Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Ultrathin device harvests electricity from human motion

Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting down.

AI suggests recipes based on food photos

Researchers believe that analyzing photos could help us learn recipes and better understand people's eating habits.

Non-toxic alternative for next-generation solar cells

Researchers have demonstrated how a non-toxic alternative to lead could form the basis of next-generation solar cells.

Finding leaks while they're easy to fix

Access to clean, safe water is one of the world's pressing needs, yet today's water distribution systems lose an average of 20 percent of their supply because of leaks. These leaks not only make shortages worse but also can cause serious structural damage to buildings and roads by undermining foundations.

Bringing neural networks to cellphones

In recent years, the best-performing artificial-intelligence systems — in areas such as autonomous driving, speech recognition, computer vision, and automatic translation — have come courtesy of software systems known as neural networks. But neural networks take up a lot of memory and consume a lot of power, so they usually run on servers in the cloud, which receive data from desktop or mobile devices and then send back their analyses.

Pushing the limits of athletic performance

Researchers have designed an energy-harvesting shoe to convert each stride into power. Air bladders embedded in the sole of the shoe convert the foot's impact into airflow along the runner's gait.

Personalized cancer vaccine

A personal cancer treatment vaccine that targets distinctive "neoantigens" on tumor cells has been shown to stimulate a potent, safe, and highly specific immune anti-tumor response in melanoma patients.

Computer system predicts products of chemical reactions

A computer system that's trained on thousands of examples of experimental reactions and that learns to predict what a reaction's major products will be.

Wireless charging of moving electric vehicles overcomes major hurdle

If electric cars could recharge while driving down a highway, it would virtually eliminate concerns about their range and lower their cost, perhaps making electricity the standard fuel for vehicles.

Liquid tin-sulfur compound shows thermoelectric potential

Glass and steel makers produce large amounts of wasted heat energy at high temperatures, but solid-state thermoelectric devices that convert heat to electricity either don't operate at high enough temperatures or cost so much that their use is limited to special applications such as spacecraft.

Research aims to make artificial intelligence explain itself

Eight computer science professors in Oregon State University's College of Engineering have received a $6.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to make artificial-intelligence-based systems like autonomous vehicles and robots more trustworthy.

A noninvasive method for deep brain stimulation

Researchers have come up with a way to stimulate regions deep within the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp.

Giving robots a sense of touch

By mounting GelSight sensors on the grippers of robotic arms, teams have given robots greater sensitivity and dexterity.

Researchers design moisture-responsive workout suit

A team of researchers has designed a breathable workout suit with ventilating flaps that open and close in response to an athlete's body heat and sweat. These flaps, which range from thumbnail- to finger-sized, are lined with live microbial cells that shrink and expand in response to changes in humidity.

Possibilities of biosensors as a tattooed interface

Can tattoos embrace technology in order to make the skin interactive?

Wearable designed to lighten load for marines

Flat, scale-like load sensors are placed within the boot insole to measure the user's weight during activities such as standing, walking and running.

C-Turtle robot teaches itself to get around

C-Turtle has to dig hard to propel itself across the sand, but not so hard it digs holes. Nature-inspired, the design succeeds.

Researchers engineer shape-shifting noodles

Researchers are finding ways to make the dining experience interactive and fun, with food that can transform its shape when water is added.

Blockchain technology for development of new mobility ecosystem

Blockchain and distributed ledger technology for use in the development of a new mobility ecosystem that could accelerate development of autonomous driving technology.

Teaching robots to teach other robots

Researchers have developed a system which allows noncoders to teach robots a range of tasks simply by providing some information about how objects are typically manipulated and then showing the robot a single demo of the task.