Davi Augusto Oliveira Pinto’s career in Brazil’s foreign service took him all over the world. Oliveira Pinto is now focused on strengthening his diplomatic work through his MIT education. He completed the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), which is jointly administered by MIT Open Learning and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and then applied and was accepted to the DEDP master’s program within MIT’s Department of Economics. 

I think governments should be able to provide data-driven, research-supported services to their constituents, he says. Returning to my role as a diplomat, I hope to use the tools I acquired in the DEDP program to enhance my contributions as a public servant.

As someone responsible for dealing with international trade issues and who understands the potential negative, far-reaching impacts of poorly researched and instituted policies, Oliveira Pinto saw MIT and its world-class economics programs as potentially world-altering tools to help him advance his work. 

Assessing and quantifying impact

Oliveira Pinto’s investigations have yielded some fascinating findings. “Data can be misused,” he notes. “I learned how easily data can tell all kinds of stories, so it’s important to be careful and rigorous when assessing different claims.” He recalls how, during an econometrics class, he learned about parties on opposite sides of a health insurance divide pursuing radically different ends using the same data, each side promoting different views.

Work like this can be a good opportunity for governments interested in a research-supported, data-driven approach to policymaking, he says.

Read the full post Better public service with data

Eran Egozy, professor of the practice in music technology and one of the program leads, says MIT’s focus is technical research in music technology that always centers the humanistic and artistic aspects of making music.

There are so many MIT students who are fabulous musicians, says Egozy. We’ll approach music technology as computer scientists, mathematicians, and musicians.

Anna Huang, a new MIT assistant professor who holds a shared faculty position between the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, is collaborating with Egozy to develop and launch the program. Huang arrived at MIT this fall after spending eight years with Magenta at Google Brain and DeepMind, spearheading efforts in generative modeling, reinforcement learning, and human-computer interaction to support human-AI partnerships in music-making.

As a composer turned AI researcher who specializes in generative music technology, my long-term goal is to develop AI systems that can shed new light on how we understand, learn, and create music, and to learn from interactions between musicians in order to transform how we approach human-AI collaboration, says Huang.

Read the full post MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

Eran Egozy, professor of the practice in music technology and one of the program leads, says MIT’s focus is technical research in music technology that always centers the humanistic and artistic aspects of making music.

There are so many MIT students who are fabulous musicians, says Egozy. We’ll approach music technology as computer scientists, mathematicians, and musicians.

Anna Huang, a new MIT assistant professor who holds a shared faculty position between the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, is collaborating with Egozy to develop and launch the program. Huang arrived at MIT this fall after spending eight years with Magenta at Google Brain and DeepMind, spearheading efforts in generative modeling, reinforcement learning, and human-computer interaction to support human-AI partnerships in music-making.

As a composer turned AI researcher who specializes in generative music technology, my long-term goal is to develop AI systems that can shed new light on how we understand, learn, and create music, and to learn from interactions between musicians in order to transform how we approach human-AI collaboration, says Huang.

Read the full post MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

Before pursuing graduate study at MIT, Saeed Miganeh worked in youth development programs with the Somaliland National Youth Organization. Now at MIT, Miganeh is already planning to use the skills he’s acquiring to facilitate change at home.

I must discover and produce policy insights using my research and, with the guidance of the top academics and professionals at MIT and other institutions, translate them into effective policies that can make a demonstrable impact.

Read the full post Making a measurable economic impact

Sophie Hartley developed an early appreciation for the natural world after her grandfather introduced her to photography. He gave her a camera and encouraged her to take pictures of anything interesting. Each summer, they would explore tide pools, overgrown forests, and his sprawling backyard. “Photography was a door into science journalism,” Graduate Program in Science Writing student Sophie Hartley notes. “It lets you capture the raw beauty of a moment and return to it later.”

During her year-long study in the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing, Hartley is also busy producing reporting for major news outlets. Hartley believes her work can build compassion for others while also educating people about how everything we do affects nature and one another.

Small and rural accountability stories are being told less and less. I think it’s important that communities are aware of what is happening around them, especially if it impacts them.

Sophie Hartley

Read the full post Creating connection with science communication

Philosophy can be an important tool in understanding how humans interact with one another, says Abe Mathew. “I study moral obligation and rights, how the two relate, and the role they have to play in how we relate to one another,” Mathew adds.

We need folks’ help to do things. When we lose sight of moral values, our societal connections can fall away. Mutual cooperation makes our lives possible.

Abe Mathew

Read the full post The dance between autonomy and affinity creates morality

Class 14.163 (Algorithms and Behavioral Science) is a new cross-disciplinary course focused on behavioral economics, which studies the cognitive capacities and limitations of human beings. The course was co-taught this past spring by assistant professor of economics Ashesh Rambachan and visiting lecturer Sendhil Mullainathan.

There are opportunities, Rambachan believes, for constantly evolving digital tools like AI, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) to help reshape everything from discriminatory practices in criminal sentencing to health-care outcomes among underserved populations.

By building connections between economics, computer science, and machine learning, perhaps we can automate the best of human choices to improve outcomes while minimizing or eliminating the worst.

assistant professor of economics Ashesh Rambachan

Read the full post A data-driven approach to making better choices

Anna Russo believes puzzles are made to be solved. Working as a full-time research assistant with MIT economist Amy Finkelstein led Russo toward identifying, studying, and developing answers to complex questions.

[Russo’s] genuine curiosity and interest in getting to the bottom of a problem with the data — with an econometric analysis, with a modeling issue — is the best antidote for [the stress that can be associated with research]. It’s a key ingredient in her ability to produce important and credible work.

Amy Finkelstein

Read the full post Bringing an investigator’s eye to complex social challenges

Soledad Chango, a native of Ecuador and a graduate student in MIT’s Indigenous Language Initiative, began preparations for her Quechua course with a clear idea about its purpose. Chango sought to emphasize the importance of keeping Kichwa and Quechua alive. When endangered languages disappear, so do the communities and culture from which they rose. 

In 2014, I was investigating Indigenous language advancement, tracking changes and usage, she says. Research shows the youngest Indigenous people retain and value their native languages the least. 

Soledad Chango

Read the full post Investigating and preserving Quechua

Byrne is a leader of MIT’s Civil Discourse project, an initiative that invites experts from across academic disciplines to openly discuss controversial ideas. When asked how civil discourse about sex and gender might look in practice, he points to this strategy.

Remove the guardrails and allow for open, spirited debate, Byrne says. Students are much more resilient and open-minded than we tend to think.

Alex Byrne

Read the full post An MIT philosopher’s call for a civil discussion on gender and sex

MIT Music and Theater Arts Assistant Professor Miguel Zenón has won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for his work on “El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2.” Zenón recorded the album with Luis Perdomo, a follow-up to their critically-acclaimed “El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 1.”

I’m incredibly happy and honored with this Grammy win,” says Zenón, a 12-time Grammy nominee. “We’ve been making albums for a long time, so it’s extremely rewarding to earn this recognition. This will certainly be an incentive to keep moving forward and creating more music.

Read the full post Miguel Zenón, assistant professor of jazz at MIT, wins Grammy Award