School of Engineering

Using data to inform the connections between technology and policy

MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society research from the Technology and Policy Program highlights multidisciplinary approaches to data-driven policies.

July 22, 2016

Researchers are developing a new boot with built-in sensors and tiny “haptic” motors, whose vibrations can guide the wearer around or over obstacles. Vibrations will jump from low to high intensity when the wearer is at risk of colliding with an obstacle.

Avoiding stumbles, from spacewalks to sidewalks

Vibrating footwear could help astronauts and visually impaired earthlings skirt obstacles.

July 22, 2016

The process of making a stack of parallel sheets of graphene starts with a chemical vapor deposition process (I) to make a graphene sheet with a polymer coating; these layers are then stacked (II), folded and cut (III) and stacked again and pressed, multiplying the number of layers. The team used a related method the team to produce scroll-shaped fibers.

Borrowing from pastry chefs, engineers create nanolayered composites

Method to stack hundreds of nanoscale layers could open new vistas in materials science.

July 21, 2016

“You can build very complex computing systems if you integrate the element of memory together with computation,” says Timothy Lu, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of biological engineering, and head of the Synthetic Biology Group at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

Scientists program cells to remember and respond to series of stimuli

New approach to biological circuit design enables scientists to track cell histories.

July 21, 2016

Researchers at MIT and the University of California at San Diego have delivered artificial genetic circuits into bacteria, allowing the microbes to kill cancer cells in three different ways. Here, an image of a motherboard has been micropatterned using programmable probiotic bacteria. The bright lines are composed of dots made of bacteria. This technique was developed in the lab of MIT professor S...

Cancer-fighting bacteria

Engineers program E. coli to destroy tumor cells.

July 20, 2016

"It is easier to make a replacement nuclear weapon from scratch than to try to pass off a fake object as a weapon," says R. Scott Kemp in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering about a new method to verify that a country's claimed warheads are authentic without disclosing classified information.

A novel approach to a longstanding challenge in nuclear arms control

MIT researchers develop a “physical cryptography” for secure and accurate accounting of the world’s nuclear arsenals.

July 19, 2016

A five-day MIT Professional Education course — Agriculture, Innovation, and the Environment — showcased new technologies and strategies for making the agriculture industry more productive.

Growing season

New professional education program on agriculture, innovation, and the environment attracts global agricultural leaders to MIT.

July 19, 2016

A woman and her son, who live in Chellur, India, walk home with the reverse-osmosis-treated water she bought at Chellur’s community desalination plant.

The quest for clean water

MIT researchers design a solar-powered desalination device for rural India.

July 18, 2016

Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy, left), a gung-ho scientist with expertise in the paranormal, and Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon, right), an eccentric engineer, tinker in a nearly perfect replication of an MIT lab.

How MIT gave "Ghostbusters" its "geek cred"

From proton packs to hidden props, the 2016 blockbuster draws upon MIT personalities and scientific panache.

July 15, 2016

Robert Fano's work on information theory and time-sharing computers were vital precursors to today's computing technologies.

Robert Fano, computing pioneer and founder of CSAIL, dies at 98

Professor emeritus helped launch field of information theory and developed early time-sharing computers.

July 15, 2016

“We don’t necessarily want [air traffic controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information. Instead, we can tell them the three top choices,” says Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.

Ready for takeoff

Hamsa Balakrishnan develops algorithms to reduce airport congestion.

July 15, 2016

MIT and Broad Institute postdoc Ilana Brito sampled not only the human microbiome in the remote villages in Fiji she studied, but also the reservoirs of microbes in the community.

Microbiome genes on the move

Largest metagenomic view of the developing world uncovers “mobile genes” that reveal how culture shapes the human microbiome.

July 14, 2016

Romulus Capital, a venture capital seed firm, controls $150 million in funds and other assets, having just raised a new fund of $75 million in June. Now the firm plans to fund 20 new startups, adding to its existing portfolio of 30 startups, many of which are MIT spinouts.

Building a foundation for tech startups

Launched in an MIT dorm room, alum’s venture capital firm now controls $150 million in assets.

July 14, 2016

MIT nuclear science and engineering professors Jacopo Buongiorno (left) and Dennis Whyte will lead a multidisciplinary team working on a Future of Nuclear Energy Technologies study.

Buongiorno, Whyte win Sloan Foundation grant

$1M Sloan Foundation grant supports NSE-led Future of Nuclear Energy Technologies study

July 13, 2016

A new system that can anticipate room assignments and suggest which nurses to assign to patients for C-sections and other procedures provided satisfactory recommendations to nurses 90 percent of the time.

Robot helps nurses schedule tasks on labor floor

System from Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab suggests where to move patients and who should do C-sections.

July 13, 2016

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Using data to inform the connections between technology and policy

Avoiding stumbles, from spacewalks to sidewalks

Borrowing from pastry chefs, engineers create nanolayered composites

Scientists program cells to remember and respond to series of stimuli

Cancer-fighting bacteria

A novel approach to a longstanding challenge in nuclear arms control

Growing season

The quest for clean water

How MIT gave "Ghostbusters" its "geek cred"

Robert Fano, computing pioneer and founder of CSAIL, dies at 98

Ready for takeoff

Microbiome genes on the move

Building a foundation for tech startups

Buongiorno, Whyte win Sloan Foundation grant

Robot helps nurses schedule tasks on labor floor

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School of Engineering