School of Engineering

Prof. Sarah Millholland, Prof. Christian Wolf, Prof. Emil Verner, Prof. Darcy McRose, Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi, Prof. Mohsen Ghaffari and Prof. Ariel Furst have received the 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship for “being among the most promising scientific researchers currently working in their fields,” reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. “Sloan Research Fellows are chosen in seven scientific and technical fields—chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics,” explains Nietzel. 

Tye Brady SM '99 speaks with Fortune reporter John Kell about his career in robotic development and the role of generative AI in future advancements. “We’re using generative AI in just about everything that we’re doing inside of robotics,” says Brady. 

Steve Mann PhD '97 has been awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his contributions toward the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable technology, eXtended Reality products and services, reports Thomas Coughlin for Forbes. “Widely regarded as ‘the father of wearable computing,’” Mann “invented, designed, and built the world’s first smartwatch capable of downloading and running a wide variety of apps for health, well-being, and fitness tracking, ushering in a new era of personal health,” explains Coughlin. 

Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney spotlights QuEra, an MIT spinout that uses atoms and lasers to encode quantum bits or “qubits.” Gibney notes that in the QuEra system, “physicists trap an array of rubidium atoms using laser light and store quantum information in the energy levels of their electrons.”

Prof. Caitlin Mueller and her colleagues has been honored as recipients of the journal Technology | Architecture + Design’s 2025 TAD Research Contribution Award, reports Josh Niland for Archinect. The awarded projects delve “into the possibility of robotics and mixed reality (MR) fabrication strategies and an application of data visualization and circular economy concepts to enable sustainable housing,” explains Niland. 

In a letter to The Guardian, Research Scientist Florian Metzler, Research Affiliate Matt Lilley and their colleagues highlight the important advancements being made in cold fusion research. “Cold fusion could result in spectacular technologies. But we are convinced that the way forward requires rigorous, open-source scientific investigation, not more claims,” they write. “In many ways, cold fusion’s time has come. Advances in theory and experiment have made the LENR field eminently actionable.” 

MIT physicists have measured kinetic inductance for two layers of stacked and twisted graphene and found that the superconducting current is much “stiffer,” meaning it resists change more than predicted by any conventional theory of superconductivity, reports Karmela Padavic-Callaghan for New Scientist. The findings could do more than “shed light on why graphene superconducts – they could also reveal key properties required for room-temperature superconductors.”

In this interview (in Spanish), graduate students Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan (Nemo) Hsiao speak with Telemundo correspondent Miriam Arias about their work developing insect-sized robots to assist with agricultural needs. “There might be one year where you have a lot of bees in the field that help you pollinate everything. Maybe the next year, it might be affected by the temperature or something [and] you just don’t have enough bees to help you do so,” explains Hsiao. 

MIT engineers have developed a new training method to help ensure the safe operation of multiagent systems, including robots, search-and-rescue drones and self-driving cars, reports Jijo Malayil for Interesting Engineering. The new approach “doesn’t focus on rigid paths but rather enables agents to continuously map their safety margins—the boundaries within which they must stay,” writes Malayil. 

Forbes reporter Nina Bambysheva spotlights Michael Saylor '87 and his professional career after co-founding MicroStrategy and his company’s approach to investing in Bitcoin. “We adopted bitcoin out of frustration and desperation, and then it became an opportunity, and then it became a strategy, and then it became an identity, and then it became a mission,” says Saylor. 

Prof. John Hansman speaks with Boston Herald reporter Rock Sobey about airline safety after the recent plane and helicopter collision in Washington D.C. “We have an incredibly safe system with very good procedures and good training, but there’s always the small chance that something happens — that someone gets distracted,” says Hansman. “When we have an incident like this, it can be stunning, but I wouldn’t overreact to it. I don’t think it’s an indication of a major problem with the system and air traffic control.”

Postdoctoral associate Mostafa Hamouda speaks with Washington Post reporter Scott Dance about the recent cold blast that is bringing “frigid air that normally swirls above the North Pole to places much farther south.” Hamouda explains: “You need really cold air in the pole to have a very fast-spinning polar vortex.” Any warming “slows the whole circulation down.”

Graduate student Chase Hartquist speaks with Engineeringness reporter Hassan Ahmed his work developing a “universal law governing network fracture energy, providing a unifying framework for understanding material toughness across a wide range of material types.” Hartquist explains: “Our discovery also directly impacts the emerging field of architected materials, whose inherent structures drive their unique performance characteristics.” He adds: “By studying and optimizing performance in this class of materials, we can better understand the extent to which this law can apply generally in cutting-edge material design for many practical applications.” 

Prof. Jeffrey Grossman speaks with NBC Boston’s Carla Rojo about his new class, “Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup,” which explores the science behind the perfect cup of joe. The course combines chemistry and coffee science to provide students “a hands-on experience to fuel their curiosity.” 

Graduate students Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan (Nemo) Hsiao speak with Tech Briefs reporter Andrew Corselli about their work developing insect-sized robots capable of artificial pollination. “Typical drones use electromagnetic motors plus propellers. But, our system is a little different in that we are primarily using an artificial muscle,” explains Kim.