Aeronautics and Astronautics

Using a new cooperative learning technique, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab researchers cut by half the time it took a pair of robot agents to learn to maneuver to opposite sides of a virtual room.

Learning to teach to speed up learning

An algorithm that teaches robot agents how to exchange advice to complete a task helps them learn faster.

January 29, 2019

A model by MIT and Microsoft researchers identifies instances where autonomous systems have “learned” from training examples that don’t match what’s actually happening in the real world, which can be used to identify which learned actions could cause costly errors.

Identifying artificial intelligence “blind spots”

Model identifies instances when autonomous systems have learned from examples that may cause dangerous errors in the real world.

January 24, 2019

The first color image of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 85,000 miles (137,000 kilometers) at 4:08 Universal Time on Jan. 1, 2019, highlights its reddish surface. The left image was taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. At right, color has been overlaid onto the LORRI image.

3Q: On the significance of Ultima Thule

New Horizons Mission Team members Alissa Earle and Richard Binzel discuss the revelations the icy world provides about the formation of our solar system.

January 23, 2019

First row, left to right: Suvrit Sra, Frances Ross, Pulkit Agrawal, Kevin O’Brien, Richard Linares, and Cathy Wu. Second row, left to right: Negar Reiskarimian, Jacob Andreas, Giovanni Traverso, Manya Ghobadi, and Ashwin Gopinath.

School of Engineering welcomes new faculty

Eleven new professors join the MIT community.

January 9, 2019

In the coming decades, massive segmented space telescopes may be launched to peer even closer in on far-out exoplanets and their atmospheres. To keep these mega-scopes stable, MIT researchers say that small satellites can follow along, and act as “guide stars,” by pointing a laser back at a telescope to calibrate the system, to produce better, more accurate images of distant worlds.

Tiny satellites could be “guide stars” for huge next-generation telescopes

Researchers design CubeSats with lasers to provide steady reference light for telescopes investigating distant planets.

January 4, 2019

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (right), an associate professor of physics at MIT, was honored with Physics World's Breakthrough of the Year for his group's discovery of “magic-angle” graphene, a “promising technique for adjusting the electronic properties of graphene.” Graduate student Yuan Cao (left) was a lead researcher in the work.

MIT research honored with Physics World “Breakthrough of the Year” awards

"Magic-angle" graphene named 2018 Breakthrough of the Year; first ionic plane and earliest evidence of hydrogen gas named to top 10 breakthroughs.

December 27, 2018

A new laser-pointing platform developed at MIT may help launch miniature satellites called CubeSats into the high-rate data game.

Laser-pointing system could help tiny satellites transmit data to Earth

Platform offers the precision that shoebox-sized CubeSats need to beam down hefty data packets.

December 14, 2018

“If I want to be successful in my other endeavors or in my student groups, in my studies, it’s important that I continue to jump rope throughout my life to stay physically and mentally healthy,” says Stewart Isaacs, a PhD student in aeronautics and astronautics.

Jumping through life and his passions at MIT

Stewart Isaacs, a PhD student in AeroAstro and a world champion jump roper, credits his academic successes to his long career in competitive jump roping.

November 22, 2018

A new MIT plane is propelled via ionic wind. Batteries in the fuselage (tan compartment in front of plane) supply voltage to electrodes (blue/white horizontal lines) strung along the length of the plane, generating a wind of ions that propels the plane forward.

MIT engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

The silent, lightweight aircraft doesn’t depend on fossil fuels.

November 21, 2018

“The college is our way of building a powerful framework and environment for research and collaborations that involve computing and that are occurring across disciplines," says School of Engineering Dean Anantha P. Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Bridge to the future of engineering

The School of Engineering’s faculty leadership weigh in on what the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing will mean for their students and faculty.

November 11, 2018