News Wire - MechE Stories from the MIT News Office 
Entrepreneurial students dive into product design and developmentA subway commuter digs through his backpack to find his iPad. A college student lugs a bag of dirty clothes to the laundry room in her dorm. A rushed Starbucks customer tears open a paper sugar packet.
Whirr, click, hum: Robots go at it in 2.007 finale
MIT’s Johnson Athletic Center took on the aura of an old-fashioned county fair on Thursday night, complete with popcorn, balloons, jugglers, cotton candy and pitchmen wearing brightly colored jackets and bowties. But rather than ring tosses and sheep-shearing, the central event was a series of one-on-one matchups between an amazing variety of robots that students have spent the whole semester designing, building and testing.
Woodie Flowers, a pioneer of hands-on engineering education
This is part of a series of articles linking the work of MIT’s emeritus faculty members with the current state of research in their given fields.
New technique predictably generates complex, wavy shapes
The flexible properties of hydrogels — highly absorbent, gelatinous polymers that shrink and expand depending on environmental conditions such as humidity, pH and temperature — have made them ideal for applications from contact lenses to baby diapers and adhesives.
Through a glass, clearly
One of the most instantly recognizable features of glass is the way it reflects light. But a new way of creating surface textures on glass, developed by researchers at MIT, virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare — and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right off, like tiny rubber balls.
New method to prevent undersea ice clogs
During the massive oil spill from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in 2010, it seemed at first like there might be a quick fix: a containment dome lowered onto the broken pipe to capture the flow so it could be pumped to the surface and disposed of properly. But that attempt quickly failed, because the dome almost instantly became clogged with frozen methane hydrate.
Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert CO2
Copper — the stuff of pennies and tea kettles — is also one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy. When fashioned into an electrode and stimulated with voltage, copper acts as a strong catalyst, setting off an electrochemical reaction with carbon dioxide that reduces the greenhouse gas to methane or methanol.
MIT students teach hands-on learning abroad
“At MIT, I have had the opportunity to study a broad range of topics in chemistry and to conduct cutting-edge research,” senior Tara Mokhtari says. “But what I love most is sharing the chemistry I study, and knowledge of my research projects, with other people. MISTI Global Teaching Labs offered me a unique opportunity to share my love of science and learning, while simultaneously deepening my understanding of another culture and way of life.”
Shifting sands
Sand in an hourglass might seem simple and straightforward, but such granular materials are actually tricky to model. From far away, flowing sand resembles a liquid, streaming down the center of an hourglass like water from a faucet. But up close, one can make out individual grains that slide against each other, forming a mound at the base that holds its shape, much like a solid.
Water world
Video: Melanie Gonick
