Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
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Signal Kinetics

Inventing, building, and deploying wireless sensor technologies to address complex problems in society, industry, and ecology
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Viral Communications

Putting people and intelligent machines in a creative, symbiotic loop
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Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
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Fluid Interfaces

Designing Systems for Cognitive Support
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Personal Robots

Building intelligent personified technologies that collaborate with people to help them learn, thrive, and flourish.
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Responsive Environments

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

Space Fabrics: resilient electronic textiles for distributed sensing in low Earth orbit

Overview: The outermost skin of a space-based structure is designed using materials known to protect against the harsh elements of space. S…
Project Research

AttentivU

There are currently  UROP openings for this project. AttentivU is  a  device, in the  form factor of a pair of gla…
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Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
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 at…
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Conformable Decoders

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

Engaging people in creative learning experiences
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Affective Computing

Advancing human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
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Opera of the Future

Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
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Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
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Molecular Machines

Engineering at the limits of complexity with molecular-scale parts
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City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
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Camera Culture

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

How culture creates emotions — and how technology decodes them

On KCRW's Life Examined, Rosalind Picard talks about the potential for technology to help people understand emotions and improve wellbeing.
Project Research

Space Sustainability Rating

The Space Sustainability RatingThe Space Sustainability Rating design team—comprised of the World Economic Forum, the European Space Agency…
Archived
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Scalable Cooperation

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

Open Ocean
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Open Agriculture (OpenAg)

Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg)
Project Research

The Guardians
Project Research

Microgravity Hybrid Extrusion

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

Pandemic Response Catalyst Conversations

The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative, and MilliporeSigma—the life …
Project Research

Essence

The sense of smell is perhaps the most pervasive of all senses, but it is also one of the least understood and least exploited in HCI. We p…
Archived
Project Research

Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon 2018

A Case for Breastfeeding InnovationBreastfeeding saves lives.If women globally were able to meet the WHO's public health goal to exclusivel…
Archived
Project Research

The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit

By Rachel Bellisle
Project Research

Fluid Expressions - Art and Craft 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 refle…
Project Research

Personalized Performance-Optimization Platform (AttentivU - P-POP)

​The environmental conditions of prolonged spaceflight pose significant psychological risks for astronauts. In particular, crews of future …
Archived
Project Research

Huggable: A social robot for pediatric care

The Huggable is a new type of robotic companion for health care, education, and social communication applications. The Huggable is much mor…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Physio FreeFall

This project seeks to examine the effects of altered gravity on an individual’s physiology during parabolic flight. Specifically, we will c…
Archived
Archived
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Behavioral Indications of Depression Severity

In collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, we are conducting a clinical trial exploring objective methods for assessing depressi…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Predicting students' wellbeing from physiology, phone, mobility, and behavioral data

The goal of this project is to apply machine learning methods to model the wellbeing of MIT undergraduate students. Extensive data is obtai…
Archived
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 the …
Project Research

SpaceHuman 2.0

SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratizati…
Project Research

Reconfigurable space structures

Rapid prototyping platforms such as 3D printers used for digital fabrication are today able to manufacture custom objects for specific task…
Article Research

Deploying machine learning to improve mental health

MIT scientist Rosalind Picard collaborates with clinicians to develop tools for mental health care delivery.
Publication Research

Personalized Multitask Learning for Predicting Tomorrow's Mood, Stress, and Health

Taylor, S.*, Jaques, N.*, Nosakhare, E., Sano, A. and Picard, R., "Personalized Multitask Learning for Predicting Tomorrow's Mood, Stress, and Health," in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-1. doi: 10.1109/TAFFC.2017.2784832 *Both authors contributed equally. WINNER: BEST OF COLLECTION
Post Research

Dentsu collaboration with Affective Computing group

Member company Dentsu and the Affective Computing research group have been collaborating on a research project to use smartphone and d…
Article Research

What the well-dressed spacecraft will be wearing

Spacecraft wrapped in sensor-rich electronic textiles could double as scientific instruments
Project Research

Dormio: Interfacing with Dreams

InspirationSleep is a forgotten country of the mind. A vast majority of our technologies are built for our waking state, even though a thir…
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 citizens,…
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 proprioception,…
Archived
Project Research

QuantifyMe

Unlike traditional randomized controlled trials that generalize relationships in large groups of people, single-case experiments seek to qu…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Gravity Proof: Speculating Cosmic Futures

Gravity Proof is a performance and mission to prepare and cook bread in space. Inspired by ancient recipes and archaeological bread re…
Archived
Project Research

Research resiliency through lean labs

Academic research groups, especially the ones directed by new junior faculty, are under pressure to produce high-quality work timely while …
Project Research

Thinking Cap

Find out more about the new version of the system, "The Thinking Cap 2.0" here.Peoples' mindsets, meaning their beliefs about their own int…
Archived
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PlusMinus

PlusMinus
Project Research

Interplanetary Gastronomy

The  Interplanetary Gastronomy research  aims to address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with eating in s…
Article Research

Mental health giants Headspace and Ginger to merge into $3 billion company

Congratulations to the team at Media Lab spinoff Ginger, which is merging with Headspace!
Article Research

When AI Recognizes Emotion, with Rosalind Picard

John Ellis talks to Affective Computing head Rosalind Picard about making AI and computers more emotionally intelligent.
Article Research

New device from MIT, Harvard can quickly detect COVID variants in saliva samples

The team talks to CBS Boston about their work on a low-cost tabletop device that can quickly detect SARS-CoV-2 using a saliva sample.
Article Research

New device can diagnose Covid-19 from saliva samples

The tabletop diagnostic yields results in an hour and can be programmed to detect variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Archived
Project Research

My Deep Sea, My Backyard

Seventy percent of nations have deep-sea environments within their maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), yet only 16 percent of them ar…
Archived
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 m…
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 propel…
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 As…
Project Research

H0TP0T

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

By Nancy Valladares and Rae Yuping HsuThis project is an art performance that seeks to rethink imaginaries of multispecies surviv…
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 Antenn…
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 propellan…
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 me…
Project Research

AgriFuge

By Somayajulu Dhulipala and Manwei ChanAs humanity explores deeper into space, long-duration missions will require horticulture activities …
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 explo…
Archived
Project Research

Robotic Positive Psychology Coach for College Students

A significant number of college students suffer from mental health issues that impact their physical, social, and occupa…
Archived
Project Research

PAL: a wearable on-device deep learning platform for personalized, context-aware, and closed-loop real-time support

OverviewPAL is a  wearable platform for personalized, context-aware, and always-present user change.  PAL has mult…
Article Research

Contact tracing: So promising. So invasive.

Kevin Esvelt, master's student Anika Ullah, and other experts talk about bi-directional contact tracing, privacy, and halting Covid-19.
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Community Biotechnology

Community Biotechnology