Sensors

By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.

Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.

October 31, 2016

Left to right: PhD student Fadel Adib, PhD student Mingmin Zhao, and Professor Dina Katabi pose with their EQ-Radio device, which can detect emotion using wireless signals.

Detecting emotions with wireless signals

Measuring your heartbeat and breath, CSAIL device can tell if you’re excited, happy, angry, or sad.

September 20, 2016

ROBOAT, a new collaboration between researchers from MIT and partner institutions in the Netherlands, seeks to design and deploy a fleet of autonomous boats on the canals of Amsterdam.

An autonomous fleet for Amsterdam

MIT, AMS Institute will collaborate to solve complex urban problems for Amsterdam with the development of autonomous "roboats."

September 19, 2016

“There's a lot of role models here [at MIT], and sometimes, in Chile or in Mexico or in Costa Rica, [girls] don't know that there's a graduate student or an undergrad doing these cool things at MIT,” says grad student Alicia Chong Rodriguez. “I think it's a matter of just connecting the dots.”

Taking on gender gaps in health care and technology

Graduate student Alicia Chong Rodriguez uses her engineering skills to empower women.

August 18, 2016

Researchers designed and tested several types of optical sensors that could be placed at the tip of an epidural needle and determined that the best is one that relies on Raman spectroscopy. This technique, which uses light to measure energy shifts in molecular vibrations, offers detailed information about the chemical composition of tissue.

Needles that hit the right mark

New sensor could help anesthesiologists place needles for epidurals and other medical procedures.

August 11, 2016

To use the Nima sensor, a new device that can detect gluten, diners put a pea-sized sample of food or liquid into a disposable capsule, and insert the capsule into the device, which mixes the food into a solution that detects gluten. In two to three minutes, a digital display appears on the sensor, indicating if the food sample does or doesn’t contain gluten.

Is your meal really gluten free?

Portable sensor detects trace amounts of gluten in food at restaurants.

July 6, 2016

“The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life” (Yale University Press), co-written by Carlo Ratti (pictured), director of the Senseable City Lab and a professor of the practice in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Cities of tomorrow

New book by Senseable City Lab researchers presents vision of data-driven urban design.

July 5, 2016

These fluorescent gels were synthesized by mixing a polymer (polyethylene glycol) and a ligand (terpyridine) with two lanthanides — europium and terbium — in varying ratios.

The promise of fluorescent polymer gels

Color-changing materials could be used to detect structural failure in energy-related equipment.

July 1, 2016

This diagram depicts the way a mid-infrared laser (red cylinder, left) can send a beam through the atmosphere that generates filaments of ionized air molecules (multicolored beam, center, shown with magnified view). These filaments, which can be kilometers long, help to keep the beam concentrated enough to generate mid-infrared light in air (blue cloud, right) that can reveal detailed chemical com...

New mid-infrared laser system could detect atmospheric chemicals

Laser pulses produce glowing plasma filaments in open air, could enable long-distance monitoring.

June 28, 2016

Neumitra co-founder and CEO Robert Goldberg, a former MIT researcher

Taking stress to a new level

MIT spinout Neumitra brings an innovative approach to quantifying, understanding, and managing stress.

October 19, 2015

MIT sensor detects spoiled meat

Tiny device could be incorporated into “smart packaging” to improve food safety.

April 14, 2015

Five CSAIL researchers named ACM fellows

The Association for Computer Machinery cites Devadas, Grimson, Morris, Rubinfeld, and Rus as having "provided key knowledge" to computing.

January 8, 2015

Detecting gases wirelessly and cheaply

New sensor can transmit information on hazardous chemicals or food spoilage to a smartphone.

December 8, 2014

Graduate students Alexandre Cooper-Roy (left), Masashi Hirose (center), and Ashok Ajoy work to harness the quantum properties of matter in MIT's Quantum Engineering Group.

Doctoral students seek quantum control in Paola Cappellaro’s Quantum Engineering Group

November 4, 2014

Armed with the GelSight sensor, a robot can grasp a freely hanging USB cable and plug it into a USB port.

Fingertip sensor gives robot unprecedented dexterity

Equipped with a novel optical sensor, a robot grasps a USB plug and inserts it into a USB port.

September 19, 2014

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