Building disaster-relief phone apps on the fly
Researchers combine powerful new Web standards with the intuitive, graphical MIT App Inventor to aid relief workers with little programming expertise.
Writing programs using ordinary language
Systems that can convert written specifications into working code in a few narrow cases could be generalized to other tasks.
How computers can learn better
With a recently released programming framework, researchers show that a new machine-learning algorithm outperforms its predecessors.
Students take control of satellites on the International Space Station
200 high-school students participate in MIT’s annual Zero Robotics competition.
Life in BASIC
Nick Montfort and colleagues examine cultural significance of computer code in new book.
Making Web applications more efficient
A new system that automatically streamlines database access patterns can make large Web applications up to three times as fast.
Excel programming for nonprogrammers
A new system allows Excel users to create customized functions for their spreadsheets simply by offering a few examples of how data should be manipulated.
The mathematics of taste
By using ‘genetic programming’ to crossbreed algorithms, researchers help flavor companies figure out what their customers like.