Electrical engineering and electronics

Computing with a wave of the handA new Media Lab system turns LCD displays into giant cameras that provide gestural control of objects on-screen. And that’s just for starters.

A social network that balloonedAn MIT team’s savvy use of social media to locate weather balloons as part of a $40,000 DARPA contest may shed light on how to mobilize resources during emergencies.

Life after siliconResearchers in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories are making the case for using exotic materials to help microchips keep improving.

Fine-tuned laserA wholly new approach to tuning a laser’s frequency brings us a step closer to airport scanners that can distinguish aspirin from explosives.

Flight of fancyUsing an autonomous mini-helicopter, an MIT team stunned the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International by solving one of its notoriously tough challenges on the first try.

MIT team wins innovation award from Institution of Engineering and Technology

Explained: The Discrete Fourier TransformThe theories of an early-19th-century French mathematician have emerged from obscurity to become part of the basic language of engineering.

Selling chip makers on optical computingBy designing chips that can be built using existing fabrication processes, MIT researchers show that computing with light isn’t so far fetched.

Turning heat to electricityMIT research points to a much more efficient way of harvesting electrical power from what would otherwise be wasted heat.

Cryptographic voting debutsA new system for ensuring accurate election tallies, which MIT researchers helped to develop, passed its first real-world test last Tuesday.

Reporter's Notebook: Inventing languageMIT’s Barbara Liskov, winner of the Turing Award, describes how she helped lay the foundations for today’s programming languages.

What computer science can teach economicsConstantinos Daskalakis applies the theory of computational complexity to game theory, with consequences in a range of disciplines.

Inventor, lawyer and lecturer Robert H. Rines dies aged 87

Secure computers aren’t so secureEven well-defended computers can leak shocking amounts of private data. MIT researchers seek out exotic attacks in order to shut them down

A new way to measure muscleMIT engineer Joel Dawson and colleagues built a handheld probe that could help doctors monitor muscle atrophy in patients with Lou Gehrig's Disease and similar ailments.

Parallel courseAs chip makers turn to multiple 'cores' to improve performance, MIT researchers help ease programmers' transition to parallel programming.

Seeing thingsResearchers from MIT's CSAIL teach computers to recognize objects.

To peer inside a living cellQuantum mechanics could help build ultra-high-resolution electron microscopes that won't destroy living cells, according to MIT electrical engineers.

Stimulating sightLed by electrical engineering professor John Wyatt, team develops retinal implant that could help restore useful level of vision to certain groups of blind people

Sharing the airUnused wireless spectrum is getting scarce; MIT researchers are teaching emerging technologies to coexist in what's left

Two chips in one MIT team finds a way to combine materials for semiconductor manufacture. The advance helps address the limitations of conventional silicon microprocessors.

A fabric with visionResearchers create flexible lensless camera from web of light-detecting fibers

A phone is not just a phoneStudent projects explore innovative cellphone uses in developing world

Peeling stickers may lead way to stretchable electronicsNew model enables precise design of damage-resistant materials