As the price of solar panels has plummeted in recent decades, installation costs have taken up a greater share of the technology’s overall price tag. The long installation process for solar farms is also emerging as a key bottleneck in the deployment of solar energy. Now the startup Charge Robotics is developing solar installation factories […]
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When Louis DeRidder was 12 years old, he had a medical emergency that nearly cost him his life. The terrifying experience gave him a close-up look at medical care and made him eager to learn more. “You can’t always pinpoint exactly what gets you interested in something, but that was a transformative moment,” says DeRidder. […]
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An MIT startup’s personalized heart implants, designed to help prevent strokes, won this year’s MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovation Prize (SHIP) on Thursday. Spheric Bio’s implants grow inside the body once injected, to fit within the patient’s unique anatomy. This could improve stroke prevention because existing implants are one-size-fits-all devices that can fail to fully block […]
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Longtime MIT Professor Anthony “Tony” Sinskey ScD ’67, who was also the co-founder and faculty director of the Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI), passed away on Feb. 12 at his home in New Hampshire. He was 84. Deeply engaged with MIT, Sinskey left his mark on the Institute as much through the relationships he built […]
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MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has transformed the landscape of water and food research at MIT, driving faculty engagement and catalyzing new research and innovation in these critical areas. With philanthropic, corporate, and government support, J-WAFS’ strategic approach spans the entire research life cycle, from support for early-stage research to […]
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Biology is never simple. As researchers make strides in reading and editing genes to treat disease, for instance, a growing body of evidence suggests that the proteins and metabolites surrounding those genes can’t be ignored. The MIT spinout ReviveMed has created a platform for measuring metabolites — products of metabolism like lipids, cholesterol, sugar, and […]
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The Haber-Bosch process, which converts atmospheric nitrogen to make ammonia fertilizer, revolutionized agriculture and helped feed the world’s growing population, but it also created huge environmental problems. It is one of the most energy-intensive chemical processes in the world, responsible for 1-2 percent of global energy consumption. It also releases nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse […]
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Gaining a better understanding of how people move through the spaces where they live and work could make those spaces safer and more sustainable. But no one wants cameras watching them 24/7. Two former Media Lab researchers think they have a solution. Their company, Butlr, offers places like skilled nursing facilities, offices, and senior living […]
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The push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. is running up against an unfortunate truth: The processes for making many critical materials today create toxic byproducts and other environmental hazards. That’s true for commonly used industrial metals like nickel and titanium, as well as specialty minerals, materials, and coatings that go into batteries, advanced […]
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As the story goes, the Scottish inventor James Watt envisioned how steam engines should work on one day in 1765, when he was walking across Glasgow Green, a park in his hometown. Watt realized that putting a separate condenser in an engine would allow its main cylinder to remain hot, making the engine more efficient […]
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Across a career’s worth of pioneering product designs, Doug Field’s work has shaped the experience of anyone who’s ever used a MacBook Air, ridden a Segway, or driven a Tesla Model 3. But his newest project is his most ambitious yet: reinventing the Ford automobile, one of the past century’s most iconic pieces of technology. […]
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From crafting complex code to revolutionizing the hiring process, generative artificial intelligence is reshaping industries faster than ever before — pushing the boundaries of creativity, productivity, and collaboration across countless domains. Enter the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium, a collaboration between industry leaders and MIT’s top minds. As MIT President Sally Kornbluth highlighted last year, the […]
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When it comes to water use, most of us think of the water we drink. But industrial uses for things like manufacturing account for billions of gallons of water each day. For instance, making a single iPhone, by one estimate, requires more than 3,000 gallons. Gradiant is working to reduce the world’s industrial water footprint. […]
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In 2014, a team of MIT students in course 15.366 (Climate and Energy Ventures) developed a plan to commercialize MIT research on how to move information between chips with light instead of electricity, reducing energy usage. After completing the class, which challenges students to identify early customers and pitch their business plan to investors, the […]
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Melissa Smith PhD ’12 is an associate leader in the Advanced Materials and Microsystems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Her team, which is embedded within the laboratory’s Advanced Technology Division, drives innovation in fields including computation, aerospace, optical systems, and bioengineering by applying micro- and nanofabrication techniques. Smith, an inventor of 11 patents, strongly believes […]
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“There is no treatment available for your son. We can’t do anything to help him.” When Fernando Goldsztein MBA ’03 heard those words, something inside him snapped. “I refused to accept what the doctors were saying. I transformed my fear into my greatest strength and started fighting.” Goldsztein’s 12-year-old son Frederico was diagnosed with relapsing […]
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Businesses and developers often face a steep learning curve when installing clean energy technologies, such as solar installations and EV chargers. To get a fair deal, they need to navigate a complex bidding process that involves requesting proposals, evaluating bids, and ultimately contracting with a provider. Now the startup Station A, founded by a pair […]
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MIT.nano has announced seven new companies to join START.nano, a program aimed at speeding the transition of hard-tech innovation to market. The program supports new ventures through discounted use of MIT.nano’s facilities and access to the MIT innovation ecosystem. The advancements pursued by the newly engages startups include wearables for health care, green alternatives to […]
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When you ask MIT students to tell you the story of how they came to Cambridge, you might hear some common themes: a favorite science teacher; an interest in computers that turned into an obsession; a bedroom decorated with NASA posters and glow-in-the-dark stars. But for a few, the road to MIT starts with an […]
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Ammonia is the most widely produced chemical in the world today, used primarily as a source for nitrogen fertilizer. Its production is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions — the highest in the whole chemical industry. Now, a team of researchers at MIT has developed an innovative way of making ammonia without the […]
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In the world of high-priced art, galleries usually act as gatekeepers. Their selective curation process is a key reason galleries in major cities often feature work from the same batch of artists. The system limits opportunities for emerging artists and leaves great art undiscovered. NALA was founded by Benjamin Gulak ’22 to disrupt the gallery […]
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In 2018, when Inc. Magazine named Boston one of the country’s top places to start a business, it highlighted one significant reason: Boston is an innovation hub for products and services catering toward the aging population. The “longevity economy” represents a massive chunk of economic opportunity: As of 2020, the over-50 market contributed $45 trillion […]
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Four MIT faculty members are among 23 world-class researchers who have been awarded the nation’s highest honors for scientists and innovators, the White House announced today. Angela Belcher and Emery Brown were each presented with the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony this afternoon, and Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, and Feng […]
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Whether you’re a fulfillment center, a manufacturer, or a distributor, speed is king. But getting products out the door quickly requires workers to know where those products are located in their warehouses at all times. That may sound obvious, but lost or misplaced inventory is a major problem in warehouses around the world. Corvus Robotics […]
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Frida Polli, a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, investor, and inventor known for her leading-edge contributions at the crossroads of behavioral science and artificial intelligence, is MIT’s new visiting innovation scholar for the 2024-25 academic year. She is the first visiting innovation scholar to be housed within the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Polli began her career in […]
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At an early age, Katie Spivakovsky learned to study the world from different angles. Dinner-table conversations at her family’s home in Menlo Park, California, often leaned toward topics like the Maillard reaction — the chemistry behind food browning — or the fascinating mysteries of prime numbers. Spivakovsky’s parents, one of whom studied physical chemistry and […]
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America is one step closer to tapping into a new and potentially limitless clean energy source today, with the announcement from MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) that it plans to build the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The announcement is the latest milestone for the company, which has made […]
Read MoreOn an otherwise dark and rainy Monday night, attendees packed Kresge Auditorium for a lively and colorful celebration of student product designs, as part of the final presentations for MIT’s popular class 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes). With “Balance!” as its theme, the vibrant show attracted hundreds of attendees along with thousands more who tuned in […]
Read MoreIf you’re looking for hard problems, building a nuclear fusion power plant is a pretty good place to start. Fusion — the process that powers the sun — has proven to be a difficult thing to recreate here on Earth despite decades of research. “There’s something very attractive to me about the magnitude of the […]
Read MoreAt MIT, collaboration between researchers working in the life sciences and engineering is a frequent occurrence. Under a new initiative launched last week, the Institute plans to strengthen and expand those collaborations to take on some of the most pressing health challenges facing the world. The new MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative, or MIT HEALS, […]
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Whether you’re manufacturing cement, steel, chemicals, or paper, you need a large amount of heat. Almost without exception, manufacturers around the world create that heat by burning fossil fuels. In an effort to clean up the industrial sector, some startups are changing manufacturing processes for specific materials. Some are even changing the materials themselves. Daniel […]
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