Computer science and technology

A young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust.

Computer searches telescope data for evidence of distant planets

Machine-learning system uses physics principles to augment data from NASA crowdsourcing project.

March 29, 2018

Stephanie Lampkin MBA ’13 created an app that takes unconscious bias out of the online hiring process.

Using technology to combat bias in hiring

Stephanie Lampkin MBA ’13 says unconscious bias creates unfair hiring practices — and she developed an app for that.

March 23, 2018

MIT Professor Tom Leighton has won the 2018 Marconi Prize for his fundamental contributions to technology and the establishment of the content delivery network (CDN) industry.

Professor Tom Leighton wins 2018 Marconi Prize

Akamai co-founder honored for pioneering content delivery network services industry.

March 22, 2018

Guy Satat, a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab, who led the new study.

Depth-sensing imaging system can peer through fog

Computational photography could solve a problem that bedevils self-driving cars.

March 20, 2018

Eric Schmidt provides support to MIT Intelligence Quest

Gift will help launch new Institute-wide initiative in human and machine intelligence research.

March 1, 2018

Photo of MIT's Building 10 at an angle with trees in front

MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2018 QS World University Rankings

MIT ranked within top 5 in 19 out of 48 subject areas.

February 28, 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

Generally, a browser won’t know where the data it downloaded has ended up. Even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily have authorization from the operating system to delete it.

Private browsing gets more private

New system patches security holes left open by web browsers’ private-browsing functions.

February 22, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a special-purpose chip that increases the speed of neural-network computations by three to seven times over its predecessors, while reducing power consumption 93 to 96 percent. That could make it practical to run neural networks locally on smartphones or even to embed them in household appliances.

Neural networks everywhere

New chip reduces neural networks’ power consumption by up to 95 percent, making them practical for battery-powered devices.

February 13, 2018

MIT researchers have built a new chip, hardwired to perform public-key encryption, that consumes only 1/400 as much power as software execution of the same protocols would. It also uses about 1/10 as much memory and executes 500 times faster.

Energy-efficient encryption for the internet of things

Special-purpose chip reduces power consumption of public-key encryption by 99.75 percent, increases speed 500-fold.

February 12, 2018

Joy Buolamwini, a researcher in the MIT Media Lab's Civic Media group

Study finds gender and skin-type bias in commercial artificial-intelligence systems

Examination of facial-analysis software shows error rate of 0.8 percent for light-skinned men, 34.7 percent for dark-skinned women.

February 11, 2018

Eric Schmidt (pictured), who until January was the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will join MIT as a visiting innovation fellow for one year, starting in Spring.

Eric Schmidt to join MIT as visiting innovation fellow

Former Google leader offers insights of a storied career to MIT’s entrepreneurial community

February 5, 2018

New software identified five different families of microstructures, each defined by a shared “skeleton” (blue), that optimally traded off three mechanical properties.

Automating materials design

With new approach, researchers specify desired properties of a material, and a computer system generates a structure accordingly.

February 2, 2018

Letter regarding the MIT Intelligence Quest

February 1, 2018

At a time of rapid advances in intelligence research across many disciplines, the MIT Intelligence Quest will encourage researchers to investigate the societal implications of their work as they pursue hard problems lying beyond the current horizon of what is known.

Institute launches the MIT Intelligence Quest

New Institute-wide initiative will advance human and machine intelligence research.