Research
Future Sketches

Exploring the essence of code as a creative medium
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing systems for cognitive enhancement
Post Research

Democratizing Access to Space

When we say we’re “democratizing access to space exploration,” what do we mean?
Project Research

Living Bits

Living Bits : Opportunities and Challenges for Integrating Living Microorganisms in Human-Computer InteractionThere are trillions of livi...
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...
Publication Research

Byte.it: Discreet Teeth Gestures for Mobile Device Interaction

Tomás Vega Gálvez, Shardul Sapkota, Alexandru Dancu, Pattie Maes, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI’19 Extended Abstracts), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages, https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312925
Project Research

Byte.it

Discreet Teeth Gestures for Mobile Device InteractionByte.it is a miniaturized, discreet interface that uses teeth gestures for hands-fre...
Article Research

Speculative machines produce existential wonder

A collaboration between CAST visiting artist Thom Kubli, Hiroshi Ishii, and members of the Tangible Media group.
Research
Lifelong Kindergarten

Engaging people in creative learning experiences
Research
Scalable Cooperation

Reimagining human cooperation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence
Project Research

Wearable and Biometric Olfactory Interfaces for Day and Night

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

Beyond the Cradle
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...
Article Research

Neri Oxman grows tools for the future at new MoMA retrospective

“My team and I stand in the crossroads, challenging some of the processes that designers face at the intersection of biology and technology"
Article Research

New approach to sustainable building takes shape in Boston

A five-story mixed-use structure in Roxbury represents a new kind of net-zero-energy building, made from wood.
Article Research

Neri Oxman and Sir Norman Foster on the future of design

The venturesome Oxman talks experimental materials and lunar habitation with the renowned architect.
Article Research

Dezeen Awards names Aguahoja I design project of the year

Aguahoja I shows how nature can help us to design new materials, highlighting the relationship between nature and technology.
Article Research

The most futuristic building in New York—currently on view at MoMA—wasn’t made by humans

To build a new pavilion in midtown Manhattan, the architect Neri Oxman employed 17,000 silkworms.
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Research
Poetic Justice

Exploring new forms of social justice through art
Project Research

AI + Ethics Curriculum for Middle School

How do we raise conscientious consumers and designers of AI?Children today live in the age of artificial intelligence. On average, US chi...
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Project Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Space Architecture

Overview: How will we build the coming generations of Space Architecture—the modules, space ships, and space stations that will ensc...
Project Research

Interplanetary Gastronomy

Maggie Coblentz leads research and design on interplanetary gastronomy at the Space Exploration Initiative, where she is developing ...
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...
Research
Conformable Decoders

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

Aguahoja

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

Totems

Biodiversity on planet Earth is under momentous threat, with extinction rates estimated between 100 and 1,000 times their pre-human level...
Project Research

Vespers III

Vespers is a collection of masks exploring what it means to design (with) life. From the relic of the death mask to a contemporary living...
Project Research

Vespers II

Novel technologies for additive manufacturing are enabling design and production at nature’s scale. We can seamlessly vary the physical p...
Project Research

Glass II

Optically transparent and structurally sound, glass has played a significant role in the evolution of product and architectural design ac...
Project Research

The Interplanetary Cookbook

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

Designing for, with, and by nature
Research
PlusMinus

PlusMinus
Post Research

Media Lab @ Design, Technology + Social Innovation Workshop 2020

The following Media Lab students joined the MIT India Initiative in Mumbai for this workshop.
Research
ML Learning

ML Learning
Project Research

Theme | CityScope

City Science researchers are developing a slew of tangible and digital platforms dedicated to solving spatial design and urban planning c...
Project Research

Technology Design for Coffee Production

IAP 2020 applications are open!🔥This course is open to all MIT students🔥Online application: bit/ly/mitcoffee2Application Deadline: D...
Project Research

Piccolo Kitchen

This project aims to create a modular platform for exploring micro-kitchens that are culture specific. Cooking is a personal experience t...
Article Research

ETH Zurich at the WEF – RETHINKING Creativity

KnittedKeyboard at ETH Rethinking Creativity Pavilion
Project Research

KnittedKeyboard

Knitting is an established textile manufacturing technique that has been pervasive in the garment and technical fabrics manufacturing and...
Project Research

ScratchJr

ScratchJr makes coding accessible to younger children (ages 5-7), enabling them to program their own interactive stories, games, and anim...
Article Research

Hybrid Living Materials

A 3D printing system that controls the behavior of live bacteria could someday enable medical devices with therapeutic agents built in.
Project Research

User needs for augmentative communication interfaces

We are working on communication interfaces for people with speech and language disorders, incorporating technologies like physiological s...
Research
Viral Communications

Creating scalable technologies that evolve with user inventiveness
Research
Tangible Media

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Research
Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies
Research
Human Dynamics

Exploring how social networks can influence our lives in business, health, governance, and technology adoption and diffusion
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
Article Research

16 art exhibits worth leaving the house for this winter

WBUR’s picks for winter art exhibits around the Boston area include director’s fellow Christine Sun Kim’s “Off the Charts.”
Project Research

Personalized Bionics for Dynamic Gait

The design of next-generation bionic ankles and knees aims to improve bionic actuators on all metrics: range of motion, power density, ba...
Thesis Research

IDK: An Interaction Development Kit to design interactions for lightweight autonomous vehicles

[1] Solomon et al., 2007. Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. [2] USEPA. (April 2012). Inventory of U.S Greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990-2016, Figure 3-5.
Article Research

Ask a Curator: Paola Antonelli

Paola Antonelli talks about the forthcoming exhibition on the work of architect and designer Neri Oxman.
Project Research

FabricKeyboard

Multimodal textile sensate media as an expressive and deformable musical interfaceIn the area of intelligent textiles, we are exploring a...
Project Research

Scratch Mondays

Scratch Mondays is an initiative  to share the Scratch Day spirit to schools in Brazil. After having a big Scratch Day event in 2018...
Article Research

MITdesignX selects 2020 cohort

Ten multi-disciplinary teams join MIT’s design entrepreneurship accelerator.
Project Research

Paper Dreams

Paper Dreams explores how human creativity can be supported by artificial intelligence.Prior research on AI and creativity has primarily ...
Project Research

AlterEgo

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

Suleiman Alhadidi on how to maximize the future kitchen, even in small spaces

We talk a lot about the appliances that go into the future kitchen—but what about the design of the space itself?
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. ...
Project Research

Orbit Weaver Suit

​​​​​​​​​The Orbit Weaver Suit for zero gravity was designed by Media Lab Director's Fellow Andrea Lauer in collaboration with ...
Project Research

Moon Village

In 2015, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, introduced the concept of the “Moon Village.” Inspired by t...
Article Research

Zach Lieberman joins MIT Media Lab

New adjunct associate professor combines fine arts and coding.
Post Research

Zero Gravity Flight 2019

This mission included participation from several departments at MIT and outside collaborators from across the globe.