Research — MIT Media Lab

We are an antidisciplinary research lab working to invent the future of

human-machine interaction
health
art
learning
artificial intelligence
architecture
robotics
consumer electronics
kids
music
networks
design
wearable computing
politics
entertainment
history
economy
cognition
bioengineering
archives
technology
social science
storytelling
machine learning
interfaces
data
sensors
developing countries
human-computer interaction
space
prosthetics
wellbeing
social robotics
computer science
engineering
environment
social media
ethics
civic media
privacy
imaging
civic technology
urban planning
synthetic biology
neurobiology
affective computing
augmented reality
communications
transportation
virtual reality
energy
data visualization
computer vision
biology
food
biotechnology
blockchain
agriculture
social change
3d printing
genetics
biomechanics
gaming
banking and finance
manufacturing
crowdsourcing
open source
systems
behavioral science
government
industry
cryptocurrency
public health
zero gravity
prosthetic design
wiesner
social networks
collective intelligence
fashion
community
makers
data science
ocean
performance
racial justice
language learning
ecology
internet of things
perception
nonverbal behavior
medicine
security
construction
neural interfacing and control
autonomous vehicles
extended intelligence
climate change
visualization
mapping
human augmentation
gesture interface
physiology
long-term interaction
civic action
networking
interactive
holography
point of care
orthotic design
bionics
trust
fabrication
pharmaceuticals
women
natural language processing
autism research
clinical science
hacking
mechanical engineering
startup
alumni
academia
sports and fitness
rfid
cognitive science
member company
open access
clinical trials
gender studies
member event
marginalized communities
trade
primary healthcare
soft-tissue biomechanics
voice
materials
chemistry
real estate
electrical engineering
randomized experiment
diversity
biomedical imaging
water
microbiology
gis
mechatronics
publishing
event
exhibit
cartography
metamaterials
installation

Exploring new forms of social justice through art

Moon Village

In 2015, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, introduced the concept of the “Moon Village.” Inspired by t...

Project Research

Persian Domes for Human Space Exploration on Mars

The Lut Desert of Iran is one of the most similar regions to Mars. Close to that area, there are vernacular adobe architectures that are ...

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City Science

Looking beyond smart cities

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Conformable Decoders

Converting the patterns of nature and the human body into beneficial signals and energy

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Beyond the Cradle

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Space Exploration Initiative

Article Research

Dezeen Awards names Aguahoja I design project of the year

Aguahoja I shows how nature can help us to design new materials, highlighting the relationship between nature and technology.

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Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks

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Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks

Project Research

Proxymix: Influence of spatial configuration on human collaboration

Proxymix is a visualization tool to understand the influence of spatial configuration on human collaboration. This agent-based model at t...

Project Research

City Science Lab Andorra

Andorra and the City Science research group at the MIT Media Lab are taking on the challenge of turning Andorra into an “Internationally ...

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Project Research

Aguahoja

Programmable Water-Based Biocomposites for Digital Design and Fabrication across ScalesAguahoja is an exploration of nature’s design spac...

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Project Research

Piccolo Kitchen

This project aims to create a modular platform for exploring micro-kitchens that are culture specific. Cooking is a personal experi...

Project Research

Theme | CityScope

City Science researchers are developing a slew of tangible and digital platforms dedicated to solving spatial design and urban planning c...

Project Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Space Architecture

Overview: How will we build the coming generations of Space Architecture—the modules, space ships, and space stations that will ensc...

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Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies

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CE 2.0

Publication Research

CityScope: A Data-Driven Interactive Simulation Tool for Urban Design. Use Case Volpe

Alonso, L., Zhang, Y. R., Grignard, A., Noyman, A., Sakai, Y., ElKatsha, M., ... & Larson, K. (2018, July). Cityscope: a data-driven interactive simulation tool for urban design. Use case volpe. In International Conference on Complex Systems (pp. 253-261). Springer, Cham.

Post Research

Zero Gravity Flight 2019

This mission included participation from several departments at MIT and outside collaborators from across the globe.

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Personal Robots

Building socially engaging robots and interactive technologies to help people live healthier lives, connect with others, and learn better

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Advancing Wellbeing

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Music, Mind and Machine

How to build intelligent music systems out of interacting audio-processing agents.

Article Research

Neri Oxman has all the answers

Mediated Matter head Neri Oxman talks to ELLE about her work.

Project Research

MoCho: Mobility choices and societal impacts

MoCho (short for "Mobility Choices") is a CityScope module focused on mobility choices and societal impacts. This tool helps pr...

Project Research

DCP: Digital Construction Environment

The Digital Construction Environment is the first architectural-scale structure fabricated with the Digital Construction Platform (DCP). ...

Project Research

The Deep Image of the City

How do you image a city that doesn't exist? DeepScope is a novel platform for interactive, real-time, and setup-less urban design vi...

Article Research

Dezeen Awards 2019 design longlist announced

The Dezeen Awards 2019 design longlist includes two projects from the Mediated Matter group.

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Scalable Cooperation

Reimagining human cooperation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence

Project Research

Water-Based Additive Manufacturing

This research presents water-based robotic fabrication as a design approach and enabling technology for additive manufacturing (AM) of bi...

Project Research

Living Distance

Living Distance is a mission and a fantasy realized, in which a wisdom tooth is sent to outer space and back down to Earth again. Carried...

Project Research

Maiden Flight

Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductiv...

Project Research

City Science Lab Aalto

Aalto University, Finland, and the MIT Media Lab’s City Science group are co-developing a version of the MIT CityScope platform for urban...

Project Research

AR Enhanced Wall Plants: Escape Pod

An environment of plants and mirrors that extends beyond the terrarium walls.

Project Research

Telepresent Drawings in Space

This project asks, how can we transmit experiences across space and time? The launching point of the project is to create a drawing that ...

Article Research

Six suborbital research payloads from MIT fly to space and back

Space Exploration Initiative research aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard experiment capsule crossed the Karman line for three minutes

Post Research

Six suborbital research payloads fly on Blue Origin New Shepard

The projects on board the Media Lab's first suborbital rocket flight

Post Research

TESSERAE: Suborbital launch test

On May 2nd, 2019 we launched three TESSERAE v2 hardware tiles into space and back! They rode to just over 100km (past the Karman line) on...

Project Research

Spatial Flux: Body and architecture in space

Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new w...

Project Research

CityScope PlayGround: MIT East Campus

This project depicts the design, deployment and operation of a Tangible Regulation Platform, a physical-technological apparatus made for ...

Article Research

Space is poised for explosive growth. Let’s get it right.

Before low-earth orbit is clogged with hotels, satellite traffic, and debris, we should plan for the extra-planetary community we want.

Project Research

Escape Pod

The esc-Pod (or Escape Pod) is an exploratory platform for researchers investigating moments of refuge within our bustling work liv...

Publication Research

Self-Assembling Space Habitats: TESSERAE design and mission architecture

Ekblaw, Ariel, and Joseph Paradiso. “ Self-Assembling Space Habitats:TESSERAE Technology and Mission Architecture for Zero-g Construction ” To appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference (2019).

Project Research

CityScope Volpe

CityScope Volpe is demonstrating most of the urban planning, analysis, and prediction features developed for the CityScope project. The s...

Project Research

FIBERBOTS: Design of a multi-agent, fiber composite digital fabrication system

FIBERBOTS is a digital fabrication platform fusing cooperative robotic manufacturing with abilities to generate highly sophisticated mate...

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Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature

Project Research

FindingPlaces

What is FindingPlaces?In reaction to the sudden arrival of tens of thousands of refugees in the city of Hamburg (DE) in 2015, the Lord Ma...

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Project Research

Amoetecture

Amoeba Wall: a context aware wall system. Amoetecture is a set of amoeba-like dynamic spatial elements, including transformable floors, c...

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Project Research

Amoeba Wall: A context-aware wall system

Amoeba Wall: A context aware wall system: Amoetecture is a set of amoeba-like dynamic spatial elements, including transformable floo...

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Project Research

Spaces that Perform Themselves

As we generally experience on earth, there is no space without sound and there is no sound without space. Building on the understanding o...

Communications Futures Program

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Publication Research

Self-Assembling Space Architecture: tessellated shell structures for space habitats

Ekblaw, A. and Paradiso, J.A., "Self-assembling Space Architecture: tessellated shell structures for space habitats," In AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum, Smart/Adaptable Deployable Structures (p. 0481).

Article Research

Give way to droids, bots, and drones: the driverless city will look like this

An NYC exhibit imagines driverless buses and mobile medical units resembling Popemobiles.

Publication Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Shell Structures for Space Exploration

Ekblaw, Ariel and Joseph Paradiso. "TESSERAE: self-assembling shell structures for space exploration." In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures: Extra Planetary Architecture, p. 317 (2018).