest group among NUS Medicine students and has now grown into a thriving initiative spanning six disciplines in NUS: Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Social Work, and Psychology. Since its inception in 2016, SIGNapse has been dedicated to equipping future healthcare professionals with a foundational knowledge of Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) and a deeper appreciation of Deaf culture. SIGNapse works to bridge communication gaps between the Deaf and hearing communities through structured learning, immersive experiences, and advocacy.

One of SIGNapse’s key initiatives is the provision of Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) classes. In line with NUSOne’s move to encourage out-of-classroom learning, the classes are scheduled on Wednesday afternoons and are open to the wider NUS student body. Conducted in collaboration with NUS Enablers (a student interest group promoting accessibility and inclusivity for students with accessibility needs on campus) and led by trained Deaf instructors from Equal Dreams (a social business that provides consultancy, services and training for disability inclusion and accessibility), these classes emphasise the deep connection between language, identity, and inclusion.

In addition, SIGNapse hosts interactive half-day exposure workshops together with The Singapore Association For The Deaf (SADeaf), designed to introduce participants to Deaf culture and communication, with discussions on Deaf identity, the importance of inclusive communication, and hands-on SgSL practice. SIGNapse has also worked with SADeaf to launch the "In Another Shoes" video campaign, an ongoing initiative which features interviews with Deaf representatives who work closely with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) community. Through personal stories, the campaign highlights the everyday challenges Deaf individuals face, the crucial role of interpreters and the significance of inclusive communication in healthcare settings.

Almost a year on, NUSOne has already made a remarkable impact on students’ university experience. Associate Professor Wong Mun Loke, NUS’ Associate Provost for Integrated Education said, “These [out-of-classroom] activities allow them to explore new areas of interest and develop life skills such as communication, teamwork, adaptability. Together with their academic studies, this broader exposure on campus allows them to embrace a more holistic educational experience and enhance their future-readiness after graduation.”

Keen to kickstart a vibrant student life? Find out more about admission to NUS at this link.

Neuroscience is a fast-evolving discipline that closely intersects with other fields - including immunology, metabolism, cancer, and more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) – driving new discoveries and innovations. These intersections reflect the importance of global collaboration in neuroscience, as researchers integrate emerging technologies like AI and computational models into their research.

Amidst this backdrop, the NeuroFrontiers Symposium, held from 21 to 22 January 2025 at the NUS University Cultural Centre, brought together top neuroscience researchers, stakeholders, and students from the USA, China and Singapore, providing a dynamic platform for advancing global collaboration in brain research, particularly through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. The inaugural symposium was organised by the NUS Life Sciences Institute’s Neurobiology Research Programme in collaboration with IDG Capital, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the McGovern Institute in Beijing Normal University, Peking University and Tsinghua University. It was sponsored by The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, IDG Capital (Singapore), and McGovern Institute.

“We are honoured to host this symposium and facilitate meaningful discussions among global experts in neuroscience and AI from MIT, China and Singapore, providing, a platform for enhanced global collaboration,” said Distinguished Professor Barry Halliwell from the Department of Biochemistry at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Programme Leader of the Neurobiology Research Programme at the NUS Life Sciences Institute.

“This symposium will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on the future of neuroscience, shaping the direction of research and accelerating breakthroughs for years to come,” said NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye in his welcome remarks.

Fostering global collaboration in neuroscience

Themed ‘Bridging Molecules, Minds, and AI systems’, the symposium underscored the critical role of cross-border partnerships in tackling grand challenges in neuroscience and AI. More than 240 participants attended the event, including leading experts in computational neuroscience, AI, and neural engineering. Key sessions of the symposium, such as keynote talks, panel discussions, and poster presentations, fostered collaboration and inspired new research initiatives.

Ms Lore McGovern, Co-founder and Board Member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, echoed the vital role of global collaboration, stating that "science and research collaboration reign above pretty much everything else” and that real power comes from “collaboration, respect, and friendship”.

Sessions at the symposium revolved around advancing global collaboration in neuroscience, particularly through emerging technologies like AI and computational models to drive brain research. The symposium also provided the opportunity for neuroscience researchers to present their work during the poster sessions, which generated enthusiastic discussions amongst participants.

Participants also appreciated the chance to engage in insightful discussions with leading neuroscience and AI experts during the panel discussions. One of the panel discussions, chaired by Prof Halliwell, covered the topic “Healthcare Impacts of Neuroscience”. The session highlighted breakthroughs in neuroimaging, brain-computer interfaces, and AI-driven diagnostics, emphasising the urgent need to revolutionise mental health care to better serve an ageing population.

Exploring intelligence, ethics, and the future of neuroscience and AI

Another highlight of the NeuroFrontiers Symposium was a panel discussion on “AI Implications in Neuroscience”, featuring leading global experts from psychology, computational neuroscience, and computer engineering.  

One of the panellists, Associate Professor Thomas Yeo Boon Thye from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the College of Design and Engineering at NUS, highlighted his work, which uses machine learning to develop individualised brain networks for precision psychiatry. He shared, “The hope is that we can use these individual-level networks for personalised brain stimulation and better treatment outcomes.”

Other leading experts, such as Professor Tomaso Poggio from MIT, Professor Wu Si from Peking University, Associate Professor Jia Xiaoxuan from Tsinghua University, and Professor Liu Chao from Beijing Normal University, also shared their perspectives on AI’s role in neuroscience research, the potential and limitations of brain-inspired computing, and the ethical concerns surrounding AI-driven intelligence.

The panelists agreed that while AI technologies such as deep learning have made rapid progress, understanding the human brain remains crucial for guiding AI’s development and addressing its shortcomings. Another key focus of the discussion was AI’s potential to advance neuroscience by improving brain modelling, disease prediction, and cognitive research. The panel concluded with a reflection on the ethical and societal implications of AI and the need for AI alignment.

Expanding global collaborations in brain research

The NeuroFrontiers Symposium successfully fostered meaningful dialogues and set the stage for deeper international partnerships in neuroscience and AI research. As AI technologies and brain science increasingly converge, global collaborations will be instrumental in driving the future of neuroscience innovation.

Look around, and you’ll see it everywhere: the way trees form branches, the way cities divide into neighborhoods, the way the brain organizes into regions. Nature loves modularity — a limited number of self-contained units that combine in different ways to perform many functions. But how does this organization arise? Does it follow a detailed genetic blueprint, or can these structures emerge on their own?

A new study from MIT Professor Ila Fiete suggests a surprising answer.

In findings published Feb. 18 in Nature, Fiete, an associate investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and director of the K. Lisa Yang Integrative Computational Neuroscience (ICoN) Center at MIT, reports that a mathematical model called peak selection can explain how modules emerge without strict genetic instructions. Her team’s findings, which apply to brain systems and ecosystems, help explain how modularity occurs across nature, no matter the scale.

Joining two big ideas

“Scientists have debated how modular structures form. One hypothesis suggests that various genes are turned on at different locations to begin or end a structure. This explains how insect embryos develop body segments, with genes turning on or off at specific concentrations of a smooth chemical gradient in the insect egg,” says Fiete, who is the senior author of the paper. Mikail Khona PhD '25, a former graduate student and K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center graduate fellow, and postdoc Sarthak Chandra also led the study.

Another idea, inspired by mathematician Alan Turing, suggests that a structure could emerge from competition — small-scale interactions can create repeating patterns, like the spots on a cheetah or the ripples in sand dunes.

Both ideas work well in some cases, but fail in others. The new research suggests that nature need not pick one approach over the other. The authors propose a simple mathematical principle called peak selection, showing that when a smooth gradient is paired with local interactions that are competitive, modular structures emerge naturally. “In this way, biological systems can organize themselves into sharp modules without detailed top-down instruction,” says Chandra.

Modular systems in the brain

The researchers tested their idea on grid cells, which play a critical role in spatial navigation as well as the storage of episodic memories. Grid cells fire in a repeating triangular pattern as animals move through space, but they don’t all work at the same scale — they are organized into distinct modules, each responsible for mapping space at slightly different resolutions.

No one knows how these modules form, but Fiete’s model shows that gradual variations in cellular properties along one dimension in the brain, combined with local neural interactions, could explain the entire structure. The grid cells naturally sort themselves into distinct groups with clear boundaries, without external maps or genetic programs telling them where to go. “Our work explains how grid cell modules could emerge. The explanation tips the balance toward the possibility of self-organization. It predicts that there might be no gene or intrinsic cell property that jumps when the grid cell scale jumps to another module,” notes Khona.

Modular systems in nature

The same principle applies beyond neuroscience. Imagine a landscape where temperatures and rainfall vary gradually over a space. You might expect species to be spread, and also to vary, smoothly over this region. But in reality, ecosystems often form species clusters with sharp boundaries — distinct ecological “neighborhoods” that don’t overlap.

Fiete’s study suggests why: local competition, cooperation, and predation between species interact with the global environmental gradients to create natural separations, even when the underlying conditions change gradually. This phenomenon can be explained using peak selection — and suggests that the same principle that shapes brain circuits could also be at play in forests and oceans.

A self-organizing world

One of the researchers’ most striking findings is that modularity in these systems is remarkably robust. Change the size of the system, and the number of modules stays the same — they just scale up or down. That means a mouse brain and a human brain could use the same fundamental rules to form their navigation circuits, just at different sizes.

The model also makes testable predictions. If it’s correct, grid cell modules should follow simple spacing ratios. In ecosystems, species distributions should form distinct clusters even without sharp environmental shifts.

Fiete notes that their work adds another conceptual framework to biology. “Peak selection can inform future experiments, not only in grid cell research but across developmental biology.”

Look around, and you’ll see it everywhere: the way trees form branches, the way cities divide into neighborhoods, the way the brain organizes into regions. Nature loves modularity — a limited number of self-contained units that combine in different ways to perform many functions. But how does this organization arise? Does it follow a detailed genetic blueprint, or can these structures emerge on their own?

A new study from MIT Professor Ila Fiete suggests a surprising answer.

In findings published Feb. 18 in Nature, Fiete, an associate investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and director of the K. Lisa Yang Integrative Computational Neuroscience (ICoN) Center at MIT, reports that a mathematical model called peak selection can explain how modules emerge without strict genetic instructions. Her team’s findings, which apply to brain systems and ecosystems, help explain how modularity occurs across nature, no matter the scale.

Joining two big ideas

“Scientists have debated how modular structures form. One hypothesis suggests that various genes are turned on at different locations to begin or end a structure. This explains how insect embryos develop body segments, with genes turning on or off at specific concentrations of a smooth chemical gradient in the insect egg,” says Fiete, who is the senior author of the paper. Mikail Khona PhD '25, a former graduate student and K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center graduate fellow, and postdoc Sarthak Chandra also led the study.

Another idea, inspired by mathematician Alan Turing, suggests that a structure could emerge from competition — small-scale interactions can create repeating patterns, like the spots on a cheetah or the ripples in sand dunes.

Both ideas work well in some cases, but fail in others. The new research suggests that nature need not pick one approach over the other. The authors propose a simple mathematical principle called peak selection, showing that when a smooth gradient is paired with local interactions that are competitive, modular structures emerge naturally. “In this way, biological systems can organize themselves into sharp modules without detailed top-down instruction,” says Chandra.

Modular systems in the brain

The researchers tested their idea on grid cells, which play a critical role in spatial navigation as well as the storage of episodic memories. Grid cells fire in a repeating triangular pattern as animals move through space, but they don’t all work at the same scale — they are organized into distinct modules, each responsible for mapping space at slightly different resolutions.

No one knows how these modules form, but Fiete’s model shows that gradual variations in cellular properties along one dimension in the brain, combined with local neural interactions, could explain the entire structure. The grid cells naturally sort themselves into distinct groups with clear boundaries, without external maps or genetic programs telling them where to go. “Our work explains how grid cell modules could emerge. The explanation tips the balance toward the possibility of self-organization. It predicts that there might be no gene or intrinsic cell property that jumps when the grid cell scale jumps to another module,” notes Khona.

Modular systems in nature

The same principle applies beyond neuroscience. Imagine a landscape where temperatures and rainfall vary gradually over a space. You might expect species to be spread, and also to vary, smoothly over this region. But in reality, ecosystems often form species clusters with sharp boundaries — distinct ecological “neighborhoods” that don’t overlap.

Fiete’s study suggests why: local competition, cooperation, and predation between species interact with the global environmental gradients to create natural separations, even when the underlying conditions change gradually. This phenomenon can be explained using peak selection — and suggests that the same principle that shapes brain circuits could also be at play in forests and oceans.

A self-organizing world

One of the researchers’ most striking findings is that modularity in these systems is remarkably robust. Change the size of the system, and the number of modules stays the same — they just scale up or down. That means a mouse brain and a human brain could use the same fundamental rules to form their navigation circuits, just at different sizes.

The model also makes testable predictions. If it’s correct, grid cell modules should follow simple spacing ratios. In ecosystems, species distributions should form distinct clusters even without sharp environmental shifts.

Fiete notes that their work adds another conceptual framework to biology. “Peak selection can inform future experiments, not only in grid cell research but across developmental biology.”

Geophysicist Douglas Jerolmack has used the mathematical framework developed for understanding fracture patterns on Earth to survey two-dimensional fracture networks across the solar system, which could offer insights into detecting potentially habitable environments on other planets.

Annabelle Jin, a fourth-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 16 recipients selected by the Henry Luce Foundation to be a 2025-26 Luce Scholar.

MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.

In a study appearing today in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. An atmospheric layer of special interest is the thermosphere, where the International Space Station and most satellites orbit today. When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag — a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will encounter air molecules and burn up.

Less drag therefore means extended lifetimes for space junk, which will litter sought-after regions for decades and increase the potential for collisions in orbit.

The team carried out simulations of how carbon emissions affect the upper atmosphere and orbital dynamics, in order to estimate the “satellite carrying capacity” of low Earth orbit. These simulations predict that by the year 2100, the carrying capacity of the most popular regions could be reduced by 50-66 percent due to the effects of greenhouse gases.

“Our behavior with greenhouse gases here on Earth over the past 100 years is having an effect on how we operate satellites over the next 100 years,” says study author Richard Linares, associate professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro).

“The upper atmosphere is in a fragile state as climate change disrupts the status quo,” adds lead author William Parker, a graduate student in AeroAstro. “At the same time, there’s been a massive increase in the number of satellites launched, especially for delivering broadband internet from space. If we don’t manage this activity carefully and work to reduce our emissions, space could become too crowded, leading to more collisions and debris.”

The study includes co-author Matthew Brown of the University of Birmingham.

Sky fall

The thermosphere naturally contracts and expands every 11 years in response to the sun’s regular activity cycle. When the sun’s activity is low, the Earth receives less radiation, and its outermost atmosphere temporarily cools and contracts before expanding again during solar maximum.

In the 1990s, scientists wondered what response the thermosphere might have to greenhouse gases. Their preliminary modeling showed that, while the gases trap heat in the lower atmosphere, where we experience global warming and weather, the same gases radiate heat at much higher altitudes, effectively cooling the thermosphere. With this cooling, the researchers predicted that the thermosphere should shrink, reducing atmospheric density at high altitudes.

In the last decade, scientists have been able to measure changes in drag on satellites, which has provided some evidence that the thermosphere is contracting in response to something more than the sun’s natural, 11-year cycle.

“The sky is quite literally falling — just at a rate that’s on the scale of decades,” Parker says. “And we can see this by how the drag on our satellites is changing.”

The MIT team wondered how that response will affect the number of satellites that can safely operate in Earth’s orbit. Today, there are over 10,000 satellites drifting through low Earth orbit, which describes the region of space up to 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers), from Earth’s surface. These satellites deliver essential services, including internet, communications, navigation, weather forecasting, and banking. The satellite population has ballooned in recent years, requiring operators to perform regular collision-avoidance maneuvers to keep safe. Any collisions that do occur can generate debris that remains in orbit for decades or centuries, increasing the chance for follow-on collisions with satellites, both old and new.

“More satellites have been launched in the last five years than in the preceding 60 years combined,” Parker says. “One of key things we’re trying to understand is whether the path we’re on today is sustainable.”

Crowded shells

In their new study, the researchers simulated different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios over the next century to investigate impacts on atmospheric density and drag. For each “shell,” or altitude range of interest, they then modeled the orbital dynamics and the risk of satellite collisions based on the number of objects within the shell. They used this approach to identify each shell’s “carrying capacity” — a term that is typically used in studies of ecology to describe the number of individuals that an ecosystem can support.

“We’re taking that carrying capacity idea and translating it to this space sustainability problem, to understand how many satellites low Earth orbit can sustain,” Parker explains.

The team compared several scenarios: one in which greenhouse gas concentrations remain at their level from the year 2000 and others where emissions change according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). They found that scenarios with continuing increases in emissions would lead to a significantly reduced carrying capacity throughout low Earth orbit.

In particular, the team estimates that by the end of this century, the number of satellites safely accommodated within the altitudes of 200 and 1,000 kilometers could be reduced by 50 to 66 percent compared with a scenario in which emissions remain at year-2000 levels. If satellite capacity is exceeded, even in a local region, the researchers predict that the region will experience a “runaway instability,” or a cascade of collisions that would create so much debris that satellites could no longer safely operate there.

Their predictions forecast out to the year 2100, but the team says that certain shells in the atmosphere today are already crowding up with satellites, particularly from recent “megaconstellations” such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which comprises fleets of thousands of small internet satellites.

“The megaconstellation is a new trend, and we’re showing that because of climate change, we’re going to have a reduced capacity in orbit,” Linares says. “And in local regions, we’re close to approaching this capacity value today.”

“We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. If the atmosphere is changing, then the debris environment will change too,” Parker adds. “We show the long-term outlook on orbital debris is critically dependent on curbing our greenhouse gas emissions.”

This research is supported, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council.

Tuberculosis lives and thrives in the lungs. When the bacteria that cause the disease are coughed into the air, they are thrust into a comparatively hostile environment, with drastic changes to their surrounding pH and chemistry. How these bacteria survive their airborne journey is key to their persistence, but very little is known about how they protect themselves as they waft from one host to the next.

Now MIT researchers and their collaborators have discovered a family of genes that becomes essential for survival specifically when the pathogen is exposed to the air, likely protecting the bacterium during its flight.

Many of these genes were previously considered to be nonessential, as they didn’t seem to have any effect on the bacteria’s role in causing disease when injected into a host. The new work suggests that these genes are indeed essential, though for transmission rather than proliferation.

“There is a blind spot that we have toward airborne transmission, in terms of how a pathogen can survive these sudden changes as it circulates in the air,” says Lydia Bourouiba, who is the head of the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering, and a core faculty member in the Instiute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. “Now we have a sense, through these genes, of what tools tuberculosis uses to protect itself.”

The team’s results, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide new targets for tuberculosis therapies that simultaneously treat infection and prevent transmission.

“If a drug were to target the product of these same genes, it could effectively treat an individual, and even before that person is cured, it could keep the infection from spreading to others,” says Carl Nathan, chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor of Microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Nathan and Bourouiba are co-senior authors of the study, which includes MIT co-authors and mentees of Bourouiba in the Fluids and Health Network: co-lead author postdoc Xiaoyi Hu, postdoc Eric Shen, and student mentees Robin Jahn and Luc Geurts. The study also includes collaborators from Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of California at San Diego, Rockefeller University, Hackensack Meridian Health, and the University of Washington.

Pathogen’s perspective

Tuberculosis is a respiratory disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium that most commonly affects the lungs and is transmitted through droplets that an infected individual expels into the air, often through coughing or sneezing. Tuberculosis is the single leading cause of death from infection, except during the major global pandemics caused by viruses.

“In the last 100 years, we have had the 1918 influenza, the 1981 HIV AIDS epidemic, and the 2019 SARS Cov2 pandemic,” Nathan notes. “Each of those viruses has killed an enormous number of people. And as they have settled down, we are left with a ‘permanent pandemic’ of tuberculosis.”

Much of the research on tuberculosis centers on its pathophysiology — the mechanisms by which the bacteria take over and infect a host — as well as ways to diagnose and treat the disease. For their new study, Nathan and Bourouiba focused on transmission of tuberculosis, from the perspective of the bacterium itself, to investigate what defenses it might rely on to help it survive its airborne transmission.

“This is one of the first attempts to look at tuberculosis from the airborne perspective, in terms of what is happening to the organism, at the level of being protected from these sudden changes and very harsh biophysical conditions,” Bourouiba says.

Critical defense

At MIT, Bourouiba studies the physics of fluids and the ways in which droplet dynamics can spread particles and pathogens. She teamed up with Nathan, who studies tuberculosis, and the genes that the bacteria rely on throughout their life cycle.

To get a handle on how tuberculosis can survive in the air, the team aimed to mimic the conditions that the bacterium experiences during transmission. The researchers first looked to develop a fluid that is similar in viscosity and droplet sizes to what a patient would cough or sneeze out into the air. Bourouiba notes that much of the experimental work that has been done on tuberculosis in the past has been based on a liquid solution that scientists use to grow the bacteria. But the team found that this liquid has a chemical composition that is very different from the fluid that tuberculosis patients actually cough and sneeze into the air.

Additionally, Bourouiba notes that fluid commonly sampled from tuberculosis patients is based on sputum that a patient spits out, for instance for a diagnostic test. “The fluid is thick and gooey and it’s what most of the tuberculosis world considers to represent what is happening in the body,” she says. “But it’s extraordinarily inefficient in spreading to others because it’s too sticky to break into inhalable droplets.”

Through Bourouiba’s work with fluid and droplet physics, the team determined the more realistic viscosity and likely size distribution of tuberculosis-carrying microdroplets that would be transmitted through the air. The team also characterized the droplet compositions, based on analyses of patient samples of infected lung tissues. They then created a more realistic fluid, with a composition, viscosity, surface tension and droplet size that is similar to what would be released into the air from exhalations.

Then, the researchers deposited different fluid mixtures onto plates in tiny individual droplets and measured in detail how they evaporate and what internal structure they leave behind. They observed that the new fluid tended to shield the bacteria at the center of the droplet as the droplet evaporated, compared to conventional fluids where bacteria tended to be more exposed to the air. The more realistic fluid was also capable of retaining more water.

Additionally, the team infused each droplet with bacteria containing genes with various knockdowns, to see whether the absence of certain genes would affect the bacteria’s survival as the droplets evaporated.

In this way, the team assessed the activity of over 4,000 tuberculosis genes and discovered a family of several hundred genes that seemed to become important specifically as the bacteria adapted to airborne conditions. Many of these genes are involved in repairing damage to oxidized proteins, such as proteins that have been exposed to air. Other activated genes have to do with destroying damaged proteins that are beyond repair.

“What we turned up was a candidate list that’s very long,” Nathan says. “There are hundreds of genes, some more prominently implicated than others, that may be critically involved in helping tuberculosis survive its transmission phase.”

The team acknowledges the experiments are not a complete analog of the bacteria’s biophysical transmission. In reality, tuberculosis is carried in droplets that fly through the air, evaporating as they go. In order to carry out their genetic analyses, the team had to work with droplets sitting on a plate. Under these constraints, they mimicked the droplet transmission as best they could, by setting the plates in an extremely dry chamber to accelerate the droplets’ evaporation, analogous to what they would experience in flight.

Going forward, the researchers have started experimenting with platforms that allow them to study the droplets in flight, in a range of conditions. They plan to focus on the new family of genes in even more realistic experiments, to confirm whether the genes do indeed shield Mycobacterium tuberculosis as it is transmitted through the air, potentially opening the way to weakening its airborne defenses.

“The idea of waiting to find someone with tuberculosis, then treating and curing them, is a totally inefficient way to stop the pandemic,” Nathan says. “Most people who exhale tuberculosis do not yet have a diagnosis. So we have to interrupt its transmission. And how do you do that, if you don’t know anything about the process itself? We have some ideas now.”

This work was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health, the Abby and Howard P. Milstein Program in Chemical Biology and Translational Medicine, and the Potts Memorial Foundation, the National Science Foundation Center for Analysis and Prediction of Pandemic Expansion (APPEX), Inditex, NASA Translational Research Institute for Space Health , and Analog Devices, Inc.

By Asst Prof Yvette van der Eijk at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS

• CNA Online, 5 March 2025

By Prof Sing Tien Foo, Provost's Chair Professor at the Dept of Real Estate at NUS Business School

• Lianhe Zaobao, 5 March 2025, Focus, p18

By Dr Kyle Tan, Adj Asst Prof from the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS

• CNA Online, 4 March 2025

By Assoc Prof Mak Yuen Teen from the Department of Accounting at NUS Business School

• CNA Online, 4 March 2025

• Lianhe Zaobao, 4 March 2025, Singapore, p10

• Lianhe Zaobao, 4 March 2025, Singapore, p9

By Dr Kalpana Vignehsa, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS

• The Straits Times, 3 March 2025, Opinion, pB4 

• Tamil Murasu Online, 3 March 2025

• Tamil Murasu, 3 March 2025, p3

AutoCodeRover, an autonomous AI agent platform for software development which is a spin-off technology of the National University of Singapore (NUS), has been acquired by Sonar, a global leader in code quality and code security solutions. This innovative technology was developed by Professor Abhik Roychoudhury and his team from NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing).

The acquisition highlights the real-world impact of NUS’ research with the innovative platform boosting Sonar’s AI-agent-based code development, driving innovation in software engineering and agentic AI. This exciting partnership will also create new research and development (R&D) jobs in Singapore.

Enhancing the capabilities and efficiency of software developers

Automating software engineering tasks has long been a vision among software developers. Over the past decades, significant progress has been made to enhance developers' capabilities and efficiency by automating parts of the software development process.

AutoCodeRover is among the first AI agent platforms to combine state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) with sophisticated code search capabilities to automatically solve software engineering issues. It automates key steps in the software development lifecycle, such as debugging, issue remediation, and code refactoring, enabling developers to address real-world engineering challenges more efficiently. This, in turn, accelerates software development lifecycle and reduces time-to-market. It is designed to work with a variety of AI language models, giving users the flexibility to choose the solution that best fits their needs.

By combining powerful LLMs with advanced code search capabilities, AutoCodeRover excels across multiple dimensions of software issue remediation. It ranks among the top three in the SWE-Bench evaluations, the most comprehensive benchmark for testing AI coding agents’ software issue remediation capability. With an average modest cost of S$0.80 (US$0.60) and a short runtime of 6.5 minutes, versus 2.68 days by a typical human developer, for each issue, it is a highly cost-effective agent for practical deployment at scale.

Prof Roychoudhury, co-founder of AutoCodeRover, commented, “By automating routine tasks, AutoCodeRover enables developers to dedicate more time to innovation and creative problem-solving, accelerating the delivery of high-quality applications.”

“At Sonar, we are committed to helping developers build better, faster by embracing new technologies and tools, like agentic AI. The work done by Professor Roychoudhury and the whole AutoCodeRover team is fundamentally redefining what it means to be a software engineer,” said Mr Tariq Shaukat, CEO of Sonar. “With AutoCodeRover, we’ll enable millions of developers and enterprises to accelerate development, improve code reviews, lower development costs, and free up developer time so they can focus more on creating and building. We’re excited to be bringing this to life through an expansion of our operations in Singapore, and continued collaboration with NUS and the Trustworthy and Secure Software research group led by Professor Roychoudhury.”

Fueling AI innovation and job opportunities

One of the key highlights of this acquisition is Sonar’s plan to establish an R&D team in Singapore, creating 15 R&D jobs between 2025 and 2026. The team will be led by Dr Ridwan Shariffdeen, CEO and co-founder of AutoCodeRover, and former NUS PhD student in Prof Roychoudhury’s Trustworthy and Secure Software research group in NUS Computing.

“This partnership is a win for both NUS and the broader tech ecosystem in Singapore,” said Prof Roychoudhury, who will also serve as Sonar’s Senior Advisor, providing guidance on AI-based software and security of AI-based code. “Not only are we creating R&D jobs locally, we are also transitioning NUS’ cutting-edge research in AI and Software Engineering for software developers. By collaborating with Sonar, we gain valuable feedback from their large global customer base, which enriches our research and ensures the relevance of our work to industry needs. This also allows us to truly dream and define the software landscape of tomorrow, right here, from NUS.”

The integration of AutoCodeRover into Sonar’s ecosystem marks a transformative shift in software development, enabling developers to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently. As the world embraces AI-driven solutions, NUS remains at the forefront of innovation, delivering cutting-edge technologies that transform industries and improve lives.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) has received a generous gift of S$200,000 from global F&B leader Food Empire to nurture future innovators for the food and beverage sector through education. The gift will be used to establish the “Food Empire Food Science & Technology Bursary” to provide financial support for undergraduates at the NUS Faculty of Science pursuing Food Science and Technology as a major. By providing these students with the resources to pursue their passion and excel in their studies, the Bursary will empower these aspiring food scientists to unlock their full potential and emerge as the next generation of industry leaders.

"We are deeply grateful to Food Empire for their generous gift, which will create a transformative impact on the lives of our students. We are committed to preparing our students to become innovative leaders capable of tackling tomorrow’s food challenges, and industry partnerships like this are invaluable in realising this vision. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with Food Empire to expand opportunities for our students and drive groundbreaking advancements in food science research," said Professor Zhou Weibiao, Head of the NUS Department of Food Science and Technology (NUS FST).

Beyond providing financial support for students, Food Empire will also explore research collaborations with NUS FST, creating pathways for innovation that will benefit students, as well as the broader industry and consumers.

Mr Tan Wang Cheow, Executive Chairman of Food Empire, said: “The Bursary enables us to give back to the community by providing financial assistance to students who have shown great potential and a strong interest in pursuing a career in our field, and creating opportunities for skills development and innovation for them. We hope our support will inspire the next generation of industry leaders to achieve new breakthroughs in food sciences that will raise Singapore’s profile in the global food and beverage industry.”

This Bursary is just a slice of Food Empire’s hearty commitment to social responsibility. The company actively contributes to the community through various initiatives, for example, staff from Food Empire had volunteered to clean, declutter, and repaint the home of a beneficiary of non-profit organisation Helping Joy. The company had also supported Singapore’s 59th National Day celebrations in the heartlands.

Through these community initiatives and the establishment of the Bursary, Food Empire exemplifies its commitment to driving meaningful social impact. By investing in education today, the company is laying the foundation for a future driven by innovation and excellence in food science and technology, ensuring that Singapore remains at the forefront of the global F&B industry.

Imagine that a robot is helping you clean the dishes. You ask it to grab a soapy bowl out of the sink, but its gripper slightly misses the mark.

Using a new framework developed by MIT and NVIDIA researchers, you could correct that robot’s behavior with simple interactions. The method would allow you to point to the bowl or trace a trajectory to it on a screen, or simply give the robot’s arm a nudge in the right direction.

Unlike other methods for correcting robot behavior, this technique does not require users to collect new data and retrain the machine-learning model that powers the robot’s brain. It enables a robot to use intuitive, real-time human feedback to choose a feasible action sequence that gets as close as possible to satisfying the user’s intent.

When the researchers tested their framework, its success rate was 21 percent higher than an alternative method that did not leverage human interventions.

In the long run, this framework could enable a user to more easily guide a factory-trained robot to perform a wide variety of household tasks even though the robot has never seen their home or the objects in it.

“We can’t expect laypeople to perform data collection and fine-tune a neural network model. The consumer will expect the robot to work right out of the box, and if it doesn’t, they would want an intuitive mechanism to customize it. That is the challenge we tackled in this work,” says Felix Yanwei Wang, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student and lead author of a paper on this method.

His co-authors include Lirui Wang PhD ’24 and Yilun Du PhD ’24; senior author Julie Shah, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and the director of the Interactive Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL); as well as Balakumar Sundaralingam, Xuning Yang, Yu-Wei Chao, Claudia Perez-D’Arpino PhD ’19, and Dieter Fox of NVIDIA. The research will be presented at the International Conference on Robots and Automation.

Mitigating misalignment

Recently, researchers have begun using pre-trained generative AI models to learn a “policy,” or a set of rules, that a robot follows to complete an action. Generative models can solve multiple complex tasks.

During training, the model only sees feasible robot motions, so it learns to generate valid trajectories for the robot to follow.

While these trajectories are valid, that doesn’t mean they always align with a user’s intent in the real world. The robot might have been trained to grab boxes off a shelf without knocking them over, but it could fail to reach the box on top of someone’s bookshelf if the shelf is oriented differently than those it saw in training.

To overcome these failures, engineers typically collect data demonstrating the new task and re-train the generative model, a costly and time-consuming process that requires machine-learning expertise.

Instead, the MIT researchers wanted to allow users to steer the robot’s behavior during deployment when it makes a mistake.

But if a human interacts with the robot to correct its behavior, that could inadvertently cause the generative model to choose an invalid action. It might reach the box the user wants, but knock books off the shelf in the process.

“We want to allow the user to interact with the robot without introducing those kinds of mistakes, so we get a behavior that is much more aligned with user intent during deployment, but that is also valid and feasible,” Wang says.

Their framework accomplishes this by providing the user with three intuitive ways to correct the robot’s behavior, each of which offers certain advantages.

First, the user can point to the object they want the robot to manipulate in an interface that shows its camera view. Second, they can trace a trajectory in that interface, allowing them to specify how they want the robot to reach the object. Third, they can physically move the robot’s arm in the direction they want it to follow.

“When you are mapping a 2D image of the environment to actions in a 3D space, some information is lost. Physically nudging the robot is the most direct way to specifying user intent without losing any of the information,” says Wang.

Sampling for success

To ensure these interactions don’t cause the robot to choose an invalid action, such as colliding with other objects, the researchers use a specific sampling procedure. This technique lets the model choose an action from the set of valid actions that most closely aligns with the user’s goal.

“Rather than just imposing the user’s will, we give the robot an idea of what the user intends but let the sampling procedure oscillate around its own set of learned behaviors,” Wang explains.

This sampling method enabled the researchers’ framework to outperform the other methods they compared it to during simulations and experiments with a real robot arm in a toy kitchen.

While their method might not always complete the task right away, it offers users the advantage of being able to immediately correct the robot if they see it doing something wrong, rather than waiting for it to finish and then giving it new instructions.

Moreover, after a user nudges the robot a few times until it picks up the correct bowl, it could log that corrective action and incorporate it into its behavior through future training. Then, the next day, the robot could pick up the correct bowl without needing a nudge.

“But the key to that continuous improvement is having a way for the user to interact with the robot, which is what we have shown here,” Wang says.

In the future, the researchers want to boost the speed of the sampling procedure while maintaining or improving its performance. They also want to experiment with robot policy generation in novel environments.

The University of Melbourne has reinforced its ongoing commitment to the Pacific region after a three-nation visit which strengthened collaborative research, teaching and professional development opportunities.

Singer, songwriter, poet, author, and musician Patti Smith was in residence at the Kelly Writers House for two days, telling stories about the people in her life throughout the decades, reading passages from her books, and performing her songs.

SevenUniversity of Pennsylvaniaaffiliates—five fourth-years and two recent graduates—have each received a 2025Thouron Awardto pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom.

Researchers from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) interdisciplinary research group of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and MIT, have developed a groundbreaking near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanosensor capable of simultaneously detecting and differentiating between iron forms — Fe(II) and Fe(III) — in living plants. 

Iron is crucial for plant health, supporting photosynthesis, respiration, and enzyme function. It primarily exists in two forms: Fe(II), which is readily available for plants to absorb and use, and Fe(III), which must first be converted into Fe(II) before plants can utilize it effectively. Traditional methods only measure total iron, missing the distinction between these forms — a key factor in plant nutrition. Distinguishing between Fe(II) and Fe(III) provides insights into iron uptake efficiency, helps diagnose deficiencies or toxicities, and enables precise fertilization strategies in agriculture, reducing waste and environmental impact while improving crop productivity.

The first-of-its-kind nanosensor developed by SMART researchers enables real-time, nondestructive monitoring of iron uptake, transport, and changes between its different forms — providing precise and detailed observations of iron dynamics. Its high spatial resolution allows precise localization of iron in plant tissues or subcellular compartments, enabling the measurement of even minute changes in iron levels within plants — changes that can inform how a plant handles stress and uses nutrients. 

Traditional detection methods are destructive, or limited to a single form of iron. This new technology enables the diagnosis of deficiencies and optimization of fertilization strategies. By identifying insufficient or excessive iron intake, adjustments can be made to enhance plant health, reduce waste, and support more sustainable agriculture. While the nanosensor was tested on spinach and bok choy, it is species-agnostic, allowing it to be applied across a diverse range of plant species without genetic modification. This capability enhances our understanding of iron dynamics in various ecological settings, providing comprehensive insights into plant health and nutrient management. As a result, it serves as a valuable tool for both fundamental plant research and agricultural applications, supporting precision nutrient management, reducing fertilizer waste, and improving crop health.

“Iron is essential for plant growth and development, but monitoring its levels in plants has been a challenge. This breakthrough sensor is the first of its kind to detect both Fe(II) and Fe(III) in living plants with real-time, high-resolution imaging. With this technology, we can ensure plants receive the right amount of iron, improving crop health and agricultural sustainability,” says Duc Thinh Khong, DiSTAP research scientist and co-lead author of the paper.

“In enabling non-destructive real-time tracking of iron speciation in plants, this sensor opens new avenues for understanding plant iron metabolism and the implications of different iron variations for plants. Such knowledge will help guide the development of tailored management approaches to improve crop yield and more cost-effective soil fertilization strategies,” says Grace Tan, TLL research scientist and co-lead author of the paper.

The research, recently published in Nano Letters and titled, “Nanosensor for Fe(II) and Fe(III) Allowing Spatiotemporal Sensing in Planta,” builds upon SMART DiSTAP’s established expertise in plant nanobionics, leveraging the Corona Phase Molecular Recognition (CoPhMoRe) platform pioneered by the Strano Lab at SMART DiSTAP and MIT. The new nanosensor features single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) wrapped in a negatively charged fluorescent polymer, forming a helical corona phase structure that interacts differently with Fe(II) and Fe(III). Upon introduction into plant tissues and interaction with iron, the sensor emits distinct NIR fluorescence signals based on the iron type, enabling real-time tracking of iron movement and chemical changes.

The CoPhMoRe technique was used to develop highly selective fluorescent responses, allowing precise detection of iron oxidation states. The NIR fluorescence of SWNTs offers superior sensitivity, selectivity, and tissue transparency while minimizing interference, making it more effective than conventional fluorescent sensors. This capability allows researchers to track iron movement and chemical changes in real time using NIR imaging. 

“This sensor provides a powerful tool to study plant metabolism, nutrient transport, and stress responses. It supports optimized fertilizer use, reduces costs and environmental impact, and contributes to more nutritious crops, better food security, and sustainable farming practices,” says Professor Daisuke Urano, TLL senior principal investigator, DiSTAP principal investigator, National University of Singapore adjunct assistant professor, and co-corresponding author of the paper.

“This set of sensors gives us access to an important type of signalling in plants, and a critical nutrient necessary for plants to make chlorophyll. This new tool will not just help farmers to detect nutrient deficiency, but also give access to certain messages within the plant. It expands our ability to understand the plant response to its growth environment,” says Professor Michael Strano, DiSTAP co-lead principal investigator, Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, and co-corresponding author of the paper.

Beyond agriculture, this nanosensor holds promise for environmental monitoring, food safety, and health sciences, particularly in studying iron metabolism, iron deficiency, and iron-related diseases in humans and animals. Future research will focus on leveraging this nanosensor to advance fundamental plant studies on iron homeostasis, nutrient signaling, and redox dynamics. Efforts are also underway to integrate the nanosensor into automated nutrient management systems for hydroponic and soil-based farming and expand its functionality to detect other essential micronutrients. These advancements aim to enhance sustainability, precision, and efficiency in agriculture.

The research is carried out by SMART, and supported by the National Research Foundation under its Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise program.

For over 30 years, science photographer Felice Frankel has helped MIT professors, researchers, and students communicate their work visually. Throughout that time, she has seen the development of various tools to support the creation of compelling images: some helpful, and some antithetical to the effort of producing a trustworthy and complete representation of the research. In a recent opinion piece published in Nature magazine, Frankel discusses the burgeoning use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in images and the challenges and implications it has for communicating research. On a more personal note, she questions whether there will still be a place for a science photographer in the research community.

Q: You’ve mentioned that as soon as a photo is taken, the image can be considered “manipulated.” There are ways you’ve manipulated your own images to create a visual that more successfully communicates the desired message. Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable manipulation?

A: In the broadest sense, the decisions made on how to frame and structure the content of an image, along with which tools used to create the image, are already a manipulation of reality. We need to remember the image is merely a representation of the thing, and not the thing itself. Decisions have to be made when creating the image. The critical issue is not to manipulate the data, and in the case of most images, the data is the structure. For example, for an image I made some time ago, I digitally deleted the petri dish in which a yeast colony was growing, to bring attention to the stunning morphology of the colony. The data in the image is the morphology of the colony. I did not manipulate that data. However, I always indicate in the text if I have done something to an image. I discuss the idea of image enhancement in my handbook, “The Visual Elements, Photography.”

Q: What can researchers do to make sure their research is communicated correctly and ethically?

A: With the advent of AI, I see three main issues concerning visual representation: the difference between illustration and documentation, the ethics around digital manipulation, and a continuing need for researchers to be trained in visual communication. For years, I have been trying to develop a visual literacy program for the present and upcoming classes of science and engineering researchers. MIT has a communication requirement which mostly addresses writing, but what about the visual, which is no longer tangential to a journal submission? I will bet that most readers of scientific articles go right to the figures, after they read the abstract. 

We need to require students to learn how to critically look at a published graph or image and decide if there is something weird going on with it. We need to discuss the ethics of “nudging” an image to look a certain predetermined way. I describe in the article an incident when a student altered one of my images (without asking me) to match what the student wanted to visually communicate. I didn’t permit it, of course, and was disappointed that the ethics of such an alteration were not considered. We need to develop, at the very least, conversations on campus and, even better, create a visual literacy requirement along with the writing requirement.

Q: Generative AI is not going away. What do you see as the future for communicating science visually?

A: For the Nature article, I decided that a powerful way to question the use of AI in generating images was by example. I used one of the diffusion models to create an image using the following prompt:

“Create a photo of Moungi Bawendi’s nano crystals in vials against a black background, fluorescing at different wavelengths, depending on their size, when excited with UV light.”

The results of my AI experimentation were often cartoon-like images that could hardly pass as reality — let alone documentation — but there will be a time when they will be. In conversations with colleagues in research and computer-science communities, all agree that we should have clear standards on what is and is not allowed. And most importantly, a GenAI visual should never be allowed as documentation.

But AI-generated visuals will, in fact, be useful for illustration purposes. If an AI-generated visual is to be submitted to a journal (or, for that matter, be shown in a presentation), I believe the researcher MUST

• clearly label if an image was created by an AI model;
• indicate what model was used;
• include what prompt was used; and
• include the image, if there is one, that was used to help the prompt.

Senior Kevin Guo, a computer science major, and junior Erin Hovendon, studying mechanical engineering, are on widely divergent paths at MIT. But their lives do intersect in one dimension: They share an understanding that their political science and public policy minors provide crucial perspectives on their research and future careers.

For Guo, the connection between computer science and policy emerged through his work at MIT's Election Data and Science Lab. “When I started, I was just looking for a place to learn how to code and do data science,” he reflects. “But what I found was this fascinating intersection where technical skills could directly shape democratic processes.”

Hovendon is focused on sustainable methods for addressing climate change. She is currently participating in a multisemester research project at MIT's Environmental Dynamics Lab (ENDLab) developing monitoring technology for marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).

She believes the success of her research today and in the future depends on understanding its impact on society. Her academic track in policy provides that grounding. “When you’re developing a new technology, you need to focus as well on how it will be applied,” she says. “This means learning about the policies required to scale it up, and about the best ways to convey the value of what you’re working on to the public.”

Bridging STEM and policy

For both Hovendon and Guo, interdisciplinary study is proving to be a valuable platform for tangibly addressing real-world challenges.

Guo came to MIT from Andover, Massachusetts, the son of parents who specialize in semiconductors and computer science. While math and computer science were a natural track for him, Guo was also keenly interested in geopolitics. He enrolled in class 17.40 (American Foreign Policy). “It was my first engagement with MIT political science and I liked it a lot, because it dealt with historical episodes I wanted to learn more about, like World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam,” says Guo.

He followed up with a class on American Military History and on the Rise of Asia, where he found himself enrolled with graduate students and active duty U.S. military officers. “I liked attending a course with people who had unusual insights,” Guo remarks. “I also liked that these humanities classes were small seminars, and focused a lot on individual students.”

From coding to elections

It was in class 17.835 (Machine Learning and Data Science in Politics) that Guo first realized he could directly connect his computer science and math expertise to the humanities. “They gave us big political science datasets to analyze, which was a pretty cool application of the skills I learned in my major,” he says.

Guo springboarded from this class to a three-year, undergraduate research project in the Election Data and Science Lab. “The hardest part is data collection, which I worked on for an election audit project that looked at whether there were significant differences between original vote counts and audit counts in all the states, at the precinct level,” says Guo. “We had to scrape data, raw PDFs, and create a unified dataset, standardized to our format, that we could publish.”

The data analysis skills he acquired in the lab have come in handy in the professional sphere in which he has begun training: investment finance.

“The workflow is very similar: clean the data to see what you want, analyze it to see if I can find an edge, and then write some code to implement it,” he says. “The biggest difference between finance and the lab research is that the development cycle is a lot faster, where you want to act on a dataset in a few days, rather than weeks or months.”

Engineering environmental solutions

Hovendon, a native of North Carolina with a deep love for the outdoors, arrived at MIT committed “to doing something related to sustainability and having a direct application in the world around me,” she says.

Initially, she headed toward environmental engineering, “but then I realized that pretty much every major can take a different approach to that topic,” she says. “So I ended up switching to mechanical engineering because I really enjoy the hands-on aspects of the field.”

In parallel to her design and manufacturing, and mechanics and materials courses, Hovendon also immersed herself in energy and environmental policy classes. One memorable anthropology class, 21A.404 (Living through Climate Change), asked students to consider whether technological or policy solutions could be fully effective on their own for combating climate change. “It was useful to apply holistic ways of exploring human relations to the environment,” says Hovendon.

Hovendon brings this well-rounded perspective to her research at ENDLab in marine carbon capture and fluid dynamics. She is helping to develop verification methods for mCDR at a pilot treatment plant in California. The facility aims to remove 100 tons of carbon dioxide directly from the ocean by enhancing natural processes. Hovendon hopes to design cost-efficient monitoring systems to demonstrate the efficacy of this new technology. If scaled up, mCDR could enable oceans to store significantly more atmospheric carbon, helping cool the planet.

But Hovendon is well aware that innovation with a major impact cannot emerge on the basis of technical efficacy alone.

“You're going to have people who think that you shouldn't be trying to replicate or interfere with a natural system, and if you're putting one of these facilities somewhere in water, then you're using public spaces and resources,” she says. “It's impossible to come up with any kind of technology, but especially any kind of climate-related technology, without first getting the public to buy into it.”

She recalls class 17.30J (Making Public Policy), which emphasized the importance of both economic and social analysis to the successful passage of highly impactful legislation, such as the Affordable Care Act.

“I think that breakthroughs in science and engineering should be evaluated not just through their technological prowess, but through the success of their implementation for general societal benefit,” she says. “Understanding the policy aspects is vital for improving accessibility for scientific advancements.”

Beyond the dome

Guo will soon set out for a career as a quantitative financial trader, and he views his political science background as essential to his success. While his expertise in data cleaning and analysis will come into play, he believes other skills will as well: “Understanding foreign policy, considering how U.S. policy impacts other places, that's actually very important in finance,” he explains. “Macroeconomic changes and politics affect trading volatility and markets in general, so it's very important to understand what's going on.”

With one year to go, Hovendon is contemplating graduate school in mechanical engineering, perhaps designing renewable energy technologies. “I just really hope that I'm working on something I'm genuinely passionate about, something that has a broader purpose,” she says. “In terms of politics and technology, I also hope that at least some government research and development will still go to climate work, because I'm sure there will be an urgent need for it.”