Materials Science and Engineering

QS ranks MIT the world’s top university for 2016-17

Ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 of 42 disciplines.

September 5, 2016

MPC-CMSE Summer Scholar Victoria Yao shows a mixture of sodium thiosulfate being stirred in a solution of copper hexacyanoferrate where its reacts to produce larger compounds that can be filtered out of the solution. These compounds are being developed for use in electrodes for a water-based flow-driven battery for grid level storage.

Designing safe, cheap batteries for grid level storage

Summer Scholar Victoria Yao experiments with water-based, flow-driven battery concept in Brushett Lab.

September 1, 2016

This summer, Jennifer Coulter worked on modeling the behavior of ferromagnetic particles with Alfredo Alexander-Katz, the Walter Henry Gale Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.

Modeling how colloidal particles spin through a fixed array

Summer Scholar Jennifer Coulter works on computer simulations with associate professor of materials science Alfredo Alexander-Katz.

August 29, 2016

A silicon solar cell with silicon-germanium filter using a step-cell design (large) and a gallium arsenide phosphide layer on silicon step-cell proof-of-concept solar cell (small).

New solar cell is more efficient, costs less than its counterparts

Exposed in step-like formation, layers of new photovoltaic cell harvest more of sun’s energy.

August 29, 2016

New method developed for producing some metals

Using electricity rather than heat can reduce both energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

August 24, 2016

“This place is remarkable,” Alfredo Alexander-Katz, the Walter Henry Gale Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, says of MIT. “You can throw any crazy idea out there” and then pursue it.

Seeing nature through a molecular engineer’s eye

Alfredo Alexander-Katz probes systems in action, from clotting blood to walking molecules.

August 22, 2016

SolidEnergy Systems' battery (far right) is twice as energy-dense, yet just as safe and long-lasting as the lithium ion batteries used in consumer electronics. The battery uses a lithium metal foil for an anode, which can hold more ions and is several times thinner and lighter than traditional lithium metal, graphite, carbon, or silicon anodes. A novel electrolyte also keeps the battery from heati...

Doubling battery power of consumer electronics

New lithium metal batteries could make smartphones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long.

August 16, 2016

MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering graduate student Peter Su shows Summer Scholar Ashley Del Valle Morales how to operate a laser and detector system she will use during her summer project under Senior Research Scientist Anuradha Agarwal.

Chemical sensing at telecom wavelengths

Summer Scholar Ashley Del Valle Morales probes new a silicon carbide system in the MIT Microphotonics Center.

August 8, 2016

Erica Eggleton is working this summer in the lab of MIT Professor Krystyn Van Vliet on lithium manganese oxide (LMO) electrodes for lithium ion batteries. Here, she measures out carbon powder, a binder, and LMO, the active powder used in the battery electrodes.

Analyzing lithium ion battery fatigue

Summer Scholar Erica Eggleton joins Van Vliet Lab to make and test lithium manganese oxide electrodes.

August 2, 2016

Romulus Capital, a venture capital seed firm, controls $150 million in funds and other assets, having just raised a new fund of $75 million in June. Now the firm plans to fund 20 new startups, adding to its existing portfolio of 30 startups, many of which are MIT spinouts.

Building a foundation for tech startups

Launched in an MIT dorm room, alum’s venture capital firm now controls $150 million in assets.

July 14, 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

Unlocking the past with the future of imaging

New grants help MIT Libraries, DMSE, and CSAIL push the boundaries of examining artifacts.

July 7, 2016

$The method combines optical microscopy techniques (left, in pink) with electron backscatter diffraction (right, in green) to measure characteristics of the boundaries between crystal grains, which help determine the material’s overall properties.$

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