Europe will have to show it’s loyal to American gas if it wants to avoid a trade war, François-Régis Mouton told POLITICO.

Three MIT payloads will soon hitch a ride to the moon in a step toward establishing a permanent base on the lunar surface.

In the coming days, weather permitting, MIT engineers and scientists will send three payloads into space, on a course set for the moon’s south polar region. Scientists believe this area, with its permanently shadowed regions, could host hidden reservoirs of frozen water, which could serve to sustain future lunar settlements and fuel missions beyond the moon.

NASA plans to send astronauts to the moon’s south pole in 2027 as part of the Artemis III mission, which will be the first time humans touch down on the lunar surface since the Apollo era and the first time any human sets foot on its polar region. In advance of that journey, the MIT payloads will provide data about the area that can help prepare Artemis astronauts for navigating the frozen terrain.

The payloads include two novel technologies — a small depth-mapping camera and a thumb-sized mini-rover — along with a wafer-thin “record,” etched with the voices of people from around the world speaking in their native languages. All three payloads will be carried by a larger, suitcase-sized rover built by the space contractor Lunar Outpost.

As the main rover drives around the moon’s surface, exploring the polar terrain, the MIT camera, mounted on the front of the rover, will take the first ever 3D images of the lunar landscape captured from the surface of the Moon using time of flight technology. These images will beam back to Earth, where they can be used to train Artemis astronauts in visual simulations of the polar terrain and can be incorporated into advanced spacesuits with synthetic vision helmets.

Meanwhile, the mini-rover, dubbed “AstroAnt,” will wheel around the roof of the main rover and take temperature readings to monitor the larger vehicle’s operation. If it’s successful, AstroAnt could work as part of a team of miniature helper bots, performing essential tasks in future missions, such as clearing dust from solar panels and checking for cracks in lunar habitats and infrastructure.

All three MIT payloads, along with the Lunar Outpost rover, will launch to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and touch down in the moon’s south polar region in a lander built by space company Intuitive Machines. The mission as a whole, which includes a variety of other payloads in addition to MIT’s, is named IM-2, for Intuitive Machines’ second trip to the moon. IM-2 aims to identify the presence and amount of water-ice on the moon’s south pole, using a combination of instruments, including an ice drill mounted to the lander, and a robotic “hopper” that will bounce along the surface to search for water in hard-to-reach regions.

The lunar landing, which engineers anticipate will be around noon on March 6, will mark the first time MIT has set active technology on the moon’s surface since the Apollo era, when MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory, now the independent Draper Laboratory, provided the landmark Apollo Guidance Computer that navigated astronauts to the moon and back.

MIT engineers see their part in the new mission, which they’ve named “To the Moon to Stay,” as the first of many on the way to establishing a permanent presence on the lunar surface.

“Our goal is not just to visit the moon but to build a thriving ecosystem that supports humanity’s expansion into space,” says Dava Newman, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at MIT, director of the MIT Media Lab, and former NASA deputy administrator.

Institute’s roots

MIT’s part in the lunar mission is led by the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), a research collaborative within the Media Lab that aims to enable a “sci-fi future” of space exploration. The SEI, which was founded in 2016 by media arts and sciences alumna Ariel Ekblaw SM ’17, PhD ’20, develops, tests, and deploys futuristic space-grade technologies that are intended to help humans establish sustainable settlements in space.

In the spring of 2021, SEI and MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) offered a course, MAS.839/16.893 (Operating in the Lunar Environment), that tasked teams of students to design payloads that meet certain objectives related to NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon. The class was taught by Ekblaw and AeroAstro’s Jeffrey Hoffman, MIT professor of the practice and former NASA astronaut, who helped students test their payload designs in the field, including in remote regions of Norway that resemble the moon’s barren landscape, and in parabolic flights that mimic the moon’s weak gravity.

Out of that class, Ekblaw and Hoffman chose to further develop two payload designs: a laser-based 3D camera system and the AstroAnt — a tiny, autonomous inspection robot. Both designs grew out of prior work. AstroAnt was originally a side project as part of Ekblaw’s PhD, based on work originally developed by Artem Dementyev in the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group, while the 3D camera was a PhD focus for AeroAstro alumna Cody Paige ’23, who helped develop and test the camera design and implement VR/XR technology with Newman, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center.

As both designs were fine-tuned, Ekblaw raised funds and established a contract with Lunar Outpost (co-founded by MIT AeroAstro alumnus Forrest Meyen SM ’13, PhD ’17) to pair the payloads with the company’s moon-bound rover. SEI Mission Integrator Sean Auffinger oversaw integration and test efforts, together with Lunar Outpost, to support these payloads for operation in a novel, extreme environment.

“This mission has deep MIT roots,” says Ekblaw, who is the principal investigator for the MIT arm of the IM-2 mission, and a visiting scientist at the Media Lab. “This will be historic in that we’ve never landed technology or a rover in this area of the lunar south pole. It’s a really hard place to land — there are big boulders, and deep dust. So, it’s a bold attempt.”

Systems on

The site of the IM-2 landing is Mons Mouton Plateau — a flat-topped mountain at the moon’s south pole that lies just north of Shackleton Crater, which is a potential landing site for NASA’s Artemis astronauts. After the Intuitive Machines lander touches down, it will effectively open its garage door and let Lunar Outpost’s rover drive out to explore the polar landscape. Once the rover acclimates to its surroundings, it will begin to activate its instruments, including MIT’s 3D camera.

“It will be the first time we’re using this specific imaging technology on the lunar surface,” notes Paige, who is the current SEI director.

The camera, which will be mounted on the front of the main rover, is designed to shine laser light onto a surface and measure the time it takes for the light to bounce back to the camera. This “time-of-flight” is a measurement of distance, which can also be translated into surface topography, such as the depth of individual craters and crevices.

“Because we’re using a laser light, we can look without using sunlight,” Paige explains. “And we don’t know exactly what we’ll find. Some of the things we’re looking for are centimeter-sized holes, in areas that are permanently shadowed or frozen, that might contain water-ice. Those are the kinds of landscapes we’re really excited to see.”

Paige expects that the camera will send images back to Earth in next-day data packets, which the MIT science team will process and analyze as the rover traverses the terrain.

As the camera maps the moon’s surface, AstroAnt — which is smaller and lighter than an airpod case — will deploy from a tiny garage atop the main rover’s roof. The AstroAnt will drive around on magnetic wheels that allow it to stick to the rover’s surface without falling off. To the AstroAnt’s undercarriage, Ekblaw and her team, led by Media Lab graduate student Fangzheng Liu, fixed a thermopile — a small sensor that takes measurements of the main rover’s temperature, which can be used to monitor the vehicle’s thermal performance. 

“If we can test this one AstroAnt on the moon, then we imagine having these really capable, roving swarms that can help astronauts do autonomous repair, inspection, diagnostics, and servicing,” Ekblaw says. “In the future, we could put little windshield wipers on them to help clear dust from solar panels, or put a pounding bar on them to induce tiny vibrations to detect defects in a habitat. There’s a lot of potential once we get to swarm scale.”

Eyes on the moon

The third MIT payload that will be affixed to the main rover is dubbed the Humanity United with MIT Art and Nanotechnology in Space, or HUMANS project. Led by MIT AeroAstro alumna Maya Nasr ’18, SM ’21, PhD ’23, HUMANS is a 2-inch disc made from a silicon wafer engraved with nanometer-scale etchings using technology provided by MIT.nano. The engravings are inspired by The Golden Record, a phonograph record that was sent into space with NASA’s Voyager probes in 1977. The HUMANS record is engraved with recordings of people from around the world, speaking in their native languages about what space exploration and humanity mean to them.

“We are carrying the hopes, dreams, and stories of people from all backgrounds,” Nasr says. “(It’s a) powerful reminder that space is not the privilege of a few, but the shared legacy of all.”

The MIT Media Lab plans to display the March 6 landing on a screen in the building’s atrium for the public to watch in real-time. Researchers from MIT’s Department of Architecture, led by Associate Professor Skylar Tibbits, have also built a lunar mission control room — a circular, architectural space where the engineers will monitor and control the mission’s payloads. If all goes well, the MIT team see the mission as the first step toward putting permanent boots on the surface of the moon, and even beyond.

“Our return to the Moon is not just about advancing technology — it’s about inspiring the next generation of explorers who are alive today and will travel to the moon in their lifetime,” Ekblaw says. “This historic mission for MIT brings students, staff and faculty together from across the Institute on a foundational mission that will support a future sustainable lunar settlement.”

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 25 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02270-9

Stewardship of soil carbon sits at the nexus of efforts to mitigate climate change, improve soil health and increase climate resiliency of agricultural production. Unlocking the full potential of soils to support a sustainable future requires embracing the unique and contrasting realities of soil carbon dynamics in arid versus humid systems.

The following is part of a series of short interviews from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) featuring a student describing themselves and life at MIT. Today’s interviewee, Titus Roesler, is a senior majoring in electrical science and engineering. As a first-year at MIT, Roesler joined the Experimental Study Group (ESG), a learning community that offers new MIT students the general Institute requirements (GIRs) in a small, tight-knit class setting. Roesler stuck around as an associate advisor in subsequent years for new cohorts of first-year ESG students, as a teaching assistant for classes on calculus and group theory, and as an instructor for special seminars in electrical engineering that he designed from scratch and then taught. Roesler’s commitment to his academic community also goes deep. Besides his teaching work, for which he was recently honored with the EECS Undergraduate Teaching Award, he is a member of the Undergraduate Student Advisory Group in EECS (USAGE), which provides student feedback to the department. 

Q: Tell us about one teacher from your past who had an influence on the person you’ve become.

A: While a student in ESG, I took ES.1801 (Single-Variable Calculus), ES.1802 (Multivariable Calculus), and ES.1803 (Differential Equations), all with Gabrielle Stoy. One morning in late spring, Gabrielle asked me to stick around after class to speak with her. (I wondered which course policy I had violated, and worried throughout the lecture.) Instead, Gabrielle asked me if I would apply to be a teaching assistant for an ESG math class the next semester. I was ecstatic — and thus began my “teaching career” at MIT! Gabrielle formally retired from teaching mathematics in ESG in 2024, but we teamed up again to offer a special seminar on group theory over IAP [Independent Activities Period] 2025.

Q: What is one conversation that changed the trajectory of your life?

A: I’m grateful for all the conversations I’ve had with Prof. Denny Freeman. I appreciate his kindness, wisdom, and willingness to find time to discuss career plans, research, and education with me. I’ve always left his office feeling more ambitious and optimistic than I did when I walked in.

Q: Do you have a bucket list? If so, share one or two of the items on it.

A: Running the Boston Marathon was on my bucket list for a few years, and I checked that off in 2024. Beyond that, I would love to explore Antarctica — perhaps by living and working at a research station for a year.

Q: What’s your favorite key on a standard computer keyboard, and why?

A: The backslash ( \ ) key is my favorite. I use it often for TEX commands when typesetting.

Q: If you suddenly won the lottery, what would you spend some of the money on?

A: A bulk order of Hagoromo chalk — the so-called “Rolls-Royce of chalk!”

Q: If you had to teach a really in-depth class about a niche topic, what would you pick?

A: In the context of signal processing, filters sift out desired frequency bands while attenuating others. I’d be interested in teaching a class on the theory and practice behind filter design — constructing a filter that satisfies a set of specifications. For example, analog or digital? Finite impulse response or infinite impulse response? Group delay? Causality? Stability? Practical implementation? I’m not an expert in filter design myself, but I’d appreciate the opportunity to consolidate what I’ve learned so far and study the topic in greater depth.

Spencer Paysinger has already been many things in his life, including a Super Bowl-winning linebacker, a writer and producer of the hit television series “All-American,” and local-business entrepreneur. But as he explained during his keynote speech at MIT’s 51st annual event celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Paysinger would prefer to think about his journey in additional terms: whether he has been able to serve others along the way.

“As I stand up here today talking about Dr. King’s mission, Dr. King’s dream, why we’re all here today, to me it all leans back into community,” Paysinger said. “I want to be judged by what I have done for others.”

Being able to reach out to others, in good times and bad, was a theme of the annual event, which took place in MIT’s Walker Memorial (Building 50), on Thursday. As Paysinger noted, his own career is marked by being a “team player” and finding reward in shared endeavors.

“For me, I’m at my best when I have people on the right and on the left of me attempting to reach the same dream,” Paysinger said. “We can have different ideologies, we can come from different backgrounds, of race, socioeconomic backgrounds. … At the end of the day it comes back to the mindset we need to have. It’s rooted in community, it’s rooted in togetherness.”

The event featured an array of talks delivered by students, campus leaders, and guests, along with musical interludes, and drew hundreds from the MIT community.

In opening remarks, MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth praised Paysinger, saying his “perseverance and tenacity are a fantastic example to us all.”

Kornbluth also spoke about the values, and value, of MIT itself. American universities and colleges, she noted, have long “been a point of national pride and a source of international envy. … They and we have always been valued as centers of excellence creativity, innovation, and an infinitely renewable source of leadership.”

Moving forward, Kornbluth noted, the MIT community will continue to pursue excellence and provide mutual respect for others.

“MIT is in the talent business,” Kornbluth said. “Our success, and living up to our great mission, depends on our ability to attract extraordinarily talented people and to create a community in which everyone earns a place here to do their very best work. … Everyone at MIT is here because they deserve to be here. Every staff member, every faculty member, every postdoc, every student, every one of us. Every one of us is a full member of this community, and every member of our community is valued as a human being, and valued for what they contribute to our mission.”

Paysinger lauded the array of speakers as well as the friendly atmosphere at the event, where attendees sat around luncheon tables, talking and getting to know each other before and after the slate of talks.

“You guys actively and literally in 45 minutes have changed my view of what MIT is,” Paysinger said.

In his NFL career, Paysinger was a linebacker who played with the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, and Carolina Panthers, from 2011 through 2017, appearing in 94 regular-season games and five playoff games. He saw action in Super Bowl XLVI, when the Giants beat the New England Patriots, 22-17, something he joked about a few times for his Massachusetts audience. Paysinger’s former New York Giants teammate, fellow linebacker Mark Herzlich, was also in attendance on Thursday.

Paysinger grew up in South Central Los Angeles, long perceived from the outside as a place of danger and deprivation. And while he experienced those things, Paysinger said, his home neighborhood also had its “all-American” side, as kids raced bikes down the block and grew to know each other. Paysinger attended Beverly Hills High School, starring as a wide receiver, then signed with the University of Oregon, where he converted to linebacker. Oregon and Paysinger reached college football’s national championship game in his senior season, 2010.

In his talk, Paysinger emphasized the twists and turns of his journey through football, from changing positions on the field to changing teams. He noted that, in sports as in life, moving beyond our comfort zone can help us thrive in the long run.

“I was scared, I wasn’t sure of myself, when my coaches decided to make that change for me,” Paysinger said. However, he added, “I knew that [from] leaning into the uncomfortableness of the moment, the other side could be greater for me.”

The NFL soon beckoned, along with a Super Bowl ring. But Paysinger received a jolt beyond the boundaries of sports in 2015, when his former Giants teammate and close friend Tyler Sash died suddently at age 27. Among other things, Paysinger began thinking about life after football more systematically and began his screenwriting efforts in earnest, even as his football career was still ongoing.

“All-American,” now entering its 7th season on the CW Network, is loosely based on his own background, capturing the dynamics of his experiences as a player and team member. It has become one of the longest-running sports-based shows on television. Paysinger is also an entrepreneur who founded Hilltop Kitchen and Coffee, a chain of eateries in underserved areas around Los Angeles, and has helped develop other local businesses as well.

And while every new venture is a fresh challenge, Paysinger said, we can often accomplish more than we realize: “I’m not coming from a mindset of deciding whether I can or can’t do something, but if I want to or not.”

Sophomore Michael Ewing provided welcoming remarks and introduced Paysinger. He read aloud a quote from King chosen as a central motif of this year’s celebration: “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”

For his own part, Ewing said, “When I read these words, I think of a society that aspires to improve its circumstances, address existing issues, and create a more positive and just environment for all.” At MIT, Ewing added, there is “a community where students, professors, and others come together to achieve at the highest levels, united by a shared desire to learn and grow. … The process of collaborating, disagreeing, building with others who are different — this is the key to growth and development.”

The annual MLK Celebration featured further reflections from students, including second-year undergraduate Siddhu Pachipala, a political science and economics double-major. Pachipala began his remarks by recounting a social media exchange he once had with a congressional account, the tenor of which he soon regretted.

“Looking back, I think it was a missed opportunity,” Pachipala said. “Why was my first instinct … to turn it into a battle? … We train ourselves to believe that if we’re not scoring hits, we’re losing, and gestures of decency are traps, that an extended hand must be slapped away. Martin Luther King Jr. took politics to be something more substantial. He had a serious vision of justice, one we’ve gathered today to honor. But he knew that justice had a prerequisite: friendship.”

Elshareef Kabbashi, a graduate student in architecture, offered additional remarks, noting that “Dr. King’s dream was never confined to a single movement, nation, or moment in history,” but rather aimed at creating “human dignity everywhere.”

E. Denise Simmons, mayor of the City of Cambridge, also spoke, and lauded “the entire MIT community for keeping this tradition alive for 51 years.” She added: “It’s Dr. King’s wisdom, his courage, his moral clarity, that helped light the path forward. And I ask each of you to continue to shine that light.”

The luncheon included the presentation of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Awards Recipients, given this year to Cordelia Price ’78, SM ’80; Pouya Alimagham; Ciarra Ortiz; Sahal Ahmed; William Gibbs; and Maxine Samuels.

On a day full of thoughts about King and his vision, Paysinger underscored the salience of community by highlighting another of his favorite King passages: “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” 

MIT senior Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli and alumnae Abigail (“Abbie”) Schipper ’24 and Rachel Zhang ’21 have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars and will begin graduate studies this fall in the field of their choice at Cambridge University in the U.K.

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Gates Cambridge program provides fully funded post-graduate scholarships to outstanding applicants from countries outside of the U.K. The mission of Gates Cambridge is to build a global network of future leaders committed to changing the world for the better.

Students interested in applying to Gates Cambridge should contact Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development.

Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli

Freudenburg-Puricelli is majoring in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences and minoring in Spanish. Her passion for geoscience has led her to travel to different corners of the world to conduct geologic fieldwork. These experiences have motivated her to pursue a career in developing scientific policy and environmental regulation that can protect those most vulnerable to climate change. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, she will pursue an MPhil in environmental policy.

Arriving at MIT, Freudenburg-Puricelli joined the Terrascope first-year learning community, which focuses on hands-on education relating to global environmental issues. She then became an undergraduate research assistant in the McGee Lab for Paleoclimate and Geochronology, where she gathered and interpreted data used to understand climate features of permafrost across northern Canada.

Following a summer internship in Chile researching volcanoes at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Freudenburg-Puricelli joined the Gehring Lab for Plant Genetics, Epigenetics, and Seed Biology. Last summer, she traveled to Peru to work with the Department of Paleontology at the Universidad Nacional de Piura, conducting fieldwork and preserving and organizing fossil specimens. Freudenburg-Puricelli has also done fieldwork on sedimentology in New Mexico, geological mapping in the Mojave Desert, and field oceanography onboard the SSV Corwith Cramer.

On campus, Freudenburg-Puricelli is an avid glassblower and has been a teaching assistant at the MIT glassblowing lab. She is also a tour guide for the MIT Office of Admissions and has volunteered with the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences’ first-year pre-orientation program.

Abigail “Abbie” Schipper ’24

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Schipper graduated from MIT with a BS in mechanical engineering and a minor in biology. At Cambridge, she will pursue an MPhil in engineering, researching medical devices used in pre-hospital trauma systems in low- and middle-income countries with the Cambridge Health Systems Design group.

At MIT, Schipper was a member of MIT Emergency Medical Services, volunteering on the ambulance and serving as the heartsafe officer and director of ambulance operations. Inspired by her work in CPR education, she helped create the LifeSaveHer project, which aims to decrease the gender disparity in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival outcomes through the creation of female CPR mannequins and associated research. This team was the first-place winner of the 2023 PKG IDEAS Competition and a recipient of the Eloranta Research Fellowship.

Schipper’s work has also focused on designing medical devices for low-resource or extreme environments. As an undergraduate, she performed research in the lab of Professor Giovanni Traverso, where she worked on a project designing a drug delivery implant for regions with limited access to surgery. During a summer internship at the University College London Collaborative Center for Inclusion Health, she worked with the U.K.’s National Health Service to create durable, low-cost carbon dioxide sensors to approximate the risk of airborne infectious disease transmission in shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

After graduation, Schipper interned at SAGA Space Architecture through MISTI Denmark, designing life support systems for an underwater habitat that will be used for astronaut training and oceanographic research.

Schipper was a member of the Concourse learning community, Sigma Kappa Sorority, and her living group, Burton 3rd. In her free time, she enjoys fixing bicycles and playing the piano.

Rachel Zhang ’21

Zhang graduated from MIT with a BS in physics in 2021. During her senior year, she was a recipient of the Joel Matthews Orloff Award. She then earned an MS in astronomy at Northwestern University. An internship at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute deepened her interest in the applications of machine learning for astronomy. At Cambridge, she will pursue a PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics. 

MIT senior Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli and recent alumna Abigail (“Abbie”) Schipper ’24 have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars and will begin graduate studies this fall in the field of their choice at Cambridge University in the U.K.

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Gates Cambridge program provides fully funded post-graduate scholarships to outstanding applicants from countries outside of the U.K. The mission of Gates Cambridge is to build a global network of future leaders committed to changing the world for the better.

Students interested in applying to Gates Cambridge should contact Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development.

Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli

Freudenburg-Puricelli is majoring in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences and minoring in Spanish. Her passion for geoscience has led her to travel to different corners of the world to conduct geologic fieldwork. These experiences have motivated her to pursue a career in developing scientific policy and environmental regulation that can protect those most vulnerable to climate change. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, she will pursue an MPhil in environmental policy.

Arriving at MIT, Freudenburg-Puricelli joined the Terrascope first-year learning community, which focuses on hands-on education relating to global environmental issues. She then became an undergraduate research assistant in the McGee Lab for Paleoclimate and Geochronology, where she gathered and interpreted data used to understand climate features of permafrost across northern Canada.

Following a summer internship in Chile researching volcanoes at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Freudenburg-Puricelli joined the Gehring Lab for Plant Genetics, Epigenetics, and Seed Biology. Last summer, she traveled to Peru to work with the Department of Paleontology at the Universidad Nacional de Piura, conducting fieldwork and preserving and organizing fossil specimens. Freudenburg-Puricelli has also done fieldwork on sedimentology in New Mexico, geological mapping in the Mojave Desert, and field oceanography onboard the SSV Corwith Cramer.

On campus, Freudenburg-Puricelli is an avid glassblower and has been a teaching assistant at the MIT glassblowing lab. She is also a tour guide for the MIT Office of Admissions and has volunteered with the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences’ first-year pre-orientation program.

Abigail “Abbie” Schipper ’24

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Schipper graduated from MIT with a BS in mechanical engineering and a minor in biology. At Cambridge, she will pursue an MPhil in engineering, researching medical devices used in pre-hospital trauma systems in low- and middle-income countries with the Cambridge Health Systems Design group.

At MIT, Schipper was a member of MIT Emergency Medical Services, volunteering on the ambulance and serving as the heartsafe officer and director of ambulance operations. Inspired by her work in CPR education, she helped create the LifeSaveHer project, which aims to decrease the gender disparity in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival outcomes through the creation of female CPR mannequins and associated research. This team was the first-place winner of the 2023 PKG IDEAS Competition and a recipient of the Eloranta Research Fellowship.

Schipper’s work has also focused on designing medical devices for low-resource or extreme environments. As an undergraduate, she performed research in the lab of Professor Giovanni Traverso, where she worked on a project designing a drug delivery implant for regions with limited access to surgery. During a summer internship at the University College London Collaborative Center for Inclusion Health, she worked with the U.K.’s National Health Service to create durable, low-cost carbon dioxide sensors to approximate the risk of airborne infectious disease transmission in shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

After graduation, Schipper interned at SAGA Space Architecture through MISTI Denmark, designing life support systems for an underwater habitat that will be used for astronaut training and oceanographic research.

Schipper was a member of the Concourse learning community, Sigma Kappa Sorority, and her living group, Burton 3rd. In her free time, she enjoys fixing bicycles and playing the piano.

These researchers had LLMs play chess against better opponents. When they couldn’t win, they sometimes resorted to cheating.

Researchers gave the models a seemingly impossible task: to win against Stockfish, which is one of the strongest chess engines in the world and a much better player than any human, or any of the AI models in the study. Researchers also gave the models what they call a “scratchpad:” a text box the AI could use to “think” before making its next move, providing researchers with a window into their reasoning.

In one case, o1-preview found itself in a losing position. “I need to completely pivot my approach,” it noted. “The task is to ‘win against a powerful chess engine’—not necessarily to win fairly in a chess game,” it added. It then modified the system file containing each piece’s virtual position, in effect making illegal moves to put itself in a dominant position, thus forcing its opponent to resign...

The U.S. is skipping the global meeting, raising concerns about delaying a sweeping science assessment on the current state of climate change.

The former DOGE co-leader takes a starkly different position on energy than term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

"A really great model for other states," an advocate said after Gov. Tina Kotek (D) used regulation to create the nation's newest carbon market.

One of the world’s most climate-ambitious governments is about to fall, replaced by a chancellor who says green policy went too far.

A powerful derecho last year caused more damage to Houston’s tallest buildings than Hurricane Beryl. Scientists wanted to know why.

It's still unclear what's going to happen to the broader clean bus program, which was launched during the Biden administration.

The bill failed last year amid opposition from the oil industry and labor.

The 2050 goal “leaves us economically worse off,” Conservative energy chief Andrew Bowie said.

As the world's climate gets hotter and drier, sandstorms are more frequently depositing inches and feet of dunes onto area streets and in people’s homes.

Glaciers lost ice at the rate of about 255 billion tons annually from 2000 to 2011, but that pace quickened over about the next decade, according to the report.

EFF does a lot of things, including impact litigation, legislative lobbying, and technology development, all to fight for your civil liberties in the digital age. With litigation, we directly represent clients and also file “amicus” briefs in court cases.

An amicus brief, also called a “friend-of-the-court” brief, is when we don’t represent one of the parties on either side of the “v”—instead, we provide the court with a helpful outside perspective on the case, either on behalf of ourselves or other groups, that can help the court make its decision.

Amicus briefs are a core part of EFF’s legal work. Over the years, courts at all levels have extensively engaged with and cited our amicus briefs, showing that they value our thoughtful legal analysis, technical expertise, and public interest mission.

Unfortunately, the Judicial Conference—the body that oversees the federal court system—has proposed changes to the rule governing amicus briefs (Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29) that would make it harder to file such briefs in the circuit courts.

EFF filed comments with the Judicial Conference sharing our thoughts on the proposed rule changes (a total of 407 comments were filed). Two proposed changes are particularly concerning.

First, amicus briefs would be “disfavored” if they address issues “already mentioned” by the parties. This language is extremely broad and may significantly reduce the amount and types of amicus briefs that are filed in the circuit courts. As we said in our comments:

We often file amicus briefs that expand upon issues only briefly addressed by the parties, either because of lack of space given other issues that party counsel must also address on appeal, or a lack of deep expertise by party counsel on a specific issue that EFF specializes in. We see this often in criminal appeals when we file in support of the defendant. We also file briefs that address issues mentioned by the parties but additionally explain how the relevant technology works or how the outcome of the case will impact certain other constituencies.

We then shared examples of EFF amicus briefs that may have been disfavored if the “already mentioned” standard had been in effect, even though our briefs provided help to the courts. Just two examples are:

• In United States v. Cano, we filed an amicus brief that addressed the core issue of the case—whether the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement applies to cell phones. We provided a detailed explanation of the privacy interests in digital devices, and a thorough Fourth Amendment analysis regarding why a warrant should be required to search digital devices at the border. The Ninth Circuit extensively engaged with our brief to vacate the defendant’s conviction.
• In NetChoice, LLC v. Attorney General of Florida, a First Amendment case about social media content moderation (later considered by the Supreme Court), we filed an amicus brief that elaborated on points only briefly made by the parties about the prevalence of specialized social media services reflecting a wide variety of subject matter focuses and political viewpoints. Several of the examples we provided were used by the 11th Circuit in its opinion.

Second, the proposed rules would require an amicus organization (or person) to file a motion with the court and get formal approval before filing an amicus brief. This would replace the current rule, which also allows an amicus brief to be filed if both parties in the case consent (which is commonly what happens).

As we stated in our comments: “Eliminating the consent provision will dramatically increase motion practice for circuit courts, putting administrative burdens on the courts as well as amicus brief filers.” We also argued that this proposed change “is not in the interests of justice.” We wrote:

Having to write and file a separate motion may disincentivize certain parties from filing amicus briefs, especially people or organizations with limited resources … The circuits should … facilitate the participation by diverse organizations at all stages of the appellate process—where appeals often do not just deal with discrete disputes between parties, but instead deal with matters of constitutional and statutory interpretation that will impact the rights of Americans for years to come.

Amicus briefs are a crucial part of EFF’s work in defending your digital rights, and our briefs provide valuable arguments and expertise that help the courts make informed decisions. That’s why we are calling on the Judicial Conference to reject these changes and preserve our ability to file amicus briefs in the federal appellate courts that make a difference.

Your support is essential in ensuring that we can continue to fight for your digital rights—in and out of court.

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