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Assistant Professor Alberto Rodriguez led a team in this past May’s Amazon Picking Challenge, winning second place out of 28 entrants for their robot. The challenge, whose judging panel included...
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Anklebot Helps Determine Ankle Stiffness
by David Chandler, MIT News Office
For most healthy bipeds, the act of walking is seldom given a second thought: One foot follows the other, and the rest...
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The image that comes to mind when you hear Professor John Leonard describe his dream of developing a robot that is what he calls “a lifelong learner” is so cinematic it’s almost hard to believe:
“...
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Detailed new field studies, laboratory experiments, and simulations of the largest known “internal waves” in the Earth’s oceans — phenomena that play a key role in mixing ocean waters, greatly...
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How can sustainable consumption in U.S. cities be fostered? Can the ocean floor be mined in an ecologically benign way? What are the health risks associated with the mining of rare metals used in...
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Conduction and thermal radiation are two ways in which heat is transferred from one object to another: Conduction is the process by which heat flows between objects in physical contact, such as a pot...
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In 2007, Steven Keating had his brain scanned out of sheer curiosity.
Keating had joined a research study that included an MRI scan, and he asked that the scan’s raw data be returned to him. The scan...
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Researchers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a new kind of solar cell that combines two different layers of sunlight-absorbing material in order to harvest a broader range of the sun’s...
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Engineering was in Domitilla Del Vecchio’s blood from the very beginning: Growing up in Rome as the daughter of an engineer, she spent long hours of her childhood tinkering and playing in her father’...
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The process of wrinkle formation is familiar to anyone who has ever sat in a bathtub a little too long. But exactly why layered materials sometimes form one kind of wrinkly pattern or another — or...
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Two mathematicians, a chemist, a mechanical engineer, and an economist from MIT are among the 126 American and Canadian researchers awarded 2015 Sloan Research Fellowships, the Alfred P. Sloan...
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The blue-rayed limpet is a tiny mollusk that lives in kelp beds along the coasts of Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. These diminutive organisms — as small as a...
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When diagnosing a case of Ebola, time is of the essence. However, existing diagnostic tests take at least a day or two to yield results, preventing health care workers from quickly determining...
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Here’s one way to get kids excited about programming: a "robot garden" with dozens of fast-changing LED lights and more than 100 origami robots that can crawl, swim, and blossom like flowers.
A team...
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Just one minute with Professor Alexander Slocum and you can see why his course 2.75 is so popular – and successful. He has a way of inciting passion and excitement in his students while imbuing them...
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Some of the most prized violins in the world were crafted in the Italian workshops of Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri — master violinmaking families from the 17th and 18th centuries who produced...
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As the world’s population sprints toward larger and larger numbers, concerns about water scarcity follow closely behind. There are already disproportionate levels of water to need — especially in...
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Ioannis V. Yannas, professor of polymer science and engineering in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, was recognized as one of the highest achievers in his field last week when the...
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Acoustic-gravity waves — a special type of sound wave that can cut through the deep ocean at the speed of sound — can be generated by underwater earthquakes, explosions, and landslides, as well as by...
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As a grape slowly dries and shrivels, its surface creases, ultimately taking on the wrinkled form of a raisin. Similar patterns can be found on the surfaces of other dried materials, as well as in...