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Have you ever plugged in a vacuum cleaner, only to have it turn off without warning before the job is done? Or perhaps your desk lamp works fine, until you turn on the air conditioner that’s plugged...
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During high school, Prosper Nyovanie had to alter his daily and nightly schedules to accommodate the frequent power outages that swept cities across Zimbabwe.
“[Power] would go almost every day — it...
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With the push of a button, months of hard work were about to be put to the test. Sixteen teams of engineers convened in a cavernous exhibit hall in Nagoya, Japan, for the 2017 Amazon Robotics...
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Ryan Eustice’s interest in self-driving cars began 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. As a PhD student in the joint MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Program, Eustice focused on...
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A new system devised by MIT engineers could provide a low-cost source of drinking water for parched cities around the world while also cutting power plant operating costs.
About 39 percent of all the...
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2017 was one of the most destructive hurricane seasons on record. Hurricane Harvey left the streets of Houston flooded. Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, leaving millions without power for months...
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In spring 2018, the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) awarded nine grants totaling $1,350,000 through its Seed Fund Program, an annual competition that supports early-stage innovative research across the...
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“Who is Bram Stoker?” Those three words demonstrated the amazing potential of artificial intelligence. It was the answer to a final question in a particularly memorable 2011 episode of Jeopardy!. The...
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MIT graduate students Tyler Clites, Maher Damak, and Guy Satat are among 14 collegiate inventors awarded the 2018 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which recognizes young inventors who have designed and...
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Compression therapy is a standard form of treatment for patients who suffer from venous ulcers and other conditions in which veins struggle to return blood from the lower extremities. Compression...
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MIT engineers have designed a robotic glider that can skim along the water’s surface, riding the wind like an albatross while also surfing the waves like a sailboat.
In regions of high wind, the...
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Is sand a solid, a liquid, or a gas? It’s a question that has plagued scientist for centuries. If a jogger runs on a beach, sand acts as a solid and supports their weight. Put it in an hourglass, and...
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Observing the world’s oceans is increasingly a mission assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) — marine robots that are designed to drift, drive, or glide through the ocean without any real...
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Which is a better deal: an established, off-the-shelf type of solar panel or a cutting-edge type that delivers more power for a given area but costs more?
It turns out that’s far from a simple...
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The future of the internal combustion engine, with some 2 billion in use in the world today, was a hot topic at last week’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress in Detroit. There,...
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MIT engineers have developed a continuous manufacturing process that produces long strips of high-quality graphene.
The team’s results are the first demonstration of an industrial, scalable method...
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If you were to ask someone to name a new technology that emerged from MIT in the 21st century, there’s a good chance they would name the robotic cheetah. Developed by the MIT Department of Mechanical...
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A new approach to analyzing and designing new ion conductors — a key component of rechargeable batteries — could accelerate the development of high-energy lithium batteries, and possibly other energy...
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Over 17 million people around the world are forced to flee their homes by conflict or persecution each year. After enduring the long and treacherous passage to safety, many refugees arrive at...
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It seems like getting something for nothing, but you really can get drinkable water right out of the driest of desert air.
Even in the most arid places on Earth, there is some moisture in the air,...