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LA sees drop in unsheltered homelessness amid 18% increase nationwideThe Gophers football program continued to address its needs along the offensive line on Saturday, getting commitments from Washington left tackle Kahlee Tafai and Kentucky left guard Dylan Ray out of the NCAA transfer portal. ADVERTISEMENT The U has four starters leaving after this season, including both tackles — Aireontae Ersery to the NFL Draft and Phillip Daniels in a transfer to Ohio State — and both senior guards Quinn Carroll and Tyler Cooper. The Gophers have added 13 total players through the transfer portal, including right guard Marcellus Marshall (Central Florida). Tafai, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds, moved into the Huskies’ starting lineup during his freshman season in 2024. He has three years of eligibility remaining. A native of Lawndale, Calif., Tafai played 267 offensive snaps in the Big Ten last season but had a low 38.5 overall grade from Pro Football Focus in his first extensive college experience. He also played a few snaps at right tackle a year ago. ADVERTISEMENT Ray, who is listed at 6-6 and 310, has played more than 1,000 snaps over the last two seasons for Kentucky after beginning his career with two years at West Virginia. He started 10 games for the SEC program in 2023, but only two last year. The Noblesville, Ind., native had a near-average grade of 57.5 from PFF in 2024. He has one year of eligibility remaining for the U next fall. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here .
Oklahoma State's 3-point accuracy sends Miami to defeatKurtis Rourke has made the Jon Cornish Trophy a family affair. The Indiana quarterback received the award Monday, which is presented annually to the top Canadian playing football in the NCAA. Rourke’s older brother, Nathan, currently with the CFL’s B.C. Lions, won the award twice in 2017 and 2018 at Ohio. “It’s awesome,” Rourke said. “Kind of getting introduced to the Jon Cornish Trophy back when Nathan won it a couple of times, I wanted to be able to have a shot and it was one of my goals to be in the conversation, be in the running. “It just means a ton to be recognized just because Canadian athletes don’t get recognized too often. I’m just so glad we’re able to get that recognition and continue to do it for our country.” Rourke finished first in voting ahead of Montreal’s Dariel Djabome, a junior linebacker at Rutgers. Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor, last year’s winner, was third, followed by Vancouver’s Ty Benefield (sophomore safety, Boise State) and Jett Elad of Mississauga, Ont., a senior safety at UNLV. Cornish, of New Westminster, B.C., was a standout running back at Kansas who went on to have a decorated CFL career with the Calgary Stampeders (2007-15) before being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2019. Rourke transferred to Indiana last December to boost his NFL draft stock after five years at Ohio, where he began as a backup to his older brother. The junior Rourke then captured the ‘22 MAC offensive player of the year award despite suffering a season-ending knee injury before heading to Indiana after the 2023 season. Rourke was instrumental in Indiana — traditionally known as a basketball school — emerging as a Big Ten contender in head coach Curt Cignetti’s first season. After winning 11 of their first 12 games, the Hoosiers’ stellar campaign ended with a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in the opening game of the expanded U.S. college football playoff bracket. Rourke finished 20-of-33 passing for 215 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in that contest. Overall, Rourke completed 222 of 320 passes (69.4 per cent) for 3,042 yards with 29 TDs and five interceptions. “What a privilege, opportunity to come join a program that had so much to prove,” Rourke said. “It kind of aligned with what I was wanting to do, which was prove I could play at a higher level.” The six-foot-five, 223-pound Rourke was named a finalist for the Manning Award, presented annually to the NCAA’s top quarterback. He was also ninth in voting for the Heisman Trophy as U.S. college football’s outstanding player. “College football has been everything to me,” Rourke said. “Starting off my freshman year to be able to watch Nathan grow and play in his senior year and just learn from him in both how to live a college life but also be a college quarterback as well. “I won’t forget my time at Ohio at all, it really created me and moulded me into the person, player I am. I’m extremely grateful for the entire college football experience.” The former Holy Trinity star becomes just the second Canadian high school graduate to claim the Jon Cornish Trophy. Chuba Hubbard, of Sherwood Park, Alta., and currently with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, did so in 2019 while at Oklahoma State. The six-foot-two, 240-pound Djabome recorded 102 tackles (48 solo), three sacks and two forced fumbles this season. Rutgers faces Kansas State in the Rate Bowl on Boxing Day. The six-foot-two, 210-pound Ayomanor, a redshirt junior, was one of the few bright spots this season for Stanford (3-9). He registered 63 catches for 831 yards and six TDs after recording 62 receptions for 1,013 yards and six touchdowns in 2023. Last week, Ayomanor declared for the ‘25 NFL draft. The six-foot-two, 204-pound Benefield led Boise State in tackles (73), solo tackles (53) and interceptions (two) while also registering five tackles for a loss, a forced fumble and two recoveries. The Broncos are the third seed in U.S. college football’s expanded playoffs and face Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31. Elad registered 55 tackles, an interception and six pass knockdowns during the regular season. He added 12 tackles (nine solo) and a sack in the Runnin’ Rebels’ 24-13 win over Cal in the Art of Sport LA Bowl to finish with an 11-3 overall record.
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Jeopardy! fans lose their minds over Ken Jennings using racy word in clue: 'I was so distracted' By KIRSTY MCCORMACK FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 21:48, 9 December 2024 | Updated: 21:48, 9 December 2024 e-mail 1 View comments Jeopardy viewers couldn't believe their ears when tuning into an episode of the much-loved gameshow when Ken Jennings said a rather cheeky word. On December 6, Ken invited Erin Adams, Zach DeBoer, and returning champion Dave Bond into the studio to battle it out - and ended leaving fans 'distracted' with one particular phrase. Asking the trio a question in the 'A is for Art' category, Ken said: '3-word title of a Titian in the Prado: She's reaching for the forbidden fruit, he's reaching for her boob,' as Zach quickly replied: 'What is Adam and Eve?' to which the host replied: 'Correct.' Viewers were stunned and immediately took to Reddit to discuss the episode as one person wrote: 'TIL (today I learned) you can say boob on jeopardy.' Another fan of the show replied and said: 'I was so distracted by Ken saying boob that I didn’t even hear the clue!' A third person pointed out: 'And the first-ever usage of "boob" in reference to "female breast", at that! ' A fourth Reddit user suggested: 'Doubt that would fly 20 or even 10 years ago. “Breast” would’ve been the word of choice. The clue writers have gotten more goofy in recent years.' Someone else replied and joked: 'Or less Victorian...,' as another person responded: 'Victorians would not have said breast.' Jeopardy viewers couldn't believe their ears when tuning into Friday's episode of the much-loved gameshow when Ken Jennings said a cheeky word Ken said the word 'boob' when asking a contestant a question in the 'A is for Art' category A different viewer commented: 'It was previously established you can say "manboobs", so this is giving equal treatment to all kinds of boobs.' Someone else joked: 'I was really irked by that vulgarity,' and another person pointed out: 'Though they have previously used the phrase "minimal boobage" in reference to Lotto's Susanna and the Elders.' When one Reddit user posted a link to the paining of Adam and Eve, someone else claimed: 'I dunno, looks like he's pushing her away, as in get away from that fruit, not doing what the clue suggests. I think the writers were just feeling cheeky.' Over on X, formerly known as Twitter, one viewer wasn't impressed and posted: 'Boob, #jeopardy? Really? Couldn't have used the more respectful term breast? 'Alex used to give the writers feedback on their clues; Ken needs to start doing the same,' they added, referring to former Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. The comments come a little over a month after Ken apologized to a female contestant after reading out a 'sexist' clue – admitting that the question had been 'a little problematic.' During the October 28 episode of Jeopardy!, contestant Heather Ryan buzzed in for a question from the 'Complete the Rhyming Phrase' category. Ken then asked the phrase: 'Men seldom make passes at....' Jeopardy! viewers were quick to comment on Reddit about the use of the word 'boob' Dave Bond, Zach DeBoer, and Erin Adams were the contestants on Friday's episode Fellow contestant, Will Wallace, correctly buzzed in with the answer 'girls who wear glasses.' Presenter Ken was quick to call the clue 'a little problematic' before apologizing to Heather, who also happened to be wearing glasses. Former reigning champion Will also quipped 'very.' Luckily, Heather didn't seem too rattled by the situation - and Ken quickly moved the game on. Jeopardy! fans, however, blasted the 'sexist' clue on social media and slammed the category too. Taking to Reddit, one said: 'Rhyming phrases category was awful, especially the sexist clue.' Echoing a similar sentiment, another added: 'Frankly, I don't need to hear Ken read an obviously outdated and inappropriate clue and then call it "problematic."' A third penned on X: 'More like extremely problematic!' Share or comment on this article: Jeopardy! fans lose their minds over Ken Jennings using racy word in clue: 'I was so distracted' e-mail Add comment
Pheu Thai's Karn celebrates Provincial Administrative Organisation victoryRepresentatives pose for a picture after El Salvador's Congress approved a bill from President Nayib Bukele that overturned a 2017 national ban on metals mining in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Dec. 23. Jose Cabezas/Reuters El Salvador’s legislature overturned a seven-year-old ban on metals mining on Monday, a move that President Nayib Bukele had pushed for to boost economic growth, but that environmental groups had opposed. El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban all forms of metals mining in 2017. Bukele, who took office in 2019, has called the ban absurd. All 57 of Bukele’s allies in the Central American country’s 60-seat legislature voted for the president’s legislation to overturn the ban. The legislation will grant the Salvadoran government sole authority over mining activities within the country’s land and maritime territory. “By creating a law that puts the state at the centre, we are guaranteeing that the population’s well-being will be at the centre of decision making,” lawmaker Elisa Rosales, from Bukele’s New Ideas party, said in a speech to the legislature. The legislation does prohibit the use of mercury in mining, and seeks to declare some areas incompatible with metals mining as protected nature reserves. El Salvador’s economy is expected to grow 3 per cent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, but it has a heavy debt burden that hit a level of around 85 per cent of gross domestic product earlier this year. Bukele, who enjoys wide popularity among voters after a gang crackdown, has touted mining’s economic potential for the country of roughly 6 million people. The president shared on social media last month that studies conducted in just 4 per cent of Salvadoran territory where mining is possible had identified gold deposits worth some $132 billion, equivalent to about 380 per cent of El Salvador’s GDP. “This wealth, given by God, can be harnessed responsibly to bring unprecedented economic and social development to our people,” Bukele wrote at the time. Dozens of people protested on Monday near Congress against the reauthorization of mining, arguing that future projects could affect the communities and ecosystem of the smallest country in Central America. “We oppose metals mining because it has been technically and scientifically proven that mining is not viable in the country,” environmentalist Luis Gonzalez told reporters. “The level of contamination that would be generated in the water, soil and biodiversity is unacceptable for life as we know it.”
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The new year 2025 will mark a momentous occasion in the history of Maltese-Qatari relations, as the two countries prepare to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral ties. Since June 1975, Malta and Qatar have developed a robust partnership built on mutual respect, shared interests and co-operation. The two nations have forged deep ties, working and supporting each other in international fora, from economic collaboration to the promotion of peace and dialogue on various fronts. Shared commitment to peace, security and diplomacy Both Malta and Qatar have the same ambitions enshrined in their respective foreign policies. Malta’s second of its three strategic pillars clearly refers to the promotion of peace, security and dialogue. Similarly, Qatar’s foreign policy is based on a set of principles outlined in its constitution, which include strengthening international peace and security by encouraging the peaceful resolution of international disputes. To this end, on the multilateral front, Malta is about to conclude its two-year non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), where it continued to promote conflict resolution through dialogue, the upholding of international law, advocating for the protection of human rights, bringing to the forefront humanitarian issues and the empowerment of small states. In addition to its role in the UNSC, Malta also played a key part, after having been chosen by consensus as Chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for 2024, in ensuring that one of the last channels of communication in Europe remains open. Guided by the motto “Strengthening Resilience, Enhancing Security”, Malta hosted on Dec 5-6, 2024, the 31st Ministerial Council of this organisation, where it managed to find consensus to fill the top four leadership positions of the secretariat and institutions of this organisation. Describing this meeting as “a proud milestone”, Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs the Hon. Dr Ian Borg, in his opening speech, referred to the historic 1989 Malta Summit between presidents Bush and Gorbachev which ended the Cold War. He admitted that times have fundamentally changed and that the “principles, rules that have underpinned international peace and security for almost 80 years are being questioned, challenged and actively undermined”. Nevertheless, Dr Borg reaffirmed that Malta remains a “staunch defender of peace and dialogue in the face of the seemingly insurmountable differences and challenges”. Malta’s drive in the pursuit of peace will continue next year when it also assumes the Presidency of the European Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe (CoE) from May to November 2025. During its presidency, Malta plans to focus on enhancing the council’s capacity to respond to emerging challenges, including strengthening the protection of human rights in the face of global political and social changes. In a similar vein, Qatar remains one of the most prominent players in regional and global diplomacy, particularly in the fields of mediation and conflict resolution. We commend Qatar’s unwavering commitment to facilitating peace talks and negotiations, positioning itself as a neutral party with a strong commitment to achieving peaceful solutions to some of the world’s most complex conflicts. Qatar’s tireless work in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as well as between Ukraine and Russia has earned it recognition as a reliable and trustworthy mediator. Qatar’s support for dialogue is also evident in its hosting of numerous international gatherings such as the Doha Forum, besides actual peace negotiations. It continues to invest heavily in diplomacy, driven by the belief that peace cannot be achieved through military means alone, but must come through dialogue, compromise, and mutual understanding, something which Malta also believes in. Qatar’s unstinting efforts for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the release of hostages and the unrestricted access of humanitarian aid are indeed admirable and commendable. Malta, like Qatar, believes that urgent progress is needed towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We want to see the State of Israel and a sovereign, independent, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security. Malta and Qatar’s Thriving Relationship The relationship between Malta and Qatar extends far beyond diplomacy, with both countries working closely together on a range of issues, including trade, investment, and cultural exchanges. The bilateral ties between the two nations have strengthened in recent years, with both governments recognising the importance of deepening co-operation in areas such as education, tourism, and sustainable development. Throughout 2024, we had the 1st ever Session of Malta-Qatar Political Consultations which took place in January 2024 in Valletta and led by Permanent Secretary Christopher Cutajar from the Maltese side and HE Dr Ahmad Hassen al-Hammadi, Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. This was followed by a considerable number of high-level visits including those of the Minister of Finance and Employment, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport, the Minister of Health and Active Aging and the recent visit of Dr Lydia Abela, Spouse of the Prime Minister of Malta for the 30th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family Conference. This is a growing testament of the ever-growing trust between our two countries and the willingness to continue working together for the benefit of our two peoples. From Malta’s active engagement in the multilateral front, to Qatar’s vital role in mediation and peacebuilding, both nations continue to play a significant role in shaping regional and global diplomacy. Their partnership, built over five decades, exemplifies the power of international cooperation underpinned by the shared belief that diplomacy, dialogue, and mutual respect are the keys to achieving a peaceful and prosperous future for all. Let us continue persevering in our common endeavour to guarantee a more secure, peaceful and prosperous environment for future generations. 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Kylian Mbappe misses penalty as Liverpool exact Champions League revenge on RealDan Huttenlocher, SM ’84, PhD ’88, leads the way up to the eighth floor of Building 45, the recently completed headquarters of the . “There’s an amazing view of the Great Dome here,” he says, pointing out a panoramic view of campus and the Boston skyline beyond. The floor features a high-end event space with an outdoor terrace and room for nearly 350 people. But it also serves an additional purpose—luring people into the building, which opened last January. The event space “wasn’t in the original building plan,” says Huttenlocher, Schwarzman’s inaugural dean, “but the point of the building is to be a nexus, bringing people across campus together.” Launched in 2019–’20, Schwarzman is MIT’s only college, so called because it cuts across the Institute’s five schools in a new effort to integrate advanced computing and artificial intelligence into all areas of study. “We want to do two things: ensure that MIT stays at the forefront of computer science, AI research, and education,” Huttenlocher says, “and infuse the forefront of computing into disciplines across MIT.” He adds that safety and ethical considerations are also critical. To that end, the college now encompasses multiple existing , including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and multiple , including the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. (EECS—which was reorganized into the overlapping subunits of electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-making—is now part of both the college and the School of Engineering.) At the same time, the college has embarked on a plan to hire 50 new faculty members, half of whom will have shared appointments in other departments across all five schools to create a true Institute-wide entity. Those faculty members—two-thirds of whom have already been hired—will conduct research at the boundaries of advanced computing and AI. The new faculty members have already begun helping the college respond to an undeniable reality facing many students: They’ve been overwhelmingly drawn to advanced computing tools, yet computer science classes are often too technical for nonmajors who want to apply those tools in other disciplines. And for students in other majors, it can be tricky to fit computer science classes into their schedules. Meanwhile, the appetite for computer science education is so great that nearly half of MIT’s undergraduates major in EECS, voting with their feet about the importance of computing. Graduate-level classes on deep learning and machine vision are among the largest on campus, with over 500 students each. And a blended major in cognition and computing has almost four times as many enrollees as brain and cognitive sciences. “We’ve been calling these students ‘computing bilinguals,’” Huttenlocher says, and the college aims to make sure that MIT students, whatever their field, are fluent in the language of computing. “As we change the landscape,” he says, “it’s not about seeing computing as a tool in service of a particular discipline, or a discipline in the service of computing, but asking: How can we bring these things together to forge something new?” The college has been the hub of this experiment, sponsoring over a dozen new courses that integrate computing with other disciplines, and it provides a variety of spaces that bring people together for conversations about the future of computing at MIT. More than just a nexus for computing on campus, the college has also positioned itself as a broad-based leader on AI, presenting policy briefs to Congress and the White House about how to manage the pressing ethical and political concerns raised by the rapidly evolving technology. “Right now, digital technologies are changing every aspect of our lives with breakneck speed,” says Asu Ozdaglar, SM ’98, PhD ’03, EECS department head and Schwarzman’s deputy dean of academics. “The college is MIT’s response to the ongoing digital transformation of our society.” Huttenlocher, who also holds the title of Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and coauthored the book with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, has long been exploring such issues. He started programming computers back in middle school in Connecticut in the 1970s on an ASR 33 teletype machine, and eventually he studied at the University of Michigan as a double major in cognitive psychology and computer science, exploring speech recognition and visual perception. “AI work back then was relatively disconnected from the physical world,” he says. “Being interested in the perceptual side of things was kind of an outlier for what was going on in AI then.” When he looked at grad schools in the 1980s, only MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford were doing significant work in AI, he says: “I applied to those three schools and figured if it didn’t work out, I’d get a job.” It worked out, of course. He headed to Cambridge and gravitated to MIT’s AI Lab in Technology Square, where he first worked on speech recognition and then transitioned into computer vision, at the time still in its infancy. After earning his PhD, he served simultaneously as a computer science professor at Cornell and a researcher at Xerox PARC, flying between New York and the burgeoning Silicon Valley, where he worked on computer vision for the digital transformation of copiers and scanners. “In academia, you have more curiosity-driven research projects, where in the corporate world you have the opportunity to build things people will actually use,” he says. “I’ve spent my career moving back and forth between them.” Along the way, Huttenlocher gained administrative experience as well. He was a longtime board member and eventual chair of the MacArthur Foundation, and he also helped launch Cornell Tech, the university’s New York City–based graduate school for business, law, and technology, serving as its first dean and vice provost. When Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the investment firm Blackstone Group, gave $350 million to MIT to establish a college of computing in 2018, he was eager to return to the Institute to lead it. “The fact that MIT was making a bold commitment to become a broad-based leader in the AI-driven age—and that it was cutting across all of its schools—was exciting,” he says. Schwarzman College took shape through task forces involving more than 100 MIT faculty members. By the fall of 2019 a plan had been nailed down, and Huttenlocher was in place as director with EECS head Ozdaglar named deputy dean of academics. “I never believed that everybody wants to do computer science at MIT,” she says. “Students come in with a lot of passions, and it’s our responsibility to educate these bilinguals, so they are fluent in their own discipline but also able to use these advanced frontiers of computing.” Ozdaglar’s background is in using machine learning to optimize communications, transportation, and control systems. Recently she has become interested in applying machine-learning algorithms to social media, examining how the choices people make when sharing content affect the information—and misinformation—recommended to them. This work builds on her longstanding interdisciplinary collaborations in the social sciences, including collaborations with her husband, economics professor (and recent Nobel laureate) Daron Acemoglu. “I strongly feel that to really address the important questions in society, these old department or disciplinary silos aren’t adequate anymore,” she says. “The college has enabled me to work much more broadly across MIT and share all that I’ve learned.” Ozdaglar has been a driving force behind faculty hiring for the college, working with 18 departments to bring on dozens of scholars at the forefront of computing. In some ways, she says, it’s been a challenge to integrate the new hires into existing disciplines. “We have to keep teaching what we’ve been teaching for tens or hundreds of years, so change is hard and slow,” she says. But she has also noticed a palpable excitement about the new tools. Already, the college has brought in more than 30 new faculty members in four broad areas: climate and computing; human and natural intelligence; humanistic and social sciences; and AI for scientific discovery. In each case, they receive an academic home in another department, as well as an appointment, and often lab space, within the college. That commitment to interdisciplinary work has been built into every aspect of the new headquarters. “Most buildings at MIT come across as feeling pretty monolithic,” Huttenlocher says as he leads the way along brightly lit hallways and common spaces with large walls of glass looking out onto Vassar Street. “We wanted to make this feel as open and accessible as possible.” While the Institute’s high-end computing takes place mostly at a massive computing center in Holyoke, about 90 miles away in Western Massachusetts, the building is honeycombed with labs and communal workspaces, all made light and airy with glass and natural blond wood. Along the halls, open doorways offer enticing glimpses of such things as a giant robot hanging from a ceiling amid a tangle of wires. Lab and office space for faculty research groups working on related problems—who might be from, say, CSAIL and LIDS—is interspersed on the same floor to encourage interaction and collaboration. “It’s great because it builds connections across labs,” Huttenlocher says. “Even the conference room does not belong to either the lab or the college, so people actually have to collaborate to use it.” Another dedicated space is available six months at a time, by application, for special collaborative projects. The first group to use it, last spring, focused on bringing computation to the climate challenge. To make sure undergrads use the building too, there’s a classroom and a 250-seat lecture hall, which now hosts classic Course 6 classes (such as Intro to Machine Learning) as well as new multidiscipline classes. A soaring central lobby lined with comfortable booths and modular furniture is ready-made for study sessions. For some of the new faculty, working at the college is a welcome change from previous academic experiences in which they often felt caught between disciplines. “The intersection of climate sustainability and AI was nascent when I started my PhD in 2015,” says Sherrie Wang, an assistant professor with a shared appointment in mechanical engineering and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, who is principal investigator of the Earth Intelligence Lab. When she hit the job market in 2022, it still wasn’t clear which department she’d be in. Now a part of Schwarzman’s climate cluster, she says her work uses machine learning to analyze satellite data, examining crop distribution and agricultural practices across the world. “It’s great to have a cohort of people who have similar philosophical motivations in applying these tools to real-world problems,” she says. “At the same time, we’re pushing the tools forward as well.” AI impact papers Among other researchers, she plans to collaborate with Sara Beery, a CSAIL professor who analyzes vast troves of visual, auditory, and other data from a diverse range of sensors around the world to better understand how climate change is affecting distribution of species. “AI can be successful in helping human experts efficiently process terabytes and petabytes of data so they can make informed management decisions in real time rather than five years later,” says Beery, who was drawn to the college’s unique hybrid nature. “We need a new generation of researchers that frame their work by bringing different types of knowledge together. At Schwarzman, there is a clear vision that this type of work is going to be necessary to solve these big, essential problems.” Beery is now working to develop a class in machine learning and sustainability with two other new faculty members in the climate cluster: Abigail Bodner, an assistant professor in EECS and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (whose work uses AI to analyze fluid dynamics), and Priya Donti, assistant professor in EECS and LIDS (who uses AI and computing to optimize integration of renewable energy into power grids). “There’s already a core course on AI and machine learning—an on-ramp for people without prior exposure who want to gain those fundamentals,” says Donti. “The new class would be for those who want to study advanced AI/ML topics within the context of sustainability-related disciplines, including power systems, biodiversity, and climate science.” The class on machine learning and sustainability would be part of , an initiative cochaired by Ozdaglar and involving several dozen faculty members across MIT to develop new classes integrating advanced computing with other disciplines. So far, says Ozdaglar, it has generated more than a dozen new courses. One machine-learning class developed with input from nine departments provides exposure to a variety of practical applications for AI algorithms. Another collaboration, between computer science and urban studies, uses data visualization to address housing issues and other societal challenges. Julia Schneider ’26, a double major in AI and mathematics, took the Common Ground class on optimization methods, which she says demonstrated how computer science concepts like shortest-path algorithms and reinforcement learning could be applied in other areas, such as economics and business analytics. She adds that she values such classes because they blend her two areas of study and highlight multidisciplinary opportunities. Natasha Hirt ’23, MEng ’23, came to MIT thinking that computer science was peripheral to her major in architecture and urban planning. Then she took a course with building technology professor Caitlin Mueller on structural optimization and design—and it changed the trajectory of her MIT career. That led her to Interactive Data Visualization and Society, a Common Ground class, and several interdisciplinary classes combining computer science and field-specific knowledge. She says these provided the perfect introduction to algorithms without delving too much into math or coding,giving her enough working knowledge to set up models correctly and understand how things can go wrong. “They are teaching you what an engine is, what it looks like, and how it works without actually requiring you to know how to build an engine from scratch,” she says, though she adds that the classes also gave her the opportunity to tinker with the engine. She’s now working on master’s degrees in both building technology and computation science and engineering, focusing on making buildings more sustainable by using computational tools to design novel, less material-intensive structures. She says that Common Ground facilitates an environment where students don’t have to be computer science majors to learn the computational skills they need to succeed in their fields. And that’s the intent. “My hope is that this new way of thinking and these educational innovations will have an impact both nationally and globally,” Ozdaglar says. The same goes for recent papers MIT has commissioned, both on AI and public policy and on applications of generative AI. As generative AI has spread through many realms of society, it has become an ethical minefield, giving rise to problems from intellectual-property theft to deepfakes. “The likely consequence has been to both over- and under-regulate AI, because the understanding isn’t there,” Huttenlocher says. But the technology has developed so rapidly it’s been nearly impossible for policymakers to keep up. “Even faculty who are leading researchers in this area say ‘I can’t read fast enough to keep up with what’s going on,’” Huttenlocher says, “so that heightens the challenge—and the need.” The college has responded by engaging faculty at the cutting edge of their disciplines to issue for government leaders. First was a written in the fall of 2023 by Huttenlocher, Ozdaglar, and the head of MIT’s DC office, David Goldston, with input from more than a dozen MIT faculty members. The brief spells out essential tasks for helping the US maintain its AI leadership, as well as crucial considerations for regulation. The college followed that up with a policy brief by EECS faculty specifically focusing on large language models such as ChatGPT. Others dealt with AI’s impact on the workforce, the effectiveness of labeling AI content, and AI in education. Along with the written documents, faculty have briefed congressional committees and federal agencies in person to get the information directly into the hands of policymakers. “The question has been ‘How do we take MIT’s specific academic knowledge and put it into a form that’s accessible?’” Huttenlocher says. On a parallel track, in July of 2023 President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Cynthia Barnhart, SM ’86, PhD ’88, issued a call for papers by MIT faculty and researchers to “articulate effective road maps, policy recommendations, and calls for action across the broad domain of generative AI.” Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar played a key role in evaluating the 75 proposals that came in. Ultimately, from interdisciplinary teams of authors representing all five schools. Each of the 27 teams received between $50,000 and $70,000 in seed funds to research and write 10-page impact papers, which were due by December 2023. Given the enthusiastic response, MIT sent out another call in the fall of 2023, resulting in an additional 53 proposals, with in March, on topics including visual art, drug discovery, and privacy. As with the policy briefs, Huttenlocher says, “we are trying to provide the fresher information an active researcher in the field would have, presented in a way that a broader audience can understand.” Even in the short time the college has been active, Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar have begun to see its effects. “We’re seeing departments starting to change some of the ways they are hiring around degree programs because of interactions with the college,” Huttenlocher says. “There is such a huge acceleration of AI in the world—it’s getting them to think with some urgency in doing this.” Whether through faculty hiring, new courses, policy papers, or just the existence of a space for high-level discussions about computing that had no natural home before, Huttenlocher says, the college hopes to invite the MIT community into a deeper discussion of how AI and other advanced computing tools can augment academic activities around campus. MIT has long been a leader in the development of AI, and for many years it has continued to innovate at the cutting edge of the field. With the college’s leadership, the Institute is in a position to continue innovating and to guide the future of the technology more broadly. “The next step,” says Ozdaglar, “is to take that impact out into the world.”Men’s basketball: CU Buffs sharing the wealth on offense