Hauntii Review – Life After Death – Game Informer

Hauntii drew me in immediately thanks to its striking illustrated art direction and enchanting jazz noir soundtrack. A powerful opening sees the protagonist, an adorable ghost who recently died, attempting to ascend to a heavenly plane hand in hand with an angel-like guardian, only to be shackled and pulled back to the depths of Eternity. It’s an emotionally effective moment, and while the gameplay doesn’t always prove as captivating, it provides enough thrills to propel through an eye-popping journey through the afterlife.

As the ghost seeks to reunite with his winged companion, the game takes players across beautifully designed biomes in the realm of Eternity. From a dense forest village to my favorite locale, a bustling amusement park, I can’t stress enough how cool the game’s two-toned line art looks, especially in motion. Backing the visuals is a superb soundtrack that ranks among my favorites of the year. It bounces from sparse piano melodies and saxophone-fueled lo-fi beats to uplifting grandiose scores that effectively stir emotion. 

[embedded content]

Despite its serenity, Hauntii is an action game at heart and plays like a top-down twin-stick shooter. In addition to the simple thrill of blasting foes with spectral energy by aiming the right stick, shooting objects lets you “haunt” them and utilize their unique abilities. Possessing other enemies can aid in the sometimes challenging combat encounters thanks to the superior firepower they can pack. Sure, I could rely on my own might, but it’s far more satisfying and effective to obliterate foes as a bomb-spewing flower bulb or take down aerial threats with a firework-blasting theme park employee. 

Hauntii routinely pushes players to rely on possession to overcome tough bouts that sometimes feature upwards of a dozen enemies firing bullet hell-style projectile spreads. The moment-to-moment blasting wears thin after a while, but creative boss encounters add interesting wrinkles. My favorite includes possessing a bomb-laden rollercoaster to drive through a trap-laden track to reach a towering monster. 

Other haunting interactions are less involved and more bespoke, like capturing a tree to shake currency and health from its branches. In that sense, Hauntii reminds me of Super Mario Odyssey, as some objects had no practical use but provided humorous, novel interactions. Other, more creative possessions let you manipulate the level design and navigation, such as raising platforms to create elevated pathways or inhabiting cosmic sand whales to navigate a turbulent vortex. 

Each area contains a number of hidden stars to collect, used for upgrading your number of hearts, shooting ammunition, and how often you can use the evade dash. They also unlock simple yet effective vignettes revealing a core memory of the ghost’s former life. Gathering these stars channels the satisfying scavenger hunt of 3D Mario games. Some stars lie in obscure corners, while others must be earned by completing basic side quests or performing hidden challenges, like clearing an area of threats. You don’t need them all, thankfully, as these aren’t always the most exciting tasks, and some repeat, like timed races and finding a lost dog. 

Exploring is also dampened by the deliberate movement speed, which is a notch slower than I’d like. Since most zones are expansive and require multiple visits, I often mashed the dash button to expedite travel. The elaborate art design and isometric viewing angles can also make navigating certain pathways, namely elevated ones, a tricky and sometimes irritating proposition due to the perspective. I could also do without collecting various but identical currencies to unlock different hats that, while cute, I wish you could remove instead of just switching to another. 

Though Hauntii offers simplistic shooter pleasure, my favorite moments didn’t involve blowing targets to smithereens. The voice-less story of the ghost gradually regaining precious memories only to be faced with surrendering them to crossover touched me at points. I enjoyed interacting with the kooky, amusing ghosts, like a paranoid scientist concocting hair-brained schemes to capture your angel friend like a Team Rocket villain. I never tired of soaking in the swelling musical score as the camera panned out to reveal a jaw-dropping backdrop. The beautiful ending sequence stands out as a highlight of the year. Hauntii transforms the understandable anxiety and fear surrounding death into an alluring and comforting reflection of the joy of life.

The Last Of Us Season 2 Will Be 7 Episodes And Won’t Cover The Full Game

The Last of Us Season 2 is on the way but it won’t be last for the series, nor will it cover the entirety of the sequel it’s adapting. A new interview with Deadline reveals the season’s 7-episode count, the likelihood of a third and even fourth season, and how the showrunners plan on telling its story.

The Last of Us Part II is a long game. So much so that showrunners and directors Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann realized it would need to tell its story across more than one season. 

“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin said. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 First Look Joel Pedro Pascal Ellie Bella Ramsey

Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us Season 2

Even though Season 2 will be shorter than Season 1, one of its episodes is said to be “quite big” in length. The showrunners also tease that a potential Season 3 will be much larger in scope. Despite this, Mazin doesn’t believe they can tell the whole story in two seasons because they want to take their time. “And indeed, the story may require Season 4,” he says.

HBO has not yet renewed The Last of Us for a third or fourth season, but Mazin believes it will happen, “as long as people keep watching.” 

For those worried that Season 2 would rush through Part II’s events, it seems you can relax. We’ll see where the story stops when The Last of Us Season 2 kicks off in 2025. To get a look at what the season has in store, you can take your first looks at Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s Joel and Ellie, and read about the castings for Dina, along with Manny, Mel, Owen, and Nora. Actor Jeffrey Wright was recently cast to reprise his role as Isaac.

[Source: Deadline]

Nuh Gedik receives 2024 National Brown Investigator Award

Nuh Gedik, MIT’s Donner Professor of Physics, has been named a 2024 Ross Brown Investigator by the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.

One of eight awarded mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, Gedik will receive up to $2 million over five years.

Gedik will use the award to develop a new kind of microscopy that images electrons photo-emitted from a surface while also measuring their energy and momentum. This microscope will make femtosecond movies of electrons to study the fascinating properties of two-dimensional quantum materials.  

Another awardee, professor of physics Andrea Young at the University of California Santa Barbara, was a 2011-14 Pappalardo Fellow at MIT in experimental condensed matter physics. 

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech was established in 2023 through a $400-million gift from entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Caltech alumnus Ross M. Brown, to support fundamental research in chemistry and physics. Initially created as the Investigator Awards in 2020, the award supports the belief that “scientific discovery is a driving force in the improvement of the human condition,” according to a news release from the Science Philanthropy Alliance.

A total of 13 investigators were recognized in the program’s first three years. Now that the Brown Investigator Award has found a long-term home at Caltech, the intent is to recognize a minimum of eight investigators each year. 

Other previous awardees with MIT connections include MIT professor of chemistry Mircea Dincă as well as physics alumni Waseem S. Bakr ’05, ’06, MNG ’06 of Princeton University; David Hsieh of Caltech, who is another former Pappalardo Fellow; Munira Khalil PhD ’04 and Mark Rudner PhD ’08 of the University of Washington; and Tanya Zelevinsky ’99 of Columbia University.

Mouth-based touchpad enables people living with paralysis to interact with computers

When Tomás Vega SM ’19 was 5 years old, he began to stutter. The experience gave him an appreciation for the adversity that can come with a disability. It also showed him the power of technology.

“A keyboard and a mouse were outlets,” Vega says. “They allowed me to be fluent in the things I did. I was able to transcend my limitations in a way, so I became obsessed with human augmentation and with the concept of cyborgs. I also gained empathy. I think we all have empathy, but we apply it according to our own experiences.”

Vega has been using technology to augment human capabilities ever since. He began programming when he was 12. In high school, he helped people manage disabilities including hand impairments and multiple sclerosis. In college, first at the University of California at Berkeley and then at MIT, Vega built technologies that helped people with disabilities live more independently.

Today Vega is the co-founder and CEO of Augmental, a startup deploying technology that lets people with movement impairments seamlessly interact with their personal computational devices.

Augmental’s first product is the MouthPad, which allows users to control their computer, smartphone, or tablet through tongue and head movements. The MouthPad’s pressure-sensitive touch pad sits on the roof of the mouth, and, working with a pair of motion sensors, translates tongue and head gestures into cursor scrolling and clicks in real time via Bluetooth.

“We have a big chunk of the brain that is devoted to controlling the position of the tongue,” Vega explains. “The tongue comprises eight muscles, and most of the muscle fibers are slow-twitch, which means they don’t fatigue as quickly. So, I thought why don’t we leverage all of that?”

People with spinal cord injuries are already using the MouthPad every day to interact with their favorite devices independently. One of Augmental’s users, who is living with quadriplegia and studying math and computer science in college, says the device has helped her write math formulas and study in the library — use cases where other assistive speech-based devices weren’t appropriate.

“She can now take notes in class, she can play games with her friends, she can watch movies or read books,” Vega says. “She is more independent. Her mom told us that getting the MouthPad was the most significant moment since her injury.”

That’s the ultimate goal of Augmental: to improve the accessibility of technologies that have become an integral part of our lives.

“We hope that a person with a severe impairment can be as competent using a phone or tablet as somebody using their hands,” Vega says.

Making computers more accessible

In 2012, as a first-year student at UC Berkeley, Vega met his eventual Augmental co-founder, Corten Singer. That year, he told Singer he was determined to join the Media Lab as a graduate student, something he achieved four years later when he joined the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group run by Pattie Maes, MIT’s Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences.

“I only applied to one program for grad school, and that was the Media Lab,” Vega says. “I thought it was the only place where I could do what I wanted to do, which is augmenting human ability.”

At the Media Lab, Vega took classes in microfabrication, signal processing, and electronics. He also developed wearable devices to help people access information online, improve their sleep, and regulate their emotions.

“At the Media Lab, I was able to apply my engineering and neuroscience background to build stuff, which is what I love doing the most,” Vega says. “I describe the Media Lab as Disneyland for makers. I was able to just play, and to explore without fear.”

Vega had gravitated toward the idea of a brain-machine interface, but an internship at Neuralink made him seek out a different solution.

“A brain implant has the highest potential for helping people in the future, but I saw a number of limitations that pushed me from working on it right now,” Vega says. “One is the long timeline for development. I’ve made so many friends over the past years that needed a solution yesterday.”

At MIT, he decided to build a solution with all the potential of a brain implant but without the limitations.

In his last semester at MIT, Vega built what he describes as “a lollipop with a bunch of sensors” to test the mouth as a medium for computer interaction. It worked beautifully.

“At that point, I called Corten, my co-founder, and said, ‘I think this has the potential to change so many lives,’” Vega says. “It could also change the way humans interact with computers in the future.”

Vega used MIT resources including the Venture Mentoring Service, the MIT I-Corps program, and received crucial early funding from MIT’s E14 Fund. Augmental was officially born when Vega graduated from MIT at the end of 2019.

Augmental generates each MouthPad design using a 3D model based on a scan of the user’s mouth. The team then 3-D prints the retainer using dental-grade materials and adds the electronic components.

With the MouthPad, users can scroll up, down, left, and right by sliding their tongue. They can also right click by doing a sipping gesture and left click by pressing on their palate. For people with less control of their tongue, bites, clenches, and other gestures can be used, and people with more neck control can use head-tracking to move the cursor on their screen.

“Our hope is to create an interface that is multimodal, so you can choose what works for you,” Vega says. “We want to be accommodating to every condition.”

Scaling the MouthPad

Many of Augmental’s current users have spinal cord injuries, with some users unable to move their hands and others unable to move their heads. Gamers and programmers have also used the device. The company’s most frequent users interact with the MouthPad every day for up to nine hours.

“It’s amazing because it means that it has really seamlessly integrated into their lives, and they are finding lots of value in our solution,” Vega says.

Augmental is hoping to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance over the next year to help users do things like control wheelchairs and robotic arms. FDA clearance will also unlock insurance reimbursements for users, which will make the product more accessible.

Augmental is already working on the next version of its system, which will respond to whispers and even more subtle movements of internal speech organs.

“That’s crucial to our early customer segment because a lot of them have lost or have impaired lung function,” Vega says.

Vega is also encouraged by progress in AI agents and the hardware that goes with them. No matter how the digital world evolves, Vega believes Augmental can be a tool that can benefit everyone.

“What we hope to provide one day is an always-available, robust, and private interface to intelligence,” Vega says. “We think that this is the most expressive, wearable, hands-free operating system that humans have created.”

Reducing carbon emissions from long-haul trucks

People around the world rely on trucks to deliver the goods they need, and so-called long-haul trucks play a critical role in those supply chains. In the United States, long-haul trucks moved 71 percent of all freight in 2022. But those long-haul trucks are heavy polluters, especially of the carbon emissions that threaten the global climate. According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, in 2022 more than 3 percent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions came from long-haul trucks.

The problem is that long-haul trucks run almost exclusively on diesel fuel, and burning diesel releases high levels of CO2 and other carbon emissions. Global demand for freight transport is projected to as much as double by 2050, so it’s critical to find another source of energy that will meet the needs of long-haul trucks while also reducing their carbon emissions. And conversion to the new fuel must not be costly. “Trucks are an indispensable part of the modern supply chain, and any increase in the cost of trucking will be felt universally,” notes William H. Green, the Hoyt Hottel Professor in Chemical Engineering and director of the MIT Energy Initiative.

For the past year, Green and his research team have been seeking a low-cost, cleaner alternative to diesel. Finding a replacement is difficult because diesel meets the needs of the trucking industry so well. For one thing, diesel has a high energy density — that is, energy content per pound of fuel. There’s a legal limit on the total weight of a truck and its contents, so using an energy source with a lower weight allows the truck to carry more payload — an important consideration, given the low profit margin of the freight industry. In addition, diesel fuel is readily available at retail refueling stations across the country — a critical resource for drivers, who may travel 600 miles in a day and sleep in their truck rather than returning to their home depot. Finally, diesel fuel is a liquid, so it’s easy to distribute to refueling stations and then pump into trucks.

Past studies have examined numerous alternative technology options for powering long-haul trucks, but no clear winner has emerged. Now, Green and his team have evaluated the available options based on consistent and realistic assumptions about the technologies involved and the typical operation of a long-haul truck, and assuming no subsidies to tip the cost balance. Their in-depth analysis of converting long-haul trucks to battery electric — summarized below — found a high cost and negligible emissions gains in the near term. Studies of methanol and other liquid fuels from biomass are ongoing, but already a major concern is whether the world can plant and harvest enough biomass for biofuels without destroying the ecosystem. An analysis of hydrogen — also summarized below — highlights specific challenges with using that clean-burning fuel, which is a gas at normal temperatures.

Finally, the team identified an approach that could make hydrogen a promising, low-cost option for long-haul trucks. And, says Green, “it’s an option that most people are probably unaware of.” It involves a novel way of using materials that can pick up hydrogen, store it, and then release it when and where it’s needed to serve as a clean-burning fuel.

Defining the challenge: A realistic drive cycle, plus diesel values to beat

The MIT researchers believe that the lack of consensus on the best way to clean up long-haul trucking may have a simple explanation: Different analyses are based on different assumptions about the driving behavior of long-haul trucks. Indeed, some of them don’t accurately represent actual long-haul operations. So the first task for the MIT team was to define a representative — and realistic — “drive cycle” for actual long-haul truck operations in the United States. Then the MIT researchers — and researchers elsewhere — can assess potential replacement fuels and engines based on a consistent set of assumptions in modeling and simulation analyses.

To define the drive cycle for long-haul operations, the MIT team used a systematic approach to analyze many hours of real-world driving data covering 58,000 miles. They examined 10 features and identified three — daily range, vehicle speed, and road grade — that have the greatest impact on energy demand and thus on fuel consumption and carbon emissions. The representative drive cycle that emerged covers a distance of 600 miles, an average vehicle speed of 55 miles per hour, and a road grade ranging from negative 6 percent to positive 6 percent.

The next step was to generate key values for the performance of the conventional diesel “powertrain,” that is, all the components involved in creating power in the engine and delivering it to the wheels on the ground. Based on their defined drive cycle, the researchers simulated the performance of a conventional diesel truck, generating “benchmarks” for fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, cost, and other performance parameters.

Now they could perform parallel simulations — based on the same drive-cycle assumptions — of possible replacement fuels and powertrains to see how the cost, carbon emissions, and other performance parameters would compare to the diesel benchmarks.

The battery electric option

When considering how to decarbonize long-haul trucks, a natural first thought is battery power. After all, battery electric cars and pickup trucks are proving highly successful. Why not switch to battery electric long-haul trucks? “Again, the literature is very divided, with some studies saying that this is the best idea ever, and other studies saying that this makes no sense,” says Sayandeep Biswas, a graduate student in chemical engineering.

To assess the battery electric option, the MIT researchers used a physics-based vehicle model plus well-documented estimates for the efficiencies of key components such as the battery pack, generators, motor, and so on. Assuming the previously described drive cycle, they determined operating parameters, including how much power the battery-electric system needs. From there they could calculate the size and weight of the battery required to satisfy the power needs of the battery electric truck.

The outcome was disheartening. Providing enough energy to travel 600 miles without recharging would require a 2 megawatt-hour battery. “That’s a lot,” notes Kariana Moreno Sader, a graduate student in chemical engineering. “It’s the same as what two U.S. households consume per month on average.” And the weight of such a battery would significantly reduce the amount of payload that could be carried. An empty diesel truck typically weighs 20,000 pounds. With a legal limit of 80,000 pounds, there’s room for 60,000 pounds of payload. The 2 MWh battery would weigh roughly 27,000 pounds — significantly reducing the allowable capacity for carrying payload.

Accounting for that “payload penalty,” the researchers calculated that roughly four electric trucks would be required to replace every three of today’s diesel-powered trucks. Furthermore, each added truck would require an additional driver. The impact on operating expenses would be significant.

Analyzing the emissions reductions that might result from shifting to battery electric long-haul trucks also brought disappointing results. One might assume that using electricity would eliminate CO2 emissions. But when the researchers included emissions associated with making that electricity, that wasn’t true.

“Battery electric trucks are only as clean as the electricity used to charge them,” notes Moreno Sader. Most of the time, drivers of long-haul trucks will be charging from national grids rather than dedicated renewable energy plants. According to Energy Information Agency statistics, fossil fuels make up more than 60 percent of the current U.S. power grid, so electric trucks would still be responsible for significant levels of carbon emissions. Manufacturing batteries for the trucks would generate additional CO2 emissions.

Building the charging infrastructure would require massive upfront capital investment, as would upgrading the existing grid to reliably meet additional energy demand from the long-haul sector. Accomplishing those changes would be costly and time-consuming, which raises further concern about electrification as a means of decarbonizing long-haul freight.

In short, switching today’s long-haul diesel trucks to battery electric power would bring major increases in costs for the freight industry and negligible carbon emissions benefits in the near term. Analyses assuming various types of batteries as well as other drive cycles produced comparable results.

However, the researchers are optimistic about where the grid is going in the future. “In the long term, say by around 2050, emissions from the grid are projected to be less than half what they are now,” says Moreno Sader. “When we do our calculations based on that prediction, we find that emissions from battery electric trucks would be around 40 percent lower than our calculated emissions based on today’s grid.”

For Moreno Sader, the goal of the MIT research is to help “guide the sector on what would be the best option.” With that goal in mind, she and her colleagues are now examining the battery electric option under different scenarios — for example, assuming battery swapping (a depleted battery isn’t recharged but replaced by a fully charged one), short-haul trucking, and other applications that might produce a more cost-competitive outcome, even for the near term.

A promising option: hydrogen

As the world looks to get off reliance on fossil fuels for all uses, much attention is focusing on hydrogen. Could hydrogen be a good alternative for today’s diesel-burning long-haul trucks?

To find out, the MIT team performed a detailed analysis of the hydrogen option. “We thought that hydrogen would solve a lot of the problems we had with battery electric,” says Biswas. It doesn’t have associated CO2 emissions. Its energy density is far higher, so it doesn’t create the weight problem posed by heavy batteries. In addition, existing compression technology can get enough hydrogen fuel into a regular-sized tank to cover the needed distance and range. “You can actually give drivers the range they want,” he says. “There’s no issue with ‘range anxiety.’”

But while using hydrogen for long-haul trucking would reduce carbon emissions, it would cost far more than diesel. Based on their detailed analysis of hydrogen, the researchers concluded that the main source of incurred cost is in transporting it. Hydrogen can be made in a chemical facility, but then it needs to be distributed to refueling stations across the country. Conventionally, there have been two main ways of transporting hydrogen: as a compressed gas and as a cryogenic liquid. As Biswas notes, the former is “super high pressure,” and the latter is “super cold.” The researchers’ calculations show that as much as 80 percent of the cost of delivered hydrogen is due to transportation and refueling, plus there’s the need to build dedicated refueling stations that can meet new environmental and safety standards for handling hydrogen as a compressed gas or a cryogenic liquid.

Having dismissed the conventional options for shipping hydrogen, they turned to a less-common approach: transporting hydrogen using “liquid organic hydrogen carriers” (LOHCs), special organic (carbon-containing) chemical compounds that can under certain conditions absorb hydrogen atoms and under other conditions release them.

LOHCs are in use today to deliver small amounts of hydrogen for commercial use. Here’s how the process works: In a chemical plant, the carrier compound is brought into contact with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst under elevated temperature and pressure, and the compound picks up the hydrogen. The “hydrogen-loaded” compound — still a liquid — is then transported under atmospheric conditions. When the hydrogen is needed, the compound is again exposed to a temperature increase and a different catalyst, and the hydrogen is released.

LOHCs thus appear to be ideal hydrogen carriers for long-haul trucking. They’re liquid, so they can easily be delivered to existing refueling stations, where the hydrogen would be released; and they contain at least as much energy per gallon as hydrogen in a cryogenic liquid or compressed gas form. However, a detailed analysis of using hydrogen carriers showed that the approach would decrease emissions but at a considerable cost.

The problem begins with the “dehydrogenation” step at the retail station. Releasing the hydrogen from the chemical carrier requires heat, which is generated by burning some of the hydrogen being carried by the LOHC. The researchers calculate that getting the needed heat takes 36 percent of that hydrogen. (In theory, the process would take only 27 percent — but in reality, that efficiency won’t be achieved.) So out of every 100 units of starting hydrogen, 36 units are now gone.

But that’s not all. The hydrogen that comes out is at near-ambient pressure. So the facility dispensing the hydrogen will need to compress it — a process that the team calculates will use up 20-30 percent of the starting hydrogen.

Because of the needed heat and compression, there’s now less than half of the starting hydrogen left to be delivered to the truck — and as a result, the hydrogen fuel becomes twice as expensive. The bottom line is that the technology works, but “when it comes to really beating diesel, the economics don’t work. It’s quite a bit more expensive,” says Biswas. In addition, the refueling stations would require expensive compressors and auxiliary units such as cooling systems. The capital investment and the operating and maintenance costs together imply that the market penetration of hydrogen refueling stations will be slow.

A better strategy: onboard release of hydrogen from LOHCs

Given the potential benefits of using of LOHCs, the researchers focused on how to deal with both the heat needed to release the hydrogen and the energy needed to compress it. “That’s when we had the idea,” says Biswas. “Instead of doing the dehydrogenation [hydrogen release] at the refueling station and then loading the truck with hydrogen, why don’t we just take the LOHC and load that onto the truck?” Like diesel, LOHC is a liquid, so it’s easily transported and pumped into trucks at existing refueling stations. “We’ll then make hydrogen as it’s needed based on the power demands of the truck — and we can capture waste heat from the engine exhaust and use it to power the dehydrogenation process,” says Biswas.

In their proposed plan, hydrogen-loaded LOHC is created at a chemical “hydrogenation” plant and then delivered to a retail refueling station, where it’s pumped into a long-haul truck. Onboard the truck, the loaded LOHC pours into the fuel-storage tank. From there it moves to the “dehydrogenation unit” — the reactor where heat and a catalyst together promote chemical reactions that separate the hydrogen from the LOHC. The hydrogen is sent to the powertrain, where it burns, producing energy that propels the truck forward.

Hot exhaust from the powertrain goes to a “heat-integration unit,” where its waste heat energy is captured and returned to the reactor to help encourage the reaction that releases hydrogen from the loaded LOHC. The unloaded LOHC is pumped back into the fuel-storage tank, where it’s kept in a separate compartment to keep it from mixing with the loaded LOHC. From there, it’s pumped back into the retail refueling station and then transported back to the hydrogenation plant to be loaded with more hydrogen.

Switching to onboard dehydrogenation brings down costs by eliminating the need for extra hydrogen compression and by using waste heat in the engine exhaust to drive the hydrogen-release process. So how does their proposed strategy look compared to diesel? Based on a detailed analysis, the researchers determined that using their strategy would be 18 percent more expensive than using diesel, and emissions would drop by 71 percent.

But those results need some clarification. The 18 percent cost premium of using LOHC with onboard hydrogen release is based on the price of diesel fuel in 2020. In spring of 2023 the price was about 30 percent higher. Assuming the 2023 diesel price, the LOHC option is actually cheaper than using diesel.

Both the cost and emissions outcomes are affected by another assumption: the use of “blue hydrogen,” which is hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage. Another option is to assume the use of “green hydrogen,” which is hydrogen produced using electricity generated from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Green hydrogen is much more expensive than blue hydrogen, so then the costs would increase dramatically.

If in the future the price of green hydrogen drops, the researchers’ proposed plan would shift to green hydrogen — and then the decline in emissions would no longer be 71 percent but rather close to 100 percent. There would be almost no emissions associated with the researchers’ proposed plan for using LHOCs with onboard hydrogen release.

Comparing the options on cost and emissions

To compare the options, Moreno Sader prepared bar charts showing the per-mile cost of shipping by truck in the United States and the CO2 emissions that result using each of the fuels and approaches discussed above: diesel fuel, battery electric, hydrogen as a cryogenic liquid or compressed gas, and LOHC with onboard hydrogen release. The LOHC strategy with onboard dehydrogenation looked promising on both the cost and the emissions charts. In addition to such quantitative measures, the researchers believe that their strategy addresses two other, less-obvious challenges in finding a less-polluting fuel for long-haul trucks.

First, the introduction of the new fuel and trucks to use it must not disrupt the current freight-delivery setup. “You have to keep the old trucks running while you’re introducing the new ones,” notes Green. “You cannot have even a day when the trucks aren’t running because it’d be like the end of the economy. Your supermarket shelves would all be empty; your factories wouldn’t be able to run.” The researchers’ plan would be completely compatible with the existing diesel supply infrastructure and would require relatively minor retrofits to today’s long-haul trucks, so the current supply chains would continue to operate while the new fuel and retrofitted trucks are introduced.

Second, the strategy has the potential to be adopted globally. Long-haul trucking is important in other parts of the world, and Moreno Sader thinks that “making this approach a reality is going to have a lot of impact, not only in the United States but also in other countries,” including her own country of origin, Colombia. “This is something I think about all the time.” The approach is compatible with the current diesel infrastructure, so the only requirement for adoption is to build the chemical hydrogenation plant. “And I think the capital expenditure related to that will be less than the cost of building a new fuel-supply infrastructure throughout the country,” says Moreno Sader.

Testing in the lab

“We’ve done a lot of simulations and calculations to show that this is a great idea,” notes Biswas. “But there’s only so far that math can go to convince people.” The next step is to demonstrate their concept in the lab.

To that end, the researchers are now assembling all the core components of the onboard hydrogen-release reactor as well as the heat-integration unit that’s key to transferring heat from the engine exhaust to the hydrogen-release reactor. They estimate that this spring they’ll be ready to demonstrate their ability to release hydrogen and confirm the rate at which it’s formed. And — guided by their modeling work — they’ll be able to fine-tune critical components for maximum efficiency and best performance.

The next step will be to add an appropriate engine, specially equipped with sensors to provide the critical readings they need to optimize the performance of all their core components together. By the end of 2024, the researchers hope to achieve their goal: the first experimental demonstration of a power-dense, robust onboard hydrogen-release system with highly efficient heat integration.

In the meantime, they believe that results from their work to date should help spread the word, bringing their novel approach to the attention of other researchers and experts in the trucking industry who are now searching for ways to decarbonize long-haul trucking.

Financial support for development of the representative drive cycle and the diesel benchmarks as well as the analysis of the battery electric option was provided by the MIT Mobility Systems Center of the MIT Energy Initiative. Analysis of LOHC-powered trucks with onboard dehydrogenation was supported by the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium. Sayandeep Biswas is supported by a fellowship from the Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability, and Kariana Moreno Sader received fellowship funding from MathWorks through the MIT School of Science.

Ten with MIT connections win 2024 Hertz Foundation Fellowships

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation announced that it has awarded fellowships to 10 PhD students with ties to MIT. The prestigious award provides each recipient with five years of doctoral-level research funding (up to a total of $250,000), which allows them the flexibility and autonomy to pursue their own innovative ideas.

Fellows also receive lifelong access to Hertz Foundation programs, such as events, mentoring, and networking. They join the ranks of over 1,300 former Hertz Fellows who are leaders and scholars in a range of fields in science, engineering, and technology. Connections among fellows over the years have sparked collaborations in startups, research, and technology commercialization.

The 10 MIT recipients are among a total of 18 Hertz Foundation Fellows scholars selected this year from across the country. Five of them received their undergraduate degrees at the Institute and will pursue their PhDs at other schools. Two are current MIT graduate students, and four will begin their studies here in the fall.

“For more than 60 years, Hertz Fellows have led scientific and technical innovation in national security, applied biological sciences, materials research, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and more. Their contributions have been essential in advancing U.S. competitiveness,” says Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation board of directors and founder and president of Optikos Corp. “I’m excited to watch our newest Hertz Fellows as they pursue challenging research and continue the strong tradition of applying their work for the greater good.”

This year’s MIT-affiliated awardees are:

Owen Dugan ’24 graduated from MIT in just two-and-a-half years with a degree in physics, and he plans to pursue a PhD in computer science at Stanford University. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI and physics. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in a broad range of areas, including using physics concepts to enhance the speed of large language models and developing machine learning algorithms that automatically discover scientific theories. He was recognized with MIT’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award and is a U.S. Presidential Scholar, a Neo Scholar, and a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Dugan holds multiple patents, co-developed an app to reduce food waste, and co-founded a startup that builds tools to verify the authenticity of digital images.

Kaylie Hausknecht will begin her physics doctorate at MIT in the fall, having completing her undergraduate degree in physics and astrophysics at Harvard University. While there, her undergraduate research focused on developing new machine learning techniques to solve problems in a range of fields, such as fluid dynamics, astrophysics, and condensed matter physics. She received the Hoopes Prize for her senior thesis, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, and won two major writing awards. In addition, she completed five NASA internships. As an intern, she helped identify 301 new exoplanets using archival data from the Kepler Space Telescope. Hausknecht served as the co-president of Harvard’s chapter of Science Club for Girls, which works to encourage girls from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM.

Elijah Lew-Smith majored in physics at Brown University and plans to pursue a doctoral degree in physics at MIT. He is a theoretical physicist with broad intellectual interests in effective field theory (EFT), which is the study of systems with many interacting degrees of freedom. EFT reveals how to extract the relevant, long-distance behavior from complicated microscopic rules. In 2023, he received a national award to work on applying EFT systematically to non-equilibrium and active systems such as fluctuating hydrodynamics or flocking birds. In addition, Lew-Smith received a scholarship from the U.S. State Department to live for a year in Dakar, Senegal, and later studied at ’École Polytechnique in Paris, France.

Rupert Li ’24 earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MIT in mathematics as well as computer science, data science, and economics, with a minor in business analytics.He was named a 2024 Marshall Scholar and will study abroad for a year at Cambridge University before matriculating at Stanford University for a mathematics doctorate. As an undergraduate, Li authored 12 math research articles, primarily in combinatorics, but also including discrete geometry, probability, and harmonic analysis. He was recognized for his work with a Barry Goldwater Scholarship and an honorable mention for the Morgan Prize, one of the highest undergraduate honors in mathematics.

Amani Maina-Kilaas is a first-year doctoral student at MIT in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he studies computational psycholinguistics. In particular, he is interested in using artificial intelligence as a scientific tool to study how the mind works, and using what we know about the mind to develop more cognitively realistic models. Maina-Kilaas earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Harvey Mudd College. There, he conducted research regarding intention perception and theoretical machine learning, earning the Astronaut Scholarship and Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.

Zoë Marschner ’23 is a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University working on geometry processing, a subfield of computer graphics focused on how to represent and work with geometric data digitally; in her research, she aims to make these representations capable of enabling fundamentally better algorithms for solving geometric problems across science and engineering. As an undergraduate at MIT, she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and math and pursued research in geometry processing, including repairing hexahedral meshes and detecting intersections between high-order surfaces. She also interned at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where she worked on collision detection algorithms for simulation. Marschner is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and the Goldwater Scholarship.

Zijian (William) Niu will start a doctoral program in computational and systems biology at MIT in the fall. He has a particular interest in developing new methods for imaging proteins and other biomolecules in their native cellular environments and using those data to build computational models for predicting their dynamics and molecular interactions. Niu received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, biophysics, and physics from the University of Pennsylvania. His undergraduate research involved developing novel computational methods for biological image analysis. He was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for creating a deep-learning algorithm for accurately detecting tiny diffraction-limited spots in fluorescence microscopy images that outperformed existing methods in quantifying spatial transcriptomics data.

James Roney received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University in computer science and statistics, respectively. He is currently working as a machine learning research engineer at D.E. Shaw Research. His past research has focused on interpreting the internal workings of AlphaFold and modeling cancer evolution. Roney plans to pursue a PhD in computational biology at MIT, with a specific interest in developing computational models of protein structure, function, and evolution and using those models to engineer novel proteins for applications in biotechnology.

Anna Sappington ’19 is a student in the Harvard University-MIT MD-PhD Program, currently in the first year of her doctoral program at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science. She is interested in building methods to predict evolutionary events, especially connections among machine learning, biology, and chemistry to develop reinforcement learning models inspired by evolutionary biology. Sappington graduated from MIT with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and molecular biology. As an undergraduate, she was awarded a 2018 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and selected as a Burchard Scholar and an Amgen Scholar. After graduating, she earned a master’s degree in genomic medicine from the University of Cambridge, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, as well as a master’s degree in machine learning from University College London.

Jason Yang ’22 received his bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in computer science from MIT and is currently a doctoral student in genetics at Stanford University. He is interested in understanding the biological processes that underlie human health and disease. At MIT, and subsequently at Massachusetts General Hospital, Yang worked on the mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration in repeat expansion diseases, uncovering a novel molecular consequence of repeat protein aggregation.

Advocating for science funding on Capitol Hill

This spring, 26 MIT students and postdocs traveled to Washington to meet with congressional staffers to advocate for increased science funding for fiscal year 2025. These conversations were impactful given the recent announcement of budget cuts for several federal science agencies for FY24. 

The participants met with 85 congressional offices representing 30 states over two days April 8-9. Overall, the group advocated for $89.46 billion in science funding across 11 federal scientific agencies. 

Every spring, the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) organizes the Congressional Visit Days (CVD). The trip exposes participants to the process of U.S. federal policymaking and the many avenues researchers can use to advocate for scientific research. The participants also meet with Washington-based alumni and members of the MIT Washington Office and learn about policy careers.

This year, CVD was jointly co-organized by Marie Floryan and Andrew Fishberg, two PhD students in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics and Astronautics, respectively. Before the trip, the participants attended two training sessions organized by SPI, the MIT Washington Office, and the MIT Policy Lab. The participants learned how funding is appropriated at the federal level, the role of elected congressional officials and their staffers in the legislative process, and how academic researchers can get involved in advocating for policies for science.

Julian Ufert, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, says, “CVD was a remarkable opportunity to share insights from my research with policymakers, learn about U.S. politics, and serve the greater scientific community. I thoroughly enjoyed the contacts I made both on Capitol Hill and with MIT students and postdocs who share an interest in science policy.”

In addition to advocating for increased science funding, the participants advocated for topics pertaining to their research projects. A wide variety of topics were discussed, including AI, cybersecurity, energy production and storage, and biotechnology. Naturally, the recent advent of groundbreaking AI technologies, like ChatGPT, brought the topic of AI to the forefront of many offices interested, with multiple offices serving on the newly formed bipartisan AI Task Force.

These discussions were useful for both parties: The participants learned about the methods and challenges associated with enacting legislation, and the staffers directly heard from academic researchers about what is needed to promote scientific progress and innovation.

“It was fascinating to experience the interest and significant involvement of Congressional offices in policy matters related to science and technology. Most staffers were well aware of the general technological advancements and eager to learn more about how our research will impact society,” says Vipindev Vasudevan, a postdoc in electrical and computer engineering.

Dina Sharon, a PhD student in chemistry, adds, “The offices where we met with Congressional staffers were valuable classrooms! Our conversations provided insights into policymakers’ goals, how science can help reach these goals, and how scientists can help cultivate connections between the research and policy spheres.”

Participants also shared how science funding has directly impacted them, discussing how federal grants have supported their graduate education and for the need for open access research.

Unique professional development course prepares students for future careers

MIT’s unique Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP) is a yearlong career-development course for second-year students focused on preparing them for a summer experience in industry, research, and public service, as well as for their future careers post-MIT. The program was launched in 2001 by Thomas Magnanti, then dean of the MIT School of Engineering, who recognized that MIT students receive a best-in-class technical education, but hadn’t historically been given the opportunity to develop the softer skills that will help them succeed in the workplace.

“UPOP is a great opportunity for MIT sophomores to develop important skills that will complement what they are learning in the classroom and can help them to effectively communicate and demonstrate their value in a professional setting,” says Kendel Jester, assistant director for early career engagement in MIT Career Advising and Professional Development (CAPD). “Furthermore, the UPOP curriculum allows students to connect with tangible resources, including MIT alumni and staff, to help further their career and personal development.”

UPOP uses experiential learning to bolster students’ professional development and teaches them effective communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills in an interactive environment. The program begins with career basics, like crafting a resume and cover letter, networking, and interview preparation, and progresses to more complex career readiness skills, such as negotiating a salary, professional communication, and fostering an inclusive environment.

“The biggest benefit of joining UPOP for me was the self-confidence which I gained as a professional,” says rising senior Jehan Ahmed. Ahmed completed UPOP in 2023 and continued on to work as a course assistant for the program. “Before starting my first industry internship, UPOP prepared me for the day-to-day collaboration which I experienced. I learned how to approach my manager from the beginning and set expectations and goals with them which became really helpful, especially as someone new to the industry. I felt more prepared to jump into my project even though I was not completely technically competent in the field as a sophomore.”

UPOP focuses on sophomores because they don’t receive as much support and targeted resources as first-year students. Completing the program gives sophomores a leg-up on summer opportunities, which are typically given precedent to juniors and seniors, by helping them become competitive candidates. The summer after sophomore year is a pivotal time in a career path, and UPOP helps its students get ahead.

“The time commitment of UPOP was low, but I got amazing connections and support systems through the program,” says rising senior Jade Durham. Durham is also a UPOP alum who returned to work for the program.

The UPOP community is a big benefit of joining the program. Students get access to UPOP’s exclusive mentor and employer networks, which opens doors to connections and opportunities that would not have been available to them otherwise. UPOP mentors are industry leaders, many of whom are MIT alumni. Meanwhile, UPOP’s 100-plus employer network members are invested in hiring UPOP students, knowing they are now equipped with skills that many other interns lack. In addition to access to these networks, students receive one-on-one advising with UPOP’s dedicated staff and exclusive opportunities to work with MIT campus partners.

“UPOP helps sophomores figure out what they want to do after graduation by connecting them with professionals in a variety of careers,” says Marianne Olsen, an MIT/UPOP alumna whose company, Chartwell, is part of the employer network. “I personally benefited significantly from meeting operations consultants through UPOP who helped me realize that a job existed that let me apply my engineering degree to manufacturing while having the variety of projects of consulting. Until then, I thought I’d have to pick one or the other.”

UPOP is a course offering three credits for the full year, but it boasts a much lighter workload and more flexibility than other classes at MIT. It consists of three or four hour-long milestone workshops during the fall and spring semesters, which cover the career readiness curriculum described above.

In addition to the milestone workshops, UPOP’s cornerstone event is Team Training Workshop (TTW), a multi-day, intensive experiential learning opportunity that places students in small teams assigned to UPOP mentors. Teams work together on a series of activities focused on building the skills they will need in their future professional endeavors, regardless of what their MIT course is. TTW’s unique programming immerses sophomores in a wide range of practice opportunities, such as project management, negotiations, and presenting professionally, while still prioritizing camaraderie and fun.

“Considering all the networking practice and professional skills that you get to learn from experienced mentors, TTW is definitely worth your time,” says Ahmed. “You get an opportunity to learn more about different fields of work from experts. You also get the chance to learn about the communication and emotional intelligence skills that are necessary to be successful at your job, which we may not get the chance to practice in our academic/technical classes.”

UPOP’s mission puts students’ career readiness needs as a No. 1 priority, and the program is constantly evolving to meet those needs. This year, UPOP started programming earlier than ever before to account for students whose chosen fields have internship application deadlines in the fall. This includes a brand-new First-Year Speed Networking event, which took place on April 23. The event gave prospective UPOP applicants a chance to hone their elevator pitch with each other and members of the MIT and UPOP community, including program alumni and employers within the network.

The UPOP application is now open. Admissions is rolling throughout the summer until it closes on Sept. 13.

“I would tell my first-year self that it was a great opportunity to build up my confidence for networking and a wonderful resource during the internship hunting season,” says Ahmed.

Want to launch an AI startup? Stop. Continue. Keep doing

Some time ago, just mentioning the term “AI” would lead your idea to be associated with massive breakthroughs and a frenzy of excitement.  However, things have changed. In addition to the drying up of venture funding, a wave of disappointment has swept through the industry as…