School of Engineering

Margaret Hamilton, “who led the 100-person team [at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab] that wrote the onboard software for the Apollo missions, guiding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to a safe landing on the moon,” died on Sept. 30, reports Trip Gabriel for The New York Times. “Her skills led to her promotion to director of software engineering on the project, which developed the two 70-pound onboard computers for the Apollo flights: one in the command module, which carried the astronauts from Earth, and the second in the lunar module, which set down on the moon’s surface,” writes Gabriel. 

With help from an artificial intelligence algorithm, MIT researchers have formulated heat-resistant mRNA COVID vaccines that “remain stable even when stored at room temperature for up to a year, or at nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit for two months,” writes Nancy Lapid for Reuters. The heat resistance shots “would lower costs and make them [COVID vaccines] available in regions where ultra-cold storage is not possible,” Lapid notes.  

MIT startup Alsym Energy, cofounded by Prof. Kripa Varanasi, has developed an alternative to lithium-ion batteries using sodium ions, writes Morgan Clendaniel for Fast Company. “The battery is nonflammable and nontoxic, allowing it to be placed in more sensitive areas and saving money on cooling systems that often have to be co-installed with large lithium batteries,” explains Clendaniel.  

Forbes’ Rashi Shrivastava highlights MIT spinout Liquid AI, which is building “liquid neural networks that process data more efficiently and don’t need expensive chips stored in data centers.” Shrivastava writes, “Liquid AI’s models are small enough that they can run directly on laptops and phones. There’s no cost to host them.”  

Prof. Dennis Whyte joins Hakeem Oluseyi, host of GBH’s “Particles of Thought,” to “explore fusion's wildest applications” in space. “There are private companies now looking at ways to exploit fusion for space travel,” says Whyte. “There are also, simultaneously, companies which are looking at using the technology of fusion—particularly the plasma and magnetic technology, which were primarily developed from fusion to get significant improvements in propulsion technology as well.” 

Prof. Koroush Shirvan speaks to The New York Times’ Brad Plumer and Rebecca F. Elliott about the safety of companies increasing power levels in existing nuclear reactors. “We know a lot about the safety performance of these plants; the confidence is high there,” says Shirvan. Plumer and Elliot write that Shrivan added “some plants in the past have run into operational difficulties after upgrades. If, for instance, the higher power levels subjects equipment to more wear and tear, plants may have to be shut down more frequently for maintenance,” write Plumer and Elliott.  

In a piece republished by Scientific American, reporter Manon Bischoff highlights MIT researchers proving in 2024, that “many newer games in the Super Mario series are mathematically maximally complex and therefore contain unsolvable problems.” “We don’t know how to prove that a game is fun,” says Prof. Erik Demaine, a co-author of the research. “But we can prove that it’s hard and that maybe gives some insight into why it’s fun.”  

Research Scientist Julian Klein and Prof. Frances Ross speak with speak with Physics reporter Akashni Raghubar Latchanna about an electron microscopy technique they developed to move atoms within a material, creating new possibilities for engineering electrical, optical, and quantum properties. “If we can control the electronic or optical functions of the materials, we might potentially make those devices more brain-like, more portable, and less power-hungry,” Ross said. 

VulcanForms, a 3-D printing manufacturer that produces “complicated metal parts for a variety of industries, at speed and at scale,” founded by Martin C. Feldmann ’14 and Prof. John Hart, is expected to double its workforce within the next year, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “We were born out of MIT, we’ve kind of got our DNA here,” says Kevin Kassekert, chief executive of VulcanForms. “Massachusetts is a place where you can attract the best talent in the world.” 

Prof. R. Scott Kemp speaks to The New York Times’ Selam Gebrekidan about the U.S. planning to build a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030. Kemp “said accidents were more probable on the moon,” writes Gebrekidan. “With little containment, even smaller accidents would produce much more radioactive fallout. There is no wind on the moon but, with less gravity, debris can travel far after an explosion.”  

Research Scientist Judah Cohen speaks to USA Today’s Doyle Rice, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Janet Loehrke about the intensity of the polar vortex this year, and his predictions on what sort of weather the upcoming winter season will bring across the country. “The polar vortex is no longer record strong (signaling a milder winter) and it is actually a bit weaker than normal as it is undergoing a polar vortex stretch,” says Cohen. "It looks like that over the next two weeks the PV will be near normal or slightly weaker than normal.” 

Prof. Dennis Whyte joins Hakeem Oluseyi, host of GBH’s “Particles of Thought,” to discuss cofounding MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems from a class assignment that blossomed into actionable research. The students “were not saddled with conventional wisdom” about superconducting technology, says Whyte. In the class, “we were throwing all kinds of crazy ideas at the fridge on this and some of them stuck,” says Whyte. “I’ve had the privilege to see my students succeed. We [professors] have a job where we get an amazing privilege where we get to discover.”  

MIT researchers have developed Ataraxos, an AI system capable of winning the challenging game Stratego. The system could one day help decision makers with real-world problems that involve hidden information, reports Jacek Krywk for Ars Technica. “Board games have fixed rules and clear winners, while real-world problems like negotiations, financial markets, or military conflicts usually don’t,” writes Krywk. “But the Ataraxos team argues the gap is smaller than it looks, since tackling any real problem starts with building a simplified model of it.” 

Forbes’ Afdhel Aziz highlights Extern, a platform that “helps students graduates and career switchers do real projects for companies,” founded by alumnus Matt Wilkerson ‘04, ‘05. “Nearly 90,000 people have used the platform to build experience they can put on a resume and talk about in an interview,” writes Aziz. “I want to work on a problem that really changes someone’s life in a very deep way, says Wilkerson.  

Prof. Samuel Madden joins Tiziana Dearing, host of WBUR’s “Morning Edition,” to discuss the findings of MIT’s Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training. “Cognitive surrender is the idea that people come to rely too heavily on these AI tools for their learning and they start outsourcing the critical thinking and the development of the foundational tools they think they need to succeed in life, to these AI tools,” says Madden. “It’s not just writing, but we see this [cognitive surrender] in our courses as well.”