Media Lab

MIT engineers have devised a way to automate the process of monitoring neurons in a living brain using a computer algorithm that analyzes microscope images and guides a robotic arm to the target cell. In this image, a pipette guided by a robotic arm approaches a neuron identified with a fluorescent stain.

Robotic system monitors specific neurons

Success rate is comparable to that of highly trained scientists performing the process manually.

August 30, 2017

Danielle Wood spoke at the Media Lab’s space event, Beyond the Cradle, in March. She will join the faculty full-time in January 2018.

Danielle Wood joins Media Lab faculty

MIT alumna is establishing a new research group aimed at harnessing space engineering to improve life on Earth.

August 28, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a system that enables small, safe, aerial drones to read RFID tags in large warehouses at a distance of several meters, while identifying the tags’ locations with an average error of about 19 centimeters.

Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

System could save retailers billions lost through faulty inventory records.

August 25, 2017

A three-day hackathon on campus brought together students and researchers from MIT and around Boston who developed functional fabric concepts to solve major issues facing soldiers in combat or training, first responders, victims and workers in refugee camps, and many others.

Hacking functional fabrics to aid emergency response

MIT and other innovators design novel solutions for the battlefield, disaster sites, and other dangerous environments.

August 1, 2017

After piloting its smart microgardening system in Boston homes and restaurants, and following a successful Kickstarter campaign last fall, SproutsIO is ramping up production and hitting the shelves in a few months.

SproutsIO aims to power a “Personal Produce” movement

Smart, soil-free microgarden lets users optimize growing conditions while cutting water and resource use.

July 26, 2017

Left to right: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Media Lab Director Joi Ito joined Disobedience Award finalists Phyllis Young and LaDonna Brave Bull Allard; Betina Kaplan and Lorgia García-Peña; and James Hansen; along with winners Marc Edwards and Mona Hanna-Attisha.

Defiance: Disobedience for the good of all

MIT Media Lab summer event explores responsible dissent, embodied in its new Disobedience Award.

July 25, 2017

Twine has developed a platform that lets users build customized disease-management and care plans on an app, which then sends alerts about when to take medications, tracks the patient’s various health goals, and offers key analytics, among other features.

Coaching platform improves health outcomes, lowers medical costs

New app lets patients work alone or with others to prevent, monitor, and reverse chronic disease.

July 21, 2017

A new technique for imaging biopsy samples relies on an approach known as expansion microscopy, in which the researchers expand a tissue sample to 100 times its original volume before imaging it.

Microscopy technique could enable more informative biopsies

Expanding tissue samples before imaging offers detailed information about disease.

July 17, 2017

MIT researchers have developed a sampling scheme that is unconstrained by bandwidth, allowing analog-to-digital conversion without “clipping."

Ultra-high-contrast digital sensing

Technique could lead to cameras that can handle light of any intensity, audio that doesn’t skip or pop.

July 14, 2017

mPath's MOXO sensor is a wearable that resembles a bulky smartwatch. Placed on the wrist, it wirelessly measures changes in skin conductance (subtle electrical changes across the skin), which reflect sympathetic nervous system activity and physiological arousal. Spikes in conductance can signal stress and frustration, while dips may indicate disinterest or boredom.

Wearable device reveals consumer emotions

Startup’s stress sensor tracks users’ unconscious responses to products and experiences.

July 12, 2017

By comparing 1.6 million pairs of photos taken seven years apart, researchers have now used a new computer vision system to quantify the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods in five American cities, in an attempt to identify factors that predict urban change. Pictured are two street views, with the old photograph on the left and the new photograph on the right.

Why do some neighborhoods improve?

Density of highly educated residents, rather than income or housing costs, predicts revitalization.

July 6, 2017

Researchers demonstrate their scanning technique, with a user holding a monopod-mounted Kinect at close range from a T. Rex skull.

Researchers use Kinect to scan T. rex skull

System with $150 worth of hardware offers alternative to 3-D scanners that cost 200 times as much.

July 5, 2017

The proximity of the new headquarters of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) Institute to MIT's campus will help connect students and faculty to new facilities, including the Fabric Discovery Center that provides end-to-end prototyping from fiber design to system integration of new textile-based products.

Advanced Functional Fabrics of America opens headquarters steps from MIT campus

New AFFOA facility represents a significant MIT investment in advanced manufacturing innovation.

June 19, 2017

At a "pitch and demo" DesignX accelerator event, Department of Urban Studies and Planning student Riddhi Shah, lead for the Kumej project, makes her pitch to the crowd. Kumej is a light, collapsible seat designed to enable underprivileged students in India to carry and create their own comfortable work surface, whether at a construction site where their parents work or in a rural school.

Design innovations for improved life in cities

Venture accelerator DesignX unleashes entrepreneurs’ ideas to transform the built environment.

June 13, 2017

Metafluidics.org, a new MIT open-source website, supplies blueprints for microfluidic parts. Pictured are a few photographs from the website.

Microfluidics for the masses

New open-source website features blueprints for lab-on-a-chip devices.