Project Research

Material Functionalization

When materials sciences meet HCI and e-textiles, for custom sensors and actuatorsIn this project we explore the process of polymerization...
Project Research

Commalla: Communication for All

(Note: This project was previously called ECHOS.)  Official Commalla website:  https://commallamit.wixsite.com/commal...
Publication Research

Defund Big Tech, Refund Community: Anti-Trust is Not Enough, Another Tech is Possible

Barendregt, W., Becker, C., Cheon, E., Clement, A., Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Schuler, D., & Suchman, L. (2021). Defund Big Tech, Refund Community. Tech Otherwise. https://doi.org/10.21428/93b2c832.e0100a3f
Project Research

The Power of Without

The Power of WITHOUT is a research theme in the City Science group. The theme proposes that heavy infrastructure solutions are not financ...
Research
Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing systems for cognitive enhancement
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
Project Research

The MIT Autonomous Bicycle Project

A lightweight research platform to develop autonomous technology Designed to transform bicycle-sharing systems into an on-demand mob...
Project Research

The Interplanetary Cookbook

Maggie Coblentz is developing “The Interplanetary Cookbook”—a collection of speculative recipes, tools for eating, and sensory experience...
Article Research

What’s it like to design a meal that floats?

Taking a taste of the sensory research of Space Exploration Initiative’s Maggie Coblentz
Project Research

Tasting Menu in Zero G

 A multi-course tasting menu was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019.  Five specially crafted dishes were consum...
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Research
Conformable Decoders

Converting the patterns of nature and the human body into beneficial signals and energy
Project Research

Therms-Up!: DIY Inflatables and Interactive Materials by Upcycling Wasted Thermoplastic Bags

Therms-Up! is a DIY method of creating inflatables and prototyping interactive materials from wasted thermoplastic bags that easily found...
Research
PlusMinus

PlusMinus
Research
Poetic Justice

Exploring new forms of social justice through art
Project Research

Creative Learning Design Tools

While text-editors (e.g. Google Docs, MS Word) might be useful for writing a lecture, they’re not an intuitive medium for designing exper...
Article Research

Why Ekene Ijeoma advocates to design for the citizen, not just the consumer

Ekene Ijeoma, head of the Poetic Justice research group, talks to Frame about his work.
Article Research

Career Girls Role Models: Marian Muthui

Marian Muthui talks about her career path, from mechanical engineering to design research.
Project Research

Music interface

Antenna-based topography that may serve as a platform to build musical instruments.This instrument allows the user to interact and c...
Project Research

AlterEgo

AlterEgo is a  non-invasive, wearable, peripheral neural interface that allows humans to converse in natural language with mach...
Research
Biomechatronics

Enhancing human physical capability
Project Research

Engagement with Voice-User Interface Agents

Voice-user interfaces (VUIs), such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, are increasingly becoming present in domestic environments. ...
Archived
Research
ML Learning

ML Learning
Project Research

Powered Ankle-Foot Prosthesis

The human ankle provides a significant amount of net positive work during the stance period of walking, especially at moderate to fast wa...
Project Research

Technology Design for Coffee Production

In the Civic Media group, we are exploring new theoretical frameworks for design, and novel design education methodologies that serve a f...
Publication Research

Electric-Energetic Consequences of Springs in Lower-Extremity Powered Prostheses on Varied Terrain

M. E. Carney and H. Herr, "Electric-Energetic Consequences of Springs in Lower-Extremity Powered Prostheses on Varied Terrain," 2020 8th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), New York City, NY, USA, 2020, pp. 989-996, doi: 10.1109/BioRob49111.2020.9224458.
Project Research

Essence Wearables: Biometric Olfactory Interfaces for Day and Night

Human-computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally focused on designing and investigating interfaces that provide explicit visual, audito...
Project Research

Play Analytics

Analyzing detailed data from SpeechBlocks to understand how kids engage with constructionist literacy learning technologies, with th...
Gallery Research

Redesigning YouTube

Middle school students reimagine the YouTube platform. Students consider the stakeholders in YouTube, the goal of the recommendation algo...
Article Research

The G protein coupled receptor CXCR4 designed by the QTY code becomes more hydrophilic and retains cell signaling activity

Designer partial water-soluble GPCR CXCR4QTY29 variant receptor retains ligand binding activity and in vivo cell singling.
Project Research

On-Face Olfactory Interfaces

We envision that a close-to-nose interface could be used as a complementary or alternative wearable method to nasal cannulas or mask...
Research
Personal Robots

Building intelligent personified technologies that collaborate with people to help them learn, thrive, and flourish.
Center for Civic Media
Archived
Project Research

WOSNA - WorkOut Sensor Node Assistant

We are presenting the WorkOut Sensor Node Assistant (WOSNA), a body sensor net composed of many tiny sensor nodes that can suck on the sk...
Project Research

With(in)

With(in) is a multi-stage project that includes an exhibit, installation, qualitative exploration, and visual storytelling.This is a...
Archived
Project Research

LightCloud: Future of Dynamic Lighting in the Shared Space

Lighting conditions in an indoor environment have been shown to affect our cognition and behaviors in a variety of ways. On average, we s...
Archived
Project Research

Project Captivate: A wearable platform for measurement and actuation across contexts

Project Captivate have been designed to serve as an easy and reliable platform to measure physiology in the real world.  We've des...
Project Research

Silk Pavilion II

What are radically sustainable methods for knitting, making and building in the age of the Anthropocene? How can humankind and members of...
Project Research

Aguahoja

Programmable Water-Based Biocomposites for Digital Design and Fabrication across ScalesAguahoja is an exploration of nature’s design spac...
Research
Opera of the Future

Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
Research
Community Biotechnology

Community Biotechnology
Post Research

Ariel Noyman's work on CityScope selected for the Young Talent exhibition at Hebei International Industrial Design Week (HIDW)

The “HIDW Young Talent” exhibition addressed three topics: Manufacturing of Tomorrow, Future Craft, and City Catalyst.
Research
Lifelong Kindergarten

Engaging people in creative learning experiences
Project Research

Hybrid Living Materials

Hybrid Living Materials (HLMs) are formed by combining living and non-living materials such that the resulting composites take on the fun...
Project Research

Theme | Mobility On-Demand

Urban populations around the world are rapidly growing. To improve livability, urban residents must reduce dependency on fossil fuels and...
Project Research

Resilience Across Scales

Resilience Across Scales is a research theme that encompasses the work of a few Media Lab Principal Investigators and their research grou...
Post Research

Introducing a New Class of Creative Tools for Educators: Creative Learning Design Tools

How teaching as a form of creative work can be better empowered with creative tools.
Project Research

[bike] swarm

As bikes navigate city streets after dark, they are often equipped with lights. The lights make the bikes visible to cars or other bikers...
Archived
Project Research

ambienBeat: Mobile tactile biofeedback for subliminal heart rate rhythmic regulation

We present a mobile heart rate regulator—ambienBeat—which provides closed-loop ambient biofeedback via subliminal tactile stimulus based ...
Archived
Project Research

DefeXtiles: 3D printing quasi-woven textiles via underextrusion

OverviewDefeXtiles are thin, flexible textiles of many materials that can quickly be printed into a variety of 3D forms using an inexpens...
Archived
Project Research

Hybrid Sculptures
Archived
Research
Future Sketches

Exploring the essence of code as a creative medium
Research
Viral Communications

Creating scalable technologies that evolve with user inventiveness
Project Research

conformable Facial Code Extrapolation Sensor (cFaCES)

AbstractDevices that facilitate nonverbal communication typically require high computational loads or have rigid and bulky form factors&n...
Project Research

A tailored, electronic textile conformable suit for large-scale spatiotemporal physiological sensing in vivo

The rapid advancement of electronic devices and fabrication technologies has further promoted the field of wearables and smart textiles. ...
Article Research

A wearable sensor to help ALS patients communicate

Researchers have designed a skin-like device that can measure small facial movements in patients who have lost the ability to speak.
Post Research

2018 GSC Graduate Teaching Award

Neil Gaikwad, a PhD student in the Media Lab's Space Enabled research group, has received the GSC Graduate Teaching Award, an Institute A...
Post Research

Frequently Asked Questions: A tailored, electronic textile conformable suit for large-scale spatiotemporal physiological sensing in vivo
Research
Tangible Media

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Publication Research

Self-assembling peptides: from a discovery in a yeast protein to diverse uses and beyond

Zhang, S. (2020) Self-assembling peptides: from a discovery in a yeast protein to diverse uses and beyond. Protein Science DOI:10.1002/pro.3951
Project Research

Floral Cosmonauts: Self-assembling silver dendrite networks in microgravity

Biological neuronal networks are highly complex and interconnected with superior information processing capabilities. Such networks have ...