Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS)

Daniel Akst of The Wall Street Journal writes about the wearable device developed by CSAIL researchers that can detect the emotional tone of a conversation. The researchers “are pushing the boundaries by training a computer to take account of such a wide range of factors in making judgments about emotion,” writes Akst. 

Institute Prof. Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, known for her work deciphering the secrets of carbon, died at 86, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Dresselhaus’ granddaughter Leora Cooper, an MIT graduate student, explained that by being a role model for women in STEM, “she encouraged me to not just see the changes that needed to be made, but to start making them.”

New York Times reporter Natalie Angier memorializes the life and work of Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, affectionately nicknamed the “Queen of Carbon” for her pioneering research into the fundamental properties of carbon. Angier notes that Dresselhaus was also “renowned for her efforts to promote the cause of women in science.” 

Lilly Chin, a senior in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is one of 15 contestants on the 2017 Jeopardy! College Championship. Chin has advanced through the quarter and semifinal rounds and will compete in the final round of the tournament. 

In an article about the Abaarso School of Science and Technology in Somaliland, Boston Globe reporter James Sullivan highlights Mubarik Mohamoud, a senior at MIT. Mohamoud came to MIT from Worcester Academy and was the first student from Abaarso to be accepted at an American school. 

Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, who was known as the “queen of carbon science” and was an advocate for women in STEM, died at 86, reports Mark Anderson for IEEE Spectrum. Dresselhaus “pioneered the study of carbon nanostructures at a time when studying physical and material properties of commonplace atoms like carbon was out of favor.”

Postdoctoral associate Phillip Nadeau speaks with CBC reporter Nora Young about a new ingestible electronic device developed by MIT researchers that could potentially be used to transmit patient data or deliver medications. Young explains that the new device “doesn't require a battery, because it's able to create an electrical current from the acid in your stomach.”

Science Friday reporter Ira Flatow and Motherboard reporter Daniel Oberhaus discuss a wearable device developed by CSAIL researchers that can detect the emotional tone of a conversation. Oberhaus explains that the researchers hope the device could one day be “applied with much finer emotional granularity, to the point where you can tell if the story was exciting or funny.” 

Jonathan Amos reports for the BBC News that scientists around the world are close to obtaining the first image of a black hole. Data from multiple observatories will be compiled at MIT’s Haystack Observatory where “very smart imaging algorithms have had to be developed to make sense of the [Event Horizon Telescope]'s observations,” writes Amos.

Researchers at MIT have designed a new living material infused with cells that could one day be used as a wearable sensor, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. The researchers used the new material to “design gloves and bandages that light up when they come in contact with target chemicals.”

In this Wired video, Prof. Daniela Rus speaks about how her research group is developing and applying autonomous vehicle technology to other vehicles, in particular wheelchairs. Rus explains that she envisions the technology “impacting anyone who is confined in their motions. I see it applied in hospitals, in retirement communities, in assisted living communities.”  

In this episode of NOVA that explores how origami is being used in scientific innovations, Prof. Erik Demaine speaks about his work applying math to create new origami figures. “It’s mind blowing that the simple operation of folding lets you transform a boring square of paper into super complicated, crazy 3-D shapes," he explains. 

BBC reporter Lorelei Mihala highlights DriveWell, an app developed by Profs. Hari Balakrishnan and Sam Madden, aimed at addressing the problem of distracted driving. “We wanted to show that smartphones could be used to make drivers better,” says Balakrishnan.

TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a speech recognition chip that uses a fraction of the power of existing technologies. “The chip is essentially designed to be always on in a low-power mode, switching over when voice is detected, thus making it ideal for technologies like wearable devices,” Heater explains.

Research affiliate Giovanni Traverso speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about a new ingestible device powered by stomach acid. “When you start thinking about keeping a system inside of the body for a long time,” Traverso explains, “powering that system becomes a challenge, and that’s exactly what we tried to aim to address here with this study.”