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Researchers from MIT and Harvard have discovered how the key gene linked to obesity makes people fat, reports the Associated Press. The study revealed that “a faulty version of the gene causes energy from food to be stored as fat rather than burned.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Jenn Harris writes that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows teams of robots to deliver items. Harris explains that the researchers hope their technique could be used to allow robots to aid in situations like “getting supplies and medicine across a battlefield in a war-torn country.”
MIT researchers have developed a new tool that could be used to predict dementia earlier than is currently possible and with greater accuracy, reports Liat Clark for Wired. The researchers hope the new technique could be used to cut down on the number of “hours spent diagnosing, or potentially misdiagnosing, a disorder.”
WGBH reporter Mike Deehan writes that MIT will play a key role in a new public-private partnership aimed at expanding the use of photonics in manufacturing. Prof. Krystyn Van Vliet explains that MIT will coordinate the "education and workforce development program for the entire nation in this area.”
MIT researchers have developed a program that allows a team of robots to work together to serve drinks, reports Lorenzo Ligato for the Huffington Post. The researchers, “programmed the robots with complex planning algorithms, which allowed the machines to engage in higher-level reasoning about their location, status and behavior -- similarly to they way humans perform tasks.”
MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that allows a team of three robots to serve drinks, writes Gordon Gottsegen for Wired: “While the real-world application of this research may seem like the beer fetching itself (to us at least), the method that allows robots to execute tasks despite uncertainty may have practical usages.”
Alexandra Ossola writes for Popular Science about a computer program created by MIT researchers that can aid in early detection of dementia by analyzing a patient’s drawings. The program “may enable doctors to diagnose patients much more quickly, and to intervene earlier to stave off the onset of cognitive degeneration.”
Brook Hays of UPI writes that researchers from MIT have developed a new program that allows teams of robots to work together to pour and deliver drinks. Hays explains that the robots are “programmed to anticipate what drinks are needed where, taking orders and delivering drinks with the greatest possible level of efficiency.”
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Hartnett writes that MIT researchers have shown it is impossible to create a faster version of the “edit distance” algorithm, which is used to compare the genomes of different species. Hartnett writes that the finding “has been greeted with something like relief among computer scientists.”
Kelsey Atherton of Popular Science reports on a system created by MIT researchers that allows robots to work in tandem to serve drinks. “This has uses beyond bartending,” writes Atherton. “MIT sees it as a potential system for hospitals or rescue work.”
MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that allows robots to work together to efficiently serve drinks, Nidhi Subbaraman writes for BetaBoston. Subbaraman explains that the technique provides a “smarter approach to collaboration, preparing for possible missteps like dropping a bottle, or picking up the wrong one.”
“Researchers at the Camera Culture Group, headed by Ramesh Raskar at the MIT Media Lab, have designed the eyeSelfie, an inexpensive hand-held device for taking a photograph of the retina,” writes Vijee Venkatraman for BetaBoston. Retinal monitoring has been shown to help identify a variety of diseases and risk factors.
Pheobe Gavin reports for Slate on self-assembling origami robots developed by Professor Daniela Rus’ team that could one day be refined for use in surgery or other medical applications: “The origami robot can walk, swim, push objects, climb inclines, and carry objects twice its weight.”
Popular Science reporter Levi Sharpe writes that MIT researchers have developed an object recognition system that can accurately identify and distinguish items. “This system could help future robots interact with objects more efficiently while they navigate our complex world,” Sharpe explains.
Fortune reporter Jonathan Vanian writes that researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new method to restore old, malfunctioning code. The system, called Helium, “discovers the most crucial lines of code that the original programmers developed to make it function, and then builds a revised version of the program.”