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First row: (l-r) Azra Akšamija, Phillip Clay, Dennis Frenchman, Skylar Tibbits. Second row: (l-r) James Wescoat, Sheila Kennedy, Alan Berger, Kristel Smentek. Third row: (l-r) Brandon Clifford, Brent Ryan, Kevin Esvelt.

New faculty, promotions, and leadership roles in the School of Architecture and Planning

Four join the SA+P faculty, while seven are recognized for work in art, architecture, and urbanism.

October 28, 2016

This image shows free-air gravitational anomalies and a shaded topographic relief of the Moon’s 930-km-diameter Orientale impact basin. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits relative to a reference value. This gravitational field model, based on measurements acquired from the NASA GRAIL mission, shows the detailed structure of the central basin depression that is filled with...

Retracing the origins of a massive, multi-ring crater

Scientists reconstruct first hours after a giant impact created one of the largest craters on the moon.

October 27, 2016

The 2016-2017 MIT-Lemelson InvenTeams hail from around the United States.

High school teams awarded 2016-17 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant for invention projects

Fifteen student teams nationwide set sights on inventing solutions to real-world problems.

October 25, 2016

“I don't think you can hack the election,” says MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III. The distributed nature of America's voting system is a key reason why rigging the election is not really possible. But also, observers are stationed in every polling place; ballots are counted in public, post-election audits spot-check results; and machines that record and count ballots are all offline...

How healthy is the U.S. voting system?

Professor Charles Stewart III explains why the U.S. electoral system is strong and how MIT research is making the voting process even more seamless.

October 20, 2016

The interior of the fusion experiment Alcator C-Mod at MIT recently broke the plasma pressure record for a magnetic fusion device. The interior of the donut-shaped device confines plasma hotter than the interior of the sun, using high magnetic fields. Postdoc Ted Golfinopoulos, shown here, is performing maintenance between plasma campaigns.

New record for fusion

Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor sets world record on final day of operation.

October 14, 2016

Alex Tingly (right), a graduate student in the Department of Physics, and senior research scientist Earl Marmar, head of the Alcator C-Mod project since 2002, review data on synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in plasma.

High-intensity fusion

MIT’s Alcator C-Mod nuclear reactor winds down — and defines its legacy on its final run.

October 14, 2016

Women and children in rural Uganda look on as a service provider from a nearby health center provides malaria tests for communities on the lake's edge.

MIT-USAID program releases supply chain evaluation of malaria diagnostics

Study of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in Uganda assesses scalability, identifies supply chain challenges.

October 13, 2016

Community members from a rural village outside of Ahmedabad, India, gather to watch videos designed to increase literacy.

Making smarter decisions about classroom technologies

MIT researchers develop a decision-making tool for global classrooms looking to deploy educational technologies.

September 29, 2016

MIT Communication Lab Director Jaime Goldstein says a new online tool will help deadline-driven graduate students write at any hour of the day.

Engineer, explain thyself

A new online tool helps graduate students communicate — in their own languages.

September 27, 2016

“We have great people who I can talk to about anything, from nitty-gritty physics details to the loftier goals of getting this implemented in the political future,” says grad student Jayson Vavrek of the Laboratory of Nuclear Security and Policy.

Turning particle detectors into weapons detectors

Nuclear science and engineering PhD student Jayson Vavrek applies particle physics to solve problems with nuclear weapons disarmament.

September 26, 2016

Lourdes Melgar SM '88, PhD '92 named a Wilhelm Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies

Mexico's former deputy secretary of energy for hydrocarbons will write on Mexican energy reform and research women’s roles in political and social transformation.

September 23, 2016

A panel discussion about the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and their impact on higher education featured, from left, Peter Blaze Corcoran of Florida Gulf Coast University; John Fernandez, director of MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative; Monika MacDevette, of the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya; Stephen Sterling, professor of sustainability education at Plymouth University in t...

Education leaders gather to chart a future for sustainability at universities

International meeting examines progress on campuses, explores goals for coming years.

September 22, 2016

“Design is one of many forces that can contribute to improving society. As a physical piece of most people’s lives, it is very important,” says Brent Ryan, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Blueprints for renewal

Professor of urban design and public policy Brent Ryan believes good architecture can help revive cities.

September 19, 2016

$Polymers, or long chains of repeating molecules, are found in many objects that we encounter every day, including anything made of plastic or rubber. In many materials, however, a significant fraction of these chains bind to themselves, forming defects.$

New theory overcomes a longstanding polymer problem

Technique for calculating elasticity could aid design of new materials.

September 15, 2016

MIT spinout EverVest has built a data-analytics platform that gives investors rapid, accurate cash-flow models and financial risk analyses for renewable-energy projects.

Calculating the financial risks of renewable energy

Financial-modeling software for sustainable-infrastructure projects could boost investment in sector.