How can you use science to build a better gingerbread house? That was something Miranda Schwacke spent a lot of time thinking about. The MIT graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) is part of Kitchen Matters, a group of grad students who use food and kitchen tools to explain scientific concepts through short videos and outreach events. Past topics included why chocolate “seizes,” or becomes difficult to work with when melting (spoiler: water gets in), and how to make isomalt, the sugar glass that stunt performers jump through in action movies. Two years ago, when the group was […]

As organizations weave AI into more of their operations, senior executives are realizing data engineers hold a central role in bringing these initiatives to life. After all, AI only delivers when you have large amounts of reliable and well-managed, high-quality data. Indeed, this report finds that data engineers play a pivotal role in their organizations as enablers of AI. And in so doing, they are integral to the overall success of the business. According to the results of a survey of 400 senior data and technology executives, conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, data engineers have become influential in areas […]

This article originally appeared on Medium. Tim O’Brien has given us permission to repost here on Radar. One of the most unexpected changes in software development right now comes from code generation. We’ve all known that it could speed up certain kinds of work, but what’s becoming clear is that it also reshapes the economics of libraries, frameworks, and even the way we think about open source. Just to be clear, I don’t view this as a threat to the employment of developers. I think we’ll end up needing more developers, and I also think that more people will start […]