Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)

Researchers present at the MIT-Takeda launch event earlier this year.

MIT-Takeda program launches

Research projects will harness the power of artificial intelligence to positively impact human health.

June 18, 2020

An MIT study shows viewers’ attention shifts the longer they gaze at an image. Given just a half-second to look at the photo at left, in online experiments, they focused on the elephant, as shown in this heat map.

What jumps out in a photo changes the longer we look

Researchers capture our shifting gaze in a model that suggests how to prioritize visual information based on viewing duration.

June 17, 2020

PhD student Geeticka Chauhan is finishing up a project integrating visual analysis of chest radiographs and textual analysis of radiology reports, to help clinicians assess the proper balance of treatments for acute heart failure.

Learning the ropes and throwing lifelines

PhD student Geeticka Chauhan draws on her experiences as an international student to strengthen the bonds of her MIT community.

June 8, 2020

We’re approaching the limit of how small transistors can get. As a result, over the past decade researchers have been working to find other ways to improve performance so that the computer industry can continue to innovate.

If transistors can’t get smaller, then coders have to get smarter

MIT CSAIL researchers say improving computing technology after Moore's Law will require more efficient software, new algorithms, and specialized hardware.

June 5, 2020

Professor Ted Adelson's team created a soft robotic finger that uses embedded cameras and deep learning to enable high-resolution tactile sensing and “proprioception” (awareness of positions and movements of the body).

Giving soft robots feeling

In a pair of papers from MIT CSAIL, two teams enable better sense and perception for soft robotic grippers.

June 1, 2020

A new algorithm, called the Fast Loaded Dice Roller (FLDR), simulates the roll of dice to produce random integers. The dice, in this case, could have any number of sides, and they are “loaded,” or weighted, to make some sides more likely to come up than others.

Algorithm quickly simulates a roll of loaded dice

Approach for generating numbers at random may help analyses of complex systems, from Earth’s climate to financial markets.

May 28, 2020

Microsoft President Brad Smith’s conversation with MIT Professor Daniela Rus on May 14 spanned a wide range of topics, from the challenges of Covid-19 to the security of online voting. The event was held as part of MIT’s “Hot Topics in Computing” series.

Microsoft President Brad Smith talks data, Covid-19, and a potential “digital 9/11”

Smith spoke with CSAIL Director Daniela Rus as part of a special series co-presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

May 21, 2020

White blood cells are among the first to mount an attack against sepsis, a deadly complication of Covid-19. In a project led by MIT Professor Daniela Rus, researchers are developing a machine learning system to detect an activated immune response to sepsis which could lead to earlier, more aggressive treatment. Here, a white blood cell attacks malaria.

Marshaling artificial intelligence in the fight against Covid-19

The MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab is funding 10 research projects aimed at addressing the health and economic consequences of the pandemic.

May 19, 2020

Sapple, a system developed at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, analyzes in-home appliance usage to better understand health patterns, using just radio signals and a smart electricity meter.

What can your microwave tell you about your health?

An MIT system uses wireless signals to measure in-home appliance usage to better understand health tendencies.

May 18, 2020

MIT researchers have developed a kind of creativity test for generative models to see how far they can go in visualizing objects in photos from various angles and in different colors. The tool shows how much the model's imagination depends on the variety of images it has seen.

Visualizing the world beyond the frame

Researchers test how far artificial intelligence models can go in dreaming up varied poses and colors of objects and animals in photos.

May 6, 2020

Abhijit Banerjee, Bonnie Berger, and Roger Summons (left to right) are new members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Three from MIT elected to the National Academy of Sciences for 2020

Faculty members Abhijit Banerjee, Bonnie Berger, and Roger Summons elected by peers for outstanding contributions to research.

May 1, 2020

MIT researchers have proposed a technique for shrinking deep learning models that they say is simpler and produces more accurate results than state-of-the-art methods. It works by retraining the smaller, pruned model at its faster, initial learning rate.

A foolproof way to shrink deep learning models

Researchers unveil a pruning algorithm to make artificial intelligence applications run faster.

April 30, 2020

MIT researchers used machine learning to find entirely new algorithms for encoding exploration. Their machine-designed algorithms outperformed human-designed algorithms on the wide range of simulated tasks and environments shown here.

Automating the search for entirely new “curiosity” algorithms

Researchers show that computers can “write” algorithms that adapt to radically different environments better than algorithms designed by humans.

April 28, 2020

“These are truly unprecedented times,” says MIT Professor Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai Technologies. “The internet is being used at a scale that the world has never experienced.”

3 Questions: Tom Leighton on the major surge in internet traffic triggered by physical distancing

Mathematician and CEO of web services company Akamai looks ahead to how the pandemic-driven shift to remote working might change society.

April 27, 2020

Lead author Joseph DelPreto controls a "Conduct-A-Bot" drone with his arm muscles.

Muscle signals can pilot a robot

CSAIL's Conduct-A-Bot system uses muscle signals to cue a drone’s movement, enabling more natural human-robot communication.