School of Engineering

“Our technology takes plastic out of the landfill, locks it up in concrete, and also uses less cement to make the concrete, which makes fewer carbon dioxide emissions,” says assistant professor Michael Short.

MIT students fortify concrete by adding recycled plastic

Adding bits of irradiated plastic water bottles could cut cement industry’s carbon emissions.

October 25, 2017

Researchers have designed a light-emitter and detector that can be integrated into silicon CMOS chips. This illustration shows a molybdenum ditelluride light source for silicon photonics.

Material could bring optical communication onto silicon chips

Ultrathin films of a semiconductor that emits and detects light can be stacked on top of silicon wafers.

October 23, 2017

Selective memory

Scheme would make new high-capacity data caches 33 to 50 percent more efficient.

October 22, 2017

More than 1,000 MIT alumni and friends celebrated the MIT Campaign for a Better World at the Boch Center Wang Theatre in downtown Boston on Sept. 28.

The Better World Tour comes home to Boston

Alumni and friends gather at the Boch Center Wang Theatre to celebrate the vibrant MIT community and the Institute's ambitious dreams for a better world.

October 20, 2017

Left to right: Jarrod Goentzel of the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab, Kathy Fulton of the American Logistics Aid Network, and Michael Rettig of the nonprofit LIFT break for lunch after a private sector supply chain coordination call in a FEMA conference room.

MIT researchers respond to hurricanes Irma and Maria

The Humanitarian Response Lab works with FEMA to optimize public and private sector supply chains serving hurricane-affected areas.

October 20, 2017

PhD student Britt Huhmann measures arsenic in rice paddy soil using a field kit in Faridpur, Bangladesh.

There's something in the water

MIT field study shows that arsenic in groundwater reduces rice yields in Bangladesh.

October 20, 2017

A scanning electron micrograph of a human T lymphocyte (also called a T-cell) from the immune system of a healthy donor. Researchers have designed a synthetic gene circuit that triggers the immune system to attack cancers when it detects signs of the disease.

Gene circuit switches on inside cancer cells, triggers immune attack

Advance may open new pathways for cancer immunotherapy.

October 19, 2017

Ritu Raman is one five U.S. scientists who have received the 2017 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship.

Ritu Raman named L’Oréal Women in Science Fellow

Postdoc in the Langer Lab is honored for her contributions to the advancement of STEM fields and for her support of women and girls in science.

October 17, 2017

“What’s really cool about eye tracking is it lets you see things that you’re not consciously aware of,” Professor Josh Tenenbaum says. “When psychologists and philosophers have proposed the idea of counterfactual simulation, they haven’t necessarily meant that you do this consciously. It’s something going on behind the surface, and eye tracking is able to reveal that.”

How we determine who’s to blame

Before assigning responsibility, our minds simulate alternative outcomes, study shows.

October 17, 2017

Deshpande Center and J-WAFS announce fall 2017 research grants

Twenty-two research teams receive $1,443,000 to develop new technological innovations.

October 17, 2017

Pictured, left to right, are: Manisha Bahl, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Breast Imaging Fellowship Program; MIT Professor Regina Barzilay (center); and Constance Lehman, professor at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Breast Imaging Division at MGH’s Department of Radiology.

Using artificial intelligence to improve early breast cancer detection

Model developed at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory could reduce false positives and unnecessary surgeries.

October 16, 2017

Tiera Guinn ’17 has been named an "Awesome Woman of 2017" by Good Housekeeping magazine.

Good Housekeeping honors rocket scientist Tiera Guinn '17

Design engineer and 2017 alumna working on the largest rocket ever created by NASA was named an "Awesome Woman of 2017."

October 16, 2017

Arup K. Chakraborty, the Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, professor of physics, chemistry, and biological engineering, and a core faculty member at the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of his distinguished contributions to medicine and health.

Arup Chakraborty elected to National Academy of Medicine

Recognized for his contributions to health, the distinguished professor is now a member of the national academies of medicine, science, and engineering.

October 16, 2017

Emily Tow PhD '17, displays equipment she developed to measure the effects of different pressure levels on the way microorganisms build up on membranes used for desalinating water.

Toward efficient high-pressure desalination

Surprisingly, pressurization isn’t to blame for fouling of membranes, study finds.

October 15, 2017