Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS)

Professor James Kirtley Jr. (left) and Tata Fellow Mohammad Qasim hold a state-of-the-art ceiling fan that they use as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of their motor designs. A variety of instruments generate measurements they use to calculate how much of the power from the fan ends up actually moving air, determining the efficiency of the device.

Making appliances and energy grids more efficient

The Tata Center is building a high-efficiency, affordable electric motor that could have a huge impact in India, home to as many as half a billion ceiling fans.

February 28, 2018

Photo of MIT's Building 10 at an angle with trees in front

MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2018 QS World University Rankings

MIT ranked within top 5 in 19 out of 48 subject areas.

February 28, 2018

PhD student Adriana Schulz was co-lead on AutoSaw, which lets nonexperts customize different items that can then be constructed with the help of robots.

Custom carpentry with help from robots

CSAIL’s robotic system minimizes dangerous sawing, helps users customize furniture.

February 28, 2018

Generally, a browser won’t know where the data it downloaded has ended up. Even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily have authorization from the operating system to delete it.

Private browsing gets more private

New system patches security holes left open by web browsers’ private-browsing functions.

February 22, 2018

In this image, four Plasmodium vivax parasites have invaded human hepatocytes. Three of the parasites are developing while one parasite, on the lower right, is a dormant hypnozoite, which remains small until its reactivation.

Human malaria parasites grown for the first time in dormant form

Novel technology could allow researchers to develop and test new antimalaria drugs.

February 22, 2018

Guests pose for a photo at an MIT Better World event in Houston, Texas.

Houston gives a Texas-sized welcome to the MIT Better World Tour

At the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, alumni and friends celebrate the creativity and strength of MIT and the city of Houston.

February 19, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a special-purpose chip that increases the speed of neural-network computations by three to seven times over its predecessors, while reducing power consumption 93 to 96 percent. That could make it practical to run neural networks locally on smartphones or even to embed them in household appliances.

Neural networks everywhere

New chip reduces neural networks’ power consumption by up to 95 percent, making them practical for battery-powered devices.

February 13, 2018

MIT researchers have built a new chip, hardwired to perform public-key encryption, that consumes only 1/400 as much power as software execution of the same protocols would. It also uses about 1/10 as much memory and executes 500 times faster.

Energy-efficient encryption for the internet of things

Special-purpose chip reduces power consumption of public-key encryption by 99.75 percent, increases speed 500-fold.

February 12, 2018

CSAIL's NanoMap system allows drones to fly in congested environments such as forests.

Programming drones to fly in the face of uncertainty

CSAIL's NanoMap system enables drones to avoid obstacles while flying at 20 miles per hour, by more deeply integrating sensing and control.

February 12, 2018

Jennifer Rupp's current ceramics research applications range from battery-based storage for renewable energy, to energy-harvesting systems, to devices used to store data during computation.

Jennifer Rupp: Engineering practical ceramics

Assistant professor in EECS is developing materials with novel structures and useful applications, including renewable energy and information storage.

February 9, 2018