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An AI model developed at MIT and Qatar Computing Research Institute that uses only satellite imagery to automatically tag road features in digital maps could improve GPS navigation, especially in countries with limited map data.

Using artificial intelligence to enrich digital maps

Model tags road features based on satellite images, to improve GPS navigation in places with limited map data.

January 23, 2020

Hacking life inside and outside the laboratory

Managing her own synthetic biology project helped graduate student Jesse Tordoff overcome imposter syndrome and hit her stride.

January 21, 2020

“In courses like Nuclear Technology and Society, which covered the benefits and risks of nuclear energy, I saw that some people believed the solution for climate change was definitely nuclear, while others said it was wind or solar,” says doctoral student Nestor Sepulveda. “I began wondering how to determine the value of different technologies.”

Zeroing in on decarbonization

Wielding complex algorithms, nuclear science and engineering doctoral candidate Nestor Sepulveda spins out scenarios for combating climate change.

January 15, 2020

MIT researchers have built a new benchmark tool that can accurately predict how long it takes given code to execute on a computer chip, which can help programmers tweak the code for better performance.

Tool predicts how fast code will run on a chip

Machine-learning system should enable developers to improve computing efficiency in a range of applications.

January 6, 2020

Assistant Professor Valerie Karplus and her collaborators have demonstrated that measurements of air pollutants taken by NASA satellites are often a good indicator of emissions on the ground. Their approach provides regulators with a low-cost tool to ensure that industrial firms are complying with emissions standards.

Tracking emissions in China

Evaluating a 2014 policy change yields some good news and some concerns.

December 30, 2019

Left to right: MIT Provost Martin Schmidt and President L. Rafael Reif stand with 2019 Bose Fellows Kristala Prather, Mary Gehring, and Sandy Alexandre, along with Judy Bose and Ursula Bose.

Bose grants for 2019 reward bold ideas across disciplines

Three innovative research projects in literature, plant epigenetics, and chemical engineering will be supported by Professor Amar G. Bose Research Grants.

December 23, 2019

MIT News Podcast: Build your own language (with transcript)

December 18, 2019

Seoul Architecture and Urbanism Biennale attendees interact with the "Sit(e)lines of a Garden City" installation on the port city of Haifa, Israel.

MIT researchers examine cities worldwide for 2019 Seoul Architecture and Urbanism Biennale

Transportation, communication, development, and social interaction are explored through the lens of the urban.

December 11, 2019

A map of gamma ray emissions throughout the Milky Way galaxy, based on observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The inset depicts the Galactic Center Excess – an unexpected, spherical region of gamma ray emissions at the center of our galaxy, of unknown origin.

Is there dark matter at the center of the Milky Way?

A new analysis puts dark matter back in the game as a possible source of energy excess at the galactic center.

December 10, 2019

Based on shadows that an out-of-view video casts on nearby objects, MIT researchers can estimate the contents of the unseen video. In the top row, researchers used this method to recreate visual elements in an out-of-view video; the original elements are shown in the bottom row.

Using computers to view the unseen

A new computational imaging method could change how we view hidden information in scenes.

December 6, 2019

Cornell University’s Paul McEuen gives the inaugural Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture on cell-sized sensors and robots.

Paul McEuen delivers inaugural Dresselhaus Lecture on cell-sized robots

Cornell University professor and physicist uses nanoscale parts to create smart, active microbots.

December 4, 2019

With their model, researchers were able to generate on-demand brain scan templates of various ages (pictured) that can be used in medical-image analysis to guide disease diagnosis.

Producing better guides for medical-image analysis

Model quickly generates brain scan templates that represent a given patient population.

November 26, 2019

The 2019 Lam Research Tech Symposium brought together Lam’s global technical staff, academic collaborators, and industry leaders with MIT faculty, students, and researchers for a two-day event on smart systems for semiconductor manufacturing.

Smart systems for semiconductor manufacturing

Lam Research Tech Symposium, co-hosted by MIT.nano and Microsystems Technology Lab, explores challenges, opportunities for the future of the industry.

November 25, 2019

“A lot of what has defined my time at MIT has been the different things that I’ve been able to get involved in,” says senior Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi.

Exploring the human side of health care

Senior and “people person” Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi brings a human touch to caring for people dealing with medical crises.

November 20, 2019

With increasing data quality (shown progressively, left to right, in images from 2012, 2015, and 2019) Assistant Professor Michael McDonald and colleagues can conclusively show that the black hole in the Phoenix galaxy cluster is not preventing star formation.

Phoenix cluster is cooling faster than expected

With increasingly advanced data, Michael McDonald and colleagues study a galaxy cluster bursting with new stars.