![“It’s very inspiring to see how these [hair-like] structures occur in nature and how they can achieve different functions,” says Jifei Ou, a graduate student in media arts and sciences at MIT. “We’re just trying to think how can we fully utilize the potential of 3-D printing, and create new functional materials whose properties are easily tunable and controllable.” Pictured is an examp...](/sites/default/files/styles/term_page__news_article/public/images/201606/MIT-PrintingHair.jpg?itok=3T6UnWhD)
Need hair? Press “print”
With fur, brushes, and bristles, Media Lab’s technique opens new frontier in 3-D printing.
Using engineering savvy to improve product designs
From windmills to software, graduate student Ned Burnell creates better tools.
![“[T]oday, if you want to write a program, you go and bring in these huge frameworks and these huge pieces of functionality that you then glue together, and you write a little code to get them to interact with each other. If you don’t understand what that big framework is doing, you’re not even going to know where your program is going to start executing,” says Armando Solar-Lezama.](/sites/default/files/styles/term_page__news_article/public/images/201605/MIT-Symbolic-Execution.jpg?itok=A5FxILHQ)
Automatic bug finder
System could make complex analysis practical for programs that import huge swaths of code.
3-D Printing 101
As MIT course challenges students to reinvent 3-D printing, professor aims to share approach with others.
Patching up Web applications
New debugging method found 23 undetected security flaws in 50 popular Web applications.
Plotting the complex path of products
Startup’s software maps out convoluted supply chains for companies and consumers
Startup optimizes corporate health care plans
Software mines insurance claims data to determine best coverage for employees, within a budget.
Realizing your true (solar) potential
Mapping website tells building owners if going solar is worth the cost of installation.
Watch your tone
Voice-analytics software helps customer-service reps build better rapport with customers.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory receives three 2015 R&D 100 Awards
Three software products named among 100 most technologically significant innovations of 2015.
NASA gives MIT a humanoid robot to develop software for future space missions
Team led by Professor Russ Tedrake of CSAIL to develop algorithms for 6-foot-tall “Valkyrie” robot to travel to Mars and beyond.
More personalized online shopping
Startup’s platform analyzes data from multiple sources to better predict buying preferences.
Drive-by heat mapping
Startup’s thermal-imaging cars can quickly track energy leaks in thousands of homes and buildings.
Harnessing error-prone chips
New system would allow programmers to easily trade computational accuracy for energy savings.
Hacking for good
Alumni's software uses hacking tricks to catch vulnerabilities on websites before they're exploited.