Mechanical Engineering

Indian farmers with MIT Tata Center-designed irrigation system

Pushing the limits of pump design for small farmers in India

Tata Center team invents the first solar-powered water pump tailored to the irrigation needs of millions of small-acreage farmers in the Ganges River basin.

May 18, 2015

The Wobblit team displays their toy, a platform that you stand on and shift your weight to tilt it toward the lit-up edge segments.

Students get serious about fun

Mechanical engineering class designs toys that make music, light up, and battle for victory.

May 13, 2015

A suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) measures particles’ masses as they flow through a narrow channel. The original mass sensor consists of a fluid-filled microchannel etched in a tiny silicon cantilever that vibrates inside a vacuum cavity. As cells or particles flow through the channel, one at a time, their mass slightly alters the cantilever’s vibration frequency. This illustration depi...

Faster, smaller, more informative

Device can measure the distribution of tiny particles as they flow through a microfluidic channel.

May 12, 2015

"Hack to the Future," the final competition of MIT's course 2.007, was inspired by the movie "Back to the Future." Course instructor Amos Winter dressed as Dr. Emmett Brown (left) while Sangbae Kim dressed as Marty McFly.

Robots compete in “Hack to the Future”

Final competition in MIT’s course 2.007 pays tribute to classic time-travel movie.

May 8, 2015

In a two-step process, engineers have successfully sealed leaks in graphene. First, the team fabricated graphene on a copper surface (top left) — a process that can create intrinsic defects in graphene, shown as cracks on the surface. After lifting the graphene and depositing it on a porous surface (top right), the transfer creates further holes and tears. In a first step (bottom left), the team...

Plugging up leaky graphene

New technique may enable faster, more durable water filters.

May 8, 2015

Satellite image of the South China Sea with colors added to indicate the calculated vertical displacement of ocean layers near 200 meters deep, based on simulated model data and calculations run by Harper Simmons at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and depicted by a graphics team at the University of Washington. Orange indicates upward movement, and blue indicates downward movement.

Researchers unravel secrets of hidden waves

Region of world’s strongest “internal waves” is analyzed in detail; work could help refine climate models.

May 6, 2015

Hassan Jameel, the son of MIT alumnus Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel ’78 (right), and MIT President L. Rafael Reif

New program aims to commercialize innovations in food and water

“J-WAFS Solutions” will provide seed funding for promising new approaches to water, food supply.

April 30, 2015

MIT and Kuwait University researchers awarded $5.5 million for work on next-generation desalination systems

Funding sponsored through the Kuwait-MIT Center for Natural Resources and the Environment.

April 24, 2015

The art and science of mapmaking with wood

Graduate student Phillip Daniel turns maps into laser-cut works of art.

April 23, 2015

Mike Massimino to speak at June 4 doctoral hooding ceremony

Astronaut and alumnus will be the first-ever speaker at MIT’s Investiture of Doctoral Hoods.

April 22, 2015

An aerial view of the Nile basin shows Lake Nasser in Egypt, a reservoir created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

International experts analyze impacts of Ethiopian dam

Report from conference at MIT addresses potential effects of huge construction project.

April 22, 2015

Four panel collage of images including a network, wrench, MRI, and bulb

Patents forecast technological change

New method uses patent data to estimate a technology’s future rate of improvement.

April 15, 2015

MIT Professor Yang Shao-Horn, center, speaks to Skoltech Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage (CEES) researchers from MIT and Moscow State University during a meeting at the MIT Materials Processing Center in February. Listening are MIT Professor Paula Hammond (left) and Skoltech CEES Director Keith Stevenson, who is based in Moscow.

Fostering U.S.-Russia energy innovation

Skoltech Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage brings together researchers from MIT and two Russian institutes to develop advanced batteries and fuel cells.

April 10, 2015

Emotionally inspired engineering

Fueled by her roots in China, senior Emma Nelson tackles environmental issues with engineering.

April 8, 2015

This illustration depicts phonons "tunneling" from one lattice of sodium chloride to another. New research shows that phonons can reach across a gap as small as a nanometer, “tunneling” from one material to another to enhance heat transport.

Tunneling across a tiny gap

“Phonon tunneling” explains heat flow across nanometer-wide gaps, study finds.

April 7, 2015

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