Mechanical engineering

Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi, co-founder of the MIT Sports Lab, and Andrew Byron, assistant coach for the MIT Football team, join Edgar B. Herwick III, host of GBH’s “The Curiosity Desk,” to discuss athletic intelligence and football IQ. “One of the special things about football is that it’s an incredibly complicated game compared to other games because there are very specialized positions,” says Hosoi. “Everybody has a very special role and there are a lot of players on the field at once.”  

MIT researchers have developed an AI-powered robotic therapy system that combines wearable force sensors and camera recordings of physical therapists’ movements to provide personalized therapy to patients, writes Newsweek’s Claudia Tanner. “Robotic assistance will allow patients to practice exercises more often while still receiving support tailored to their abilities,” says Johannes Lachner, who completed this work as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. “Our goal is to take a step toward more accessible and personalized physical rehabilitation, giving more patients the opportunity to regain movement and independence.” 

Prof. Raphael Zufferey and his research group developed a winged robot that can swim underwater and fly through the air like a diving bird and “could one day be used to monitor and ultimately help protect the ocean,” reports Tom Page for CNN. “We’re really trying to understand better how birds do this,” says Zufferey. “The other reason we’re doing this is we’re hoping that this becomes (a) future tool for oceanography.” 

MIT spinoff Found Industries’ new Cambridge headquarters and metals processing development center is highlighted by Boston Business Journal's Lucia Maffei. “We are developing electrochemical processes to recover gallium and, in time, indium, and germanium, and antimony and other critical metals directly from existing industrial streams,” says Peter Godart PhD ‘21, Found Industries CEO.  

MIT researchers have designed a recyclable elastic yarn, made from polyethylene, that mimics the stretchiness of spandex-polyester and spandex-nylon blends, the Anthropocene team writes. “[T]he researchers spun a spool of yarn, melted it, and re-spun it into new yarn several times. Even after 10 cycles, the yarn was as strong and flexible as conventional blended fibers,” explains Anthropocene.  

Principal Research Scientist John Liu speaks to Manufacturing Dive’s Nathan Owens about MIT’s Technologist Advanced Manufacturing Program (TechAMP), a 12-month-long certificate program designed to "bring experienced technicians into leadership roles with a focus on advanced manufacturing needs.” Says Liu: "We’re looking at developing this elite workforce who bridges the gap. What we’re trying to do is upskill the technician.” 

MIT researchers have developed a new, breathable hydrogel material that is “packed with microscopic air tunnels inspired by the way human lungs move oxygen” and allows heat and sweat to escape, reports Luis Prada for VICE. “The material proved to be about 10 times more breathable than conventional hydrogels and retained about 95 percent of its airflow even after being stretched 10,000 times,” explains Prada. 

Cambridge Day’s Chloe Taft spotlights the 25th anniversary of The Fab Lab, digital fabrication network started at MIT, and its annual conference, FAB26, held this week throughout Cambridge. “We’re going to show things like rapid prototyping, making vehicles [at FAB26],” says Prof. Neil Gershenfeld. “[T]here’s examples of using the tools in the lab to make aquaponic and hydroponic systems for food, to make antennas and radios for data networks, to make shelter. You really can make almost anything today.” 

Smithsonian Magazine reporter Margherita Bassi highlights a new robot developed by Prof. Raphael Zufferey that mimics aquatic birds’ ability to fly and swim underwater. “Our dream vision is for oceanographers, marine biologists and members of coastal communities to launch this robot from a boat or from shore, and it would fly close to the area of interest, such as an iceberg or a port facility or over a pod of whales,” Zufferey says. “It would dive into the water to take a measurement or collect a sample and fly back to deliver the data at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.” 

Prof. Raphael Zufferey joins Ania Lichtarowicz, host of Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast, to discuss his new winged robot, inspired by aquatic birds, that can fly and dive underwater. “The first thing we looked at is the flapping frequency [of aquatic birds] – the amount of strokes per second that wings use when in flight and when swimming,” says Zufferey. “This was a very good starting point to know how to design these systems in robotics.” 

Prof. Raphael Zufferey and his colleagues developed a winged robot that can swim underwater and fly through the air, writes New York Times reporter K.R. Callaway. The robot was inspired by data from nearly 100 species of diving birds. “There was a very good chance that this [design] would have not been possible at all,” says Zufferey. “I took that risk because I believed that if birds could do it, with good engineering we might also be able to.” 

An article by ZME Science reporter Jordan Strickler showcases FAAV, the flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle, by Assistant Prof. Raphael Zufferey that can dive underwater and take flight like an aquatic bird in order to take underwater measurements and samples. “Our dream vision is for oceanographers, marine biologists, and members of coastal communities to launch this robot from a boat, or from shore, and it would fly close to the area of interest, such as an iceberg or a port facility, or over a pod of whales,” says Zufferey.  

NPR’s Ari Daniel features a new, winged robot by Assistant Prof. Raphael Zufferey that can swim and fly like a diving bird. "Thinking of a wing that could operate in both [air and water] somewhat efficiently seems implausible," Zufferey recalls thinking. He plans to use the robot for a range of applications, including monitoring harmful algal blooms, fish stocks, and coastal erosion.  

MIT researchers have developed a non-invasive, wearable pacemaker that stimulates the heart using ultrasound, writes Physics World reporter Tami Freeman. “For cardiac pacing, we envisage that the final goal of NUP [Non-Invasive Ultrasound Pacemaker] technology is to be a permanent alternative to a long-term implanted pacemaker,” says Prof. Xuanhe Zhao. “More broadly, we are interested in expanding ultrasound-enabled bioelectronic medicine beyond cardiac pacing toward other organs and therapeutic applications where non-invasive, spatially precise modulation could have clinical impact.”