February 2025
Dear members of the EECS community,
As we embark on a new semester, I find myself reflecting on the incredible and varied accomplishments of our community.
As the roles of scientists and engineers become ever more intertwined with other fields of knowledge, we find ourselves in exciting new collaborations across campus. In this issue of the Connector, you’ll learn how we’re engaging with music and the humanities on-campus; with industry and startups through the 6A program; with groundbreaking research in quantum computing through the Novo Nordisk Quantum Computing Foundation Programme and national priorities around microchips through the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition (NEMC) Hub. And, as always, we are hard at work honing our curriculum to attract promising studentsand researchers from around the world.
I hope this issue of the Connector reminds you of the optimism and curiosity that defines and drives MIT, and makes it such a truly special place to be.
–Asu Ozdaglar, Department Head, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
MathWorks Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Deputy Dean of Academics, MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing
Departmental News
Karl K. Berggren named faculty head of electrical engineering in EECS
A member of the EECS faculty since 2003, Berggren’s current research focuses on superconductive circuits, electronic devices, single-photon detectors for quantum applications, and electron-optical systems.
Department of EECS names Samuel Madden next faculty head of computer science
A principal investigator in CSAIL, Madden’s research interest is in database systems, focusing on database analytics and query processing, ranging from clouds to sensors to modern high-performance server architectures.
Spooky action at a distance: a quantum computing research collaboration crosses the Atlantic
Researchers at MIT have recently signed a 4-year collaboration agreement with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Quantum Computing Programme (NQCP) at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, focused on accelerating quantum computing hardware research.
6A Program: working with companies to solve hard technical problems for 100+ years.
More than 2,500 EECS students have gone through the program over the years, including Amar Bose (founder of Bose Corporation), Cecil Green (founder of Texas Instruments), Andrew Viterbi (founder of Qualcomm), Ray Stata (founder of Analog Devices), Thuan Pham (Uber CTO), Lisa Su (CEO of AMD) and many others.
Education Initiatives
A launching pad towards possibility: SPISE alumni at MIT
For several students currently on campus, The Student Program for Innovation in Science (SPISE), launched by professor of electrical engineering Cardinal Warde, was their gateway to MIT.
A new focus on understanding the human element
The MIT Human Insight Collaborative will elevate the human-centered disciplines and unite the Institute’s top scholars to help solve the world’s biggest challenges.
With “Foundations of Computer Vision”, Antonio Torralba, Phillip Isola, and William Freeman take a closer look at a changing field
The new textbook aims at bringing clarity and coherence to a dynamic research field–and its roots.
MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program
EECS Assistant Professor Anna Huang (left) and Eran Egozy are collaborating to launch the program, which will invite students to investigate new vistas at the intersection of music, computing, and technology.
3 Questions: Progress on updating MIT’s undergraduate curriculum
Professors Adam Martin and Joel Voldman explain the genesis, scope, and objectives of the recently launched Task Force on the MIT Undergraduate Academic Program.
Research
Microelectronics projects awarded CHIPS and Science Act funding
MIT and Lincoln Laboratory are among awardees of $38 million in project awards to the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition to boost U.S. chip technology innovation.
A faster, better way to train general-purpose robots
“In robotics, people often claim that we don’t have enough training data. But in my view, another big problem is that the data come from so many different domains, modalities, and robot hardware. Our work shows how you’d be able to train a robot with all of them put together,” says Lirui Wang, an EECS graduate student and lead author of a paper on this technique, with fellow grad student co-author Jialiang Zhao; Xinlei Chen, a research scientist at Meta; and senior author Kaiming He.
Noninvasive imaging method can penetrate deeper into living tissue
Using high-powered lasers, this new method could help biologists study the body’s immune responses and develop new medicines. “This work shows a significant improvement in terms of depth penetration for label-free metabolic imaging. It opens new avenues for studying and exploring metabolic dynamics deep in living biosystems,” says Sixian You, assistant professor in EECS and senior author of a paper on this imaging technique.
Faculty Spotlight
Improving health, one machine learning system at a time
Marzyeh Ghassemi works to ensure health-care models are trained to be robust and fair.
Creating a common language
Kaiming He discusses AI’s role in lowering barriers between scientific fields and fostering collaboration across scientific disciplines.
Algorithms and AI for a better world
Manish Raghavan wants computational techniques to help solve societal problems.
Modeling relationships to solve complex problems efficiently
Julian Shun develops high-performance algorithms and frameworks for large-scale graph processing.
Meet the newly tenured professors of 2024
Faculty Awards
Five MIT faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences for 2024
Guoping Feng, Piotr Indyk, Daniel Kleitman, Daniela Rus, Senthil Todadri, and nine alumni are recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions to research.
Beery, Farina, Ghassemi, Kim named AI2050 Early Career Fellows
The new crop of AI2050 Early Career Fellows was announced Dec. 10th.
MIT affiliates receive 2025 IEEE honors
Regina Barzilay, William Oliver, and Daniela Rus are among the honorees.
Student Awards & Spotlights
Four from MIT named 2025 Rhodes Scholars
Three of the four new Rhodes Scholars–Yiming Chen ’24, Anushka Nair, and David Oluigbo–have majored in EECS.
Lara Ozkan named 2025 Marshall Scholar
The MIT senior will pursue graduate studies in the UK at Cambridge University and Imperial College London.
Student Spotlight: Krithik Ramesh
This issue’s Student Spotlight focuses on Krithik Ramesh, a member of the class of 2025 majoring in 6-4, Artificial Intelligence and Decision-Making.
Machine learning and the microscope
PhD student Xinyi Zhang is developing computational tools for analyzing cells in the age of multimodal data.
Alumni in Action
Using spatial learning to transform math and science education
PrismsVR, founded by Anurupa Ganguly ’07, MNG ’09, takes students to virtual worlds to learn through experiences and movement.
In Memoriam
Arvind, longtime MIT professor and prolific computer scientist, dies at 77
The dedicated teacher and academic leader transformed research in computer architectures, parallel computing, and digital design, enabling faster and more efficient computation.
