Ivan Casadevantre MS '15 and Hasier Larrea MS '15 co-founded ORI Living – a furniture company that uses electromechanics to develop furniture systems designed for space efficiency. “You have to make those small spaces feel and act as if they were much larger,” says Larrea. “And that’s when we started thinking about robotics, thinking about engineering, and how we bring all those technologies to make it possible to live large in a smaller footprint.”
Researchers at MIT have created a noise-blocking sheet of silkworm silk that could “greatly streamline the pursuit of silence,” reports Andrew Chapman for Scientific American. “The silk sheet, which is enhanced with a special fiber, expands on a technology also found in noise-canceling headphones,” explains Chapman. “These devices create silence by sampling the ambient noise and then emitting sound waves that are out of phase with those in the environment. When the ambient and emitted waves overlap, they cancel each other out.”
MIT researchers have developed a wearable backpack with spider-like limbs to help astronauts maintain stability in space, reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. The new technology, called Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SuperLimbs), “could be crucial in future missions to the moon, where gravity is only a sixth of that on Earth and astronauts may struggle to clamber up again after a fall due to their unwieldy space suits,” explains Thomson.
Researchers at MIT have developed SuperLimbs, a pair of wearable robotic limbs that “can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall,” reports Brain Heater for TechCrunch. “The system, which is still in the prototype phase, responds directly to the wearer’s feedback,” writes Heater. “When sitting or lying down, it offers a constructive support to help them get back up while expending less energy — every extra bit helps in a situation like this.”
Prof. Carlo Ratti and the WeBuildGroup have developed a proposal to help rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, reports Anna Cooban for CNN. Ratti explained that the blueprint was designed to “produce a safer bridge by widening the channels through which ships can pass, among other measures.” The design will help prevent “the risk of a tragedy such as the one of March 26 happening again,” Ratti explains.
David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Lab, writes for Bloomberg about how the findings of William Whyte, an urbanist observer and writer, on what attracts people to urban spaces could be used to help draw people back to downtown areas after the Covid-19 pandemic. “Whyte’s insights suggest a need to build comfortable, pleasant places that invite people to linger, perhaps eating a meal or buying a new shirt while they’re there,” writes Zipper. “And his research serves as a reminder that good public spaces strengthen human relationships, offering an antidote to the loneliness epidemic said to afflict a growing number of Americans.”
New York Times reporter Stephen Wallis spotlights Prof. Carlo Ratti’s proposal for the world’s first “farmscraper” in Shenzhen, China, a 51-story building that would be wrapped in a vertical hydroponic farm and could produce enough food annually to feed 40,000 people. “At this critical moment, what we architects do matters more than ever,” Ratti emphasizes. “Every kilowatt-hour of solar power, every unit of zero-carbon housing and every calorie of sustainably sourced vegetables will be multiplied across history.”
Prof. Skylar Tibbits speaks with Tech Briefs reporter Andrew Corselli about his team’s work developing a new “additive manufacturing technique that can print rapidly with liquid metal, producing large-scale parts like table legs and chair frames in a matter of minutes.” Of his advice for engineers aiming to bring their ideas to fruition, Tibbits emphasizes: “Work hard, fail a lot, keep trying, don’t give up, and have amazing people around you. We're a research lab, so our whole goal is to go from impossible to possible. So, we're allowed to fail; we're not limited by profitability or customer demand or economy.”
Researchers from the MIT Self-Assembly Lab have developed a 4D-knit dress that uses “heat-activated yarn that allows its shape and fit to be altered in an instant,” reports Rima Sabina Aouf for Dezeen. Prof. Skylar Tibbits notes that by having “one dress that can be customized for fit and style, it can be perfectly tailored to the individual while being more sustainable and adaptable to changes in season, style or inventory.”
BostInno reporter Isabel Tehan spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a model to predict how different shoes will impact different individual runners. “The model takes into account runner height, weight and other body dimensions, and the properties of the shoes — including stiffness or springiness — and can predict how that individual would run in a particular pair of shoes,” writes Tehan. “Ideally, we could make a shoe that's right for you and the way you run,” explains postdoc Sarah Fay.
Researchers from MIT have developed liquid metal printing, a new technique that can be used to quickly 3D print large-scale objects such as furniture, reports Designboom. The researchers say this technique can enable 3D printing, “ten times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, and the process of melting the metal may be more efficient than some other methods, given that metal is also more accessible with the abundance of scraps that can be recycled,” writes Designboom.
MIT researchers have developed a 3D printing technique called liquid metal printing (LMP) that capable of printing large aluminum parts at least 10 times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. LMP “utilizes a bed of 100-micron glass beads to create a structure into which molten aluminum is deposited — a process not entirely dissimilar from injection molding,” explains Heater. “The beads are capable of standing up to the intense temperature, while allowing the heat to quickly dissipate as the metal solidifies.”
MIT researchers have developed a new programmable, shape-changing smart fiber called FibeRobo that can change its structure in response to hot or cold temperatures, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “FibeRobo is flexible and strong enough to use within traditional manufacturing methods like embroidery, weaving looms, and knitting machines,” writes Paul. “With an additional ability to combine with electrically conductive threads, a wearer could directly control their FibeRobo clothing or medical wearables like compression garments via wireless inputs from a controller or smartphone.”
In an article for Bloomberg, Prof. Carlo Ratti and Michael Baick, a staff writer at CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, highlight the importance of communication within cities. “The world has an incredible stockpile of effective urban policies, but the best ideas are not being adopted quickly or widely enough,” write Ratti and Baick. “Covid-19 taught us all how to slow the spread of viruses: wear masks, avoid large gatherings and take vaccines. To speed the spread of good ideas, we need to take the opposite tack by making urban solutions go viral.”
Boston Globe reporter Macie Parker spotlights the new John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Kendall Square, the first building to open in MIT’s redevelopment of the 14-acre Volpe site that will ultimately include “research labs, retail, affordable housing, and open space, with the goal of not only encouraging innovation, but also enhancing the surrounding community.” Parker highlights the green technology included in the new Volpe Center: solar panels; triple-paned glass; electric vehicle charging stations; a rainwater reclamation and reuse system; and green and cool roof technology to lower energy use.