School of Architecture + Planning

“The concept of my startup is, ‘Let’s use hacker tools to defeat hackers,’” PhD student Gregory Falco says. “If you don’t know how to break it, you don’t know how to fix it.”

Gregory Falco: Protecting urban infrastructure against cyberterrorism

PhD student works at the intersection of urban planning and computer science.

September 5, 2017

Texas Army National Guardsmen help Houston residents affected by flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey board a military vehicle. "With an event like this," says MIT associate professor of urban planning Brent Ryan, "it becomes viscerally evident which residential areas are absolutely not safe from even moderate flooding."

3 Questions: Brent Ryan on Hurricane Harvey’s implications for U.S. cities

Stranded in Houston by hurricane floodwaters, an MIT associate professor sees firsthand how design and policy decisions affected the storm’s impact.

September 1, 2017

MIT engineers have devised a way to automate the process of monitoring neurons in a living brain using a computer algorithm that analyzes microscope images and guides a robotic arm to the target cell. In this image, a pipette guided by a robotic arm approaches a neuron identified with a fluorescent stain.

Robotic system monitors specific neurons

Success rate is comparable to that of highly trained scientists performing the process manually.

August 30, 2017

Danielle Wood spoke at the Media Lab’s space event, Beyond the Cradle, in March. She will join the faculty full-time in January 2018.

Danielle Wood joins Media Lab faculty

MIT alumna is establishing a new research group aimed at harnessing space engineering to improve life on Earth.

August 28, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a system that enables small, safe, aerial drones to read RFID tags in large warehouses at a distance of several meters, while identifying the tags’ locations with an average error of about 19 centimeters.

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

System could save retailers billions lost through faulty inventory records.

August 25, 2017

A new study finds that industrial parks in China have led to the growth of nearby “edge cities” that are hubs of diverse economic activity and residential life. The researchers looked at 110 industrial parks near eight cities in China, including the city of Wuhan, pictured here.

Industrial “edge cities” have helped China grow

Study: Commercial parks have boosted growth, created new urban centers.

August 17, 2017

A national study by MIT researchers provides one of the first in-depth looks at the characteristics of places that have adopted food recycling, revealing several new facts in the process.

Study: For food-waste recycling, policy is key

Successful programs aren’t limited to well-off towns with strong environmental movements.

August 17, 2017

Top row (l-r): James Deng, Jesse Feiman, Jessica Gordon. Bottom row: Jorlyn Le Garrec, Albert Lopez, Jiwon Victoria Park.

Six from MIT awarded 2017 Fulbright grants

Grantees will spend the 2017-2018 academic year conducting research abroad.

August 9, 2017

After piloting its smart microgardening system in Boston homes and restaurants, and following a successful Kickstarter campaign last fall, SproutsIO is ramping up production and hitting the shelves in a few months.

SproutsIO aims to power a “Personal Produce” movement

Smart, soil-free microgarden lets users optimize growing conditions while cutting water and resource use.

July 26, 2017

Left to right: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Media Lab Director Joi Ito joined Disobedience Award finalists Phyllis Young and LaDonna Brave Bull Allard; Betina Kaplan and Lorgia García-Peña; and James Hansen; along with winners Marc Edwards and Mona Hanna-Attisha.

Defiance: Disobedience for the good of all

MIT Media Lab summer event explores responsible dissent, embodied in its new Disobedience Award.

July 25, 2017

“We are overusing natural resources. Why not be efficient with the climate?” Alpha Yacob Arsano says. “It is a misconception that building energy-efficient structures is more expensive. In the long-term it is much cheaper.”

Lessons from pre-industrial climate control

Graduate student Alpha Yacob Arsano wants to bring natural ventilation to the forefront of modern architecture.

July 24, 2017

Twine has developed a platform that lets users build customized disease-management and care plans on an app, which then sends alerts about when to take medications, tracks the patient’s various health goals, and offers key analytics, among other features.

Coaching platform improves health outcomes, lowers medical costs

New app lets patients work alone or with others to prevent, monitor, and reverse chronic disease.

July 21, 2017

A new technique for imaging biopsy samples relies on an approach known as expansion microscopy, in which the researchers expand a tissue sample to 100 times its original volume before imaging it.

Microscopy technique could enable more informative biopsies

Expanding tissue samples before imaging offers detailed information about disease.

July 17, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a sampling scheme that is unconstrained by bandwidth, allowing analog-to-digital conversion without “clipping."

Ultra-high-contrast digital sensing

Technique could lead to cameras that can handle light of any intensity, audio that doesn’t skip or pop.

July 14, 2017

mPath's MOXO sensor is a wearable that resembles a bulky smartwatch. Placed on the wrist, it wirelessly measures changes in skin conductance (subtle electrical changes across the skin), which reflect sympathetic nervous system activity and physiological arousal. Spikes in conductance can signal stress and frustration, while dips may indicate disinterest or boredom.

Wearable device reveals consumer emotions

Startup’s stress sensor tracks users’ unconscious responses to products and experiences.

July 12, 2017

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