Design

MIT startup teams meet with Chinese industry partners at the China Future City Lab demo day.

China Venture Workshop announces first cohort

Ten teams will collaborate with local partners, pilot solutions to urban challenges.

May 31, 2018

Anne Whiston Spirn (left), the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning, has been honored with the Design Mind award by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Neri Oxman (right), the Sony Corporation Career Development Professor, received the Interaction Design award.

Spirn, Oxman win Cooper Hewitt design awards

School of Architecture and Planning professors receive national recognition for excellence, innovation, and impact through design.

May 30, 2018

Seven new projects focusing on solutions to water and food systems challenges, led by 11 faculty principal investigators across five MIT departments, will be funded by the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab (J-WAFS) with two-year grants of up to $200,000.

J-WAFS awards over $1.3 million in fourth round of seed grant funding

Eleven principal investigators from six MIT departments will receive grants totaling over $1.3 million, overhead free, for research on food and water challenges.

May 25, 2018

Ann Lui (left) is co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion and Gabriel Kozlowski is co-curator of the Brazilian Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale.

MIT alumni curate pavilions at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

Exhibitions tackle global questions with research-based approaches.

May 24, 2018

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Senseable City Lab have designed a fleet of autonomous boats that offer high maneuverability and precise control.

Fleet of autonomous boats could service some cities, reducing road traffic

Researchers design 3-D-printed, driverless boats that can provide transport and self-assemble into other floating structures.

May 23, 2018

The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale will be open to the public May 26 - Nov. 25.

MIT returns to the Venice Architecture Biennale

Faculty, students, and alumni contribute as curators and exhibitors at the world’s premier forum for architecture and design.

May 4, 2018

Students get hands-on at Maker Break, the first annual celebration of making at MIT.

Maker Break: A celebration of making at MIT

Over 700 students and makers joined in the first annual participatory showcase of fabrication and crafts around the Institute.

May 4, 2018

Signifying the forest, the Climate Changed Symposium dinner appetizer was a trio of dried, preserved and foraged mushrooms — fungi known to help the soil store carbon dioxide and thus slow the pace of climate change.

What will we eat in the year 2050?

Climate Changed Symposium combines art and science to envision the global food system under climate change.

April 30, 2018

“We want to give teachers whatever tools they need to connect the joy, wonder, and fun in our videos to the underlying concepts that their students are learning,” says OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash, who is working with MIT alumna AnnMarie Thomas to parlay STEAM principles from his music videos into PK-12 lessons.

Rock music helps students and educators explore engineering

Playful Learning Lab, founded by AnnMarie Thomas ’01, is collaborating with rock band OK Go to create hands-on PK-12 engineering experiences.

April 20, 2018

MIT Media Lab spinout Amino Labs develops mini-lab kits with all necessary tools and materials for anyone to start engineering microbes.

Startup aims to democratize synthetic biology

Alumna’s mini-lab kits include all necessary tools and materials for anyone to start engineering microbes.

April 18, 2018

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

Landscape architect Sven-Ingvar Andersson in his garden, Marnas

Garden of ideas

With a new multimedia website, landscape architecture professor Anne Whiston Spirn makes a secret garden public and explores how ideas create form.

March 8, 2018

Students from the SafeSlice team explain their inspiration.

Human factors engineering class tackles design for aging

MIT students learn human-centered design skills in a course offered during the 2018 Independent Activities Period.

March 2, 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

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.