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A soft robot could help doctors diagnose and treat disorders of the small intestine
MIT engineers designed a robotic enteroscope that can inch through the hard-to-reach small intestine, making biopsies and drug delivery easier.
Global Climate Change: Understand Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation
Connect climate hazards with exposure and vulnerability, distinguish adaptation from mitigation and frame a useful local climate question.
NIH–NASA QuSAFE Challenge
3 Questions: Why infrastructure is entering a defining era
Professor Ali Jadbabaie describes how AI, digital transformation, climate change, and complex geopolitics are forcing engineers and policymakers to rethink how infrastructure is designed, built, and managed.
Radio Telescope Antennas: How Arrays Make an Image
Understand baselines, resolution, sensitivity and missing spatial scales, then read an ALMA image with the right context.
Envía tu nombre a Titán a bordo de la misión Dragonfly de la NASA
Origami-based construction method yields lightweight, load-bearing structures on architectural scales
The modular approach could be used to erect emergency shelters or fabricate aerospace components more quickly and with less material than some techniques.
WISE: How to Explore an Infrared Sky Survey
Find WISE archive images, compare infrared bands, choose between coadds and single exposures, and recognize common artifacts.
Send Your Name to Titan Aboard NASA’s Dragonfly Mission
At New York Climate Week 2026, MIT connects with a global network
A cross-section of the MIT community convened discussions on topics ranging from data centers and super pollutants to agriculture and education.
Biogas: Understand Feedstocks, Upgrading and Climate Claims
Trace a biogas project from feedstock to end use, then assess gas treatment, methane losses, energy use, digestate and the alternative waste pathway.
NASA’s ISAM State of Play: The Industry Standard for Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing
Startup plans to rejuvenate the nuclear power industry with a new manufacturing approach
Founded by Jake Jurewicz ’14, SM ’15, Blue Energy aims to manufacture giant pieces of nuclear reactors at shipyards and ship them on barges for final assembly.
Security Robots: AI Advances, Capabilities and Limits
Understand how patrol robots combine navigation, sensors and AI, what recent systems add, and where human judgment remains essential.
NASA’s Hubble Marks Way for Roman Space Telescope
Fostering community amid Kendall Square’s innovation
The 18th annual Kendall Square Association Annual Meeting explored how new technologies could be a force for shared prosperity in society.
Comets: What You See and How to Plan an Observation
Understand comet tails and brightness, use an ephemeris for your location, and plan a realistic night-sky observation.
Ghostly Cat’s Head Nebula Lurks Within Sight of NASA’s Hubble, Webb
MIT spinout makes surgical stitching more like applying a sticky note
SanaHeal has developed a biologically compatible adhesive that sticks to wet tissues to simplify a variety of surgeries.
Cloud Forests: Follow Fog, Rain and Water Through the Canopy
Understand cloud-forest water pathways and assess field or conservation claims using site conditions, a water budget and appropriately scoped evidence.
Contractor to Civil Servant: NASA Welcomes Jared Spiers
Enceladus: What Its Plumes Reveal About an Ocean World
Connect Cassini's plume measurements with ocean evidence, phosphorus and chemical energy, while distinguishing habitability from life detection.
Researchers improve weather forecasts looking two to six weeks out
A new machine-learning approach broke records for weather forecasting for an important time frame in emergency planning.
APOD: 29 October 2026 – The Horns of Venus
Environmental Monitoring: From a Question to Useful Evidence
Plan a monitoring project with a defined decision, measurable indicator, sampling design, quality checks and a response process.
Using AI to mitigate the growing environmental threat of data centers
By rethinking how large cloud computing systems operate, Associate Professor Christina Delimitrou seeks to make data centers more energy efficient.
Arnab Strikes India
Europa: Ocean Evidence, Ice-Shell Questions and Europa Clipper
Follow the evidence for Europa's ocean, understand ice-thickness uncertainty, and see which questions Europa Clipper can address.
Planning system ensures a robot’s flight path will remain collision-free
This new method, called “SANDO,” could help disaster-response robots navigate dangerous, unknown environments.
Green Roofs: Feasibility, Maintenance and Building Decisions
Prepare a green-roof feasibility brief covering building capacity, waterproofing, drainage, plant care and project-specific costs.
Computational tools for society’s most complex challenges
Associate Professor Cathy Wu uses reinforcement learning to help map out improvements to transportation and other multifaceted systems.
Infrared Telescopes: Wavelengths, Thermal Background and What Images Reveal
Compare infrared observations through wavelength, sensitivity and resolution, with examples from VISIR and Webb.
Climate Action Learning Lab bridges research and policy for effective climate solutions
J-PAL North America’s Learning Lab supported a second cohort of U.S. government and nonprofit organizations in building and using rigorous evidence to advance effective decarbonization and adaptation strategies.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Build a First Organizational Inventory
Define organizational boundaries, gather activity data and calculate a transparent first emissions estimate with clear limits.
Powered by muscle cells, a paper-thin robot swims through watery maze
MIT engineers’ new aquabot offers a way to design small, efficient “biohybrid” robots.
James Webb Space Telescope: How to Read Its Images and Spectra
Read Webb image colors, filters, scale bars and spectra, and trace an astronomical claim back to its observation.
Pressurized experiments could help wind farms generate more power
A new way of simulating wind turbines in the field shows how tweaking turbine operation could unlock tens of thousands of dollars per turbine every year.
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: How to Follow and Interpret Its Results
Follow Roman mission updates, understand its surveys and planet detections, and evaluate the evidence, calibration and uncertainty behind its results.
Robotic lab sets up and runs optics experiments on demand
The autonomous system could speed up testing of high-tech materials for applications such as solar cells, sensors, video displays, and quantum technologies.
Wastewater Treatment: Follow the Water and the Solids
Understand municipal wastewater treatment stages, read performance figures and ask useful questions about discharge, reuse and residuals.
MIT makes progress on campus climate goals
Innovative strategies, technologies, and collaborations are helping MIT advance solutions on campus and beyond.
Water Pollution Pictures: Read Visual Clues and Report Concerns
Understand what water photographs can show, document an observation clearly and find the right testing or reporting channel.
3 Questions: Putting nuclear waste into perspective
Professor Haruko Wainwright believes the risks posed by radioactive wastes cannot be properly assessed without also considering the hazards of chemical wastes.
6-Axis Robots: Reach, Payload, Tool Orientation and Selection
Understand six-axis motion, interpret payload and precision claims, and turn an application into a robot specification.
MIT spinout turns plastic waste into resilient building materials
Atlas Building Composites is commercializing MIT research to turn plastic waste into parts for buildings and other infrastructure.
Carbon Capture and Storage: Evaluate the Whole Project
Evaluate carbon-capture claims across capture, transport and geological storage, distinguishing capture rate from net avoided emissions and project readiness.
An electrochemical approach turns ammonia into pure hydrogen
An MIT team has demonstrated a more efficient way to extract pure hydrogen gas from hydrogen carrier molecules.
AI and Scientific Discovery: How Scientists and Machines Work Together
Explore how scientists use AI to predict structures, design proteins, develop hypotheses and improve research tools, then judge the evidence behind a discovery.
New method enables AI for safety-critical situations
The “HardFlow” algorithm could help generative AI models produce high-quality outputs that obey strict requirements when “pretty close” doesn’t cut it.
Compressed-Air Energy Storage: Compare Designs and Performance
Compare compressed-air storage using heat management, net power, usable duration, complete energy inputs, site requirements and operating evidence.
Study predicts large disparities in access to food, water, and energy in 2050
In some regions of the world, the poorest people may spend about 50 percent of their income on food, while the richest spend about 5 percent.
Basic Research: How Discovery Differs from Product Development
Distinguish basic research, applied research and experimental development, then evaluate scientific progress and claims about future impact.
Researchers tune into Arctic under-ice sounds and test through-ice communication
The work is part of a multiyear effort to develop a distributed sensor network for relaying data collected from this critical region.
Energy Efficiency: Evaluate Upgrades and Verify Savings
Compare building efficiency proposals using a clear baseline, consistent service conditions, complete costs and a plan to verify savings.
Researchers uncover hidden pore network within nuclear fuel
New understanding of how nuclear fuel breaks down and changes in an operating nuclear reactor could help keep some reactors running longer, will inform the next generation of nuclear reactor fuel systems.
Mobile Data Acquisition: Plan a Reliable Science Field Study
Plan a small field investigation with sensor checks, fair comparisons, time and location records, and an editable field worksheet.
System helps humans predict when self-driving cars will make mistakes
A new method, called CW-Net, translates the reasoning process of an autonomous vehicle’s AI system into understandable concepts that explain its behavior.
Green Power: Compare Renewable Electricity Offers and Claims
Compare U.S. renewable-electricity offers using cost, contract terms, renewable energy certificates and evidence supporting the advertised claim.
MIT researchers tackle the economic realities of fusion power
Their new study aims to give budding industry a framework for understanding how fusion can be profitable.
Autonomous Navigation: How a Robot Finds and Follows a Route
Trace a mobile robot's navigation loop, diagnose common route failures, and plan a small supervised test with useful evidence.
MIT engineers design a better controller for operating construction diggers
The new, more intuitive system could speed up the training process for excavator operators.
Smart Electric Meters: Understand Usage and Rate Options
Use interval meter data to distinguish power from energy, check a bill and compare time-of-use rates with a worked example.
A new way to watch heat move through electronics
MIT researchers can now precisely measure how heat moves through multilayered materials like computer chips.
Cleanroom Robots: Specify the Process and Check the Evidence
Read a robot cleanroom qualification, define the installed cell's requirements, and prepare a supplier evidence checklist.
Daniela Rus receives Bavarian Minister-President's High-Tech Prize
Director of CSAIL and MIT professor honored for her contributions to robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems.
Transmission Grid: Understand Power Flow, Voltage and Constraints
Understand electricity delivery, real and reactive power, and the different constraints that a transmission upgrade must address.
Working to automate nuclear plant operations
PhD student Lauren Fortier is building on the experience she gained operating a nuclear plant for the Navy to solve a critical hurdle in the wider adoption of the energy source.
How to Build a Robot: A First Wheeled-Robot Project
Build a small robot project in stages, program a short supervised drive, and test its movement and bump response.
For energy systems that power a reliable grid, the future is all about location
MIT researchers find that where new energy projects are built could be key to avoiding blackouts in a future with hotter weather and other challenges.
Wind Power: Understand Output, Siting and Project Tradeoffs
Interpret wind projects using rated capacity, annual generation, site evidence, grid connection and local operating impacts.
Can AI build a jet engine? JARVIS Challenge tests role of AI copilots in tough-tech engineering
MIT students designed, built, and tested a jet engine with AI copilots, assessing AI’s usefulness in developing high-performance aerospace systems.
Laser Welding Robots: Prepare a Useful Process Trial
Evaluate joint fit-up, tooling, laser access, weld quality and complete cycle time before specifying a robotic laser-welding cell.
AI agents create virtual playgrounds to help robots get crucial training data
“SceneSmith” system uses collaborative AI agents to create realistic 3D environments of places like kitchens, hotels, and living rooms, where robots can simulate everyday chores.
Manufacturing Robots: Plan a Useful First Automation Project
Assess task suitability, production capacity, integration costs and acceptance tests before specifying a robot cell.
Hydrogen: clean fuel of the future — if we can find a cheap and clean way to ship it
A team led by MIT Energy Initiative researchers developed the HyCAT tool, enabling decision-makers to explore the cost and carbon emissions of their options for shipping hydrogen fuel to their site.
Data Loggers: Plan a Measurement You Can Trust
Choose sensor range, resolution, sampling and storage intervals; handle timestamps, calibration checks, and missing data with a verified temperature example.
MIT student teams win top honors in NASA competition
Three MIT teams took five top awards in the 2026 NASA RASC-AL Competition for designing critical elements for the moon base and future missions to Mars.
Robots Make Robots: Understanding ABB's Shanghai Factory
Follow the Shanghai robot factory from announcement to opening, and understand how assembly cells, mobile logistics, data and people work together.
MIT researchers advance toward greater bandwidth, more energy-efficient communications
The FUTUR-IC research program integrates electronics and photonics in microchip systems.
E-Science: Build a Reproducible Research Workflow
Preserve research data, metadata, code, environments, and provenance. Try a verified downloadable project and distinguish reproducibility from validity.
How data centers can better manage energy use
A new study suggests flexibility in the timing of electricity consumption could lower consumer costs.
How to Photograph and Measure Fossils Without Losing Context
Document fossil specimens with scale, orientation, provenance, and uncertainty; verify image measurements and recognize bias in published photographs.
Students from across the Northeast step inside MIT.nano’s cleanroom
A hands-on boot camp teaches integrated photonics to community and four-year college students in the region.
Mass Spectrometry: Read the Signal and Understand the Evidence
Understand mass-to-charge ratio, analyzer roles, resolving power, mass error and identification limits, with a checked downloadable ppm example.
New chip could help tiny robots traverse complex environments
Researchers combined an efficient algorithm with dedicated hardware to rapidly generate 3D maps for navigation using minimal memory and power.
Research Design Tools: Turn a Question into a Testable Experiment
Plan controls, experimental units, randomization, replication and blocking, with a verified fictional filter experiment and downloadable research worksheets.
New flapping robot swims and flies like a diving bird
MIT engineers’ design could lead to a new class of aerial-aquatic vehicles for ocean exploration.
X-Ray Diffraction: What a Pattern Can—and Cannot—Tell You
Read powder X-ray diffraction patterns, check Bragg-law calculations, and understand phase identification, peak widths, and quantitative limits.
MIT in the media: For the future of tech, "Massachusetts can absolutely lead"
Leaders, faculty across MIT discuss fostering innovation and talent in Greater Boston in special series of articles published alongside the outlet's annual list of 'Tech Power Players'
Expanding and deepening climate reporting through local messengers
A new impact report shows how the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship has brought community-centered climate coverage to nearly 3 million readers and listeners.
Tiny robot boats build floating structures
MIT researchers developed FloatForm, a swarm of small aquatic robots that snap together like ants forming a raft, assembling into reconfigurable structures on the water.
Jinhua Zhao named head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning
An expert in behavioral science and transportation, Zhao combines these studies with AI and public policy to address some of the most urgent challenges facing cities.
Startup’s nuclear-inspired cooling system could make data centers more sustainable
Founded by two researchers from MIT, Ferveret reduces the amount of energy and water required to cool the chips that power AI.
LLMs help robots understand vague instructions and focus on key details
To help robots do chores in places like homes and factories, a new approach from MIT uses one language model to clarify users’ instructions, then another to ignore irrelevant info.
New laboratory at MIT aims to advance quantum research for the nation
The Quantum Systems Laboratory will catalyze quantum innovation and be open to government, academic, and industry researchers.
MIT researchers develop a low-cost technique to get lithium out of rocks
The low-temperature process could unlock cleaner lithium from America’s abundant hard rock while minimizing waste.
Exploring the societal impacts of AI
During the AI and Society Forum, leading MIT researchers examined critical questions about AI’s influence on employment and democracy.
Place-based pathways to a viable future
Living Climate Futures Symposium explores climate challenges and solutions at the community level.
A day in the life of MIT Sloan Fellow Alecia Asiamigbe
The MBA student and entrepreneur is learning to lead a more resilient future with her renewable energy company.
Could AI tell you where you left your keys?
A new spatial memory system for robots efficiently captures details about the objects they see while exploring their environment.
MIT affiliates win 2026 Hertz Foundation Fellowships
The fellowships in applied sciences, engineering, and mathematics recognize doctoral students who are pursuing solutions to the most pressing challenges in science and technology.
Startup making reusable emergency housing wins MIT $100K competition
Uplift Microhome’s modular housing units can provide their own power and water, for faster deployments.
How the war in the Middle East is impacting global energy systems
Expect energy disruptions and economic damage, especially in developing countries, and prepare to build a more resilient, sustainable energy system, says International Energy Agency executive director.
New imaging system sees through murky waters
The “Sonar-MASt3R” combines sonar and visual data to create real-time 3D maps, even in cloudy water.
Startup helps retailers track their products in real-time
Using technology invented at MIT, Cartesian’s system for locating objects could also find uses in manufacturing, logistics, and robotics.
3 Questions: Shedding light on why power grids go dark
Pablo Duenas-Martinez, a MITEI research scientist, describes the “death spiral” of events that caused the 12-hour Iberian peninsula power outage in 2025, and five lessons learned.
Q&A: Expanding MIT’s global reach through Universal Learning
Dimitris Bertsimas and Megan Mitchell discuss the motivation behind Universal Learning, and what sets the new MIT Open Learning educational initiative apart.
Ambassadors of STEM
A new MIT student club for FIRST Robotics alumni aims to promote hands-on STEM education enrichment for K-12 students.
New research enables a robot to chart a better course
By rapidly generating a smooth path plan that cuts travel time and avoids obstacles, the open-source “MIGHTY” system could streamline disaster recovery and parcel delivery.
For most US drivers, EVs offer emissions benefits and cost savings
When it comes to emissions, individual driving patterns matter as much as how “green” the regional electricity mix is, MIT researchers report.
Celebrating dorm-to-market social entrepreneurship at MIT
At the 25th IDEAS Social Innovation Incubator Showcase and Awards, 21 student-led ventures joined 1,200 alumni-led ventures tackling the world’s most pressing problems through social entrepreneurship.
Two from MIT named 2026 Knight-Hennessy Scholars
The prestigious fellowship funds graduate studies at Stanford University.
It took 40 years for technology to catch up to this zipper design
An old patent from MIT Professor Bill Freeman inspired the new “Y-zipper,” a three-sided fastener that snaps gear, robots, and art into shape at the push of a button.
Found Industries aims to strengthen America’s industrial supply chains
Founded by Peter Godart ’15, SM ’19, PhD ’21, the company has developed technologies for extracting critical metals and making fuel out of aluminum.
A faster way to estimate AI power consumption
The “EnergAIzer” method generates reliable results in seconds, enabling data center operators to efficiently allocate resources and reduce wasted energy.
With a swipe of a magnet, microscopic “magno-bots” perform complex maneuvers
MIT researchers’ new fabrication technique can produce soft, microscopic structures with magnetically activated moving parts.
Robotically assembled building blocks could make construction more efficient and sustainable
New research suggests constructing a simple building from interlocking subunits should be mechanically feasible and have a much smaller carbon footprint.
The power of “and” in energy and climate entrepreneurship
Greentown Labs CEO Georgina Campbell Flatter emphasizes the importance of collaboration in the entrepreneurship space, and the role that universities play in this landscape.
PSFC showcases technologies applicable to both fusion and geothermal energy during representative’s visit
Rep. Jake Auchincloss visits the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center to learn about scaling geothermal energy.
Tackling the housing shortage with robotic microfactories
Reframe Systems, co-founded by Vikas Enti SM '20, creates microfactories for modular home construction, reducing carbon emissions and costs.
Managing traffic in space
Associate Professor Richard Linares is helping satellites safely navigate in increasingly congested orbits.
Geothermal energy turns red hot
MIT Energy Initiative symposium maps a path to tap the planet’s heat-rich rocks for clean power at scale.
Sixteen new START.nano companies are developing hard-tech solutions with the support of MIT.nano
Startup accelerator program grows to over 30 companies, almost half of them with MIT pedigrees.
Light-activated gel could impact wearables, soft robotics, and more
New MIT work advances the growing field of ionotronics, in which data are transferred through ions, potentially providing a bridge between electronics and biological tissue.
Human-machine teaming dives underwater
Researchers are developing hardware and algorithms to improve collaboration between divers and autonomous underwater vehicles engaged in maritime missions.
Urban planning students engage with communities through the Freedom Summer Fellowship
“You can’t teach planning today without grappling with how policy actually unfolds within communities,” says Professor Phillip Thompson.
Working to advance the nuclear renaissance
Dean Price, assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, sees a bright future for nuclear power, and believes AI can help us realize that vision.
A new type of electrically driven artificial muscle fiber
Electrofluidic fibers mimic how natural muscle fibers bundle, and could enable compact, silent robotic and prosthetic systems.
Toward cheaper, cleaner hydrogen production
Co-founded by Dan Sobek ’88, SM ’92, PhD ’97, 1s1 Energy has developed electrochemical cell materials for hydrogen electrolyzers that it says reduces energy use by 30 percent.
AI system learns to keep warehouse robot traffic running smoothly
This new approach adapts to decide which robots should get the right of way at every moment, avoiding congestion and increasing throughput.
Championing fusion’s promising underdog
Sophia Henneberg, assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, is developing stellarators to harness fusion energy.
Wristband enables wearers to control a robotic hand with their own movements
By moving their hands and fingers, users can direct a robot to play piano or shoot a basketball, or they can manipulate objects in a virtual environment.
Active Surfaces aims to install peel-and-stick solar panels everywhere
This award-winning startup with roots at the MIT Energy Initiative is developing lightweight, flexible, high-efficiency solar energy films designed to be used on roofs, walls, and any curved surface.
3 Questions: Communicating about climate, in audio and beyond
Madison Goldberg, the new host of the Ask MIT Climate podcast, talks about her career as a science communicator as well as ideas she thinks it’s important for climate communicators to convey.
Lasers, robots, action: MIT workshop explores Raman spectroscopy
Participants learn how laser “fingerprinting” can help identify materials in fields ranging from law enforcement to art restoration.
Generative AI improves a wireless vision system that sees through obstructions
With this new technique, a robot could more accurately detect hidden objects or understand an indoor scene using reflected Wi-Fi signals.
Turning extreme heat into large-scale energy storage
Fourth Power, founded by Professor Asegun Henry, is developing thermal batteries for efficiently storing excess electricity from utility grids and power producers.
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab seed to signal: Amplifying early-career faculty impact
Academia-industry relationship is an early-stage accelerator, supporting professional progress and research.
A better method for planning complex visual tasks
A new hybrid system could help robots navigate in changing environments or increase the efficiency of multirobot assembly teams.
Engineering confidence to navigate uncertainty
In 16.85 (Design and Testing of Autonomous Vehicles), AeroAstro students build software that allows autonomous flight vehicles to navigate unknown environments.
Featured video: Coding for underwater robotics
Lincoln Laboratory intern Ivy Mahncke developed and tested algorithms to help human divers and robots navigate underwater.
A neural blueprint for human-like intelligence in soft robots
An AI control system co-developed by SMART researchers enables soft robotic arms to learn a broad set of motions once and adapt instantly to changing conditions without retraining.
Magnetic mixer improves 3D bioprinting
MagMix, an onboard mixing device, enables scalable manufacturing of 3D-printed tissues.
“Wait, we have the tech skills to build that”
From robotics to apps like “NerdXing,” senior Julianna Schneider is building technologies to solve problems in her community.
Vine-inspired robotic gripper gently lifts heavy and fragile objects
The new design could be adapted to assist the elderly, sort warehouse products, or unload heavy cargo.
Robots that spare warehouse workers the heavy lifting
Founded by MIT alumni, the Pickle Robot Company has developed machines that can autonomously load and unload trucks inside warehouses and logistic centers.
MIT engineers design an aerial microrobot that can fly as fast as a bumblebee
With insect-like speed and agility, the tiny robot could someday aid in search-and-rescue missions.