In this SINC article (published in Spanish), Federico Kukso spotlights Prof. Alberto Rodriguez’s work developing robotic hands in an effort to provide robots with a better way to interact with the world. Rodriguez says that he was inspired to pursue a career in robotics as he wanted to do “something that had a real impact on the world."
The curved origami sculptures created by Prof. Erik Demaine and his father Martin Demaine are featured in the exhibit “Above the Fold: New Expressions in Origami,” writes Solvej Schou for the Associated Press. The father-son duo use math algorithms to solve paper-folding problems. "Our work grows directly out of our decades collaborating together in mathematics and sculpture," explains Prof. Demaine.
MIT researchers have developed a new water-based material that could be used to make artificial skin, long-lasting contact lenses and drug-delivering bandages, writes Jamie Ducharme for Boston Magazine. “It’s interesting to imagine a world where your medicine cabinet is stocked with hydrogel-elastomer hybrids instead of contact lenses and Band-Aids,” writes Ducharme.
Mary Beth Griggs writes for Popular Science that CSAIL researchers have created an algorithm that can predict human interaction. Griggs explains that the algorithm could “lead to artificial intelligence that is better able to react to humans or even security cameras that could alert authorities when people are in need of help.”
Dan Misener writes for CBC News that CSAIL researchers have developed an algorithm that can predict interactions between two people. PhD student Carl Vondrick explains that the algorithm is "learning, for example, that when someone's hand is outstretched, that means a handshake is going to come."
CSAIL researchers have trained a deep-learning program to predict interactions between two people, writes Hope King for CNN. “Ultimately, MIT's research could help develop robots for emergency response, helping the robot assess a person's actions to determine if they are injured or in danger,” King explains.
Umair Irfan of ClimateWire writes that a new paper by Prof. Jessika Trancik finds that renewable energy storage can be a good investment, and provides insight on which storage technologies are the most economically feasible. “One of the major technology challenges of scaling up renewables is developing economically feasible energy storage," says Jessika Trancik.
In an article for the Financial Times, Laura Noonan highlights Prof. Andrew Lo’s work investigating how the theories of financial engineering could be used to fight cancer. “In cancer drug development, because the risks of failure are so high, the probability of success goes up quite dramatically if you create a portfolio,” says Lo.
In an article for Wired, Tim Moynihan writes that a team of CSAIL researchers has created a machine-learning system that can produce sound effects for silent videos. The researchers hope that the system could be used to “help robots identify the materials and physical properties of an object by analyzing the sounds it makes.”
Writing for the Financial Times, Clive Cookson reports that MIT researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system capable of producing realistic sounds for silent movies. Cookson explains that another application for the system could be “to help robots understand objects’ physical properties and interact better with their surroundings."
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes that MIT researchers have created an algorithm that can produce realistic sounds. “The findings are an example of the power of deep learning,” explains McFarland. “With deep learning, a computer system learns to recognize patterns in huge piles of data and applies what it learns in useful ways.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that can learn how to predict sound. The algorithm “can watch a silent movie and create sounds that go along with the motions on screen. It's so good, it even fooled people into thinking they were actual, recorded sounds from the environment.”
TIME reporter Jeffrey Kluger writes that MIT researchers have designed an algorithm to produce an image of a black hole. Kluger explains that the algorithm will allow researchers “visualize the event horizon that surrounds the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.”
Prof. Linda Griffith speaks with Wired reporter Sarah Zhang about her work developing chips that can mimic human organs in an effort to better understand interactions between the immune system and the liver. Griffith is currently working to connect at least 10 miniature organs on a chip to study, for example, how breast cancer can spread to the liver.
In this video, BBC World News reporter Adam Shaw learns about the stretchy, water-based hydrogel MIT researchers developed that could be used as a smart bandage to sense temperatures and deliver medication. “This is a new way to think about this interface between the human body and electronic devices,” explains Prof. Xuanhe Zhao.