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Materials Science and Engineering

“MITx grants provide a fantastic mechanism for developing new courses.” —MIT Professor Hazel Sive

MITx Grant Program selects eight new innovative digital learning projects

New projects emphasize using digital methods not possible in traditional classes, leveraging research-based teaching practices, and measuring student learning.

March 16, 2016

2016 MacVicar Faculty Fellows: (clockwise from top left) Patty Tang, Jeffrey Grossman, Michael Sipser, and Srinivas Devadas

Four professors named 2016 MacVicar Faculty Fellows

Devadas, Grossman, Sipser, and Tang awarded MIT’s highest undergraduate teaching award.

March 7, 2016

The metal with carbon nanotubes uniformly dispersed inside “is designed to mitigate radiation damage” for long periods without degrading, Kang Pyo So says. Pictured is an example of how the researchers created aluminum with carbon nanotubes inside.

Carbon nanotubes improve metal’s longevity under radiation

Aluminum used in nuclear reactors and other harsh environments may last longer with new treatment.

March 2, 2016

A new video series weaves together intimate observations of bird behavior and physiology with engineering “explainers.” Pictured here is a female pileated woodpecker.

Built to peck: MITx video series explores how woodpeckers avoid brain injury

Videos hosted by Professor Lorna Gibson bring an engineering approach to birding.

February 23, 2016

“Leading the ODGE and the graduate student community has been a great honor,” Christine Ortiz says.

Christine Ortiz to step down as dean for graduate education

Six-year tenure was defined by collaboration across schools, departments, and offices.

January 27, 2016

An illustration of the surface acoustic wave generators, with the generated 3-D trapping nodes. The inset indicates a single particle within a 3-D trapping node, which can be manipulated independently along x, y, or z axes.

Acoustic tweezers manipulate cells with sound waves

Technique could enable 3-D printing of cellular structures for tissue engineering.

January 25, 2016

On the top row are two images of a nanomesh bilayer of PDMS cylinders in which the top layer is perpendicular to the complex orientation of the bottom layer. The bottom images show well-ordered nanomesh patterns of PDMS cylinders. The images on the right show zoomed-in views of the images on the left.

Self-stacking nanogrids

Polymer nanowires that assemble in perpendicular layers could offer route to tinier chip components.

January 22, 2016

This GridForm model of a village in Bihar, India, shows the optimal layout of hardware for the load profiles of the community. Each building, color-coded by the cost (in Indian rupees) of supplying electricity to that structure, is wired to a central generation/storage node (solid lines), and the nodes are connected to each other (dotted lines).

Going off grid: Tata researchers tackle rural electrification

At MIT’s Tata Center for Technology and Design, researchers are exploring ways to extend electricity access to rural communities in India using microgrids.

January 21, 2016

This diagram shows how an electrical voltage can be used to modify the oxygen concentration, and therefore the phase and structure, of strontium cobaltites. Pumping oxygen in and out transforms the material from the brownmillerite form (left) to the perovskite form (right).

Switchable material could enable new memory chips

Small voltage can flip thin film between two crystal states — one metallic, one semiconducting.

January 20, 2016

Donald Sadoway (right) of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, David Bradwell MEng ’06, PhD ’11, and their collaborators have developed a novel molten-metal battery that is low-cost, high-capacity, efficient, long-lasting, and easy to manufacture — characteristics that make it ideal for storing electricity on power grids today and in the future.

A battery made of molten metals

New battery may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid.

January 12, 2016

A donkey grazes in a pasture near solar panels at Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream in Sunapee, New Hampshire.

Concentrating dawn-to-dusk solar energy

MOSAIC award spurs MIT research into concentrator solar cells that can run in shade and full sun with power control and wavelength separation.

January 11, 2016

The layer-by-layer solar thermal fuel polymer film comprises three distinct layers (4 to 5 microns in thickness for each). Cross-linking after each layer enables building up films of tunable thickness.

A new way to store solar heat

Material could harvest sunlight by day, release heat on demand hours or days later.

January 7, 2016

This diagram illustrates the principle behind the proposed energy-harvesting system. Two metal electrodes made of lithium-alloyed silicon form a sandwich around a layer of electrolyte, a polymer that ions (charged atoms) can move across. When the sandwich is bent, unequal stresses cause lithium ions to migrate across the electrolyte, producing a compensating electron current that can be harnessed ...

Harnessing the energy of small bending motions

New device could provide electrical power source from walking and other ambient motions.

January 6, 2016

MIT graduate students (l-r) Ritchie Chen, Kelsey Stoerzinger and Scott Grindy, won Silver Awards at the Materials Research Society 2015 Fall Meeting in Boston.

Grad students honored for their research at Materials Research Society meeting

Three MIT graduate students win Silver Awards for work on catalysts, hydrogels, and magnetic nanoparticles.

January 5, 2016

Angela Belcher (pictured), MIT professor of biological engineering and materials science and engineering; Paula Hammond, professor and head of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering; Po-Yen Chen PhD ’15 (now at Brown University); and others have shown that a novel, high-efficiency, low-cost solar cell can be made using lead recovered from an abundant, old-technology source: lead-acid car bat...

Solar energy from discarded car batteries

An MIT development could benefit both the environment and human health.

December 22, 2015