Explained: The Shannon limit
A 1948 paper by Claude Shannon SM ’40, PhD ’40 created the field of information theory — and set its research agenda for the next 50 years.
Driven to abstraction
Institute Professor Barbara Liskov pioneered many of the ideas that have shaped modern computer science.
Straining forward
Nanowires made of ‘strained silicon’ — silicon whose atoms have been pried slightly apart — show how to keep increases in computer power coming.
A classic text, 40 years in the making
Long-time computer science class at MIT finally gets its textbook
Putting the squeeze on data
In work that could make it easier to handle huge data sets, MIT researchers improve data compression's fidelity without sacrificing speed
Five from MIT named 2010 IEEE Fellows
Three EECS faculty members, Hu, Rus and Sudan, and two research staff members of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Reynolds and Stokes, are elevated to Fellow status of the IEEE effective Jan. 1
Computing with a wave of the hand
A new Media Lab system turns LCD displays into giant cameras that provide gestural control of objects on-screen. And that’s just for starters.
A social network that ballooned
An MIT team’s savvy use of social media to locate weather balloons as part of a $40,000 DARPA contest may shed light on how to mobilize resources during emergencies.
Life after silicon
Researchers in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories are making the case for using exotic materials to help microchips keep improving.
Rethinking artificial intelligence
Broad-based MIT project aims to reinvent AI for a new era. By going back and fixing mistakes, researchers hope to produce ‘co-processors’ for the human mind.
Fine-tuned laser
A wholly new approach to tuning a laser’s frequency brings us a step closer to airport scanners that can distinguish aspirin from explosives.
Flight of fancy
Using an autonomous mini-helicopter, an MIT team stunned the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International by solving one of its notoriously tough challenges on the first try.
Explained: The Discrete Fourier Transform
The theories of an early-19th-century French mathematician have emerged from obscurity to become part of the basic language of engineering.