Materials Science and Engineering

Cake's end of life planning service breaks down what can be an overwhelming process into a series of simple questions to help people make decisions around health care treatments, funeral arrangements, estate planning, and how they want to be remembered after they’re gone.

Planning for death, as a way to improve life

Startup co-founded by alumna Suelin Chen helps people share their end-of-life wishes with loved ones.

December 6, 2019

Li-Huei Tsai, left, is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience and director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and Christopher Schuh, is department head and the Danae and Vasilis Salapatas Professor of Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Two MIT professors named 2019 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

Li-Huei Tsai and Christopher Schuh recognized for research innovations addressing Alzheimer’s disease and metal mechanics.

December 3, 2019

MIT engineers used human ureteral smooth muscle cells grown in a lab dish to identify drugs that would help to relax the muscle cells.

New treatment could ease the passage of kidney stones

Muscle relaxants delivered to the ureter can reduce contractions that cause pain when passing a stone.

December 2, 2019

An MIT-invented circuit uses only a nanometer-wide “magnetic domain wall” to modulate the phase and magnitude of a spin wave, which could enable practical magnetic-based computing — using little to no electricity.

Toward more efficient computing, with magnetic waves

Circuit design offers a path to “spintronic” devices that use little electricity and generate practically no heat.

November 28, 2019

School of Engineering third quarter 2019 awards

Faculty members recognized for excellence via a diverse array of honors, grants, and prizes over the last quarter.

November 27, 2019

Clockwise from upper left: Megan Yamoah, Billy Woltz, Fran Vasconcelos, Claire Halloran, and Ali Daher

Five MIT students named 2020 Rhodes Scholars

Ali Daher, Claire Halloran, Francisca Vasconcelos, Billy Andersen Woltz, and Megan Yamoah will begin postgraduate studies at Oxford University next fall.

November 23, 2019

Illustration shows the apparatus used to create a thin layer of a transparent, electrically conductive material, to protect solar cells or other devices. The chemicals used to produce the layer, shown in tubes at left, are introduced into a vacuum chamber where they deposit a layer on a substrate material at top of the chamber.

Clear, conductive coating could protect advanced solar cells, touch screens

New material should be relatively easy to produce at an industrial scale, researchers say.

November 22, 2019

MIT Professor Frances Ross (center) describes the recently installed ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscope to (background, from left) Geoffrey Beach, Jennifer Meanwell, and William Gilstrap.

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center welcomes ultra-high vacuum microscopes

Transmission electron microscope and scanning tunneling microscope offer unique capabilities.

November 14, 2019

Sale of LORD Corporation leads to $1 billion-plus fund for education, research at Cleveland Clinic, Duke, MIT and USC

November 13, 2019

MIT to receive $260 million from Lord Foundation of Massachusetts

Longstanding supporter of the Institute allows for flexibility in determining how funds will be used.

November 13, 2019

Oil and natural gas wells require concrete to seal the area between the well casing and the surrounding borehole, but because of the high temperatures and pressures at depth, it has been hard to study how these specialized cements harden. Now, a new method developed at MIT can help to fill in that missing knowledge.

New tools could improve the way cement seals oil wells

Techniques for observing concrete as it sets could facilitate the development of new cements.

November 12, 2019

Eight distinguished researchers spoke at the 2019 Materials Day Symposium. Pictured here (l-r) are MIT professors Carl Thompson, Asu Ozdaglar, Elsa Olivetti, and Ju Li.

Materials Day talks examine the promises and challenges of AI and machine learning

The ability to predict and make new materials faster highlights the need for safety, reliability, and accurate data.

November 5, 2019

Members of the winning team, ecoTrio, from this year’s MADMEC competition. From left to right are Margaret Lee, Sara Sheffels, and Ty Christoff-Tempesta.

MADMEC teams address plastic waste problem with materials science

Finalists presented an alternative to nondegradable plastics, and an additive to help plastics decompose.

October 17, 2019

$The repeating patterns in a snowflake are a classic example of beautiful, geometric fractals. Now MIT scientists have discovered fractal-like patterns in the magnetic configurations of a quantum material for the first time.$

Scientists discover fractal patterns in a quantum material

The X-ray-focusing lens used in the experiment is based on a design used in lighthouses for centuries.

October 16, 2019

Recent graduate student Karly Bast shows off the scale model of a bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci that she and her co-workers used to prove the design’s feasibility.

Engineers put Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design to the test

Proposed bridge would have been the world’s longest at the time; new analysis shows it would have worked.

October 9, 2019

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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