Mechanical engineering

Visualization of vortices in a drop of silicone oil sitting on a warm bath. The temperature difference generates a recirculating flow that is visualized by shining a green laser light on fluorescent particles that are added as passive tracers within the drop.

How to float your coffee creamer

Study explains how droplets can “levitate” on liquid surfaces.

November 14, 2017

Many rural communities are turning to microgrids, small-scale power systems that supply local energy, typically in the form of solar power, to localized consumers, such as individual households or small villages.

No more blackouts?

New framework guarantees stability of microgrids that supply local power in developing countries.

November 8, 2017

Graduate student Ingrid Guha holds a jar containing a clear liquid that looks like water to the naked eye, but it’s actually an emulsion of oil and water at the nanoscale.

A new way to mix oil and water

Condensation-based method developed at MIT could create stable nanoscale emulsions.

November 8, 2017

Woodard is a co-founder of the MIT BoSTEM Scholars Academy. The four-week summer program gives high school students valuable experiences in STEM and aims to put them on the path to MIT and other universities. Woodard worked with his co-founder Javier Weddington to raise $18,000 to fund the program, which debuted the summer of 2017 and will continue in the coming summers.

Connecting through conversation

Whether in Cambridge or Shanghai, MIT senior Joshua Charles Woodard seeks to learn from others’ perspectives and challenge his own.

November 1, 2017

Clockwise from top left: Aram Harrow, Benjamin Jones, Scott Kemp, Calvin Leung, Ian Moult, Keith Nelson, Bradley Olsen, Jonathan Loren Ouellet, and Pedro Reis

Twelve from MIT honored by the American Physical Society

Prize winners span six departments in the schools of Science and Engineering.

October 31, 2017

A new smartphone app analyzes a car’s sounds and vibrations, as measured by the phone’s microphone and accelerometers. “We’re listening to the car’s breathing, and listening for when it starts to snore,” Joshua Siegel says.

Let your car tell you what it needs

MIT team develops software that can tell if tires need air, spark plugs are bad, or air filter needs replacing.

October 25, 2017

T.K. Pillan ’90, a mechanical engineering major while at MIT, now runs the largest vegan and vegetarian restaurant company in the U.S.

When healthy meets fast food

T.K. Pillan ’90 created Veggie Grill, a completely plant-based, fast-casual eatery that is now the largest vegan and vegetarian restaurant company in the U.S.

October 11, 2017

Engineers at MIT have developed a new model to simulate dynamic soaring, and have used it to identify the optimal flight pattern that an albatross should take in order to harvest the most wind and energy. They found that as an albatross banks or turns, it should do so in shallow arcs, keeping almost to a straight, forward trajectory.

Engineers identify key to albatross’ marathon flight

Flying in shallow arcs helps birds stay aloft with less effort.

October 10, 2017

Amy Smith is the founding director of the MIT D-Lab.

Designing for a more equitable world

D-Lab founder Amy Smith teaches MIT students to tap into the heart of international development.

October 6, 2017

Second-year student Albert Go (left) says the NEET program is the best way to learn: “I like application and learning from my peers. With the projects, I’m excited to see what I’m learning about come to life.” From left: Albert Go, Mitchell Guillaume, Michael Everett, and Yu Liang (Gloria) Fang.

Putting projects at the forefront

NEET pilot initiative centers around interdisciplinary projects to prepare students for the practice of engineering.

October 5, 2017

Winners of the 2017 Better World Media Contest: At left, Max Freitas and his D-Lab project partner Hope Chen (pictured, with patient) developed and field tested prosthetics with Rise Legs through MIT-India. Right: Dou Dou '17 brought over 80 Israeli and Palestinian high school students together by teaching them computer science and entrepreneurship through MIT-MEET.

Tackling the world’s challenges in the field

MISTI media contest showcases MIT students working to build a better world.

October 2, 2017

Lup Wai Chew (left) explains his research in Wind Enhancement in Urban Areas to alum Luis De Jesus.

Presentation practice: Hurricanes to prosthetics

Students hone their communication skills by presenting their research projects at the 4th annual Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition.

October 2, 2017

Jim Magarian is a third-year graduate student and an engineering leadership instructor with the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership (GEL) Program.

Veteran engineer studies career pathways of today’s graduates

After a mid-career jump to academia, PhD student Jim Magarian now analyzes engineering workforce issues.

October 1, 2017

MIT-France student intern Annie Dai (seated) spent a summer at Plume Labs.

Clearing the air

At Plume Labs in Paris, MIT-France interns take on an invisible threat by helping to develop a wearable device that tracks indoor and outdoor air quality.

September 29, 2017

“It’s important to have a single test that can differentiate between the four serotypes of Dengue and Zika, because they co-circulate. They’re spread by the same mosquito,” says Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

New test rapidly diagnoses Zika

Paper-based diagnostic avoids false positives from Dengue fever and other related viruses.

September 27, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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