Tech
“Wait, we have the tech skills to build that”
Students can take many possible routes through MIT’s curriculum, which can zigag through different departments, linking classes and disciplines in unexpected ways. With so many options, charting an academic path can be overwhelming, but a new tool called NerdXing is here to help.
The brainchild of senior Julianna Schneider and other students in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Undergraduate Advisory Group (UAG), NerdXing lets students search for a class and see all the other classes students have gone on to take in the past, including options that are off the beaten track.
“I hope that NerdXing will democratize course knowledge for everyone,” Schneider says. “I hope that for anyone who’s a freshman and maybe hasn’t picked their major yet, that they can go to NerdXing and start with a class that they would maybe never consider — and then discover that, ‘Oh wait, this is perfect for this really particular thing I want to study.’”
As a student double-majoring in artificial intelligence and decision-making and in mathematics, and doing research in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Schneider knows the benefits of interdisciplinary studies. It’s a part of the reason why she joined the UAG, which advises the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing’s leadership as it advances education and research at the intersections between computing, engineering, the arts, and more.
Through all of her activities, Schneider seeks to make people’s lives better through technology.
“This process of finding a problem in my community and then finding the right technology to solve that — that sort of approach and that framework is what guides all the things I do,” Schneider says. “And even in robotics, the things that I care about are guided by the sort of skills that I think we need to develop to be able to have meaningful applications.”
From Albania to MIT
Before she ever touched a robot or wrote code, Schneider was an accomplished young classical pianist in Albania. When she discovered her passion for robotics at age 13, she applied some of the skills she had learned while playing piano.
“I think on some fundamental level, when I was a pianist, I thought constantly about my motor dynamics as a human being, and how I execute really complex skills but do it over and over again at the top of my ability,” Schneider says. “When it came to robotics, I was building these robotic arms that also had to operate at the top of their ability every time and do really complex tasks. It felt kind of similar to me, like a fun crossover.”
Schneider joined her high school’s robotics team as a middle schooler, and she was so immediately enamored that she ended up taking over most of the coding and building of the team’s robot. She went on to win 14 regional and national awards across the three teams she led throughout middle and high school. It was clear to her that she’d found her calling.
NerdXing wasn’t Schneider’s first experience building new technology. At just 16, she built an app meant to connect English-speaking volunteers from her international school in Tirana, Albania, to local charities that only posted jobs in Albanian. By last year, the platform, called VoluntYOU, had 18 ambassadors across four continents. It has enabled volunteers to give out more than 2,000 burritos in Reno, Nevada; register hundreds of signatures to support women’s rights legislation in Albania; and help with administering Covid-19 vaccines to more than 1,200 individuals a day in Italy.
Schneider says her experience at an international school encouraged her to recognize problems and solutions all around her.
“When I enter a new community and I can immediately be like, ‘Oh wait, if we had this tool, that would be so cool and that would help all these people,’ I think that’s just a derivative of having grown up in a place where you hear about everyone’s super different life experiences,” she says.
Schneider describes NerdXing as a continuation of many of the skills she picked up while building VoluntYOU.
“They were both motivated by seeing a challenge where I thought, ‘Wait, we have the tech skills to build that. This is something that I can envision the solution to.’ And then I wanted to actually go and make that a reality,” Schneider says.
Robotics with a positive impact
At MIT, Schneider started working in the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory of Professor Sangbae Kim, where she has now participated in three research projects, one of which she’s co-authoring a paper on. She’s part of a team that tests how robots, including the famous back-flipping mini cheetah, move, in order to see how they could complement humans in high-stakes scenarios.
Most of her work has revolved around crafting controllers, including one hybrid-learning and model-based controller that is well-suited to robots with limited onboard computing capacity. It would allow the robot to be used in regions with less access to technology.
“It’s not just doing technology for technology’s sake, but because it will bridge out into the world and make a positive difference. I think legged robotics have some of the best potential to actually be a robotic partner to human beings in the scenarios that are most high-stakes,” Schneider says.
Schneider hopes to further robotic capabilities so she can find applications that will service communities around the world. One of her goals is to help create tools that allow a surgeon to operate on a patient a long distance away.
To take a break from academics, Schneider has channeled her love of the arts into MIT’s vibrant social dancing scene. This year, she’s especially excited about country line dancing events where the music comes on and students have to guess the choreography.
“I think it’s a really fun way to make friends and to connect with the community,” she says.
Consider These Floodlight Cameras
Photograph: Simon Hill
Reolink Elite Floodlight WiFi (Wired) for $230: Similar to our Reolink pick above, the difference with the Elite Floodlight is that it’s a fixed dual-lens camera designed to give you a wide 180-degree view (59 degrees vertically), rather than a pan-and-tilt camera. If you want a fixed camera to cover the entire side of a property, this could be a solid pick. It records up to 4K video at up to 20 frames per second, has a 105-decibel alarm, and supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6. The rest of the specs, including the two-panel, 3,000-lumen, adjustable temperature floodlight, match the TrackFlex above.
Google Nest Cam With Floodlight (Wired) for $280: This aging floodlight security camera might still be your best bet if you prefer Google Home and have a Nest doorbell. The limited 1080p resolution is mitigated by the high frame rate (30 fps), HDR, and decent 6X digital zoom. The two-panel floodlight can put out up to 2,400 lumens of warm (4,000K) light, and brightness is adjustable. Google’s AI detection is perhaps the smartest in the business, and this is a very reliable camera, but you must subscribe to make it worthwhile, as there’s no local recording option. Google Home Premium starts at $10 per month or $100 per year, but that covers all your devices. It might be best to wait, as Google recently released 2K Nest cameras, and there’s a decent chance it will update its floodlight camera soon.
Photograph: Simon Hill
Philips Hue Secure Camera for $130 and Discover Floodlight (Wired) for $160: Strictly speaking, these are two separate devices, but I used this setup at my old house, and it worked very well. If you’re invested in Hue lighting, the Discover Floodlight is one of my favorite outdoor lights and a versatile way to light up your space. It can put out 2,300 lumens, and you can tweak the temperature, color, and brightness easily in the Hue app, which also allows scheduling and animated scenes. Add a Philips Hue Secure Wired Camera and you can have it trigger the floodlight and any other Hue lights you have. It is only 1080p, but the wired camera worked well for me, triggering reliably, and Philips Hue now offers 24 hours of video history for free. But if you want the AI detection, back-to-back recording, activity zones, and 30 days of video history, you must subscribe for $40 a year for a single camera.
Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera (Battery) for $250: An obvious pick for folks with an Arlo system, this battery-powered camera allows for a wireless install, though you will need to charge it. It offers up to 2K footage with HDR and Arlo’s excellent app and alert system, though you need an Arlo Secure plan ($10 per month or $96 a year for a single camera, $20 per month or $216 a year for unlimited cameras). The floodlight is a single panel that flanks the face of the camera and delivers up to 2,000 lumens. You can boost the brightness to 3,000 lumens and eliminate event recording delays with the Arlo Outdoor Charging Cable ($50), though you’ll need to run it to an outlet. Arlo has a newer, wired floodlight camera that I plan to test soon.
Eve Outdoor Cam (Wired) for $249: This stylish floodlight camera can replace an outdoor light to give you a motion-activated light (up to 1,500 lumens), 1080p video (157-degree field of view), and two-way audio. As a HomeKit camera, you will need an Apple HomeKit hub (Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad) and an iCloud+ storage plan. Sadly, the video and sound quality are only average. This camera also only works on 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi, and there’s no Android support.
Floodlight Cameras We Don’t Recommend
Toucan Security Floodlight Camera (Wired) for $80: You can plug this camera into an outlet, and it comes with an 8-meter waterproof cable. It has a motion-activated light (1,200 lumens), records 1080p video, and supports two-way audio. I found the footage quite detailed, but it struggled with direct sunlight. You can record locally on a microSD card (sold separately) and get 24 hours of free cloud storage, but it has limitations. Plans start from $3 per month. Even with motion detection set to the lowest sensitivity, this camera triggered too often during testing, and there’s no way to filter for people, so I got frequent false positives (blowing leaves, moths, and birds all triggered alerts).
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Whether you’re a hardcore athletics aficionado or just nurturing a newfound love of hockey thanks to Heated Rivalry, the 2026 Winter Olympics have what you’re looking for.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place across Milan and Cortina, Italy, throughout the month of February. A few competitions start on February 4, but the opening ceremony will be held on February 6 at 2:00 pm ET and will feature performances by Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli. Following the events, there will be a closing ceremony on February 22 at 2:30 pm ET.
As in Olympics past, this year’s games will be televised in the US exclusively by NBC. You can watch if you have cable or satellite TV. Cable coverage will be across several NBC channels, including NBC local affiliates, CNBC, and the USA Network.
The Games will also be shown live on NBC’s streaming service Peacock Premium, which requires a subscription of $11 per month. If ads drive you bonkers, the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $18 a month. (Set a calendar reminder to cancel the service after the Olympics if you’re not planning to keep watching Traitors.)
Peacock will also bring back its Olympics hub website, which may be the easiest way to find the events you’re looking for. You can search and bookmark sports or events ahead of time and get notifications for when they go live. This might be especially useful depending on what time zone you’re in, as the games are all taking place in northern Italy, which is in the GMT+1 time zone.
For a full overview of all the events, check out the official Olympics competition schedule. If you’d like to see each and every competition listed in order by event time, we have you covered.
Looking for events by sport? Below is a list of the big events for them all, along with links to the full schedules of every event.
Note: Unless specified otherwise, all times below are listed in US Eastern time.
Opening Ceremony
The three-hour-long opening ceremony will air on nearly every Olympic media outlet on Friday, February 6. Live coverage starts at 2 pm Eastern and 11 am Pacific.
Alpine Skiing
Training for alpine skiing starts on February 4, but the competitive events kick off with men’s downhill on February 7 at 5:30 am. The first medal event for women’s downhill is February 8.
Medal events occur nearly every day through February 18. Final medal games start with the first men’s slalom run on February 16.
Women’s final slalom runs start February 18.
Biathlon
Biathlon events are the closest thing the Olympic games get to a James Bond movie. Skiers zip across mountain trails and then stop to shoot a gun. What’s not to love?
You can watch all the excitement starting with a mixed relay 4 x 6 km on February 8.
All events are medal events and go until the men’s 1- km mass start on February 20 and women’s 12.5-km mass start on February 21.
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh—no, not bobsled, you philistine—events start February 12. One of the three sliding sports, bobsleigh is a team of two to four people sitting upright in a sled with their heads poking out. (As opposed to luge and skeleton, in which athletes lay on their sleds without sides or backing.)
Training events start on February 12 at 6:50 am. There are four bobsleigh medal events, starting with heat four of the women’s monobob on February 16.
You don’t need a four-figure Swiss movement to know what time it is—or look good doing it. One of the most wonderful things about “budget” watches today (although it’s kinder, or more appropriate, to say “affordable”) is that brands have learned to take design cues from luxury timepieces while quietly getting very good at the fundamentals: reliable movements, thoughtful materials, and proportions that don’t scream “cheap.” Take a look at the Orient in WIRED’s selection below as a prime example.
It could easily be argued that we’re in a golden age of affordable horology (see our full guide here for definitive proof), where, if you choose wisely, $350 or less can buy everything from a desirable dress watch, or a high-end collaboration, and even a supremely capable and classically chic diver. Pieces that will see you right from sunken wreck to boardroom table. And let’s not forget the retro allure of digital watches right now, either, with the Shark Classic not only being one of our favorites here, but at $70, it’s also the most affordable.
Moreover, should you decide to bag more than a few (and who could blame you at these prices?), we’ve even got the perfect carry case picked out: Nanuk’s IP67 waterproof and dustproof NK-7 resin $175 910 Watch Case (pictured above) with patented PowerClaw latching system—ideal for securing any timepiece collection, be it bargain or big budget.
Be sure to check out our other wearable coverage, including the Best Budget Watches Under $1,000, Best Smartwatches, Best Fitness Trackers, and Best Smart Rings.
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