Data

“These waves really talk to each other,” Themis Sapsis says. “They interact and exchange energy. It’s not just bad luck. It’s the dynamics that create this phenomenon.”

Rogue wave ahead

New prediction tool gives 2-3 minute warning of incoming rogue waves.

February 25, 2016

Boston Citywide Energy Model simulated energy use in a 200-by-200-meter grid for the City of Boston.

MIT researchers create citywide building energy model for Boston

Detailed model can help planners meet climate goals, increase resilience.

February 22, 2016

MIT spinout Benefits Science Technologies developed software that predicts emerging health risks among employees to design optimal health care plans for companies.

Startup optimizes corporate health care plans

Software mines insurance claims data to determine best coverage for employees, within a budget.

February 18, 2016

Left to right: David Shoemaker, Rainer Weiss, Matthew Evans, Erotokritos Katsavounidis, Nergis Mavalvala, and Peter Fritschel.

Scientists make first direct detection of gravitational waves

LIGO signal reveals first observation of two massive black holes colliding, proves Einstein right.

February 11, 2016

On Mapdwell’s satellite-map website, people can click on an individual roof to receive information about installation price, energy and financial savings, and environmental impact.

Realizing your true (solar) potential

Mapping website tells building owners if going solar is worth the cost of installation.

February 5, 2016

This diagram demonstrates the simplified results that can be obtained by using quantum analysis on enormous, complex sets of data. Shown here are the connections between different regions of the brain in a control subject (left) and a subject under the influence of the psychedelic compound psilocybin (right). This demonstrates a dramatic increase in connectivity, which explains some of the drug’...

A new quantum approach to big data

System for handling massive digital datasets could make impossibly complex problems solvable.

January 25, 2016

MIT spinout Cogito developed voice-analytics software for call centers that tracks and analyzes voice patterns of customers and agents — such as interruptions and rapid speech — and offers real-time feedback to make the conversations more productive.

Watch your tone

Voice-analytics software helps customer-service reps build better rapport with customers.

January 20, 2016

Astronomers have detected a massive, sprawling, churning galaxy cluster that formed only 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang. The cluster, shown here, is the most massive cluster of galaxies yet discovered in the first 4 billion years after the Big Bang.

Most distant massive galaxy cluster identified

Formed in the first 4 billion years of the universe, cluster is 1,000 times more massive than the Milky Way.

January 7, 2016

The DriveWell app runs in the background of a smartphone, collecting data on driving behavior. Drivers receive a score on a scale from 1 to 100, a route map, and tips for improvement. Scores can also be used for insurance discounts, or to compete with friends and other drivers worldwide.

Smarter driving, using your phone

App that rates drivers’ behavior yields promising safety results on the road.

January 5, 2016

“In health care, there’s this gigantic world of unstructured data that needs to be translated into useable information,” says Paul Nemirovsky, who co-founded dMetrics with Ariadna Quattoni.

Detecting consumer decisions within messy data

Software analyzes online chatter to predict health care consumers’ behavior.

December 21, 2015

The Four Undergrads team was first-place winner of the MIT Energy Hackathon.

Reducing waste and inefficiency, while increasing access and profits, propels MIT Energy Hackathon

Eight real-world industry challenges fuel teams’ competitive spirit and impressive results.

December 11, 2015

This self-folding microbot was among the many innovations that emerged from CSAIL in 2015.

Data, drones, and 3-D-printed hearts

Looking back on the year that was: Highlights from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab in 2015.

December 8, 2015

MIT researchers have shown that some phone apps engage in “covert communication.” “There might be a very good reason for this covert communication. We are not trying to say that it has to be eliminated. We’re just saying the user needs to be informed,” says Julia Rubin, a postdoc in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

What are your apps hiding?

Half of the communication connections established by the top 500 Android apps have no effect on user experience.

November 19, 2015

Scaling commercial energy efficiency

Automated energy analytics platform collects data on commercial buildings to improve energy efficiency.

November 16, 2015

Stills from the Weather Research and Forecasting Model.

“Shrinking bull’s-eye” algorithm speeds up complex modeling from days to hours

Algorithm may be applied to a broad range of complicated problems.