Wired reporter Jack Stewart explores the technology behind Boston-based startup WaveSense, which applies ground-penetrating radar developed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to give self-driving cars a way to map where they are without relying on visual clues or GPS. The technology, writes Stewart, was “first deployed in 2013 to help troops navigate in Afghanistan, where staying on path and avoiding landmines is a matter of life and death.”
Researchers from MIT’s Urban Risk Lab are collaborating with Portland State University and Portland General Electric on a new emergency preparedness project called PREPhub. The researchers are developing structures that will serve as public gathering places and will allow the public to access information and connect with family, friends and community members after a disaster, reports Mary Loos for KATU.
MIT researchers have developed a virtual reality system that can train drones to fly faster while also avoiding obstacles, reports Lauren Barack for Salon. Barack explains that the “researchers are programming the drones so they think they're in a living room or bedroom while they fly. They virtually see obstacles around them, but those impediments aren't really there.”
Ta-Hsuan Ong of Lincoln Lab has developed a new monitoring device that could help train dogs tasked with detecting hidden explosives, according to The Economist. The device, “lets handlers check instantly whether an apparent mistake by a dog is a real one.”
MIT researchers have designed a drone that can stay aloft for several days and could serve as an airborne telecommunications hub for disaster zones, reports Katherine Lin for NBC News. Prof. Warren Hoburg explains that the aircraft has a, “five-day endurance that is sized to carry a 10-pound payload at 15,000 feet.”
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a drone that can stay aloft for five days on a single tank of gas. “In addition to supporting areas in the wake of a disaster, the team believes the drone could go a ways toward helping tech companies…achieve their longstanding…dream of delivering internet access to rural areas.”
In a WBUR segment examining efforts to make electrical grids more resilient, Bruce Gellerman highlights how MIT researchers are developing a digital test bed that “will set national standards for the control devices that will manage the complex microgrids, making sure power from large utilities meshes perfectly with that produced by local intermittent sources like wind, solar and backup batteries.”
Boston Globe reporter Beth Teitell spotlights how Chris Miller, a staff member at Lincoln Lab, examined ridership of the bikes in Boston’s bicycle-sharing system as part of a data visualization challenge. Miller found “six of the system’s 1,800 bikes had been ridden only once or twice each in all of 2016. The average bike in service makes close to four trips — per day.”
Boston Globe reporter Eric Moskowitz spotlights the work of Margaret Hamilton, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom who led the development of software for the Apollo missions while at MIT. President Barack Obama noted that Hamilton, “symbolizes that generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space.”
TechCrunch reporter Devin Coldewey writes that Margaret Hamilton, a computing pioneer who led the development of the Apollo program’s on-board flight software during her time at MIT, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Coldewey writes that Hamilton is an inspiring figure “for anyone looking to enter the fields of computer science and engineering.”
Boston.com reporter Sanjay Salomon writes that high school students participating in MIT’s Beaver Works Summer Institute spent four weeks learning about the development of self-driving cars. The program culminated with students racing their miniature self-driving cars inside Walker Memorial. Parth Parekh, a 16-year-old student, said the program was both “very challenging and at the same time very fun.”
On August 5, high school students participating in the School of Engineering and Lincoln Lab’s Beaver Works Summer Institute competed in a grand prix for mini autonomous cars, reports Olivia Vanni for BostInno. “Their small self-driving cars not only had to prove fast, but they also had to withstand a course full of hairpin turns and other racing cars."
Curt Woodward writes for The Boston Globe that Bernadette Johnson, chief technology officer at Lincoln Laboratory, has been named the chief science officer for the Cambridge branch of the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental (DIUx). Woodward notes that the Cambridge DIUx program, is “part of a push by the Pentagon to more quickly harness innovations from the region’s tech sector.”
Prof. Emeritus Robert Fano, known for his instrumental work in the development of interactive computers, died on July 13 at age 98, reports John Markoff for The New York Times. Markoff writes that Fano made “fundamental theoretical advances, both in the ways computers handled information and in the design of interactive software.”
Researchers from MIT and Mass General Hospital have been named one of the winners of Popular Science’s 2016 Invention Awards for their work developing an ingestible electronic device that measures vital signs, reports Dialynn Dwyer for Boston.com.