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The system uses a pair of soft robotic grippers with high-resolution tactile sensors to successfully manipulate freely moving cables.

Letting robots manipulate cables

Robotic gripper with soft sensitive fingers developed at MIT can handle cables with unprecedented dexterity.

July 13, 2020

Have power drill, will travel. MIT student Sreya Vangara is completing her research into testing superconductors for a fusion tokamak at home.

At home with fusion research

Hundreds of miles from campus, Sreya Vangara recalibrates her approach to laboratory research and other MIT commitments.

July 8, 2020

A goal of the MIT 2.001 Guided Discovery Labs is for students to rediscover foundational concepts of mechanics. Instructor Michela Geri (right) guides students Omoruyi Atheka (center) and Aline Vargas as they evaluate how their intuition of torsion measures up to their experimental results.

Guided discovery in teaching structural mechanics

By emphasizing the process of discovery, instructors in course 2.001 (Mechanics and Materials I) provide engineering students a career-building foundation.

July 1, 2020

In tests, the CSAIL team's robot could disinfect a 4,000-square-foot space in the food bank's warehouse in just half an hour.

CSAIL robot disinfects Greater Boston Food Bank

Using UV-C light, the system can disinfect a warehouse floor in half an hour — and could one day be employed in grocery stores, schools, and other spaces.

June 28, 2020

Michael Hawley in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2001

Michael Hawley, former professor of media arts and sciences, dies at 58

A modern-day Renaissance man, Hawley pioneered the internet of things, won the Van Cliburn amateur piano competition, and published the world’s largest book.

June 25, 2020

Cynthia Breazeal has been promoted to full professor and named associate director of the Media Lab.

Cynthia Breazeal named Media Lab associate director

Expert in personal social robots will work with lab faculty and researchers to develop strategic research initiatives, and to explore new funding mechanisms.

June 19, 2020

A decision-making framework outlines steps for students who plan on making for their MIT-sponsored work while off campus during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to being used over the summer from programs like UROP, the framework can be used for maker communities and courses in the fall.

Building a framework for remote making

A decision-making framework and wiki for students developed by MIT Project Manus and MIT Environment, Health and Safety enables safe making from home.

June 17, 2020

More than 100 people participated in a four-hour online robot race, which served as the final project for MIT Course 6.141/16.405 (Robotics: Science and Systems).

Photorealistic simulator made MIT robot racing competition a live online experience

Teaching assistants in Robotics: Science and Systems pulled out all the stops to help engineering students race across the finish line this spring.

June 9, 2020

We’re approaching the limit of how small transistors can get. As a result, over the past decade researchers have been working to find other ways to improve performance so that the computer industry can continue to innovate.

If transistors can’t get smaller, then coders have to get smarter

MIT CSAIL researchers say improving computing technology after Moore's Law will require more efficient software, new algorithms, and specialized hardware.

June 5, 2020