Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Research
Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Project Research

Peristaltic Suit

It is known that prolonged exposure to micro and hyper-gravity induces various acute health risks, such as osteoporosis, skeletal muscle ...
Project Research

Agonist-antagonist Myoneural Interface (AMI)

Humans can accurately sense the position, speed, and torque of their limbs, even with their eyes shut. This sense, known as proprioceptio...
Publication Research

Combinatorial hydrogel library enables identification of materials that mitigate the foreign body response in primates.

Vegas, A., et al. Combinatorial hydrogel library enables identification of materials that mitigate the foreign body response in primates., Nature Biotechnology, 34: 345-352, 2016. PMCID: PMC4904301
Project Research

Fluid Expressions - Watercolor in Microgravity

When imagining human life in space, how will we express our humanity and creativity in an alien environment? Can the art we make both ref...
Research
Conformable Decoders

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

Reconfigurable space structures

A proof of concept demonstration for a voxel-based reconfigurable space structure based on electromagnetically actuated picosatellites. I...
Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing systems for cognitive support
Course Research

Decoders 1.7: Introduction to Microfabrication

Style: Individual; PersonalThis class is graded P/D/F. To pass, you must: (i) attend all the cleanroom sessions, (ii) complete the sectio...
Project Research

Gravity Proof

As space agencies prepare for a new era of space exploration, and long duration missions to the Moon or Mars, they’ll need to address the...
Research
Affective Computing

Advancing human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
Archived
Project Research

Big Ocean, Big Data

More ocean data has been collected in the last two years than in all previous years combined, and we are on a path to continue to break t...
Archived
Project Research

Envirome Monitoring with CRISPR Biosensors

In recent years, there has been an increase in low-cost and open-source electronic and chemical sensors that hobbyists, concerned citizen...
Archived
Research
Open Ocean

Open Ocean
Publication Research

Experimentally Verified Finite Element Modeling and Analysis of a Conformable Piezoelectric Sensor

Amiri, N., Tasnim, F., Tavakkoli Anbarani, M., Dagdeviren, C.†, Karami, A.†, “Experimentally Verified Finite Element Modeling and Analysis of a Conformable Piezoelectric Sensor”, Smart Materials and Structures, 30 085017, 2021.
Research
Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
Research
Responsive Environments

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

Enhancing human physical capability
Project Research

Bio-Digital Wearables or Space Health Enhancement

Living in space could have significant physical and mental impacts on astronauts. Wearables have the potential to play a critical role in...
Project Research

Zenolith - An Interplanetary Time Device

On Earth, morning, noon, and night have their own specific meanings. The feeling of a second or a minute passing by, the shortening of th...
Project Research

Candlewax Rockets: A Green Alternative for In-Space Propulsion

Wax-based hybrid rocket propellants, including paraffin (common candlewax) and beeswax show promise as high-performing hybrid rocket prop...
Article Research

Life in space: Preparing for an increasingly tangible reality

The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring.
Project Research

Self Assembling Space Frames

Ever wish you could toss your folded up tent and have it self-assemble mid-air?  Well...you can. In a zero gravity environment.Self ...
Project Research

Microgravity Hybrid Extrusion

Traditional additive manufacturing processes, especially those that make use of liquid resin as the feedstock, are constrained by the gra...
Project Research

H0TP0T

By Larissa Zhou and Adam ZacharFood is crucial to maintaining the physical and psychological health of humans in space. Eating food ...
Project Research

Panspermia

By Nancy Valladares and Rae Yuping HsuThis project is an art performance that seeks to rethink imaginaries of multispecies surv...
Project Research

Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communication (MOSAIC)

The Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communications (MOSAIC)By Shreeyam KackerThe Miniature Optical Steered Ante...
Project Research

Moving Liquids With No Moving Parts

Solid-state microfrabricated devices are in development to replace contemporary heavy mechanical components for use in spacecraft propell...
Project Research

Ø-scillation: oscillating chemistry in zero gravity and beyond

How did life originate? Nobody knows. Life might not even be native to our Earth - it might have come from asteroids or the interstellar ...
Project Research

AgriFuge

By Somayajulu Dhulipala and Manwei ChanAs humanity explores deeper into space, long-duration missions will require horticulture activitie...
Project Research

The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit

By Rachel BellisleThe Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (or “Skinsuit”) is an intravehicular activity suit for astronauts that has ...
Project Research

Harmony in Precarity

By Po-Hao ChiHow could microgravity/hypergravity shape our perceptual experience of listening with weightlessness? How can we seek to exp...
Archived
Research
Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature
Research
Health 0.0

Health 0.0
Research
Community Biotechnology

Community Biotechnology
Project Research

Aguahoja

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

Silk Pavilion II

What are radically sustainable methods for knitting, making and building in the age of the Anthropocene? How can humankind and members of...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Totems

Biodiversity on planet Earth is under momentous threat, with extinction rates estimated between 100 and 1,000 times their pre-human level...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Vespers III

Vespers is a collection of masks exploring what it means to design (with) life. From the relic of the death mask to a contemporary living...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Glass II

Optically transparent and structurally sound, glass has played a significant role in the evolution of product and architectural design ac...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Vespers II

Novel technologies for additive manufacturing are enabling design and production at nature’s scale. We can seamlessly vary the physical p...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Glass I

Ancient yet modern, enclosing yet invisible, glass was first created in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 4,500 years ago. Precise recipes f...
Archived
Project Research

Beast

Beast is an organic-like entity created synthetically by the incorporation of physical parameters into digital form-generation protocols....
Archived
Project Research

Monocoque

French for "single shell," Monocoque stands for a construction technique that supports structural load using an object's external skin. C...
Archived
Project Research

Raycounting

Raycounting is a method for generating customized light-shading constructions by registering the intensity and orientation of light rays ...
Archived
Post Research

Sojourner 2020 | An international art payload to ISS

Nine groups of artists are selected to be on board Sojourner 2020, which will be launched into low Earth orbit for about 30 days.
Post Research

MAS.S64. Real-world Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Genome Editing Technologies

MAS.S64 Real-world Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Genome Editing Technologies - Fall 2020 Online CourseWhen: Tuesdays, 3-...
Project Research

conformable Facial Code Extrapolation Sensor (cFaCES)

AbstractDevices that facilitate nonverbal communication typically require high computational loads or have rigid and bulky form factors&n...
Project Research

A tailored, electronic textile conformable suit for large-scale spatiotemporal physiological sensing in vivo

The rapid advancement of electronic devices and fabrication technologies has further promoted the field of wearables and smart textiles. ...
Article Research

Supercomputers help researchers speed drug discovery for Covid-19

An MIT research team is using supercomputers to help develop a drug to treat the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Article Research

Information Hazards

MIT biologist Kevin Esvelt discusses the biology of the pandemic and how gain-of-function research jeopardizes public safety.
Center for Civic Media
Archived
Project Research

Targeted intracellular degradation of SARS-CoV-2 via computationally optimized peptide fusions

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has elicited a global health crisis of catastrophic proportions. With ...
Article Research

Experimental peptide targets Covid-19

Computational modeling yields a protein fragment that could bind to coronavirus spike proteins and destroy them.
Project Research

Helping Emergency Care Physicians Diagnose Sepsis and Bacterial Infections with Machine Learning and Vision

General overview:Sepsis, a life-threatening complication of bacterial infection, leads to millions of worldwide deaths requires significa...
Project Research

AI Methods for Rapid Automated Staining and Destaining of Tissue Biopsies in Hospitals

General OverviewStaining of tissues sections using chemical and biological dyes has been used for over a century for visualizing various ...
Research
Camera Culture

Making the invisible visible–inside our bodies, around us, and beyond–for health, work, and connection
Research
Tangible Media

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Post Research

Andrea Ling's "Design by Decay, Decay by Design" receives STARTS Grand Prize at Ars Electronica '20

Andrea Ling, an alum of the Mediated Matter group, has won the Grand Prize in Artistic Exploration at this year's festival.
Article Research

Canadian architect wins €20,000 STARTS prize

Canadian architect and installation artist Andrea Ling has received the 2020 STARTS Grand Prize in the category of Artistic Exploration.
Archived
Research
Synthetic Neurobiology

Revealing insights into the human condition and repairing brain disorders via novel tools for mapping and fixing brain computations
Archived
Project Research

Tools for mapping the molecular architecture and wiring of the brain

Complex biological systems such as brain circuits are extended 3-D structures made out of nanoscale building blocks such as proteins, RNA...
Archived
Project Research

Algorithmic Justice League

www.ajl.orgAn unseen force is rising—helping to determine who is hired, granted a loan, or even how long someone spends in prison. This f...
Research
Molecular Machines

Engineering at the limits of complexity with molecular-scale parts
Article Research

Neri Oxman’s “Material Ecology” | Bio Art and Design

The exhibition has now become a part of the MoMA's ‘Virtual Views’ program due to the pandemic.
Project Research

Living Bits

Living Bits : Opportunities and Challenges for Integrating Living Microorganisms in Human-Computer InteractionThere are trillions of livi...
Archived
Research
Scalable Cooperation

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

Optimizing plants for flavor, nutrition, and pharmaceutical content

Flavor, in addition to making our food delicious, is one way of sensing biochemical richness. A highly flavorful plant generally con...
Archived
Project Research

bioLogic—Science Advances

Cells’ biomechanical responses to external stimuli have been intensively studied but rarely implemented into devices that interact w...
Archived
Archived
Research
Open Agriculture (OpenAg)

Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg)