Research

Megan Turchi of Boston.com writes about the new autonomous, self-assembling robots designed by researchers from MIT and Harvard. The robots can fold themselves into mobile structures that are then able to move independently. 

Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe writes about the self-folding robots designed by a team from MIT and Harvard. “The question is, can we develop the tools that will allow us to automatically and rapidly generate one robot for any task?” says Professor Daniela Rus.

Robert Lee Hotz reports for The Wall Street Journal on the new self-assembling robot developed by researchers from MIT and Harvard. The robot can transform from a flat sheet of paper into a mobile robot in four minutes, and the technique has applications in everything from self-assembling satellites to shape-shifting robots for search-and-rescue operations, Hotz reports. 

Brooks Hays writes for United Press International about the self-folding robots created by researchers from MIT and Harvard. "The exciting thing here is that you create this device that has computation embedded in the flat, printed version," explains Prof. Daniela Rus. 

Andrea Timpano of Boston Magazine reports on the new biodegradable nanoscale film developed by MIT researchers. The film could be used to deliver long-lasting medication for patients suffering from chronic pain. 

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.

Robert Lee Hotz of The Wall Street Journal writes that researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed of prototype of a, “flexible, self-assembling machine.” Potential applications for the technology include everything from self-assembling satellites to shape-shifting search-and-rescue robots. 

In a piece for USA Today, Hoai-Tran Bui writes about how a team of researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a robot that can self-assemble from a flat sheet of paper in minutes. "The big dream is to make robots fast and inexpensive," says Prof. Daniela Rus. 

Slate reporter Boer Deng writes about the self-assembling robot developed by scientists from MIT and Harvard. The robot, “forms itself, Transformer-like, from a flat sheet into a four-legged creature that crawls,” Deng writes. 

Joe Kloc of Newsweek writes about how MIT and Harvard scientists have developed a self-assembling robot that folds itself into a 3-D robot capable of movement. "We have achieved a long-standing personal goal to design a machine that can assemble itself," says Prof. Daniela Rus of the project. 

Ian Sample of The Guardian reports on how a team of researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a “Transformer” robot that can self-assemble. "This will rapidly extend the manufacturing capabilities that we have today where configuring an assembly line is done manually and requires a lot of time," Prof. Daniela Rus explains.

WBUR’s Benjamin Swasey reports on Professor Chris Warshaw’s new study examining how reflective governments are of their constituents’ views. “When you put all this stuff together, it turns out that cities are quite responsive to how liberal their publics are,” explains Warshaw. 

Heather Kelly of CNN reports on how MIT researchers have developed a new technique to recreate audio from silent video. "We showed that we can determine pretty reliably the gender of a speaker from low-quality sound we managed to recover from a tissue box," says Dr. Michael Rubinstein. 

Krissy Clark of NPR reports on Professor Amy Glasmeier’s work developing the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Clark reports that through examining the cost of living, Glasmeier found that areas with higher poverty rates tended to have higher amounts of minimum wage jobs where the minimum wage, “absolutely was not paying people enough to live on.”

Writing for The Washington Post, Hunter Schwartz reports on new findings concerning municipal governments from Professor Chris Warshaw. Schwartz writes that the study found, “Even cities with governments designed to be less partisan, with institutions like nonpartisan elections and professional managers instead of elected mayors, are in line with residents’ political beliefs.”