Mechanical Engineering

Rebecca Saxe PhD '03, an associate professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, discusses her study of the human mind.

Inauguration festivities off to a stimulating start

Innovation symposium touches on a dizzying array of topics, with themes of interdisciplinary collaboration, energy and innovation for the developing world.

September 19, 2012

Ultrasound waves of two different frequencies generate tiny bubbles of water on the skin’s surface. When these bubbles pop, the skin’s surface is lightly worn away, allowing drugs to pass through the skin more easily.

Getting (drugs) under your skin

Using ultrasound waves, researchers boost skin’s permeability to drugs.

September 14, 2012

U.S. News ranks MIT sixth overall among U.S. universities

Institute’s undergraduate engineering program is again ranked No. 1; undergraduate business program is No. 2.

September 12, 2012

Researchers engineer light-activated skeletal muscle

Technique may enable robotic animals that move with the strength and flexibility of their living counterparts.

August 30, 2012

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm

Flexible design enables body-morphing capability.

August 10, 2012

Matthew Orosz and Amy Mueller work with locals in Lesotho to implement their solar ORC system.

Bringing power to the people — and heat as well

Sun-powered system developed by MIT students could provide electricity, heat and cooling to rural schools and clinics.

August 6, 2012

Olympics symbol with five rings. A light blue outline around rings and various angles intersect in ring centers.

3 Questions: Anette Hosoi on engineering and the Olympics

Got Olympic fever? Dive into the mechanics of a fast pool

August 1, 2012

Images taken with a 3-D microscope show wrinkled surfaces produced using a method developed by the MIT team. The size, spacing and angles of the wrinkles vary depending on how much the original underlying surface was stretched, and how the stretching was released.

Wrinkled surfaces could have widespread applications

MIT team discovers way of making perfectly ordered and repeatable surfaces with patterns of microscale wrinkles.

August 1, 2012

The researchers' unmanned aerial vehicle.

New aircraft capable of fast, accurate and repeatable flight

CSAIL's Robot Locomotion Group unveils new computer-controlled aircraft that can perform knife-edge turns.

July 26, 2012

Algorithms developed by MIT researchers enable an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to swim around and reconstruct a ship's propeller.

Autonomous robot scans ship hulls for mines

Algorithms enable robot to navigate and view propellers and other complex structures.

July 17, 2012

A utility vehicle equipped with a laser range finder drives through a field, avoiding obstacles without human intervention.

Mechanical engineers develop an ‘intelligent co-pilot’ for cars

Semiautonomous system takes the wheel to keep drivers safe.

July 13, 2012

This electron microscope image shows two layers of nanowires produced through the MIT team's self-assembly process, showing how deviations in the pattern and connections between the layers can be included in the design.

Teaching self-assembling structures a new trick

MIT researchers produce 3-D configurations that could lead to new microchips and other devices.

June 7, 2012