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Writing for Scientific American, Larry Greenemeier explores the pod the MIT Hyperloop team developed to compete in the upcoming SpaceX Hyperloop competition. “One of the most interesting parts of the Hyperloop is the attempt to go significantly faster than any other type of land travel,” says MIT team member and graduate student Greg Monahan.
In this video, Dave Lee reports for the BBC News from the MIT Hyperloop team’s unveiling event, during which the team revealed the prototype pod they designed for the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. Lee explains that the MIT team developed a “droplet-shaped pod [that] uses magnets to lift itself off the aluminum track, reducing friction.”
K.G. Orphanides writes for Wired about an ingestible origami robot developed by MIT researchers to patch wounds in the stomach and remove foreign objects. “The robot is swallowed in a capsule and unfolds once in the stomach as its container dissolves,” Orphanides explains.
A pill-sized origami robot developed by MIT researchers could be used to help retrieve swallowed items, such as button batteries, reports Kate Baggaley for Popular Science. “The origami robots could help to move the battery through the digestive system faster, before it has time to break down and start leaking,” Baggaley explains.
Huffington Post reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that MIT researchers have developed a tiny, origami robot that can be ingested liked a normal pill to retrieve swallowed items from the stomach and to patch small wounds. Tamblyn writes that once the robot “reaches the stomach the acids break away the outer shell allowing the robot to expand.”
In an effort to address the problems associated with children swallowing button batteries, MIT researchers have created an ingestible origami robot that can retrieve swallowed items and patch stomach wounds, reports Shanika Gunaratna for CBS News. Gunaratna explains that once “inside the body, the robot opens itself up and is steered by external magnetic fields.”
New Scientist reporter Jacob Aron writes that MIT researchers have “created three simulated Turing machines with behaviour that is entwined in deep questions of mathematics. This includes the proof of the 150-year-old Riemann hypothesis – thought to govern the patterns of prime numbers.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent Miles O’Brien visits MIT to see the Hyperloop team in action as they work on building a prototype pod that would travel on a high-speed transportation system. O’Brien explains that the MIT team is “testing arrays of common magnets that would levitate the pod over an aluminum track.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that in an MIT course students developed a fleet of duckie-adorned self-driving taxis for a village called “Duckietown.” “Each of the robot taxis is equipped with only a single camera, and makes its way around the roads without any preprogrammed maps."
MIT researchers have developed an artificial intelligence platform that uses input from human analysts to predict cyber-attacks, reports Brian Mastroianni for CBS News. “We realized, finding the actual attacks involved a mix of supervised and unsupervised machine-learning,” explains research scientist Kalyan Veeramachaneni.
Wired reporter Brian Barrett writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system to help detect cyber-attacks. Barrett explains that the system, “reviews data…and pinpoints anything suspicious. A human takes it from there, checking for signs of a breach. The one-two punch identifies 86 percent of attacks while sparing analysts the tedium of chasing bogus leads.”
MIT researchers have developed an application to help improve driver safety, according to the Associated Press. The app, “measures driving behaviors including speeding, acceleration, hard turning, harsh braking and phone distractions. The results can then be reviewed…and scores posted on a leaderboard where drivers can compare one another.”
Dan Misener reports for CBC News that MIT researchers have developed a new wireless tracking system, called Chronos, that can pinpoint a user’s location to within centimeters. Misener explains that Chronos, “can be used to turn a regular Wi-Fi router into a sort of radar system that can detect objects and where they are in the world.”
Huffington Post reporter Carolyn Gregoire writes that MIT spinoff Synlogic is working on reprogramming gut bacteria to act as a living therapeutic. “It’s become really clear that the bacteria living in us and on us affect our bodies in a variety of different ways — in ways that we never imagined,” explains Prof. Timothy Lu.
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique for printing solid and liquid materials at the same time, a development that could make producing robots faster and easier. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that the new process could make “a big difference in what kind of machines you can make.”