U.S. Secretary of Energy and Nobel Laureate in Physics Steven Chu visited MIT to map out his strategies to restore U.S. competitiveness in clean energy in a talk at Kresge Auditorium this Wednesday. This is his first visit to the Institute since his Compton lecture in 2009. The event was sponsored by the student-run MIT Energy Club.

Government officials and regional leaders in industry and academia gathered at MIT on Monday for a day-long forum as part of a White House initiative that aims to turn America’s laboratory advances into new technologies to boost the U.S. economy. The meeting was part of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), created by President Obama in June as a national effort to bring together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in new technologies that will “create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance global competitiveness,” according to an MIT/White House press release. The AMP Steering Committee is co-chaired by President Susan J. Hockfield and Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical.

Economy Hardware in Central Square has reopened after nearly a year of renovation. The store, which underwent reconstruction last December, was set to open in the spring but was initially delayed until October and finally opened today. Economy Hardware has been in Cambridge for over 60 years, store owner Larry Friedman told The Tech in January. Some of their original space is now being used by Cambridge Community Television. They are located at 438 Mass. Ave. and also have locations in Boston and Brookline.

BGI, based in China, is the world’s largest genomics research institute, with 167 DNA sequencers producing the equivalent of 2,000 human genomes a day.