Research

Researchers at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL) including Anantha Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, recent EECS PhD graduate Marcus Yip, EECS graduate student Rui Jin and research scientist Nathan Ickes, together with physicians from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), have developed a new, low-power signal-processing chip that could lead to a cochlear implant that requires no external hardware. The implant would be wirelessly recharged -- taking just two minutes -- and would run for about eight hours on each charge. Read more.

The Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering presented the "Agustin de Betancourt" award to Professor Tomás Palacios on Nov. 26. This award, the most prestigious given in Spain to an engineer less than 36 years old, recognizes Prof. Palacios’ work on nanotechnologies applied to high frequency electronic devices based on GaN and graphene.

Manolis Kellis, associate professor of computer science at MIT has teamed with a former CSAIL postdoc to combine work developing algorithms that predict how strands of RNA are likely to unfold with a team of computational biologists at MIT and with experimental biologists at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to identify biologically meaningful RNA folds within living cells. Published in Nature this week, this work shows promised for understanding RNA machinery -- a major avenue towards understanding genetic and biological function in living cells.

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).

Detecting early-stage malarial infection of blood cells is a diagnostic that has recently come closer to reality through the work of MIT's Anantha Chandrakasan, EECS Department Head, and Subra Suresh, former MIT Dean of Engineering, now president of Carnegie Mellon University. The work, which has been published Aug. 8 in the journal Lab on a Chip, is potentially applicable to detecting other infections and diseases.

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.”

In a paper they are presenting this summer at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference, EECS graduate student Guha Balakrishnan and his advisors, both faculty members in the MIT EECS Department, John Guttag and Fredo Durand, describe a new algorithm they developed to measure the heart rates of people in video. The algorithm allows for analyzing the digital data for small imperceptible movements that are caused by the rush of blood from the heart's contractions. Data could ultimately aid in predicting heart disease.

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.

Professor Timothy K. Lu, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT is one of 16 young researchers selected by the Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) as a Young Investigator. The ONR Young Investigator Prize (YIP) program is designed to attract young scientists and engineers who show exceptional promise for outstanding research and teaching careers. Read more...

Abstract: This talk will discuss high throughput nanomanufacturing enabled by inkjet based UV nanoimprint lithography with a focus on (i) Design and real-time control of nanopatterning systems; and (ii) Customized systems and processes for applications including CMOS memory, patterned media for hard disk drives, flexible nanoelectronics, and shape/size controlled nanocarriers for targeted diagnostics and drug delivery. Biography: S.V. Sreenivasan specializes in high throughput nanomanufacturing as applied to electronics, biomedicine, and energy. He is the John T. MacGuire professor of mechanical engineering at UT-Austin; and co-founder of Molecular Imprints, Inc., a world leader in imprint based nanolithography technology.

Timothy Lu, MIT assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering working with members of the Synthetic Biology Group in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), has successfully created new synthetic biology circuits that combine memory and logic allowing potential control over production of cells to generate biofuels, drugs or other useful compounds. Read more...

Gregory Wornell, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) has teamed with former RLE member Dr. Maryam Shanechi, who has recently earned her doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, Prof. Emery Brown of the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department at MIT, and neurosurgeon Dr. Ziv Williams at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop the first instance of an "intelligent" Brain-Motor Interface, which uses specially designed advanced neural decoding algorithms to decode in advance a sequence of planned movements from neural activity in the premotor cortex.