Aeronautics and Astronautics

A study led by MIT researchers suggests that using mobile-phone data to track people’s movement provides a deeper picture of exposure to pollution in urban settings, compared to only studying air-quality levels in fixed places.

Measuring exposure to pollution

Mobile-phone data helps researchers study an urban problem in greater detail.

September 1, 2016

Collectively, piston-engine aircraft like this Cirrus SR22 constitute the nation’s largest remaining source of lead emissions.

Unfriendly skies: Piston engine aircraft pose a significant health threat

Study shows long-lasting health, economic impacts of lead emissions from U.S. general aviation flights.

August 26, 2016

MIT aerospace engineers have found a way to bond composite layers, producing a material that is substantially stronger and more resistant to damage than other advanced composites. The improvement may lead to stronger, lighter airplane parts.

Carbon nanotube “stitches” strengthen composites

Method to reinforce these materials could help make airplane frames lighter, more damage-resistant.

August 2, 2016

Researchers are developing a new boot with built-in sensors and tiny “haptic” motors, whose vibrations can guide the wearer around or over obstacles. Vibrations will jump from low to high intensity when the wearer is at risk of colliding with an obstacle.

Avoiding stumbles, from spacewalks to sidewalks

Vibrating footwear could help astronauts and visually impaired earthlings skirt obstacles.

July 22, 2016

“We don’t necessarily want [air traffic controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information. Instead, we can tell them the three top choices,” says Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.

Ready for takeoff

Hamsa Balakrishnan develops algorithms to reduce airport congestion.

July 15, 2016

A new system that can anticipate room assignments and suggest which nurses to assign to patients for C-sections and other procedures provided satisfactory recommendations to nurses 90 percent of the time.

Robot helps nurses schedule tasks on labor floor

System from Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab suggests where to move patients and who should do C-sections.

July 13, 2016

Clusters of four or more small satellites could look at a single location on Earth from multiple angles, and measure that location’s total reflectance with an error that is half that of single satellites in operation today, an MIT-led study suggests.

Better views with smaller satellites

Batches of shoebox-sized satellites could improve estimates of Earth’s reflected energy.

July 12, 2016

Professional rider and founder of Mirai EV of Japan Yosihiro Kishimoto rides the electric bike designed by the KOMMIT Electric Vehicle Team.

Team led by MIT engineers places second at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

Motorcycle completes 12.5 miles, 156 turns for a second-place finish in the race's Electric Bike Division.

July 11, 2016

Building better trust between humans and machines

MIT-SUTD researchers are creating improved interfaces to help machines and humans work together to complete tasks.

June 21, 2016

Supercharging undergraduate research

Now open to the entire School of Engineering, SuperUROP is creating an interdisciplinary community of scholars.

June 21, 2016

Making cities smarter

MIT researchers are creating tools that synthesize and collect data so that urban planners can vastly improve the quality of urban life.

June 1, 2016

Top row (left to right): Robert Fadel, Dean Ian A. Waitz, Jim Long, Hsinhwa Lee, Ted Equi, Sandra Lopes, Joseph Baylon, Carolyn Carrington, Anthony Zolnik, Doreen Morris, Marlena Love, and Stephen Wetzel. Bottom row (left to right): Cathy Greene, Amy Bass, Sharon Leary, Bethany Walsh, Jessica Jones, and Kate Moynihan.

Spotlight on engineering staff

The 2016 Infinite Mile Awards in the School of Engineering

May 31, 2016

Left: Sandy Alexandre began her appointment as East Campus associate head of house in March. Right: Neel and Julie Shah, who have been appointed heads of house for Sidney Pacific.

Julie Shah, Sandy Alexandre receive campus houseteam appointments

Shah named head of house after serving as Sidney Pacific associate housemaster; Alexandre joins East Campus as associate head of house.

May 26, 2016

Lockheed Martin CTO Keoki Jackson '89, SM '92, ScD '97 (center, left) and MIT AeroAstro department head Jaime Peraire congratulate each other after signing a research collaboration agreement between the two organizations. Initial research will focus on robotics and autonomous systems.

MIT, Lockheed Martin launch long-term research collaboration

Initial focus will be on transformative technologies, autonomy, and robotics.

May 16, 2016

MIT Flugtag team members (l-r) Michael Klinker, William Thalheimer, Mike Tomovich, and Hayden Cornwell in AeroAstro’s Building 33 Neumann Hangar, where they’ll be building their aircraft this summer.

Run, jump, fly: Student aviators to compete in national Flugtag competition

AeroAstro grad students are building a human-powered aircraft that will (hopefully) fly over the Charles River.

May 10, 2016

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