Mechanical engineering

Animals have evolved all manner of adaptations to get the nutrients they need. For nectar-feeding bats, long snouts and tongues let them dip in and out of flowers while hovering in mid-air. To help the cause, their tongues are covered in tiny hairs that serve as miniature spoons to scoop and drag up the tasty sap.

Hairy tongues help bats drink up

New model predicts how hairs on a bat’s tongue draw up nectar.

February 7, 2018

Professor Alex Slocum (right) works with students Alban Cobi and Steven Link, who are developing an adjustable phantom for radiotherapy validation.

Just what the doctor ordered

Class brings together MIT students and clinicians from local hospitals to design medical devices that address real-world health needs.

February 5, 2018

Graduate student James Hermus demonstrates a production robot based on the original MIT-MANUS design in the Eric P. and Evelyn E. Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation. The robot, which helps stroke victims recover and regain mobility, represents one of the many ways MIT's mechanical engineering researchers are working to improve health care.

Understanding and treating disease

Mechanical engineering researchers are developing new and innovative ways to improve health care.

February 2, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a new platform for microfluidics, using LEGO bricks. Shown here, fluid flows through tiny channels milled into the side walls of LEGO bricks.

Microfluidics from Lego bricks

MIT engineers make microfluidics modular using the popular interlocking blocks.

January 30, 2018

Ted Ligety wearing the helmet and goggle collection that Shred will be debuting at the Olympics. MIT students and faculty helped enhance the lens technology used in the lenses of these goggles.

Going for the gold

MIT students work to improve ski goggles to mitigate the hazards of “flat light.”

January 29, 2018

MIT professor Stefanie Mueller led the development of the new ColorMod system.

Changing the color of 3-D printed objects

CSAIL system uses custom ink and ultraviolet light to repeatedly change an object's color.

January 29, 2018

Engineers design artificial synapse for “brain-on-a-chip” hardware

Design is major stepping stone toward portable artificial-intelligence devices.

January 22, 2018

MIT researchers, looking for ways to turn heat into electricity, find efficient possibilities in certain topological materials.

Turning heat into electricity

Study finds topological materials could boost the efficiency of thermoelectric devices.

January 16, 2018

Members of the MIT engineering faculty annually receive a myriad of honors and awards in recognition of their scholarship, service, and overall excellence.

School of Engineering fourth quarter 2017 awards

Faculty members were recognized for excellence via a diverse array of honors, grants, and prizes over the last quarter.

January 16, 2018

MIT launches MITx MicroMasters in Principles of Manufacturing

New program offers alternative learning pathway to mastering fundamental skills needed for global manufacturing excellence and competitiveness.

January 9, 2018

“The idea of SurgiBox is to take the operating room and shrink it down to just the patient’s size. Keeping an entire room clean and surgery-ready requires a lot of resources that many hospitals and surgeons across the globe don’t have.” — MIT graduate student Sally Miller

Turning any room into an operating room

With a product called SurgiBox, grad student Sally Miller hopes to make safe, clean surgery possible anywhere.

January 8, 2018

Evelyn Wang (left) and Heena Mutha have developed a nondestructive method of quantifying the detailed characteristics of carbon nanotube samples — a valuable tool for optimizing these materials for use as electrodes in a variety of practical devices.

Optimizing carbon nanotube electrodes

New model measures characteristics of carbon nanotube structures for energy storage and water desalination applications.

January 5, 2018

MIT alumnus Dennis Orgill developed a process of infusing scaffolds — collagen skin grafts — with healthy skin cells to promote a more effective regeneration. The scaffold was invented by Professor Ioannis Yannas.

Using mechanical forces to improve wound healing

Dennis Orgill SM ’80, PhD ’83 applies mechanical engineering principles to the operating room.

January 5, 2018

“The kind of engineering that I want to do is the kind that can change people’s lives for the better,” says MIT senior Nick Schwartz.

Changing lives with heart, humor, and engineering

MIT senior and Marshall Scholar Nick Schwartz wants to solve the energy problem — and make people smile along the way.

January 3, 2018

This experimental setup was used by the team to measure the electrical output of a sample of solar cell material, under controlled conditions of varying temperature and illumination. The data from those tests was then used as the basis for computer modeling using statistical methods to predict the overall performance of the material in real-world operating conditions.

New technique allows rapid screening for new types of solar cells

Approach could bypass the time-consuming steps currently needed to test new photovoltaic materials.

December 20, 2017

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