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MIT undergraduates Abdalla Osman (left) and Mohammed Nasir (right) work on optimizing a power soccer chair.

Students build assistive technologies at MIT’s annual ATHack

Citizens with disabilities from Greater Boston and students gathered to build prototypes of personalized assistive devices.

March 12, 2018

Melissa Nobles (far right), Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, introduced the panel discussion, "The Consequences: Intelligence and Society," at the launch of the MIT Intelligence Quest on March 1. From left, Gideon Lichfield, editor-in-chief, MIT Technology Review; Rodney Brooks, Panasonic Professor of Robotics, emeritus; Megan Smith, founder and CEO, shi...

MIT Intelligence Quest kicks off

A star-studded lineup helps the Institute celebrate the launch of a new initiative on human and machine intelligence.

March 7, 2018

Y. Eva Tan (left) and McGovern investigator Edward Boyden (right)

Edward Boyden named inaugural Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology

Neuroengineering leader appointed to new professorship at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

March 5, 2018

SenseTime, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company founded by MIT alumnus Xiao’ou Tang PhD ’96, is joining MIT's efforts to define the next frontier of human and machine intelligence.

MIT and SenseTime announce effort to advance artificial intelligence research

Alliance will be part of new MIT Intelligence Quest.

February 28, 2018

PhD student Adriana Schulz was co-lead on AutoSaw, which lets nonexperts customize different items that can then be constructed with the help of robots.

Custom carpentry with help from robots

CSAIL’s robotic system minimizes dangerous sawing, helps users customize furniture.

February 28, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a light-sensitive protein that can be embedded into neuron membranes, where it emits a fluorescent signal that indicates how much voltage a particular cell is experiencing. This could allow scientists to study how neurons behave, millisecond by millisecond, as the brain performs a particular function.

Seeing the brain's electrical activity

Fluorescent sensor allows imaging of neurons' electrical communications, without electrodes.

February 26, 2018

Escher Reality, co-founded by Ross Finman in the MIT Sandbox, was recently acquired by augmented-reality (AR) giant Niantic — and plans to give back to the program that helped it launch. The startup is developing a platform that allows cross-platform, fully multiplayer AR games that save digital objects in the real world.

MIT Sandbox’s first acquired startup gives back

Augmented-reality startup Escher Reality, which recently sold to Niantic, gives back to the program that helped it launch.

February 21, 2018

The “pick-and-place” system consists of a standard industrial robotic arm that the researchers outfitted with a custom gripper and suction cup. They developed an “object-agnostic” grasping algorithm that enables the robot to assess a bin of random objects and determine the best way to grip or suction onto an item amid the clutter, without having to know anything about the object before pic...

Robo-picker grasps and packs

New robotic system could lend a hand with warehouse sorting and other picking or clearing tasks.

February 19, 2018

Diana Thater: "Snake River, 1994" (Three video monitors, three media players, digital files, 30 minutes each)

Q&A: Henriette Huldisch on video, art, and technology

New exhibition at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, "Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995," is part of a region-wide collaboration.

February 19, 2018

Left to right: Senior Lecturer Dawn Wendell and seniors Gabriel Ginorio and Drew Bent launched the x-terms spring pilot.

A hybrid term takes shape

Devised and led by two MIT seniors, the x-terms pilot meshes academics with internships in the greater Boston area.

February 13, 2018

CSAIL's NanoMap system allows drones to fly in congested environments such as forests.

Programming drones to fly in the face of uncertainty

CSAIL's NanoMap system enables drones to avoid obstacles while flying at 20 miles per hour, by more deeply integrating sensing and control.

February 12, 2018

The 2018 Festival of Learning was a day of learning with national thought leaders, MIT innovators, an interactive learning expo, food, fun, and more. Hundreds of attendees experienced the catalyzing power behind initiatives designed to transform education.

Lessons in learning

MIT's second annual Festival of Learning engages and inspires.

February 7, 2018

Graduate student James Hermus demonstrates a production robot based on the original MIT-MANUS design in the Eric P. and Evelyn E. Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation. The robot, which helps stroke victims recover and regain mobility, represents one of the many ways MIT's mechanical engineering researchers are working to improve health care.

Understanding and treating disease

Mechanical engineering researchers are developing new and innovative ways to improve health care.

February 2, 2018

K. Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT, is a leading thinker on the labor market implications of artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, and new technologies.

3Q: Daron Acemoglu on technology and the future of work

"We need to look to the past in the face of modern innovations in machine learning, robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, and beyond," says the economist.

February 1, 2018

Letter regarding the MIT Intelligence Quest