Media Lab

At least 30 MIT faculty, research staff, and alumni are listed throughout Forbes’ seventh annual 30 Under 30 edition, featuring some of the world’s best young innovators.

MIT brainpower highlighted in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 lists for 2018

Forbes calls this year's 30 Under 30 lists an "encyclopedia of creative disruption."

November 21, 2017

MIT researchers have devised a way to control single neurons using optogenetics. To help achieve this, they developed an opsin, or light-sensitive protein, that can be targeted to neuron cell bodies (bottom row). Neurons in the top row have traditional opsins that are distributed throughout their axons.

Next-generation optogenetic molecules control single neurons

Focused laser beam could help scientists map connections among neurons that underlie behavior.

November 13, 2017

First row (l-r): Erica James, Christoph Reinhart, Ana Miljački, Janelle Knox-Hayes, Hugh Herr. Second row (l-r): Mariana Ibañez, Judith Barry, Danielle Wood, Neri Oxman, Lauren Jacobi. Third row (l-r): Jinhua Zhao, Miho Mazereeuw, Sarah Williams, William (Liam) O’Brien, Jason Jackson.

Faculty additions and promotions at the School of Architecture and Planning

Five join the SA+P faculty, while 10 are recognized for work in art, architecture, urbanism, and design.

November 7, 2017

Shelley is an artificial intelligence horror story writer that collaborates with humans to create tales of terror.

Can artificial intelligence learn to scare us?

With Shelley, the world’s first artificial intelligence-human horror story collaboration, MIT researchers aim for goosebumps.

October 27, 2017

Using MIT's new digital diploma system, employers and schools can quickly verify that a graduate's degree is legitimate by using a link or uploading the student’s file. The verification process confirms that the information on the student’s record matches a receipt stored on the blockchain.

Digital Diploma debuts at MIT

Using Bitcoin's blockchain technology, the Institute has become one of the first universities to issue recipient-owned virtual credentials.

October 17, 2017

CityScope Andorra is a 3-D augmented-reality platform that visualizes complex urban data on a small-scale model of the country. Users can interactively test scenarios on the model, such as how many parks to include in a city, adjust heights of buildings, calculate the optimal mix of residential and commercial real estate, and whether to allow private vehicles or only car-share services. The impact...

Small European nation becomes a “living lab” for urban innovation researchers

Andorra funds MIT Media Lab technologies that, in turn, help improve the nation’s cities.

October 13, 2017

A new flexible piezoelectric sensor is 2 by 2.5 centimeters and can be rolled up and swallowed. “For the first time, we showed that a flexible, piezoelectric device can stay in the stomach up to two days without any electrical or mechanical degradation,” assistant professor Canan Dagdeviren, left, says. Dagdeviren is next to researcher Giovanni Traverso.

Flexible sensors can detect movement in GI tract

Ingestible devices could diagnose gastrointestinal slowdown or monitor food intake.

October 10, 2017

Ten from MIT and the Broad Institute recently received NIH Director's Awards. Top row (l-r): Feng Zhang, Kay Tye, Kevin Esvelt, Fei Chen; Bottom row (l-r): Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, Ahmed Badran, Hilary Finucane, Ed Boyden. Not pictured: Paul Blainey and Evan Macosko.

Ten researchers from MIT and Broad receive NIH Director’s Awards

Awards support high-risk, high-impact biomedical research.

October 5, 2017

The Media Lab’s Human Dynamics group team beat some 3,000 other submissions from around the world to win three of six categories in the 2017 Fragile Families Challenge.

Media Lab team tops Fragile Families Challenge

Human Dynamics research group earns high marks in new scientific collaboration to improve the lives of disadvantaged American children.

October 4, 2017

“Before we can trust machines like autonomous vehicles, we have a number of challenges,” says professor Iyad Rahwan.

3 Questions: Iyad Rahwan on the “psychological roadblocks” facing self-driving cars

MIT Media Lab professor considers the trust gap between people and autonomous vehicles.

September 11, 2017

MIT President L. Rafael Reif, left, and John Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and Research, shake hands at the conclusion of a signing ceremony establishing the new MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab.

IBM and MIT to pursue joint research in artificial intelligence, establish new MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

IBM plans to make a 10-year, $240 million investment in new lab with MIT to advance AI hardware, software, and algorithms.

September 7, 2017

MIT engineers have devised a way to automate the process of monitoring neurons in a living brain using a computer algorithm that analyzes microscope images and guides a robotic arm to the target cell. In this image, a pipette guided by a robotic arm approaches a neuron identified with a fluorescent stain.

Robotic system monitors specific neurons

Success rate is comparable to that of highly trained scientists performing the process manually.

August 30, 2017

Danielle Wood spoke at the Media Lab’s space event, Beyond the Cradle, in March. She will join the faculty full-time in January 2018.

Danielle Wood joins Media Lab faculty

MIT alumna is establishing a new research group aimed at harnessing space engineering to improve life on Earth.

August 28, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a system that enables small, safe, aerial drones to read RFID tags in large warehouses at a distance of several meters, while identifying the tags’ locations with an average error of about 19 centimeters.

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

System could save retailers billions lost through faulty inventory records.

August 25, 2017

A three-day hackathon on campus brought together students and researchers from MIT and around Boston who developed functional fabric concepts to solve major issues facing soldiers in combat or training, first responders, victims and workers in refugee camps, and many others.

Hacking functional fabrics to aid emergency response

MIT and other innovators design novel solutions for the battlefield, disaster sites, and other dangerous environments.

August 1, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Browse By

Topics

Departments

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Schools