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There is a story about how the modern golf ball, with its dimpled surface, came to be: In the mid-1800s, it is said, new golf balls were smooth, but became dimpled over time as impacts left permanent...
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What’s the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument?
Both structures soar to impressive heights, and each was the world’s tallest building when completed. But the Washington...
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The Case of the Welcome “Hairball”
by Alissa Mallinson
PhD student Folkers Rojas (SB ‘09, SM ‘11, PhD ‘14)Photo credit: Tony Pulsone
What do a bathtub hairball and a MechE-developed blowout ...
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Engineering and the Ocean Environment: Challenge and Opportunity
by Alissa Mallinson
Vast and seemingly impenetrable, the ocean inspires endless fascination. It is the topic of countless tales...
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You can quickly run out of fingers and toes counting the many ways we waste energy. Take our sewage systems, for example: The energetic content of wastewater is about 10 times the amount of energy it...
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Graphene’s promise as a material for new kinds of electronic devices, among other uses, has led researchers around the world to study the material in search of new applications. But one of the...
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Researchers at MIT's School of Engineering, working with colleagues at the Pontificial University of Chile in Santiago, are harvesting potable water from the coastal fog that forms on the edge of one...
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This year’s arena for the annual robotics competition that caps the mechanical engineering class called 2.007 (Learning by Design) was based on a Winter Olympics theme, with dauntingly steep slopes...
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The Atlantic razor clam uses very little energy to burrow into undersea soil at high speed. Now a detailed insight into how the animal digs has led to the development of a robotic clam that can...
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Photo Credit: Tony Pulsone
For Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers (SM ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73), engineering is all about having fun. But it wasn’t always that way.
As a high school student from a...
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Droplets Break a Theoretical Time Barrier on Bouncing
By David Chandler, MIT News Office
Those who study hydrophobic materials — water-shedding surfaces such as those found in nature and created...
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By Alissa Mallinson
The online learning revolution isn’t the first time that the Department of Mechanical Engineering – nor the Institute as a whole for that matter – has been at the forefront...
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Photo Credit: Tony Pulsone
It is not unusual for some undergraduate students to start the famously hands-on Course 2 program in mechanical engineering at MIT with little machine experience.
But not...
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Photo credit: Tony Pulsone
Professor David Gossard (PhD ’75) has been a faculty member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering since he earned his PhD here in 1975, having previously earned...
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Those who study hydrophobic materials — water-shedding surfaces such as those found in nature and created in the laboratory — are familiar with a theoretical limit on the time it takes for a water...
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Lithium-air batteries have become a hot research area in recent years: They hold the promise of drastically increasing power per battery weight, which could lead, for example, to electric cars with a...
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An MIT mathematician and a celebrity chef have combined talents to create two culinary novelties inspired by nature.
John Bush, a professor of applied mathematics, and renowned Spanish chef José...
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“It’s all about the process,” says MIT professor Warren Seering.
He’s referring to his spring design class, Course 2.739 (Product Design and Development) — but he could easily be talking about...
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Karina Pikhart (SB ’09)
by Alissa Mallinson
Courtesy of ProxTalker
The beginnings of 6dot Innovations, an assistive technology company started by MechE alumna Karina Pikhart (SB ’09), take us...
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Nate Ball (SB ’05, SM ’07) and Bryan Schmid (SB ’03, SM ’05)
Nate Ball
Bryan Schmid
by Alissa Mallinson
MechE alumni Nate Ball (SB ’05, SM ’07) and Bryan Schmid (SB ’03, SM ’05)...