Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS)

The 2017 MIT recipients of the U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowships are (clockwise from top left) Peter Ahrens, Miriam Rathbun, Annie Yuan Wei, and Kevin Silmore.

Grad students earn Department of Energy computational fellowships

Ahrens, Rathbun, Silmore, and Wei are recognized for tackling complex science and engineering problems of national importance.

October 11, 2017

MIT Professor Regina Barzilay, 2017 MacArthur Fellow, was cited by the MacArthur Foundation for making “significant contributions to a wide range of problems in computational linguistics, including both interpretation and generation of human language.”

Regina Barzilay wins MacArthur “genius grant”

MIT computer scientist who studies natural language processing and machine learning wins $625,000 prize.

October 11, 2017

Second-year student Albert Go (left) says the NEET program is the best way to learn: “I like application and learning from my peers. With the projects, I’m excited to see what I’m learning about come to life.” From left: Albert Go, Mitchell Guillaume, Michael Everett, and Yu Liang (Gloria) Fang.

Putting projects at the forefront

NEET pilot initiative centers around interdisciplinary projects to prepare students for the practice of engineering.

October 5, 2017

MIT doctoral student Michael B. Cohen ’14, SM ’16 (1992-2017)

Celebrating the life of doctoral student and alumnus Michael B. Cohen

Faculty, friends, and family pay tribute to an intellectually generous scholar.

October 5, 2017

A new machine-learning system analyzes successful repairs to buggy software and learns how to repair new bugs.

Bug-repair system learns from example

Automatic code-patching system corrects nearly twice as many errors as its predecessors.

September 28, 2017

Dubbed “Primer,” a new cube-shaped robot can be controlled via magnets to make it walk, roll, sail, and glide. It carries out these actions by wearing different exoskeletons, which start out as sheets of plastic that fold into specific shapes when heated. After Primer finishes its task, it can shed its “skin” by immersing itself in water, which dissolves the exoskeleton.

“Superhero” robot wears different outfits for different tasks

Shape-shifting device from CSAIL can walk, roll, sail, and glide using recyclable exoskeletons.

September 27, 2017

New leadership for MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

Computer vision and machine learning expert Antonio Torralba to lead new artificial intelligence research lab.

September 20, 2017

Automatic code reuse

System makes modifications necessary to transplant code from one program into another.

September 19, 2017

A new method produces a printable structure that begins to fold itself up as soon as it’s peeled off the printing platform.

“Peel-and-go” printable structures fold themselves

Expanding polymer enables self-folding without heating or immersion in water.

September 13, 2017

Researchers will present a new general-purpose technique for making sense of neural networks trained to perform natural-language-processing tasks, in which computers attempt to interpret freeform texts written in ordinary, or natural language (as opposed to a programming language, for example).

How neural networks think

General-purpose technique sheds light on inner workings of neural nets trained to process language.

September 8, 2017

Former cross country/track and field standout Maryann Gong

Maryann Gong named 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoree

Gong becomes third MIT student-athlete to be named to Top 30.

September 7, 2017

“The concept of my startup is, ‘Let’s use hacker tools to defeat hackers,’” PhD student Gregory Falco says. “If you don’t know how to break it, you don’t know how to fix it.”

Gregory Falco: Protecting urban infrastructure against cyberterrorism

PhD student works at the intersection of urban planning and computer science.

September 5, 2017

David Autor (left), a professor economics, and Asu Ozdaglar, a professor of electrical engineering, discuss 6-14: Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science. The new major is designed to train students to become the unseen game-makers behind virtual markets.

Two sciences tie the knot

A new major combining computer science and economics will prepare students for designing the virtual marketplaces of the future.

September 4, 2017

Researchers from CSAIL have devised a new system for data center caching that uses flash memory. In addition to costing less and consuming less power, a flash caching system could dramatically reduce the number of cache servers required by a data center.

Making data centers more energy efficient

Flash-memory system could reduce power consumption of data center “caches” by 90 percent.

August 30, 2017

ComText allows robots to understand contextual commands such as, “Pick up the box I put down.”

Robot learns to follow orders like Alexa

ComText, from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, allows robots to understand contextual commands.