6 ms·

Serious question here. Why I see all these breakthroughs coming from MIT? Are they really heads and shoulders above everyone else or do they have great PR/mar

Serious question here. Why I see all these breakthroughs coming from MIT? Are they really heads and shoulders above everyone else or do they have great PR/marketing?

marktangotango 4y ago
Probably both, it is a top research university in the world, with a lot of smart people and funding. Also note the "T" in MIT stands for technology, they do tend to focus a bit more on practical applications and not just theoretical knowledge.
gostsamo 4y ago
At least in this case, it seems that MIT is only tangentially related to the research. The lead researchers are from Spain and India with financing from Siemens.
RosanaAnaDana 4y ago
Its good marketing and I would keep an eye on what accounts are submitting these. Its practically a trope on HN at this point. Not to say that MIT doesn't do cool stuff, but there are few institutions as good at self promotion.
photochemsyn 4y ago
If you look at the paper it's actually a collaboration between MIT researchers, Caltech researchers, a Spanish Siemens groups, and an Indian power company. MIT just has a more effective marketing division, it seems. Here's the Caltech press release for comparison. https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tweaking-turbine-angles-squeezes-more-power-out-of-wind-farms https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tweaking-turbine-angles-s... > "Collectively, wind farms generate about 380 billion kilowatt-hours each year in the United States. If every U.S. wind farm were to adopt the new strategy and see efficiency increases similar to those found in the new study, it would be equivalent to adding hundreds of new turbines capable of powering hundreds of thousands of homes to the nation's power grid, says Caltech's John O. Dabiri (MS '03, PhD '05), the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, and senior author of a paper on the project that was published by the journal Nature Energy on August 11."
jehb 4y ago
In addition to the other replies, it's also worth mentioning that they have an incredibly large endowment, worth $27.4 billion last year, the fifth largest of any private university in the US. That's compared to an average of $1.1 billion, and a median of just $200 million, less than 1% of MIT's. Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/18/college-endowments-boomed-fiscal-year-2021-study-shows https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/18/college-endow...
- moistly 4y ago
  There is really no excuse for the US to not provide every intelligent high school student the opportunity to enrol in MIT-quality education for free. And, for that matter, to enrol in high-quality trades programs, because we need people who can actually build, maintain, and repair, too. Imagine the technical and infrastructure improvements. We would leap ahead by every metric.

Serious question here. Why I see all these breakthroughs coming from MIT? Are they really heads and shoulders above everyone else or do they have great PR/marketing?

marktangotango 4y ago

Probably both, it is a top research university in the world, with a lot of smart people and funding. Also note the "T" in MIT stands for technology, they do tend to focus a bit more on practical applications and not just theoretical knowledge.

gostsamo 4y ago

At least in this case, it seems that MIT is only tangentially related to the research. The lead researchers are from Spain and India with financing from Siemens.

RosanaAnaDana 4y ago

Its good marketing and I would keep an eye on what accounts are submitting these. Its practically a trope on HN at this point. Not to say that MIT doesn't do cool stuff, but there are few institutions as good at self promotion.

photochemsyn 4y ago

If you look at the paper it's actually a collaboration between MIT researchers, Caltech researchers, a Spanish Siemens groups, and an Indian power company. MIT just has a more effective marketing division, it seems. Here's the Caltech press release for comparison. https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tweaking-turbine-angles-squeezes-more-power-out-of-wind-farms https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tweaking-turbine-angles-s... > "Collectively, wind farms generate about 380 billion kilowatt-hours each year in the United States. If every U.S. wind farm were to adopt the new strategy and see efficiency increases similar to those found in the new study, it would be equivalent to adding hundreds of new turbines capable of powering hundreds of thousands of homes to the nation's power grid, says Caltech's John O. Dabiri (MS '03, PhD '05), the Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, and senior author of a paper on the project that was published by the journal Nature Energy on August 11."

jehb 4y ago

In addition to the other replies, it's also worth mentioning that they have an incredibly large endowment, worth $27.4 billion last year, the fifth largest of any private university in the US. That's compared to an average of $1.1 billion, and a median of just $200 million, less than 1% of MIT's. Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/18/college-endowments-boomed-fiscal-year-2021-study-shows https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/18/college-endow...

moistly 4y ago
There is really no excuse for the US to not provide every intelligent high school student the opportunity to enrol in MIT-quality education for free. And, for that matter, to enrol in high-quality trades programs, because we need people who can actually build, maintain, and repair, too. Imagine the technical and infrastructure improvements. We would leap ahead by every metric.