Energy and Environment
Research programs in energy and environment are among the most widespread in the School. They are also the focus of a cross-disciplinary survey, commissioned by Dean Thomas Magnanti, to review current capabilities and chart future progress.
Among ongoing efforts are:
Departments and Divisions
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Through its labs (e.g., the Gas Turbine and Space Propulsion labs), its programs (e.g., PARTNER, ICAT), and its faculty, the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department is involved with transportation systems that operate within the earth's atmosphere and travel through space. Aero-Astro researches efficient power use in transport systems; contributes to optimization of energy systems through study of industrial organization, market forces, and policy systems; and examines aviation-posed environmental challenges.
Biological Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Energy and environmental issues are integral parts of modern chemical engineering practice, and the department is at the forefront of research on clean fuels, geothermal energy, carbon dioxide sequestration, catalytic treatment of pollutants, global air pollution modeling, and low-waste process design.
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The department's efforts in energy and the environment include: research into ways to reduce inefficiency in energy usage and production; modeling, identification, and control of systems; remote sensing and estimation; and intelligent transportation systems.
Engineering Systems Division
Researchers in the Engineering Systems Division use a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to address large-scale, complex problems in energy and environment. These include cross-technology analysis of alternative energy sources (solar, wind, and biomass); increased efficiency in energy production, delivery, and usage; sustainable mobility; climate change strategies; and industrial ecology.
Materials Science and Engineering
Most materials research initiatives have a fundamental relationship to energy and environmental issues. Some DMSE researchers are studying and developing materials for use in power systems, such as batteries, or for improved power use and generation. Others are researching the processing, manufacturing, and recycling of materials to improve air quality and reduce waste.
Mechanical Engineering
Energy and the environment are primary focus areas of research and education in mechanical engineering, with a large portfolio of topics, including automotive engineering, combustion simulations and control, electrochemical energy conversion and storage, fuel cells, solar energy and photovoltaic manufacturing, wind energy, energy efficient buildings, nanoscale energy conversion, and green manufacturing.
Nuclear Science and Engineering
The Nuclear Science and Engineering Department is a world leader of research in fission power, the number-one non-emitting electricity source, and in bringing to Earth fusion, the energy source of the sun and stars.
Selected Labs and Centers
Research in the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES) focuses on the design, operation, and regulation of current and advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles. The center aims to create new concepts for nuclear energy systems that promise more favorable economics, safety, proliferation resistance, and environmental impact.
The Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) is a cross-disciplinary research and education program that applies cutting-edge technologies to studying the biological effects of exposure to environmental agents, in order to understand and predict how such exposures affect human health. CEHS research activities are organized into three cores: Mutation and Cancer; Biological Engineering for Toxicology; and Environmental Systems and Health.
The Earth System Initiative (ESI) serves as a focus for next-generation interdisciplinary research on the profound challenge of understanding the nature of interactions among physical, chemical, and biological processes here on Earth. ESI is predicated on the notion that, to be meaningful, the debates over how best to ensure a sustainable future for the planet must be informed by reliable scientific data regarding its evolution and current state. ESI scientists and engineers marshal their efforts around four broad research themes: system characterization; system organization; evolutionary processes; and human impacts.
The Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) provides the theoretical basis, and component, circuit and system technologies required to develop advanced electrical energy applications for future competitive markets. LEES research areas include electronic circuits, components and systems, power electronics and control, micro and macro electromechanics, electromagnetics, continuum mechanics (the interaction of fields with fluids and other deformable media), high voltage engineering and dielectric physics, manufacturing and process control, and energy economics.
The Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) is a "virtual organization" within MIT, engaging faculty and research staff from more than a dozen departments. LFEE fosters collaboration among industry, government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and the public to address both the complex interrelationships between energy and the environment, and the technological, economic and social aspects of sustainable energy development and use. Its mission is to make significant, innovative contributions to energy and environmental sustainability, including the improvement of technologies, structures, and policies that lead to cleaner, more effective, efficient, and equitable products and processes.
The Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) is an interdepartmental effort of the Institute, reporting to the Dean of the School of Engineering. Founded during the early 1980s, the MTL maintains the primary campus facilities to support research activities in the fabrication and study of small (i.e., micron, submicron, and nanometer) structures and their use for the implementation of integrated systems ranging from X-ray lenses to VLSI circuits to micro-gas turbine engines. Among the MTL's research groups is the Digital Integrated Circuits and Systems group, which is involved with the design and implementation of integrated systems ranging from ultra low-power wireless sensors and multimedia devices to high-performance processors.
Within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, one laboratory that focuses on a primary challenge to both energy and the environment is the Sloan Automotive Laboratory. The Sloan Lab's goals are to provide the fundamental knowledge base for automotive engineering and to educate students to become technological leaders in the automotive industry. These goals are achieved through extensive research activities in the areas of internal combustion engines and fuels, fundamental fluid/thermal/combustion studies, and assessment of advanced propulsion and vehicle technologies, and especially their impact on the environment. The research activities are sponsored by the automotive and petroleum industries, by the government, and by private foundations. A major assessment of future automotive technologies (more efficient engines and transmissions, hybrids, fuel cells) and their fuel requirements is underway, focusing on greenhouse gas reduction.
Associated with the Sloan Automotive Lab is the Center for 21st Century Energy, dedicated to developing technology that will move the world towards a sustainable energy future. The mission is to educate the next generation of leaders in energy science and technology through a groundbreaking program of fundamental and applied research. This research will be focused on developing new energy technologies with characteristics appropriate to the needs of the next 50 years, and on ways to make major improvements in the efficiency and environmental impacts of current mainstream energy technologies. Success in both these areas is essential for progress towards a more sustainable energy future.
For information on how to support such programs in the School of Engineering, please contact Deborah J. Cohen, the School's senior director of development and communications, at (617) 253-2222. To make an online gift to any of our DDLCPs, please use the secure MIT giving form.
