In the Media

Building an effective Photovoltaic cell (PV) that both collects enough solar energy and carries the charge efficiently has held back the use of quantum dots despite their relative ease of production. Now a multi-disciplinary team involving researchers from the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the MIT Materials Science and Engineering and the MIT Chemistry Departments has designed a way to allow quick extraction of charge yet enough depth for absorption of energy to provide a 50 percent boost in the current generated by the solar cell, and a 35 percent increase in overall efficiency.

Researchers in the lab of Anantha Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, including Rahul Rithe, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, have developed a chip which can perform professional quality enhancements of photographs quickly and without draining power on smartphone and digital cameras--cutting out the need for added energy- and time-consuming computational photography systems.

EECS researchers including professors Vladimir Bulovic, Jing Kong and Mildred Dresselhaus and postdoctoral associate Hyesung Park and graduate student Joel Jean have joined MIT colleagues including associate professor of materials science and engineering Silvija Gradecak and postdoctoral associate Sehoon Chang, to produce a new kind of flexible and solar cell based on graphene paired with nanowires and quantum dots. This work could rival the current use of silicon crystals or indium tin oxide (ITO) and is predicted to be scalable for alternative use to the silicon or ITO models.

Luis Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and his group have created a new system for spinning nanofibers—one that should offer significant productivity increases while drastically reducing power consumption. They will be presenting this work at the International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications in December.

Anantha Chandrakasan, EECS Department Head, and two of his students in the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) have joined a team of researchers from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) to show that a natural battery in the mammalian inner ear can power an implantable electronic device. Read more...

Research update: Chips with self-assembling rectangles - New technique allows production of complex microchip structures in one self-assembling step

As reported by the MIT News Office, June 18, 2012, staff writer David Chandler, members of the the MIT Medical Electronic Device Realization Center (MEDRC) under Brian Anthony, co-director of the

"L. Rafael Reif, a distinguished electrical engineer whose seven-year tenure as MIT’s provost has helped MIT maintain its appetite for bold action as well as its firm financial footing, has been selected as the 17th president of the Institute. Reif, 61, was elected to the post this morning by a vote of the MIT Corporation." Read more of the MIT News Office, May 16, 2012 announcement.

The MIT News Office continues to spotlight manufacturing in the United States and how the work by researchers at MIT has a direct bearing on the future of U.S. manufacturing and it place in the world

Project Angstrom’s self-aware computing has been selected by the Editors of Scientific American as one of "Ten World Changing Ideas" in the December 2011 issue.