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Speed and agility are hallmarks of the cheetah: The big predator is the fastest land animal on Earth, able to accelerate to 60 mph in just a few seconds. As it ramps up to top speed, a cheetah pumps...
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In the movie “Terminator 2,” the shape-shifting T-1000 robot morphs into a liquid state to squeeze through tight spaces or to repair itself when harmed.
Now a phase-changing material built from wax...
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Professor Sapsis’ research focuses on the area of stochastic dynamical systems in ocean engineering, including uncertainty quantification of turbulent fluid flows, passive protection configurations...
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by Alissa Mallinson
MechE’s 2N program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering is almost as old as the department’s main Course 2 program in mechanical engineering.
The graduate program,...
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New Methods and Software Can Predict Optimal Paths for Automated Underwater Vehicles
By David Chandler, MIT News Office
Pierre Lermusiaux Photo credit: M. Scott Brauer
Sometimes the fastest...
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Engineering and the Ocean Environment: Challenge and Opportunity
by Alissa Mallinson
Vast and seemingly impenetrable, the ocean inspires endless fascination. It is the topic of countless tales...
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Suppose you’re trying to navigate an unfamiliar section of a big city, and you’re using a particular cluster of skyscrapers as a reference point. Traffic and one-way streets force you to take some...
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The Atlantic razor clam uses very little energy to burrow into undersea soil at high speed. Now a detailed insight into how the animal digs has led to the development of a robotic clam that can...
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If you’ve run out of drinking water during a lakeside camping trip, there’s a simple solution: Break off a branch from the nearest pine tree, peel away the bark, and slowly pour lake water through...
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When an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, knocking out emergency power supplies, crews sprayed seawater on the reactors to cool them — to no avail.
One...
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“It’s all about the process,” says MIT professor Warren Seering.
He’s referring to his spring design class, Course 2.739 (Product Design and Development) — but he could easily be talking about...
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Assistant Professors Cullen Buie and Sangbae Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering both recently received a DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), which was granted to 25 tenure-track faculty...
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The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class of destroyers consists of 62 active vessels that collectively carry 20,000 personnel and burn 4.4 million barrels of fuel each year. Since the first hull...
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Nate Ball (SB ’05, SM ’07) and Bryan Schmid (SB ’03, SM ’05)
Nate Ball
Bryan Schmid
by Alissa Mallinson
MechE alumni Nate Ball (SB ’05, SM ’07) and Bryan Schmid (SB ’03, SM ’05)...
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Engineering Light-Activated Muscles
by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office
Many robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting...
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For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for...
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Tiny robots may monitor underground pipes for radioactive leaks.
A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal...
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MechE Teams Up with Sloan to Offer New Track in Ocean Systems Management
The Ocean Engineering Systems Management track will provide future managers in the shipping industry with both...
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Domitilla Del Vecchio works on intelligent transportation systems that communicate to prevent collisions.
What areas does your research focus on?
Broadly speaking, my group works in control...