Mechanical engineering

Time features this video of the robot cheetah developed by Professor Sangbae Kim’s team. The researchers developed an algorithm that allows the four-legged robot to run untethered up to 10 miles per hour and jump over obstacles.

A team of MIT researchers has developed an algorithm that will help NASA crews clean up debris in space, reports Nick Stockton for Wired. The research will allow crews to clear pieces of satellites spinning so wildly that they would typically be dangerous to collect.

In the new book “Innovative Women: The Changing Face of Technology,” MIT alumna and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith co-authors a chapter about how to increase opportunities for women in technology. In an excerpt provided to Fortune, Smith writes that we’re at a “tipping point” and about to accelerate the path to lasting gender equality.

Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston reports that MIT researchers have proposed a new solar-powered, desalination system for purifying groundwater. “Wright and Winter argue that for the low levels of salt in the groundwater in up to 60 percent of rural India, they can extract enough power from solar panels to run their electrodialysis setup,” writes Subbaraman. 

Bloomberg News reports that MIT alumna Megan Smith has been appointed as the White House Chief Technology Officer. In her new role, Smith will serve as a liaison between the White House and Silicon Valley companies, and advise the government on how to better use technology. 

Writing for Wired, Issie Lapowsky reports that MIT graduate Megan Smith has been named the White House Chief Technology Officer. “In addition to being a gifted programmer and technologist, Smith has been one of the country’s leading advocates in the movement to get more women into tech jobs,” writes Lapowsky. 

Daniel Akst of The Wall Street Journal writes about new MIT findings that could make pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) a more feasible technique for producing power from two streams of different salinity.

Brady Dale writes for Fortune about how researchers in Professor Harry Asada’s group are working on developing a robot that can act as an extra set of limbs for factory workers. The machine would conduct the less-skilled tasks in a two-person job, freeing up the other worker.

Chris Berdik of The Boston Globe interviews Professor David Wilson about his proposal in the 1970s to implement a fossil fuel tax. “I started calculating this fossil fuel tax, and I realized that with the amount we use in this country, there would obviously be a vast flow of money into the government where people would do silly things with it,” says Wilson.

In a piece for Forbes, Nancy Pardo highlights the new Smart Morphable Surface developed by MIT researchers that can change its surface texture. The material could be used to make more aerodynamic and efficient vehicles.

Cynthia Graber of Scientific American reports on the new MIT technique to use solar energy to generate steam.  Graber reports that the new system reaches, “85 percent efficiency in converting the solar energy into steam." 

CNET reporter Stephen Beachman highlights the new robotic glove that adds two extra fingers to the human hand. The fingers are supposed to act and react like a natural extension of your hand and allow the user to pick up much larger and heaver than a normal human hand could, Beachman reports. 

“A new technology creates steam by harnessing solar energy, using a relatively cheap sponge-like material, and it does it with greater efficiency that ever previously achieved,” writes Douglas Main in a piece for Popular Science about a new solar sponge created by MIT scientists. 

Liz Stinson writes for Wired about a new phase-changing material developed by MIT researchers that could be used to develop squishy, shape-shifting robots. “Hosoi envisions this principle could ultimately be beneficial in the medical field, where soft, deforming objects could easily move through the body,” Stinson reports. 

Wired reporter Nick Stockton reports on Prof. Pedro Reis’ work developing a morphable surface that could be used to increase the efficiency and speed of vehicles. The surface can, “wrinkle into a dimpled pattern similar to a golf ball’s, with similar aerodynamic properties.”