Building the Self-Flying Future

MIT alumnus Leon Villegas builds on his journey from Mexico to MIT's Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program as an operations leader in guiding the production of the new Generation 6 autonomous eVTOL air taxi at Wisk Aero. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Microparticles can beat rhythmically generating electric current to Power Robots

Taking advantage of a phenomenon known as emergent behavior, MIT engineers have designed simple microparticles that can collectively generate complex behavior. Working together, the microparticles can generate a beating clock that oscillates at a very low frequency. These oscilla … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Engineers develop a new kind of shape-memory material

MIT engineers created shape-memory materials made of ceramic rather than of traditional metal. The development opens a new range of applications, especially for actuators in high-temperature settings. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Why Europe is so vulnerable to heat waves

MIT News spoke with Professor Elfatih Eltahir and Alexandre Tuel PhD ’20 about this summer’s drought and record temperatures in Europe and whether this is a harbinger of things to come as the Earth’s climate warms. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

MIT: Simulating neutron behavior in nuclear reactors

MIT graduate student Amelia Trainer’s work in modeling and simulating complicated neutron behavior in reactors is fundamental to understanding how nuclear reactors operate and helps forecast the behavior of reactors. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

MIT events illuminate critical need for menstruation science

The MIT Center for Gynepathology Research hosted a rally, networking reception, film screening, and expert panel discussion on women’s reproductive health, with particular attention on endometriosis. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Scientists chart how exercise affects the body

MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers mapped out many of the cells, genes, and cellular pathways that are modified by exercise or a high-fat diet. They hope their findings will help guide the design of drugs that might mimic some beneficial effects of exercise. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Learning on the edge

A new technique enables on-device training of machine-learning models on edge devices like microcontrollers, which have very limited memory. This could allow edge devices to continually learn from new data, eliminating data privacy issues, while enabling user customization. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

MIT engineers build a battery-free, wireless underwater camera

MIT researchers built a battery-free, wireless underwater camera, powered by sound waves, that can take high-quality, color images, even in dark environments. It transmits image data through the open water to a receiver that reconstructs the color image. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

A simple way to significantly increase lifetimes of fuel cells and other devices

In research that could jumpstart work on technologies including fuel cells, key to storing solar and wind energy, MIT researchers have found a relatively simple way to increase the lifetimes of these devices: changing the “pH” of the system. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Dopamine primes the brain for enhanced vigilance (2018)

MIT neuroscientists discovered a circuit in the brain’s prefrontal cortex that they believe controls diversion of attention away from everyday pursuits to potential threats, potentially affecting anxiety. They also found dopamine is key to this process. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Engineers fabricate a chip-free, wireless electronic “skin”

MIT engineers fabricated a chip-free, wireless electronic “skin.” The device senses and wirelessly transmits signals related to pulse, sweat, and ultraviolet exposure, without bulky chips or batteries. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

MIT philosopher Kieran Setiya’s new book is a contemplative look at solving a midlife crisis. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Extracting Audio from Visual Information

Algorithm recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment

MIT engineers have developed a method to increase wind farms’ energy output. Whereas individual turbines are typically controlled separately, the new approach models the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines and optimizes the control of individual units. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

New test may predict Covid-19 immunity

MIT researchers developed a test that may predict an individual’s immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Their test, which uses the same type of lateral flow technology as most Covid-19 antigen tests, measures neutralizing antibodies that target the SARS-CoV-2 virus in blood. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

New programmable materials can sense their own movements

MIT researchers have developed a technique to 3D-print materials with customizable mechanical properties that can also sense how they are moving and interacting with their environment. Their method only requires one printing material and a single run on a 3D printer. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Making hydropower plants more sustainable

Natel Energy, founded by sibling MIT alumni, is deploying hydropower plants with new, fish-safe turbines and other features designed to mimic natural conditions to improve sustainability of the industry. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Researchers discover major roadblock in alleviating network congestion

MIT researchers discovered that congestion control algorithms designed to ensure multiple users sending data over a network do so fairly are actually unable to avoid situations where some users are hogging all the bandwidth. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

New algorithm aces university math course questions

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere developed a machine-learning model that can answer university-level mathematics problems with 100 percent accuracy. The model can also grade questions and generate new questions that college students found to be indistinguishable from those crea … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Using artificial intelligence to control digital manufacturing

A new computer vision system watches the 3D printing process and adjusts velocity and printing path to avoid errors. Training the system in simulation, researchers from MIT and elsewhere avoid the costly trial-and-error associated with setting 3D printing parameters for new mater … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body

MIT engineers designed an adhesive patch that produces ultrasound images of the body. The stamp-sized device sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Study finds Wikipedia influences judicial behavior

A new study finds clear empirical evidence that Wikipedia influences judges’ application of the law. The study was led by Neil Thompson of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Robot overcomes uncertainty to retrieve buried objects

FuseBot is a new MIT robotic system that fuses visual information and radio-frequency signals to efficiently find hidden items buried under a pile of objects, whether or not the targeted item has an RFID tag. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Astronomers detect a radio “heartbeat” billions of light-years from Earth

Astronomers detected a persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy that appears to flash with surprising regularity. Named FRB 20191221A, this fast radio burst, or FRB, is currently the longest-lasting FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

AI model finds potential drug molecules 1000x faster

MIT researchers developed a geometric deep learning model that is more accurate and over 1,000 times faster at finding potential drug-like molecules than the fastest state-of-the-art computational models, reducing the chances and costs of failures in an industry where 90 percent … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

A programming language for hardware accelerators

Computer scientists created a new programming language called Exo for writing high-performance code on hardware accelerators to help with limitations on hardware innovation. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Physicists see electron whirlpools for the first time

Physicists have observed electron whirlpools for first time. Theorists have long predicted electrons should exhibit this hallmark of fluid flow; the findings could inform the design of more efficient electronics. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is both (2018)

Insulator or superconductor? MIT physicists find graphene is both, at a "magic angle." | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Physicists discover a “family” of robust, superconducting graphene structures

MIT physicsts identified new multilayered configurations of graphene that can be twisted and stacked to elicit robust superconductivity at low temperatures. The study establishes these configurations as the first known “family” of multilayer magic-angle superconductors. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Questions: Marking the 10th anniversary of the Higgs boson discovery

Christoph Paus, the MIT physicist who co-led efforts to detect the Higgs boson, looks back on 10 years since the discovery and ahead to the next 10 years of particle physics research. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

MIT engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts

MIT engineers have flown the first silent, fuel-free “ion plane.” The light aircraft is the first plane to fly with no propellers, turbine blades, or other moving parts. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Building explainability into the components of machine-learning models

MIT researchers have created a taxonomy and outlined steps that developers can take to design features in machine-learning models that are easier for decision-makers to understand. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Tapping into the million-year energy source below our feet

MIT spinout Quaise Energy is working to create geothermal wells made from the world’s deepest holes in order to repurpose coal and gas plants. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Progress in Parkinsons

MIT neuroscientists identified three circuits in the thalamus that influence the development of motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. And by manipulating these circuits, they could reverse Parkinson’s symptoms in mice. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Quantum sensor can detect electromagnetic signals of any frequency

MIT researchers developed a method to enable quantum sensors to detect any arbitrary frequency, with no loss of their ability to measure nanometer-scale features. Quantum sensors detect the most minute variations in magnetic or electrical fields, but until now they have only been … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Q&A: Neil Thompson on computing power and innovation

For nearly two decades, researchers have been warning that Moore’s Law, the famous prediction that the number of transistors that can be packed onto a microchip will double every year or two, is slowing down. In a new working paper, MIT researchers quantify the impacts these expo … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Artificial intelligence predicts patients’ race from their medical images

MIT researchers find artificial intelligence can pick out racial identity from medical images — even when no clear indication of race is present. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Taking the guesswork out of dental care with artificial intelligence

The MIT alumni-founded Overjet uses artificial intelligence to analyze and annotate dental X-rays to help dentists improve care. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Study illuminates trade-off between complex words and complex sentences

MIT and Mass General neuroscience researchers found that in both healthy people and aphasia patients, speakers trade off lexical complexity and syntactical complexity. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Seeing the Whole from Some of the Parts

MIT CSAIL researchers developed a novel method to "see through" objects in a scene, and exploit the projection for 3D reconstruction and reasoning. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

New model helps identify mutations that drive cancer

An MIT-led team built a computer model that can rapidly scan the entire genome of cancer cells and identify mutations that occur more frequently than expected, suggesting that they are driving tumor growth. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

How the debt crisis of 2008-09 fueled populist politics

Research by MIT’s Emil Verner shows that rising debt helped fuel right-wing populist gains in Hungarian politics. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Nanoparticle sensor can distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia

A new MIT sensor can distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia infections. This could help doctors choose the appropriate treatment and avoid prescribing antibiotics when they won’t help. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Engineers build Lego-like artificial intelligence chip

MIT engineers built a LEGO-like artificial intelligence chip, with a view toward sustainable, modular electronics. The chip can be reconfigured, with layers that can be swapped out or stacked on, such as to add new sensors or updated processors. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

New CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function

A new CRISPR-based map ties every human gene to its function using a tool called Perturb-seq. The work was led by Jonathan Weissman and colleagues at MIT and the Whitehead Institute, and is free for other scientists to use. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Keeping web-browsing data safe from hackers

MIT researchers analyzed a powerful machine-learning-assisted cyberattack and uncovered a security vulnerability that an attacker can exploit to predict the website a user is browsing with almost perfect accuracy. Then, they developed two mitigation strategies that dramatically r … | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago

Molecules found in mucus can thwart fungal infection

MIT researchers identified components of mucus that can interact with the fungus Candida albicans and prevent it from causing infection. These glycans molecules are a major constituent of mucins, the gel-forming polymers that make up mucus. | Continue reading


@news.mit.edu | 3 years ago