Energy

Erica Lai ’14 (left), of materials science and engineering, and Jennifer Liu ’14, of electrical engineering and computer science, teamed up to monitor the electricity consumption of various devices plugged into outlets in eight rooms in E62, the new MIT Sloan School of Management building.

Measuring MIT’s plug load

Undergrad project offers glimpse of electricity consumption on campus.

January 9, 2013

By analyzing a recent major automotive design competition, Fiona Murray of the MIT Sloan School of Management produced some concrete guidelines on how such Grand Innovation Prizes should be designed to maximize their effectiveness in spurring innovation.

Using prizes to spur innovation

MIT Professor Fiona Murray produces concrete guidelines on designing and executing Grand Innovation Prizes.

January 7, 2013

Jumping-droplet condensation shown on a nanostructured tube.

Research update: Jumping droplets help heat transfer

Scalable nanopatterned surfaces designed by MIT researchers could make for more efficient power generation and desalination.

January 4, 2013

Illustration shows the layered structure of the new device, starting with a flexible layer of graphene, a one-atom-thick carbon material. A layer of polymer is bonded to that, and then a layer of zinc-oxide nano wires (shown in magenta), and finally a layer of a material that can extract energy from sunlight, such as quantum dots or a polymer-based material.

Flexible, light solar cells could provide new opportunities

MIT researchers develop a new approach using graphene sheets coated with nanowires.

December 21, 2012

F. William Herbert of materials science and engineering (left) and Bilge Yildiz of nuclear science and engineering are examining how nanoscale disruptions in the crystalline structure of metals affect those materials’ vulnerability to stress corrosion cracking.

New experiments, new insights into stress corrosion cracking

MIT researchers now have new insights into how 'stress corrosion cracking' may be affected by nanoscale disruptions in the crystalline structure of metallic materials.

December 20, 2012

Nenad Miljkovic (left) and Evelyn Wang of Mechanical Engineering are designing a specially adapted solar energy collector that will simultaneously produce electricity and steam or hot water at wide-ranging temperatures suited for home or industrial use. This research was supported in part by the MIT Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by th...

Harnessing solar energy

Novel approach yields both electricity and heat.

December 13, 2012

Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering doctoral student Yue Fan

Yue Fan awarded Argonne postdoctoral fellowship

December 12, 2012

NSE Research Scientist Thomas McKrell, left, and Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering Jacopo Buongiorno.

Buongiorno and McKrell awarded more than $400,000 by CEA, France

The researchers will investigate transient boiling heat transfer phenomena under rapidly escalating heat fluxes.

November 27, 2012

Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, will speak at MIT on Wednesday.

3 Questions: World energy outlook

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, talks about the future of fossil fuels and the prospects for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions.

November 27, 2012