• Feeling the way

    For many people, it has become routine to go online to check out a map before traveling to a new place. But for blind people, Google maps and other visual mapping applications are of little use. Now, a unique device developed at MIT could give the visually impaired the same kind of benefit that sighted people get from online maps.

More Engineering News

  • MISTI 2.0 selects first winners

    Of the 18 proposals received, four were awarded funding. Three were awarded in the School of Engineering, and one was in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. MISTI worked with MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) members to select awardees.

  • Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?

    There’s one major drawback to most proposed renewable-energy sources: their variability. The sun doesn’t shine at night, the wind doesn’t always blow, and tides, waves and currents fluctuate. That’s why many researchers have been pursuing ways of storing the power generated by these sources so that it can be used when it’s needed. Professor Donald Sadoway’s research in energy storage could help speed the development of renewable energy.

  • Turning heat to electricity

    In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. MIT research points to a much more efficient way of harvesting electrical power from what would otherwise be wasted heat.

  • One word: bioplastics

    Every year, more than 250 billion pounds of plastic are produced worldwide. Much of it ends up in the world’s oceans, a fact that troubles MIT biology professor Anthony Sinskey. New Iowa plant, based on MIT-developed technology, will use bacteria to produce biodegradable plastics from corn.

  • Solving history’s ‘largest mass poisoning’

    Researchers in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists, world health agencies and the Bangladeshi government for nearly 30 years.

Engineering News, cont. »

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