Design

Jesus Diaz of Co.Design explains how MIT scientists have found that Legos can be used more easily to assemble microfluidic laboratories. Historically, doing so "required expensive custom prototyping and manufacturing methods." 

MIT scientists have found that Legos can be used to create a portable, complex microfluidics lab, reports John Biggs of TechCrunch. While the Legos did have to be modified to run fine channels, the precision of the bricks and panels mean “you don’t need much more than a drill and some tubing to prototype a working microfluidics lab,” explains Biggs.

Kaya Yurieff reports for CNN that CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows the colors of 3-D printed objects to be altered after they have been fabricated. Prof. Stefanie Mueller explains that, “this sort of technology could help minimize the amount of waste that is produced from updating products."

TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have created a new system that allows users to change the color of 3-D printed objects. Heater explains that researchers, “are looking to bring color-changing properties to the 3D-printing process in an attempt to help reduce material waste.”

Marc Bain of Quartz reports that CSAIL researchers have created a system that changes the color of 3-D printed objects using UV light. The researchers hope this system will allow consumers to, “quickly match accessories to outfits, or let retail stores switch the color of clothing or other items on the spot for customers,” explains Bain. 

CSAIL researchers have developed a method that allows the color of 3-D printed objects to change after they have been printed, writes Emily Matchar for Smithsonian. The method uses, “UV light to change the pixels on an object from transparent to colored, and then a regular office projector to turn them from colored to transparent,” explains Prof. Stefanie Mueller.

Wired reporter Arielle Pardes Gear writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a new system, called ColorFab, that makes it possible to change the color of 3-D printed objects after they have been created. ColorFab allows users to change an object’s color, “by returning to the ColorFab interface, selecting the areas to recolor, and then activating those areas with UV light.”

Reporting for WBUR on the future of digital fabrication, Bruce Gellerman highlights a solar-powered architectural robot developed by MIT researchers. The robot can quickly design and build shelters for use in disaster-response situations or space exploration using a 3-D printing process. 

Bonnie Christian of Wired provides tips from experts for boosting productivity in the new year. A recent renovation by Prof. Carlo Ratti allows workers to adjust their lighting and temperature to “create a kind of thermal bubble, which follows each individual, allowing better comfort and a reduction of energy waste,” he explains.

A team of MIT students and postdocs has taken the top prize in the architecture category of the 2017 Mars City Design competition, reports Janussa Delzo for Newsweek. Delzo notes that the MIT team’s tree-inspired concept features “domes or tree habitats...large enough for 50 people to live inside of them."

Prof. Alan Berger shares his ideas for creating suburbs that attract tech savvy and environmentally conscious millennials in The New York Times. “Millennial suburbanites want a new kind of landscape. They want breathing room but disdain the energy wastefulness, visual monotony and social conformity of postwar manufactured neighborhoods.” 

Metropolis selected Boston as one of the best design cities in the world, highlighting MIT's School of Architecture and Planning and the Fab Lab as key drivers of the city’s success. “Here in Boston our biotech and high-tech industries are offering designers incredible opportunities to express their creativity,” says Hashim Sarkis, dean of SA+P. “It’s a place where design is being pushed to new frontiers.”

Tangible Media Group researchers have created shape-shifting, edible pasta, writes Grace Williams for Fox News. The pasta, which transforms from a flat sheet into 3-D shapes, could cut packaging and shipping costs for “large supermarkets, mountain hikers and Mars travelers, or whoever has the need of saving shipping spaces,” says former MIT graduate student Lining Yao.

MIT was named the top university in the world for the sixth consecutive year in the QS World University Rankings, reports Kyle Scott Clauss for Boston Magazine. 

Reporting for WGBH about new technologies that can help reduce carbon emissions, Heather Goldstone spotlights how Media Lab researchers have developed shape-changing noodles that transform from a flat sheet of gelatin into 3-D shapes when dropped in water. “Those flat sheets can be shipped more efficiently,” explains Goldstone.