• Search Search
  • User Login
  • Nav Nav
Search
  • News + Updates
  • Research
  • About
  • Graduate Program
  • People
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Member Portal
We are an interdisciplinary research lab working to invent the future of
  • health

  • art

  • human-machine interaction

  • learning

  • artificial intelligence

  • robotics

  • architecture

  • consumer electronics

  • design

  • technology

  • kids

  • music

  • wearable computing

  • networks

  • politics

  • entertainment

  • bioengineering

  • economy

  • cognition

  • history

  • human-computer interaction

  • data

  • archives

  • machine learning

  • social science

  • storytelling

  • sensors

  • interfaces

  • space

  • environment

  • wellbeing

  • covid19

  • computer science

  • developing countries

  • prosthetics

  • engineering

  • privacy

  • social robotics

  • ethics

  • civic technology

  • social media

  • civic media

  • imaging

  • synthetic biology

  • communications

  • neurobiology

  • urban planning

  • public health

  • augmented reality

  • affective computing

  • virtual reality

  • biology

  • transportation

  • energy

  • community

  • biomechanics

  • data visualization

  • social change

  • biotechnology

  • computer vision

  • industry

  • ocean

  • 3d printing

  • zero gravity

  • alumni

  • food

  • government

  • genetics

  • blockchain

  • racial justice

  • agriculture

  • manufacturing

  • medicine

  • gaming

  • data science

  • women

  • prosthetic design

  • construction

  • creativity

  • materials

  • social networks

  • fashion

  • open source

  • behavioral science

  • banking and finance

  • security

  • crowdsourcing

  • cryptocurrency

  • systems

  • collective intelligence

  • climate change

  • makers

  • wiesner

  • fabrication

  • internet of things

  • language learning

  • performance

  • neural interfacing and control

  • cognitive science

  • bionics

  • interactive

  • ecology

  • autonomous vehicles

  • perception

  • human augmentation

  • civic action

  • nonverbal behavior

  • mapping

  • extended intelligence

  • physiology

  • visualization

  • startup

  • diversity

  • physics

  • clinical science

  • holography

  • long-term interaction

  • gesture interface

  • networking

  • point of care

  • sports and fitness

  • autism research

  • orthotic design

  • marginalized communities

  • water

  • trust

  • natural language processing

  • electrical engineering

  • voice

  • microfabrication

  • hacking

  • mechanical engineering

  • nanoscience

  • pharmaceuticals

  • member company

  • primary healthcare

  • mechatronics

  • clinical trials

  • trade

  • academia

  • member event

  • open access

  • microbiology

  • gender studies

  • rfid

  • soft-tissue biomechanics

  • chemistry

  • real estate

  • randomized experiment

  • publishing

  • biomedical imaging

  • gis

  • event

  • exhibit

  • cartography

  • metamaterials

  • installation

  • code

  • Groups
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Centers
  • Initiatives
More Close
Archived
Project Research

Hybrid Sculptures

in Future Sketches
Gaurav Patekar · Zach Lieberman
#robotics #design #art +1 more
Archived
Research
Future Sketches

Exploring the essence of code as a creative medium

#design #art #artificial intelligence +4 more
Accepting Applicants
Research
Viral Communications

Creating scalable technologies that evolve with user inventiveness

#design #human-computer interaction #artificial intelligence +36 more
Accepting Applicants
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.

via MIT News · Oct. 22, 2020
in Conformable Decoders
#design #health #biotechnology +2 more
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...

May 17, 2018
in Space Enabled
#design #artificial intelligence #environment +2 more
Research
Tangible Media

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

#robotics #design #virtual reality +39 more
Accepting Applicants
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

Academic Paper, Oct. 2020
in Director's Office
#design
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 ...

in Space Exploration Initiative
Harpreet Sareen
#design #manufacturing #space +3 more
Project Research

Lunar Sensor Net

We are leveraging current Wireless Sensor Network technology to develop an easily deployable, and inexpensive wireless sensor (LunarWSN) ...

in Responsive Environments
Joseph A. Paradiso · Fangzheng Liu
#robotics #design #environment +3 more
Thesis Research

Tools that Lower the Floors, Widen the Walls, and Raise the Ceilings for Designing Creative Learning Experiences

Ahmad, Y. (2020). Tools that Lower the Floors, Widen the Walls, and Raise the Ceilings for Designing Creative Learning Experiences. (Masters Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Thesis, Aug. 2020
in Lifelong Kindergarten
#design #learning
Project Research

Venous Materials: Towards interactive, fluidic mechanisms

By Hila Mor, Yu Tianyu, Ken Nakagaki, Benjamin Harvey Miller, Yichen Jia, Hiroshi IshiiThe Venous Materials project envisions a new way t...

in Tangible Media
Hila Mor · Hiroshi Ishii +1 more
#design #human-computer interaction #manufacturing +4 more
Research
Human Dynamics

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

#robotics #design #social networks +63 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Post Research

Andrea Ling's "Design by Decay, Decay by Design" receives STARTS Grand Prize at Ars Electronica '20

Andrea Ling, an alum of the Mediated Matter group, has won the Grand Prize in Artistic Exploration at this year's festival.

Sept. 30, 2020
in Mediated Matter
#design #art #biology +2 more
Article Research

Canadian architect wins €20,000 STARTS prize

Canadian architect and installation artist Andrea Ling has received the 2020 STARTS Grand Prize in the category of Artistic Exploration.

via Canadian Architect · Sept. 28, 2020
in Mediated Matter
#design #art #biology +2 more
Archived
Research
Design Fiction

Sparking discussion about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of emerging technologies through design and storytelling

#design #art #bioengineering +8 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Article Research

Cultivating Creativity and Community in a Design-based Online Course

How might we leverage digital collaboration tools to support teens in building community and engaging in open-ended, design-based work?

Sept. 16, 2020
in Lifelong Kindergarten
#design #learning
Project Research

Learning Creative Learning

Learning Creative Learning is an online course and community of educators, designers, technologists, and tinkerers exploring creative lea...

in Lifelong Kindergarten · ML Learning · Digital Learning + Collaboration Studio
Lily Gabaree · Carmelo Presicce +11 more
#design #learning #makers
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks

#robotics #design #virtual reality +50 more
Accepting Applicants
Research
Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature

#robotics #design #architecture +33 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Project Research

HERMITS: Mechanical Shells for Robotic TUIs (Ars Electronica 2020)

'Shells, often found on seashores, exemplifies the absence of existed lives. What if a presence dwells in to animate them?'Proj...

Hiroshi Ishii · Ken Nakagaki +2 more
#robotics #design
Project Research

Bubble Talk: Translating the presence of modern digital chat into fleeting bubbles

In this project the ephemeral and intangible aspects of human communication are represented by a soap-bubble. The shapeless, intangi...

in Tangible Media
Kyung Yun Choi
#design #art #fabrication
Archived
Research
Civic Media

Creating technology for social change

#robotics #design #social networks +52 more
Not Accepting Applicants
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...

Ariel Ekblaw
#robotics #design #agriculture +11 more
Archived
Research
Object-Based Media

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

#robotics #design #virtual reality +50 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Archived
Research
Collective Learning

Transforming data into knowledge

#design #social networks #virtual reality +39 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Article Research

Speculative machines produce existential wonder

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

via MIT News · March 12, 2020
in Tangible Media
#design #art #3d printing +1 more
Article Research

Ekene Ijeoma on drawing and sculpting with data for Friedman Benda's 'Design in Dialogue'

Poetic Justice head Ekene Ijeoma in conversation with Stephen Burks.

via Designboom · Aug. 21, 2020
in Poetic Justice
#design #art #data +1 more
Archived
Project Research

DataUSA

Visit DataUSADataUSA is the most comprehensive site visualizing public data for the United States. Through interactive profiles, DataUSA ...

in Collective Learning
Cesar A. Hidalgo
#design #data #data visualization
Archived
Article Research

Neri Oxman’s “Material Ecology” | Bio Art and Design

The exhibition has now become a part of the MoMA's ‘Virtual Views’ program due to the pandemic.

via TL Magazine · Aug. 11, 2020
in Mediated Matter
#design #art #biology +2 more
Project Research

Living Bits

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

in Fluid Interfaces
David S. Kong · Pat Pataranutaporn +2 more
#design #human-computer interaction #bioengineering +6 more
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...

in Fluid Interfaces
Jaya Narain
#design #human-computer interaction #health +1 more
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...

in Biomechatronics · Center for Extreme Bionics
Matthew Handford · Matthew Carney +4 more
#robotics #design #bioengineering +15 more
Archived
Research
Scalable Cooperation

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

#design #social networks #human-computer interaction +40 more
Not Accepting Applicants
Archived
Project Research

Moral Machine

The Moral Machine is a platform for gathering a human perspective on moral decisions made by machine intelligence, such as self-driving c...

in Scalable Cooperation
Edmond Awad · Iyad Rahwan +1 more
#design #architecture #artificial intelligence +13 more
Archived
Project Research

Essence

The sense of smell is perhaps the most pervasive of all senses, but it is also one of the least understood and least exploited in HCI. We...

in Advancing Wellbeing
Pattie Maes · Judith Amores Fernandez
#design #fashion #perception +3 more
Article Research

Orbiting, the new floating installation on the history of humanity

Artists and scientists from MIT united to create "Orbiting," an aerial archive of objects that trace the history of humanity.

via Sky Arte · April 23, 2020
in Tangible Media
#design #art #3d printing +1 more
Project Research

Cocoon: Speculative Dream Engineering

Cocoon is our vision of a programmable dream machine from the future. This device would be enabled by the synthesis of many devices under...

in Fluid Interfaces
Judith Amores Fernandez · Adam Haar Horowitz +1 more
#design #wearable computing #interfaces +1 more
Project Research

The Telemetron Orchestra

When contemplating the future of life in space, we dream not only of rockets and off-world societies, but also of art, of leisure, and fr...

in Space Exploration Initiative
Thomas Sanchez Lengeling · Nicole L'Huillier +1 more
#design #music #interfaces +3 more
Project Research

Theme | Assistive Technology

Today’s assistive communication devices are far from perfect. Using state of the art small, wearable sensors and powerful machine learnin...

in Fluid Interfaces · Affective Computing
Pattie Maes · Utkarsh Sarawgi +3 more
#design #human-computer interaction #artificial intelligence +4 more
Project Research

Space Webs as Infrastructure for distributed sensor networks and other infrastructure on low gravity bodies

We study textiles and nets as a base form for growing infrastructure and allowing reconfigurable sensing on low gravity bodies (for insta...

in Responsive Environments · Space Exploration Initiative
Juliana Cherston · Paul Strohmeier
#design #art #sensors +2 more
Project Research

Scratch

Scratch is the world's most popular coding community for kids. Millions of kids around the world are using Scratch to program their ...

in Lifelong Kindergarten
Mitchel Resnick · Natalie Rusk +30 more
#robotics #design #art +14 more
Project Research

SpaceHuman

SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratiza...

in Responsive Environments · Space Exploration Initiative
Valentina Sumini · Manuel Muccillo +2 more
#robotics #design #human-computer interaction +6 more
Project Research

KnittedKeyboard

Knitting is an established textile manufacturing technique that has been pervasive in the garment and technical fabrics industry. In comp...

in Responsive Environments
Irmandy Wicaksono · Joseph A. Paradiso
#design #human-computer interaction #consumer electronics +9 more
Project Research

SensorNets

SensorNets: Towards Reconfigurable Multifunctional Fine-grained  Soft and Stretchable Electronic Skins.SensorNets is a bio...

in Responsive Environments
Irmandy Wicaksono · Elena Chong Loo +2 more
#design #human-computer interaction #augmented reality +6 more
Project Research

PCBPT

The PCB debugging could be tricky sometimes. Normally we should check which signal we want to measure in the schematic and switch to PCB ...

in Responsive Environments
Fangzheng Liu
#robotics #design #human-computer interaction +1 more
Post Research

Dystopian Engineering: Piloting a Remote High School Engineering Course

Using distance learning as an opportunity to bring engineering skills to life in out of school environments.

June 11, 2020
in Lifelong Kindergarten
#design #learning
Article Research

Black engineers see both pride and exclusion in the return of human spaceflight

Like too many science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, the aerospace sector in the US is populated mainly by white people.

via Quartz · June 10, 2020
in Space Enabled
#design #space #community +3 more
Project Research

Emotive Materials

The design process is no longer limited to one group of individuals, as number, level, and cost make tools ever more accessible. As we mo...

in Object-Based Media
Bianca Datta
#design #interfaces #behavioral science
Project Research

Tidmarsh Living Observatory Portal

The Tidmarsh Living Observatory Portal is a research project that focuses on the design and fabrication of a pavilion that will gene...

in Responsive Environments
Valentina Sumini · Clement Duhart +4 more
#design #human-computer interaction #architecture +10 more
Article Research

Future Pulse. Living Observatory

"How can architects/urban developers use technology to foster the human/nature connection and improve our lives?" Glorianna Davenport

via Learning Learning Architects · Dec. 1, 2019
in Responsive Environments
#design #architecture #health +1 more
Project Research

Theme | Engineering Dreams

We are working to build technology that interfaces with the sleeping mind. As the dreamer descends into sleep, we track different sl...

in Fluid Interfaces
Pattie Maes · Judith Amores Fernandez +5 more
#design #wearable computing #interfaces +2 more
Archived
Project Research

SensorKnits: Architecting textile sensors with machine knitting

Digital machine knitting is a highly programmable manufacturing process that has been utilized to produce apparel, accessories, and footw...

in Tangible Media · Synthetic Neurobiology · Responsive Environments +1 more
Jifei Ou · Don Derek Haddad +3 more
#design #manufacturing #wearable computing
Archived
Archived
Project Research

WraPr: Spool-Based Fabrication for Object Creation and Modification

In this work, we propose a novel fabrication method for 3D objects based on the principle of spooling. By wrapping off-the-shelf material...

in Tangible Media
Joanne Leong · Ken Nakagaki +1 more
#design #human-computer interaction #3d printing +2 more
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Programmable Droplets

​State-of-the art liquid handling systems are generally pump-driven systems connected with valves and tubes. These systems are manually a...

in Tangible Media
Udayan Umapathi · Hiroshi Ishii
#design #human-computer interaction #art +2 more
Archived
Archived
Project Research

kinetiX

kinetiX is a transformable material featuring a design that resembles a cellular structure. It consists of rigid plates or rods and elast...

in Tangible Media
Jifei Ou · Jannik Peters +2 more
#design #art #manufacturing +3 more
Archived
Archived
Project Research

LeakyPhones

LeakyPhones is a public/private headset that was designed to encourage face-to-face interactions, curiosity, and healthier ...

in Tangible Media · Fluid Interfaces
Amos Golan · Hiroshi Ishii +1 more
#design #communications #music +3 more
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Auto-Inflatables

Auto-inflatables explores the design space of self-inflating structures. By using chemical reactions as a source of carbon dioxide on-dem...

in Tangible Media
Penelope Eugenia Webb · Amos Golan +2 more
#robotics #design #architecture +1 more
Archived
Project Research

StoryBlocks

StoryBlocks aims to promote creative expression, literacy development, and social-emotional development through storytelling for children...

Michelle Shen · Sneha Priscilla Makini +5 more
#design #kids #learning +1 more
Project Research

Learning Loops

Developed as part of the Playful Words research project at the MIT Media Lab's Laboratory for Social Machines, Learning Loops aims to mak...

in Social Machines
Anneli Hershman · Sarah Ballinger +5 more
#design #social networks #human-machine interaction +2 more
Archived
Project Research

Let's Talk Privacy: Exploring how privacy and data governance policies translate into practice

Let’s Talk Privacy explores how the implementation of privacy and data governance policies might impact a variety of fields.Project Let’s...

in Civic Media · Center for Civic Media
Dennis Jen · Stephanie Nguyen
#design #data #government +3 more
Archived
Post Research

From legislation to implementation: Exploring how to prototype privacy bills through human-centered policymaking + design

The rise of data privacy breaches and a look into policies that address these challenges

June 1, 2020
in Center for Civic Media · Civic Media
#design #data #government +3 more
Publication Research

Venous Materials : Towards Interactive Fluidic Mechanisms

Mor, Hila, Ken Nakagaki, et al. "Venous Materials : Towards Interactive Fluidic Mechanisms." CHI '20, Honolulu, HI, USA, April 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376129

Academic Paper, April 2020
in Tangible Media
#design #manufacturing #interfaces +3 more
Project Research

SpeechBlocks

SpeechBlocks is a medium that allows children (4-5 years old) to engage in open-ended play with writing. They can build arbitrary composi...

in Social Machines
Jim Gray · Ivan Sysoev +1 more
#design #construction #kids +5 more
Thesis Research

Design and Evaluation of a Reaction-Force Series Elastic Actuator Configurable as Biomimetic Powered Ankle and Knee Prostheses

Carney, Matthew E. “Design and Evaluation of a Reaction-Force Series Elastic Actuator Configurable as Biomimetic Powered Ankle and Knee Prostheses By.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020.

Thesis, Jan. 2020
in Biomechatronics
#robotics #design #bioengineering +7 more
Archived
Project Research

Design Daydreams

Design Daydreams is a digitally-augmented ideation table and post-it note that seamlessly connects the physical and digital content that ...

in Object-Based Media
Philippa Mothersill
#design
Archived
More

  • News + Updates
  • Research
  • About
  • Graduate Program
  • People
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Member Portal

More ways to explore

  • Videos
  • Publications
  • Job Opportunities
  • Contact

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
School of Architecture + Planning

Accessibility
Donate to the Lab