Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Deeper, more targeted intervention of brain disorders

Nir Grossman is the 2018 grand prize winner of the Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation, for his research on a new strategy to stimulate deep and specific regions of the brain without surgery.

Introducing the latest in textiles: Soft hardware

The latest development in textiles and fibers is a kind of soft hardware that you can wear: cloth that has electronic devices built right into it.

Paving the way to highly stretchable and transparent electronics

Scientists have proposed a novel method for the fabrication of highly transparent, electrically conductive, stretchable tough hydrogels modified by single-walled carbon nanotubes.

C2Sense, Inc.

They provide a gas sensing data analytics subscription service, enabled by their proprietary CNT chemiresistive gas sensors, to analyze and detect multi-gases with high selectivity in complex environments.

Solar cells need to slim down

Thin-film solar cells could be 1/100th the thickness of a piece of paper and flexible enough to festoon surfaces ranging from an aerodynamically sleek car to clothing. To make thin-film solar cells, scientists are moving beyond the "classic" semiconductor compounds, such as gallium arsenide or silicon, and working instead with other light-harvesting compounds that have the potential to be cheaper and easier to mass produce. The compounds could be widely adopted if they could perform as well as today's technology.

Cell-sized robots

Researchers have created what may be the smallest robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on minuscule particles called colloids.

"Blind" Cheetah 3 robot can climb stairs littered with obstacles

MIT's Cheetah 3 robot can now leap and gallop across rough terrain, climb a staircase littered with debris, and quickly recover its balance when suddenly yanked or shoved, all while essentially blind.

Crop-counting robot earns top recognition

Today's crop breeders are trying to boost yields while also preparing crops to withstand severe weather and changing climates. To succeed, they must locate genes for high-yielding, hardy traits in crop plants' DNA.

Personalized deep learning equips robots for autism therapy

Children with autism spectrum conditions often have trouble recognizing the emotional states of people around them — distinguishing a happy face from a fearful face, for instance. To remedy this, some therapists use a kid-friendly robot to demonstrate those emotions and to engage the children in imitating the emotions and responding to them in appropriate ways.

Magnetic 3-D-printed structures crawl, roll, jump, and play catch

New printing technique could be used to develop remotely controlled biomedical devices.

Strategic development agreement for transparent solar glass

AGC and Ubiquitous Energy announce strategic development agreement for transparent solar glass. AGC the world's largest producer of flat glass, has entered into a strategic development agreement with Ubiquitous Energy, the leader in transparent solar technology. The collaboration will focus on the development of Ubiquitous Energy's transparent and color neutral solar coating to create windows that produce electricity.

Phoneme project creates new haptic communications future

Communication could step beyond reading a cellular phone screen with a new technique by researchers to learn and read messages through a person's sense of touch.

Chip upgrade helps miniature drones navigate

Researchers at MIT, who last year designed a tiny computer chip tailored to help honeybee-sized drones navigate, have now shrunk their chip design even further, in both size and power consumption.

Diesel Genset Sales will Collapse

Tightening emissions regulations make diesel cars more expensive to make, so it is only a few years before pure electric cars will be cheaper to make. This was predicted ten years ago by IDTechEx to be around 2022 for small cars and that date is now confirmed by several car manufacturers.

MIT engineers build smart power outlet

An MIT team has developed a solution that they are calling a "smart power outlet," in the form of a device that can analyze electrical current usage from a single or multiple outlets, and can distinguish between benign arcs — harmless electrical spikes such as those caused by common household appliances — and dangerous arcs, such as sparking that results from faulty wiring and could lead to a fire. The device can also be trained to identify what might be plugged into a particular outlet, such as a fan versus a desktop computer.

Artificial intelligence senses people through walls

X-ray vision has long seemed like a far-fetched sci-fi fantasy, but over the last decade a team of researchers has continually gotten us closer to seeing through walls.

Teaching chores to an artificial agent

For many people, household chores are a dreaded, inescapable part of life that we often put off or do with little care. But what if a robot assistant could help lighten the load?

King Jim and E Ink Unveil the Pomera DM30 Digital Typewriter

E Ink Holdings announced that its patented ePaper display technology has been used in the development of the Pomera DM30, a portable digital typewriter produced by King Jim.

Robotic rehab device

Scientist examines the use of non-invasive technology to increase the restoration of arm/hands and leg/ankle movement after neurological injury such as stroke. Along with collaborators he developed interactive robotic assist devices, which move the paralyzed limb when the patient cannot, and knows not to assist when the patient can power the movement.