In the Media

Dennis Freeman, professor of electrical engineering, and a team of researchers in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics has reported findings in the Biophysical Journal that our selective ability to distinguish sounds depends on the size and distribution of pores just a few nanometers wide in the inner ear's tectorial membrane. The work may ultimately lead to biochemical manipulation or other means to aid in improving hearing. Read more.

Under the direction of EECS professor Jeffrey Shapiro, and senior research scientist Franco Wong - both members of the Research Laboratory of Electronic's (RLE) Optical and Quantum Communications Group and of Vivek Goyal, RLE research scientist and head of the Signal Transformation and Information Representation Group, EECS doctoral student Ahmed Kirmani, working under Goyal, has developed a computational imager that uses one photon per pixel allowing laser rangefinders to infer depth (3D) from a hundredth as much light and produce images from one 900th the light needed. Read more.

Along with 9 other finalists, EECS graduate student Cody Gilleland presented his dream research proposal in April to Regeneron. He was named inaugural recipient, based on his presentation to essentially bring Moore's law to early stage drug delivery by designing a new system for developing and validating drug targets (prior to mouse model trials).

Muriel Médard, professor of electrical engineering in the MIT EECS Department and principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and EECS graduate student Falvio du Pin Calmon have teamed with researchers at the National University of Ireland to demonstrate that the security of many keyless-entry systems may not be as secure as previously thought. Médard and the NUI team will present their work at the Asilomar Conference on Signals and Systems in September.

James Fujimoto, the Elihu Thomson Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT has been selected for the 2014 IEEE Photonics Award. The award, which is sponsored by the IEEE Photonics Society, is given in recognition of outstanding achievements in photonics. Prof. Fujimoto is cited “for pioneering the development and commercialization of optical coherence tomography for medical diagnostics.”

Srini Devadas and Jacob White have been selected for their significant contributions to the Design Automation Conference (DAC), which celebrated its 50th anniversary June 2 -6. Both were recognized for their impact on the course of DAC’s history.

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science faculty members and principal investigators in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) Tim Lu and Rahul Sarpeshkar have designed cells that exploit natural integral biochemical functions to make analog circuits to perform calculations and potentially act as pathogen sensors. The researchers, including lead author MIT postdoc Ramiz Daniel and microbiology graduate student Jacob Rubens have published their work in the May 15 online edition of Nature Biotechnology.

A new mechanism that could help explain the remarkable sensitivity and exquisite frequency selectivity of our sense of hearing has been discovered by Dennis Freeman, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) Principal Investigator in the Micromechanics Group, in collaboration with Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari, post-doctoral associate in the RLE.

Collin Stultz, faculty member of both the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology and MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has lead a recent study of one of the proteins associated with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Using computational modeling, Stultz has proposed solutions to a controversy over the structure of alpha synuclein that could lead to development of new more effective treatments. Read more...

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. Read more.

Researchers at the High Throughput Neurotechnology Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) have built an automated system that can rapidly produce 3-D, micron-resolution images of thousands of zebrafish larvae and precisely analyze their physical traits. The system, described in the Feb. 12 edition of Nature Communications, offers a comprehensive view of how potential drugs affect vertebrates, says Professor Mehmet Fatih Yanik, senior author of the paper.