Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS)

The 2017 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize from the National Academy of Engineering was awarded to MIT Professor James Fujimoto, alumnus and former research scientist Eric Swanson SM '84, Adolf F. Fercher, Christoph Hitzenberger, and David Huang for their work on optical coherence tomography.

Two from MIT share National Academy of Engineering Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize

Professor James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson SM '84, and collaborators lauded for optical coherence tomography.

January 13, 2017

New MOOC study explores 290 MIT and Harvard online courses, a quarter-million certifications, 4.5 million participants, and 28 million participant-hours.

Study of MOOCs offers insights into online learner engagement and behavior

New report, based on four years of data from edX, represents one of the largest surveys of massive open online courses to date.

January 12, 2017

MapD is a type of commonly used database-management system modified to run on GPUs instead of CPUs, which power most traditional database-management systems. MapD can process billions of data points in milliseconds, making it 100 times faster than those traditional systems, and visualizes that data near instantaneously.

Split-second data mapping

New type of database-analytics platform queries and maps billions of data points in milliseconds.

January 11, 2017

“There’s a close correspondence between the behavior of networks of computers or other devices like mobile phones and that of biological systems,” says MIT professor Nancy Lynch. “We’re trying to find problems that can benefit from this distributed-computing perspective, focusing on algorithms for which we can prove mathematical properties.”

Model sheds light on purpose of inhibitory neurons

Study suggests computational role for neurons that prevent other neurons from firing.

January 9, 2017

MIT affiliates were well represented in the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30, honoring young leaders.

At least 30 from MIT named to 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 lists

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni honored in "the most definitive gathering of today’s leading young change-makers and innovators."

January 5, 2017

The 2017 IEEE Fellows from MIT are (clockwise from top left) Robert Cunningham, Dov Dori, Paul Juodawlkis, Daniel Oates, Steven Smith, Frank Robey, and Tomás Palacios.

Seven from MIT are named 2017 IEEE Fellows

Five Lincoln Laboratory staff members and two others from MIT honored for the advancement of engineering, science, and technology.

January 5, 2017

A new MIT system first creates a graph of vehicles (circles) and ride requests (stars) in a city, and then uses a method called “integer linear programming” to compute the best assignment of vehicles to trips.

How ride-sharing can improve traffic, save money, and help the environment

Study shows carpooling apps could reduce congestion by a factor of three while still serving the same number of people.

January 4, 2017

On Dec. 8, 151 SuperUROP students presented their work at the SuperUROP Research Review.

Bots, bit flips, and catching the bus

Engineering undergrads showcase their research after one semester of yearlong SuperUROP projects.

December 22, 2016

In 2016, MIT CSAIL researchers worked on a range of projects in robotics, theory, wireless technology, software systems, and other disciplines.

Ingestible robots, glasses-free 3-D, and computers that explain themselves

A look at 16 of the coolest things that happened at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 2016.

December 16, 2016

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and its Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems have designed a new algorithm that makes it much more practical to select diverse subsets from a much larger dataset.

Data diversity

Preserving variety in subsets of unmanageably large data sets should aid machine learning.

December 16, 2016

A new technique devised by MIT researchers can take data sets with huge numbers of variables and find approximations of them with far fewer variables.

Making big data manageable

Technique shrinks data sets while preserving their fundamental mathematical relationships.

December 14, 2016

“I see starting a company not only as an option, but the option,” says graduate student Keertan Kini. “It’s a way to make sustainable change in the world.”

Helping policy and technology work together

Engineering grad student Keertan Kini is working to strengthen the intersection of policy and technology.

December 12, 2016

Clockwise from top left: MIT professors Erik Demaine, Fredo Durand, Daniel Jackson, and William Freeman.

Four CSAIL researchers named ACM fellows

Association for Computer Machinery cites Erik Demaine, Fredo Durand, William Freeman, and Daniel Jackson for having "provided key knowledge" to computing.

December 8, 2016

Henry Smith awarded IEEE Noyce Medal

Professor emeritus of electrical engineering recognized for contributions to field of nanofabrication.

December 7, 2016

MIT spinout Benchling is bringing life science researchers a cloud-based platform that integrates different types of lab software into one place, with aims of making research and development easier, quicker, and more collaborative.

“Google Docs” for life sciences accelerates discovery

Cloud-based platform assists in managing, sharing data facilitates research.