Convening for Cultural Change

At MIT and internationally, senior Cindy Xie works to bring people together for the health of humanity and the planet.

Whether working with fellow students in the Netherlands to design floating cities or interning for a local community-led environmental justice organization, Cindy Xie wants to help connect people grappling with the implications of linked social and environmental crises.

Caption: Cindy Xie

The MIT senior’s belief that climate action is a collective endeavor grounded in systems change has led her to work at a variety of community organizations, and to travel as far as Malaysia and Cabo Verde to learn about the social and cultural aspects of global environmental change.

“With climate action, there is such a need for collective change. We all need to be a part of creating the solutions,” she says.

Grassroots Community-Building

An urban studies and planning major with minors in anthropology and biology, Xie is also earning her master’s degree in city planning in a dual degree program, which she will finish next year.

Through her studies and numerous community activities, she has developed a multidimensional view of public health and the environment that includes spirituality and the arts as well as science and technology. “What I appreciate about being here at MIT is the opportunities to try to connect the sciences back to other disciplines,” she says.

The Power of Storytelling

Growing up, Xie was drawn to storytelling as a means of understanding the intersections of culture and health within diverse communities. This has largely driven her interest in medical anthropology and medical humanities, and impacts her work as a member of the Asian American Initiative.

The AAI is a student-led organization that provides a space for pan-Asian advocacy and community building on campus. Xie joined the group in 2022 and currently serves as a member of the executive board as well as co-leader of the Mental Health Project Team. She credits this team with inspiring discussions on holistic framings of mental health.

“Conversations on mental health stigma can sometimes frame it as a fault within certain communities,” she says. “It’s also important to highlight alternate paradigms for conceptualizing mental health beyond the highly individualized models often presented in U.S. higher education settings.”

Community Connections

Writing, both creative and non-fiction, is another of Xie’s longstanding interests. From 2022 to 2023, she wrote for The Yappie, a youth-led news publication covering Asian American and Pacific Islander policy and politics. She has also written articles for The Tech, MIT Science Policy Review, MISTI Blogs, and more.

Last year, she was a spread writer for MIT’s fashion publication, Infinite Magazine, for which she interviewed the founder of a local streetwear company that aims to support victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This year, she performed a spoken word piece in the “MIT Monologues,” an annual production at MIT that features stories of gender, relationships, race, and more. Her poetry was recently published in Sine Theta and included in MassPoetry’s 2024 Intercollegiate Showcase.

Caption: Cindy Xie performing at the MIT Monologues

Facial Recognition Technology

Facial recognition technology is transforming how travelers pass through airports. Advocates say it will lead to improved security and faster processing times.

“It’s the future because it’s so much more effective than a manual comparison. This is better for security,” TSA administrator David Pekoske told “CBS Mornings.” “It will be better for efficiency.”

Delta and United Airlines are currently testing biometric bag check systems. At United, it checks a person’s face against their passport photo, which that passenger stored in the airline’s app. The airline says the images are not retained.

“The future of travel is definitely biometrics. You know, it is a time saver,” said David Terry, who oversees Los Angeles International Airport for United Airlines. “We want to do everything we can to use technology, to get you from this ticket counter to the gate as quickly and as seamlessly as possible.”

Caption: Facial recognition technology in action

At LAX, flyers have already come face-to-face with the new tech.

“I think it works pretty well,” said Maggie Burdge who used her face to check her bag.

Grant Kretchik also tried out the system to check his bag before a recent flight to New York.

“It’s seamless,” he said, adding that he isn’t worried about facial recognition. “It doesn’t bother me. I guess anything that sort of moves it along.”

Terry explained the system is optional.

“It’s gonna use facial recognition, be printing your bag tags within 15 to 20 seconds and have you on your way,” he said.

At the checkpoint, both TSA and Clear, an optional service travelers pay to join, offer a growing number of facial recognition lanes aimed at cutting down time spent in line.

“It is becoming ubiquitous. It is additive to the efficiency of the entire checkpoint, and it is clear we’re on the side of the American traveler, and we believe that anything that enhances efficiency is good for everybody,” said Ken Cornic, the co-founder and president of Clear.

International departures are increasingly using biometric technology and facial recognition for boarding and flyers using Global Entry experience facial recognition as part of the expedited customs process coming back to the U.S.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it has “processed more than 490 million travelers using biometric facial comparison technology and prevented more than 1,900 imposters from entry to the U.S.”

But, not everyone is a fan of facial recognition. A push in Congress to restrict the TSA’s use of biometrics failed earlier this month. There remain questions about how well facial recognition works on people of color and privacy advocates remain concerned.

“The use of that sort of information needs to come with really robust protections,” said Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel with the ACLU. “And that’s really crucial when you’re talking about your facial imprint because unlike a social security number or a telephone number, you can’t get a new face.”

To those who are critical, Pekoske stressed privacy is at the forefront.

“We don’t retain the data that you provide for more than a few seconds. We have no plans to surveil and the technology is not capable of surveillance. So our use case is to verify identity full stop, that’s it.”

Caption: Facial recognition technology in action