Every year, the student robot competition in class 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) is centered around a unifying theme. From “Star Wars” to “Back to the Future” and “Willy Wonka,” the theme is reflected in the gameboards where robots designed and built by mechanical engineering students compete for points. On Thursday, May 5, the event […]
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An independent study project this spring provided eight MIT students with a unique opportunity to learn about some of the most consequential events in U.S. civil rights history. The eight students — Courtney Jacobovits, Naman Galhotra, Clyde-Blaise Niba, Chavie Sharfman Sosa, Johana Muriel Grajales, Jordan Dominguez, Patrick Akujobi, and Vanessa Labrador — are all MBA […]
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Even for a second-year PhD student researching the mechanics of living cells, the influence of physical forces within the world of living things is a source of wonder. “I did undergrad in engineering mechanics, and ever since I started to look at cells, the more I’ve found it fascinating to look at them as delicate […]
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MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is a crucible for technological innovation, but one of the most important aspects of the program’s leading global status has nothing to do with computers or circuits, artificial intelligence, or algorithms. It has to do with an elite group of educators who have dedicated their careers to […]
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To truly engage the climate crisis, as so many at MIT are doing, can be daunting and draining. But it need not be lonely. Building collective insight and companionship for this undertaking is the aim of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future (CUHF), an international network launched at Clark University in 2014 and active […]
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MIT’s faculty meeting on Wednesday had a special guest: Graduate student Alvin Harvey SM ’20 spoke on behalf of students, faculty, and staff who have been drawing attention to MIT’s historical relationship with Indigenous peoples and examining how the Institute can build durable support for its Indigenous community. One vehicle for that work has been […]
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Tackling the climate crisis is central to MIT. Critical to this mission is harnessing the innovation, passion, and expertise of MIT’s talented students, from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. To help raise this student involvement to the next level, the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) recently launched a program that will engage MIT […]
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Researching history in the MIT archives is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, according to junior Jupneet Singh. “You get a name from here, a picture from here” and you begin to piece together stories about people from the past, says Singh, who has been diving into the archives this spring for class 21H.S04 (South […]
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After serving millions of learners around the world for the last 20 years, MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) has launched its next-generation platform to allow for flexible growth, experimentation, and evolution in open learning. MIT’s “NextGen OCW” offers a new and improved experience for learners, more support for educators, additional opportunities for open education collaboration, and a […]
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As robots evolve, society’s collective imagination forever ponders what else robots can do, with recent fascinations coming to life as self-driving cars or robots that can walk and interact with objects as humans do. These sophisticated systems are powered by advances in deep learning that triggered breakthroughs in robotic perception, so that robots today have […]
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In an ongoing series, MIT faculty, students, and alumni in the humanistic fields share perspectives that are significant for solving the economic, political, ethical, and cultural dimensions of climate change, as well as mitigating its myriad social and ecological impacts. Bettina Stoetzer is the Class of 1948 Career Development Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT; […]
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MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node welcomed 33 students to its flagship program, MIT Entrepreneurship and Maker Skills Integrator (MEMSI). Designed to develop entrepreneurial prowess through exposure to industry-driven challenges, MIT students joined forces with Hong Kong peers in this two-week hybrid bootcamp, developing unique proposals for the Airport Authority of Hong Kong. Many airports across […]
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In a process that has taken place for more than 60 years at MIT, this week a group of students gathered to practice entrepreneurship at a whirlwind pace designed to mimic the steep learning curve required to start a company. MIT’s course 15.390 (New Enterprises) has been held every year since 1961 — a time […]
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During this year’s Independent Activities Period, a group of 29 first- and second-year students immersed themselves in wildfire suppression and search-and-rescue missions. Not literally, of course; these projects were aircraft autonomy simulations, yet they couldn’t be more timely, given the growing incidence of natural disasters attributed to climate change. The two missions were at the […]
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Kendall Square has been called the most innovative square mile in the United States, in part due to the high density of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies in the MIT-adjacent neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts — but more so thanks to the generations of MIT-trained doctoral students who have pursued careers in these local companies after graduation. […]
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The Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program (GEL Program) recently revamped and relaunched 16.810 (Engineering Design and Rapid Prototyping), an existing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics course last taught in 2012 that was updated to center on a new multidisciplinary project focused on the fundamental skills in engineering design. D-PRO serves as one of five […]
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Artificial intelligence research is constantly developing new hypotheses that have the potential to benefit society and industry; however, sometimes these benefits are not fully realized due to a lack of engineering tools. To help bridge this gap, graduate students in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science’s 6-A Master of Engineering (MEng) Thesis […]
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Rachel Myers was just 3 years old when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Already a science-minded kid, watching her mom’s resilience in the face of the invasive treatments made her intimately familiar with the symptoms and side effects of cancer treatment. During a high school internship at the National Institutes of Health she […]
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Understanding the broader societal context of technology is becoming ever more critical as advances in computing show no signs of slowing. As students code, experiment, and build systems, being able to ask questions and make sense of hard problems involving social and ethical responsibility is as important as the technology they’re studying and developing. To […]
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The Festival of Learning is an annual event for MIT faculty, students, and staff, co-sponsored by MIT Open Learning and the Office of the Vice Chancellor to examine excellent learning practices and research. After a hiatus in 2021, the Festival of Learning resumed this January with a virtual format to explore how education at MIT […]
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Growing up in Rwanda, Carene Umubyeyi learned at a young age the importance of community, adaptability, and education. At the age of 8, she moved to Michigan for a few years while her parents earned their graduate degrees. During that time, she had to learn a new language and integrate into a new culture. As […]
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While people turn to digital media for news at high rates, algorithms for manipulating media continue to grow more powerful. In a Pew Research Center survey (August/September 2020), 53 percent of adults in the United States say they get news from social media “often” or “sometimes.” People have long been aware of phenomena such as “doctored” […]
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Jeana Choi and Lisa Yoo had already bonded over their appreciation for Korean music when they decided to organize a K-pop course at MIT during the Institute’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) this January. Both graduating fifth-year master’s students in electrical engineering and computer science, Choi and Yoo became friends in class 21M.294 (Popular Musics of […]
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What does a sunset sound like? Or ascending shades of red? Now you can listen in via the Sonification Toolkit, a polished, up-and-running prototype from a year-long initiative powered by the combined imagination and expertise of two dozen MIT undergraduates. The latest major endeavor from MIT’s Digital Humanities Lab (DH Lab) began last spring with […]
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“I grew up thinking government was useless,” says Michelle Tang. Today, the aerospace engineering major is engaged in community organizing and plans a career in public service and policy. Central to Tang’s change of heart, and direction, was an immersive summer 2021 internship as a legislative assistant for Massachusetts State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven, working on […]
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After a career devoted to making the electric power system more efficient and resilient, Marija Ilic came to MIT in 2018 eager not just to extend her research in new directions, but to prepare a new generation for the challenges of the clean-energy transition. To that end, Ilic, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Laboratory […]
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On Tuesday, Nov. 30, Gilda A. Barabino, president of Olin College of Engineering and professor of biomedical and chemical engineering, spoke to a hybrid audience of approximately 80 people, sharing thoughts and perspectives she’d gained during her career as a leader in the engineering field. Her presentation, “Engineering for Everyone: Centering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” […]
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A programming language textbook might not be the first thing you’d expect to see when walking into a correctional facility. The creators of the Brave Behind Bars program are hoping to change that. Founded in 2020, Brave Behind Bars is a pandemic-born introductory computer science and career-readiness program for incarcerated women, based out of The […]
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MIT undergraduates are using labs at MIT.nano to tinker at the nanoscale, exploring spectrometry, nanomaterial synthesis, photovoltaics, sensor fabrication, and other topics. They’re also getting an experience not common at the undergraduate level — gowning up in a bunny suit and performing hands-on research inside a clean room. During the fall 2021 semester, these students […]
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As a Martian lander descends toward the Red Planet’s surface, when can its parachute be safely deployed? Open it too early, while the lander is hurtling through the atmosphere, and it might tear off — but open it too late and the lander might not slow down enough to prevent a catastrophic crash landing. There […]
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