MIT School of Engineering

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Founded in 1861, MIT has a proud history of influencing the world through technological leadership and research innovation. MIT is one of the world’s preeminent research universities: renowned for rigorous academic programs in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship; cutting-edge research; a diverse campus community; and a longstanding commitment to working with the public and private sectors to bring new knowledge to bear on the world’s complex challenges.

09/07/2026

MIT Mechanical Engineering (MechE) class 2.S977/2.S979, Founder’s Journey: Launching and Scaling Hardware Startups, explores the real-life challenges of startups focused on building and scaling hardware technologies. First held last spring, the inaugural class invited students to “find and activate their entrepreneurial energy” through the lens of challenges faced by founders and their teams at various stages in the development of new hardware-focused companies.

According to a 2015 report on MIT’s global entrepreneurial impact, there are more than 30,000 active companies founded by MIT alumni worldwide, employing some 4.6 million people.

“There are so many amazing entrepreneurial stories among our alumni. We want to bring those stories to our students and our community and build networks with our incredible alumni founders,” says John Hart, the Class of 1922 Professor and head of MechE. “Through the Founder’s Journey class and other new programs, we want to cultivate interest in entrepreneurship among our students and expand opportunities to bring MechE-born technologies to the world.”

https://news.mit.edu/2026/beyond-pitch-founders-journey-0709

After nearly a decade in the Netherlands modeling data for aerospace and semiconductor companies, Ignacio Vazquez wanted...
09/06/2026

After nearly a decade in the Netherlands modeling data for aerospace and semiconductor companies, Ignacio Vazquez wanted his work to connect him to the people behind the systems. That goal led him to MIT’s System Design and Management (SDM) program, which offers enrollees a joint master’s degree in the School of Engineering and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

After his experience in the program, Vazquez took on the role as industry and certificate director of MIT’s SDM program, where he helps build collaborations that connect MIT faculty and students with global companies tackling complex challenges. Recognizing that his work now depended as much on strategy as on science, Vazquez set out to keep learning, and discovered the Advanced Study Program at MIT Professional Education, a division of the School of Engineering that offers learning programs for professionals around the globe.

The experience underscored MIT’s culture of multidisciplinary learning — solving problems at the systems level, where progress depends on combining diverse skills and perspectives. “That dance — moving between technical depth and strategic perspective — is part of what people consider the magic of MIT,” Vazquez says.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/ripple-effect-of-learning-at-mit-ignacio-vazquez-0623

MIT researchers have created a chip-based optical device that can control incoming infrared light, acting as a lens that...
09/05/2026

MIT researchers have created a chip-based optical device that can control incoming infrared light, acting as a lens that gathers additional information for infrared cameras. These cameras can spot useful information that our eyes can’t see, such as gases escaping from a pipeline, chemicals in the atmosphere, or heat leaking from a building, but until now, sensing infrared light in sophisticated ways required expensive and bulky systems.

The technology, described in a paper published in Nature Communications, could enable infrared cameras for more dynamic thermal imaging, chemical sensing, pollution monitoring, and even new kinds of optical computing.

“This could give us more information as we study space, or help with environmental protections where you want to monitor for specific compounds in the atmosphere,” explains first author Cosmin-Constantin Popescu PhD ’25, a former graduate student in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). “Thermal imaging is another application, and you can think of military applications where night vision goggles are currently being used. Basically, a lot of organic molecules absorb in the mid-infrared wavelength, and you could use this system to detect them.”

https://dmse.mit.edu/news/tiny-infrared-chip-could-improve-detection-of-gases-and-heat/

MIT's new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program held its inaugural showcase this spring, and the results wer...
09/04/2026

MIT's new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program held its inaugural showcase this spring, and the results were striking. In just one year, the program's first cohort of students—working at the intersection of music, engineering, and AI—created projects that pushed what's possible at that boundary.

Claire Southard '25, SM '26, developed a machine-learning model that decodes musical notes directly from brain activity measured by EEG signals. Her goal: to help musicians with movement disorders like Parkinson's disease perform again by translating the music they imagine directly into sound, bypassing motor control entirely. Others built real-time AI visualizers that respond to live music, systems that generate hip-hop from dance, and tools for human-AI co-improvisation on piano.

"Music and engineering share some common roots," said Dean Paula Hammond. "Only at MIT could we bring the top technologists and the top musicians together to create unique opportunities for collaboration." The program, a collaboration between the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and the School of Engineering, admitted 10 master's students for 2026-27 from over 100 applicants. Next year's cohort will include graduates from other schools, expanding the diversity of perspectives.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/inaugural-mit-music-technology-research-showcase-celebrates-work-students-0629

Monika Gullerova, a professor of molecular medicine in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxf...
09/03/2026

Monika Gullerova, a professor of molecular medicine in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford, is a finalist in the MIT-Royalty Pharma Faculty Founder Initiative prize competition, which supports biotech innovators and faculty entrepreneurs interested in commercializing their solutions.

Gullerova is working on RAIDEN, an AI-driven drug discovery project developing small-molecule medicines that target RNA, unlocking entirely new ways to treat diseases long considered “undruggable.” By combining advanced machine learning with molecular biology and chemistry, RAIDEN is redefining how next-generation RNA-targeted therapies are developed.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-royalty-pharma-faculty-founder-initiative-supports-biotech-innovators-0227

Solid-state batteries promise to charge faster and last longer than today's lithium-ion batteries. But they keep failing...
09/03/2026

Solid-state batteries promise to charge faster and last longer than today's lithium-ion batteries. But they keep failing, plagued by tiny spikes of lithium metal called dendrites that short-circuit the system. Harry Tuller, a professor in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), and his collaborators at the Technical University of Munich wanted to understand why. They discovered the culprit wasn't where everyone was looking—it was hidden at the boundaries where tiny crystals of solid electrolyte material meet.

At those grain boundaries, electrical imbalances create local electric fields that block lithium ions while allowing electrons to leak through, triggering dendrite formation. "Grain boundaries are like the weather: Everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it," Tuller says. "In this paper, we've decided to do something about grain boundaries."

The team adjusted how the electrolyte material is processed to minimize those electrical imbalances. The result: critical current density improved by more than 300 percent, enabling batteries that charge faster and last longer. Published in Nature Nanotechnology, the findings provide a roadmap for developing high-performance, safer solid-state batteries.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/discovery-helps-explain-why-solid-state-batteries-often-fail-0706

Gohar Chaudhry, a graduate student in the MIT EECS Department, identified a problem at the heart of modern AI systems. A...
09/02/2026

Gohar Chaudhry, a graduate student in the MIT EECS Department, identified a problem at the heart of modern AI systems. Agentic workflows—complex systems that chain together multiple AI models and tools to tackle complicated tasks—are getting very inefficient. Developers have to hard-code every technical choice upfront, from which models to use to which hardware to run them on. It's nearly impossible to do optimally.

So Chaudhry and his team at MIT and Microsoft developed Murakkab, a system that does the hard work automatically. Developers describe what they want the workflow to do in plain language. Murakkab figures out the best models, tools, and hardware configuration. It even adjusts those configurations in real time based on whether the user prioritizes speed or cost.

"Energy usage is a huge concern, so we need to be very careful about how efficient these workflows are," Chaudhry says. "It is very easy to over-allocate resources, wasting energy and money." When tested on video Q&A and code generation tasks, Murakkab used only 35 percent of the computation of traditional approaches—consuming 27 percent as much energy for 25 percent of the cost.

https://www.eecs.mit.edu/improving-the-speed-and-energy-efficiency-of-ai-agents/

Areg Danagoulian, a professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, was thinking about a gap in glob...
09/01/2026

Areg Danagoulian, a professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, was thinking about a gap in global security: The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans nuclear weapons in space, but there's currently no way to verify that satellites don't carry them. A nuclear detonation in low-Earth orbit would release trillions of highly energetic electrons, destroying many satellites and disrupting telecommunications, GPS, and space-based internet worldwide.

So Danagoulian proposed a way to detect them. His concept uses a satellite-based sensor system with neutron detectors that could orbit near a suspect satellite and identify neutrons generated when high-energy protons collide with radioactive material. His calculations show the system could detect a nuclear weapon with 99 percent accuracy from 4,000 meters away in about a week, or in just one hour from 1,000 meters.

"You can fake intelligence," Danagoulian says, "but you can't fake physics." Published in Nature, the feasibility study aims to encourage further research and development. While many practical considerations remain, Danagoulian believes scientific verification could encourage nonproliferation and strengthen international trust.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-researcher-proposes-way-to-detect-nuclear-weapons-in-space-0708

08/31/2026

Professor Xuanhe Zhao in MIT Mechanical Engineering identified a persistent problem: hydrogels—the squishy, water-based materials in bandages and medical sensors—trap moisture. Wear them too long, and the skin irritates. "Water and oxygen are both essential for life," Zhao says. "Now that we've added air to hydrogels, people can find broad applications."

The breakthrough came from mixing hydrogel with tiny silica aerogel particles that naturally repel water. Through viscoelastic phase separation, the particles formed thin, interconnected tunnels—what Zhao calls "air-permeable highways"—allowing air to flow through while maintaining the gel's softness and stretch.

In experiments, volunteers wore wireless heart monitors attached to the new hydrogel for 10 days while exercising. No skin irritation. Clear signals throughout. The work, published in Nature, could enable longer-lasting bandages, implants, contact lenses, and wearable health monitors.

https://news.mit.edu/2026/mit-engineers-whip-up-more-breathable-hydrogel-0708

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