Full Archive

  • Need a water filter? Peel a tree branch
    Feb. 25, 2014
    If you’ve run out of drinking water during a lakeside camping trip, there’s a simple solution: Break off a branch from the nearest pine tree, peel away the bark, and slowly pour lake water through...
  • Cooling when there’s too much heat
    Nov. 11, 2013
    When an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, knocking out emergency power supplies, crews sprayed seawater on the reactors to cool them — to no avail. One...
  • Students prepare for real-world product development through hands-on collaboration
    Oct. 22, 2013
    “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...
  • Buie, Kim receive DARPA Young Faculty Award
    Sep. 17, 2013
    Assistant Professors Cullen Buie and Sangbae Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering both recently received a DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA), which was granted to 25 tenure-track faculty...
  • Ocean engineering students set stage for a smarter fleet
    Aug. 14, 2013
    The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class of destroyers consists of 62 active vessels that collectively carry 20,000 personnel and burn 4.4 million barrels of fuel each year. Since the first hull...
  • Alumni Spotlight: Atlas Devices
    Jun. 26, 2013
    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)...
  • Faculty Research: Professor Harry Asada
    Dec. 10, 2012
    Engineering Light-Activated Muscles   by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office   Many robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting...
  • Autonomous robot scans ship hulls for mines
    Jul. 17, 2012
    For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for...
  • Inside the Innards of a Nuclear Reactor
    Dec. 5, 2011
    Tiny robots may monitor underground pipes for radioactive leaks.   A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal...
  • Master’s in Ocean Engineering Systems Management
    Dec. 5, 2011
    MechE Teams Up with Sloan to Offer New Track in Ocean Systems Management   The Ocean Engineering Systems Management track will provide future managers in the shipping industry with both...
  • Talking Shop with Associate Professor Domitilla Del Vecchio
    Dec. 5, 2011
      Domitilla Del Vecchio works on intelligent transportation systems that communicate to prevent collisions. What areas does your research focus on? Broadly speaking, my group works in control...

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