Researchers affiliated with the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium are collaborating with member companies to help scale promising lab breakthroughs. “The point of the MCSC is to enable widespread change,” Glen Junor says.
PhD student Nick Caros is helping transit agencies serve the public in an era of remote work. “People have changed where they’re going when they go to work,” he says. “A lot of people are working from home, but some are also working in other places.”
Visolis, founded by alumnus Deepak Dugar, is merging synthetic biology with chemical catalysis to rethink manufacturing. It’s more sustainably making everything from car tires to cosmetics by tweaking the chemical processes involved in production.
A new technique helps a user understand why a robot failed to complete a given task — say, picking up a mug. It can then fine-tune the robot, with minimal effort, to perform that same task more effectively.
Mathias Kolle examines the microstructure of butterfly wings, and other organisms, in search of ways to replicate their light-bending effects. His team is designing materials, inspired by nature, that exhibit advanced optical functions.
Through the MIT Indigenous Languages Initiative, Rani Ukhengching Marma works to preserve Marma, spoken by one of the largest Indigenous groups in Bangladesh. The language “is strongly associated with our ancestral lands, culture, and knowledge,” she says.
Via @mit_spain on Instagram: “Great dinner meeting up with MIT-Spain interns living and working in Madrid!”