Future Worlds | Design and action for the future we want to live in
Breaking the thermal limit of atmospheric water harvesting technologies
Shuvo, I.I., Flores-Hernandez, D.R., Smith, G. et al. Breaking the thermal limit of atmospheric water harvesting technologies. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-026-00154-5
A subnational social vulnerability index for use in drought decision support systems
Islam, M. S., Kuwayama, Y., Entekhabi, D., Turner, K. M., Lu, C., Castillo, F. M., ... & Wood, D. (2026). A subnational social vulnerability index for use in drought decision support systems. Environmental Science & Policy, 178, 104349.
The Challenges, Methods, and Opportunities of Understanding Informal Urbanism: A Case Study in Lomas del Centinela, Mexico
Rico, A., Izquierdo, L., Delgado, E. et al. The challenges, methods, and opportunities of understanding informal urbanism: a case study in Lomas del Centinela, Mexico. npj Urban Sustain 6, 35 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00360-x
Uniting Under the Eclipse: A Mega-Collaboration to Activate Science Learning Across the Penumbra and Beyond
Chambers, L., Connolly, R., Kirk, M. S., Fischer, H., Aranda, A., Bowden, M. L., Cass, M., Cominsky, L. R., Czajkowski, K. P., Edson, L. B., Gardner-Vandy, K., Higdon, R., Holland, A., Keller, J. M., Kohl, H., Leavell, C., MacDonald, E., McCarthy, C., Mead, C., … White, V. (2025). Uniting Under the Eclipse: A Mega-Collaboration to Activate Science Learning Across the Penumbra and Beyond. Bulletin
High-efficiency atmospheric water harvesting enabled by ultrasonic extraction (by Ikra Shuvo)
Shuvo, I.I., Díaz-Marín, C.D., Christen, M. et al. High-efficiency atmospheric water harvesting enabled by ultrasonic extraction. Nat Commun 16, 9947 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65586-2
HugAgent: A Human Simulation Benchmark for Individual-Level Reasoning
Chance Jiajie Li, Zhenze Mo, Yuhan Tang, Ao Qu, Jiayi Wu, Kaiya Ivy Zhao, Yulu Gan, Jie Fan, Jiangbo Yu, Hang Jiang, Paul Pu Liang, Jinhua Zhao, Luis Alberto Alonso Pastor, Kent Larson. (2026). HugAgent: A Human Simulation Benchmark for Individual-Level Reasoning. EMNLP 2026, Oral Presentation.
BioLIG: Functionalizing Biocomposites with Laser-induced Graphene for Bio-Rapid Prototyping of Electronics
Yuqing Lucy Li, Vlasta Kubušová, Wedyan Babatain, Jean-Baptiste Labrune, Sage A Widder, Bernice Sun, Jack Forman, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2025. BioLIG: Functionalizing Biocomposites with Laser-induced Graphene for Bio-Rapid Prototyping of Electronics. In The 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’25), September 28–October 01, 2025, Busan, Republic of Korea. ACM, New
NASA’s Earth-observing satellites are crucial — commercial missions cannot replace them
Wood, D. (2025) NASA’s Earth-observing satellites are crucial - commercial missions cannot replace them, Nature News. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02685-6 (Accessed: 26 August 2025).
Development and flight-testing of modular autonomous cultivation systems for biological plastics upcycling aboard the ISS
Liu, X., Pataranutaporn, P., Fram, B. et al. Development and flight-testing of modular autonomous cultivation systems for biological plastics upcycling aboard the ISS. npj Microgravity 11, 23 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-025-00463-2
Architecting a decision support system for continuing supervision of commercial in-space servicing
Jacqueline H. Smith, Moriba Jah, Danielle Wood, Architecting a decision support system for continuing supervision of commercial in-space servicing, Acta Astronautica, Volume 235, 2025, Pages 258-274, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.036.
Simulating Society Requires Simulating Thought
Chance Jiajie Li, Jiayi Wu, Zhenze Mo, Ao Qu, Yuhan Tang, Kaiya Ivy Zhao, Yulu Gan, Jie Fan, Jiangbo Yu, Jinhua Zhao, Paul Pu Liang, Luis Alberto Alonso Pastor, Kent Larson. (2025). Simulating Society Requires Simulating Thought. NeurIPS 2025.
High-Res Acoustic and Environmental Data to Monitor Bombus dahlbomii Amid Invasive Species, Habitat Loss
Chwalek, P., Kuronaga, M., Zhu, I. et al. High-Res Acoustic and Environmental Data to Monitor Bombus dahlbomii Amid Invasive Species, Habitat Loss. Sci Data 12, 548 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04877-1
Acoustic data collection in arctic environments during the midnight sun using multi-channel SoundSHROOMs
Chwalek, P., Coblentz, M., Montague, S. et al. Acoustic data collection in arctic environments during the midnight sun using multi-channel SoundSHROOMs. Sci Data 12, 318 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04601-z
A dataset exploring urban comfort through novel wearables and environmental surveys
Chwalek, P., Zhong, S., Perry, N. et al. A dataset exploring urban comfort through novel wearables and environmental surveys. Sci Data 11, 1423 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04279-9
Generating Physically-Consistent Satellite Imagery for Climate Visualizations
B. Lütjens et al., "Generating Physically-Consistent Satellite Imagery for Climate Visualizations," in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 62, pp. 1-11, 2024, Art no. 4213311, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3493763.
SeaScan: An Energy-Efficient Underwater Camera for Wireless 3D Color Imaging
Naeem, N., Rademacher, J., Patnaik, R., Boroushaki, T., & Adib, F. (2024, November). SeaScan: An Energy-Efficient Underwater Camera for Wireless 3D Color Imaging. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking. https://doi.org/10.1145/3636534.3690661
3D-BLUE: Backscatter Localization for Underwater Robotics
Sayed Saad Afzal, Weitung Chen, Fadel Adib. 2024. 3D-BLUE: Backscatter Localization for Underwater Robotics. In IEEE/RSJ IROS’24 Conference, October 14, 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Light-induced rolling of azobenzene polymer thin films for wrapping subcellular neuronal structures
Airaghi Leccardi, M.J.I., Desbiolles, B.X.E., Haddad, A.Y. et al. Light-induced rolling of azobenzene polymer thin films for wrapping subcellular neuronal structures. Commun Chem 7, 249 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-024-01335-8
Designing Earth Mission Control: An Immersive Data Visualization Tool for Climate Communication and Decision-Making
Spatiotemporal Facility-Level Patterns of Summer Heat Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk in United States Prison Landscapes
Ovienmhada, Ufuoma, et al. “Spatiotemporal Facility‐Level Patterns of Summer Heat Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk in United States Prison Landscapes.” GeoHealth., vol. 8, no. 9, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GH001108
White Paper: Charting the future of Earth observation
Building spaces for design justice: A case study on the design justice pedagogy summit
Roeder, G., Das, M., Saadi, J.I., Harrington, C., Verma, A., Breazeal, C., D’Ignazio, C., Yang, M., & Ostrowski, A.K. 2024. Building spaces for design justice: A case study on the design justice pedagogy summit. Accepted to ASME 2024 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE2024).
Development and user study of the Operational Geology in a Virtual Environment (OGIVE) platform
C. Paige, D.D. Haddad, Trent Piercy, J. Todd, F. Ward, A. Ekblaw, D. Newman. "Development and user study of the Operational Geology in a Virtual Environment (OGIVE) platform." Acta Astronautica, Volume 224, 2024, Pages 17-36, ISSN 0094-5765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2024.07.043.
How Policy Can Help Ensure the Proper Use of AI in K-12 Education
Application of Programmability to Commercial Banking and Payments
Toh, W., Brownworth, A., Bench, R., Li, N., and Sarwar, S. (2024). Application of Programmability to Commercial Banking and Payments. [White paper]. https:/www.media.mit.edu/publications/application-of-programmability-to-commercial-banking-and-payments
Supporting Reflexivity and Action on Equity and Justice in Design Education: Insights from the Design Justice Pedagogy Summit
Ostrowski, A.K., Das, M., Roeder, G., Saadi. J.I., Harrington, C., Verma, A., Breazeal, C., D’Ignazio, C., & Yang, M. 2024. Supporting reflexivity and action on equity and justice in design education: Insights from the design justice pedagogy summit. Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS) 14.
Design and Fabrication of Multifunctional E-Textiles by Upcycling Waste Cotton Fabrics through Carbonization
Wicaksono, I., Maheshwari, A., Haddad, D.D., Paradiso, J., and Danielescu, A., 2024. Design and Fabrication of Multifunctional E-Textiles by Upcycling Waste Cotton Fabrics through Carbonization. In Proc. ACM Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT) 8, 2, Article 45 (June 2024), 31 pages.
Modeling Collision Avoidance Actions Using Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology Framework
Haghi, S. E., Smith, J. H., Dorrington, S., Reid, J., Colombo, C., & Wood, D. (2024, March). Modeling Collision Avoidance Actions Using Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology Framework. In 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference (pp. 1-13). IEEE.
Current-induced switching of a van der Waals ferromagnet at room temperature
Kajale, S.N., Nguyen, T., Chao, C.A. et al. Current-induced switching of a van der Waals ferromagnet at room temperature. Nat Commun 15, 1485 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45586-4
Sensor platform for assessment of water usage patterns in informal settlements
Rico, A., Larson, K. & Gamboa, M. Sensor platform for assessment of water usage patterns in informal settlements. Sci Rep 13, 18958 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46236-3
PyLabRobot: An open-source, hardware-agnostic interface for liquid-handling robots and accessories
Rick P. Wierenga, Stefan M. Golas, Wilson Ho, Connor W. Coley, Kevin M. Esvelt. PyLabRobot: An open-source, hardware-agnostic interface for liquid-handling robots and accessories. Device, Volume 1, Issue 4 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.device.2023.100111.
Enabling Long-Range Underwater Backscatter via Van Atta Acoustic Networks
Aline Eid, Jack Rademacher, Waleed Akbar, Purui Wang, Ahmed Allam, and Fadel Adib. 2023. Enabling Long-Range Underwater Backscatter via Van Atta Acoustic Networks. In ACM SIGCOMM 2023 Conference (ACM SIGCOMM ’23), September 10, 2023, New York, NY, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 19 pages
2022 NASA Science Activation Program Impact Report
NASA Science Mission Directorate. (2023). 2022 NASA Science Activation Impact Report (Report No. NP-2023-05-3126-HQ). NASA Headquarters.
FathomNet: A global image database for enabling artificial intelligence in the ocean
Katija, K., Orenstein, E., Schlining, B. et al. FathomNet: A global image database for enabling artificial intelligence in the ocean. Sci Rep 12, 15914 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19939-2