Instead of keeping children satisfied, we need to fuel their feelings of frustration. The French, as well as many others, believe that routinely giving your child a chance to feel frustration gives him a chance to practice the art of waiting and developing self-control. Gilles, a French father of two young boys, told me that […]

Matthew Goodwin, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, is trying to better understand their world by carefully tracking the boys’ movements and their environment. He has the boys wear sensors on their ankles and wrists that measure arousal levels, while cameras mounted on the walls record activities in the classroom, with the goal of finding […]

Researchers at Northeastern University are asking residents and visitors who used their cellphones to keep in touch with their social network after the bombings to download a smartphone app to help them understand how, exactly, we communicated in the aftermath of the tragedy.

With the aftermath of marathon bombings still hanging over Boston, Northeastern University began the city’s commencement season Friday to recognize its students’ achievements and the work of region’s first responders.

The backdrop to the day was TD Garden, where Northeastern University held its commencement. As 20,000 people clapped and roared, Gov. Deval Patrick conferred an honorary degree on Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis for his handling of the marathon bombings investigation.

Criminologists and other social scientists should use their expertise to help the subjects of their research, including crime victims, says James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology, law, and public policy at Northeastern University. Mr. Fox recently helped a 2012 master’s-degree graduate from Northeastern who was drawn into the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. […]

Sometimes without warning, one of the autistic students in a classroom at the Center for Discovery will lose control. He will scream and cry. Throw things. Bang his head against the wall. The six adolescent boys in this Monticello, N.Y., classroom, some of the hardest-to-handle students in New York State, cannot explain what is upsetting […]

The recent announcement from the California State University System regarding its embrace of edX massive open online courses (MOOCs) is interesting and depressing at the same time. As with many aspects of the MOOC phenomenon, it comes packaged with good and bad aspects bundled up together. Instructors will offer a “special ‘flipped’ version of an electrical engineering […]

In today’s Academic Minute, Northeastern University’s Matthew Goodwin describes how wearable technology is improving the quality of autism studies. Goodwin is an assistant professor of health informatics at Northeastern. Find out more about him here. A transcript of this podcast can be found here.

Ever since the dreadful bombing at the Boston Marathon, I’ve been proud to call myself a native Bostonian. The slogan “Boston Strong” has spoken volumes about the character of the people and public officials of this great city. But the latest controversy surrounding where to bury — or whether to bury — the deceased Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one […]

Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, has said his nephew should be buried in Massachusetts, where he lived for the past decade. The situation is particularly heated because Tsarnaev is not thought of as sick or mentally ill like some killers, said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston. People think he’s “evil,” […]

In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Matthew Goodwin of Northeastern University reveals how wearable technology is improving the quality of autism studies. Matthew Goodwin is an assistant professor of health informatics at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. His current research project seeks to improve the understanding of minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder. He holds […]