Powering up for a pivotal moment
From a nuclear revival to qubits, the MIT Energy Initiative’s annual research conference tracked deployment of today’s technologies to discovery of tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
MIT engineers design a safer, more efficient vaccination system for farmed fish
Water-resistant microneedles made from food-grade silk could deliver vaccines to help prevent the spread of disease in aquaculture.
3 Questions: Why infrastructure is entering a defining era
Professor Ali Jadbabaie describes how AI, digital transformation, climate change, and complex geopolitics are forcing engineers and policymakers to rethink how infrastructure is designed, built, and managed.
At New York Climate Week 2026, MIT connects with a global network
A cross-section of the MIT community convened discussions on topics ranging from data centers and super pollutants to agriculture and education.
The ocean’s most abundant “loner” microbe has a sticky second life
Researchers in the Chisholm lab find Prochlorococcus can switch between drifting alone and living in attached communities, a discovery that could reshape estimates of how much carbon the ocean moves to the deep sea.
Researchers improve weather forecasts looking two to six weeks out
A new machine-learning approach broke records for weather forecasting for an important time frame in emergency planning.
Exploring how plants thrive in a changing environment
Associate Professor David Des Marais studies how plants interact with their surroundings and adapt over time.
Computational tools for society’s most complex challenges
Associate Professor Cathy Wu uses reinforcement learning to help map out improvements to transportation and other multifaceted systems.
Pressurized experiments could help wind farms generate more power
A new way of simulating wind turbines in the field shows how tweaking turbine operation could unlock tens of thousands of dollars per turbine every year.
MIT researchers are mapping extreme weather risks — and building tools to act on them
The Climate Grand Challenges “New World of Weather” project shows how modeling, planning tools, and infrastructure analysis are translating research into real-world resilience.
3 Questions: Putting nuclear waste into perspective
Professor Haruko Wainwright believes the risks posed by radioactive wastes cannot be properly assessed without also considering the hazards of chemical wastes.
Marine bacteria team up to break down one of the ocean's toughest carbon-storing molecules
Researchers reveal how communities of marine bacteria divide the task of degrading fucoidan, a key player in ocean carbon storage.
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing launches pilot to help educators teach AI across disciplines
A weeklong summer workshop brought higher education faculty to campus to explore how AI and machine learning materials can be adapted for their classrooms.
Walter Torous named executive director of MIT Center for Real Estate
The senior lecturer, already director of the degree program, will now oversee all aspects of the center’s activities and operations.
The importance of indoor airflow patterns in spreading airborne disease
Researchers explore how a key factor can mitigate or promote tuberculosis transmission.