Results tagged “massachusettsinstitute”

Star Simpson, the MIT student whose light-up T-shirt caused a panic when she wore it to Logan Airport, appeared in court today. She asked for the charges to be dropped because the shirt was a form of free speech and that she had worn it days before without it causing a problem. Here's the update from the AP/WBZ:

The Boston wing of the FBI met with leaders of local schools because they think spies might try to steal research. The Herald writes, "Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Warren Bamford recently met with officials at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, among other schools, to train academics on what sort of research could be used by terrorists." The FBI wants academics to watch their laptops and note any overenthusiastic...

The one-legged Hopper was ideal for studying dynamic balance because it could not stand still, but had to keep moving to stay upright. "The Raibert Hopper was the visionary effort that set the entire field of robotic locomotion in motion," Mason [director of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute] said. The lessons learned with the Hopper proved central for biped, quadruped and even hexapod running. Raibert is now president of the robotics firm he founded, Boston Dynamics."The original 3D One-Leg Hopper led to a quadruped and bipedal version, demonstrating one, two, and four legged versions were all possible. CNET features all three in their photo gallery of the Robot Hall of Fame inductees. The MIT Leg Laboratory has a whole host of examples of the progression over time of the different technologies. We're looking at Raibert as the head of Boston Dynamics for sweet innovations in robotics – last year they released a video of "Big Dog" a pack mule type of robot that is advanced enough to react when it's kicked. Check out the video demonstration of Big Dog below – at 35 seconds in you'll see the slow-mo replay of the kick.

Things are quiet now that the Pats won't be at the Super Bowl, so Bostonist took a little breather from the Redux. The Bruins are also off for the NHL All-Star Break. That leaves the Celtics and, if Bostonist stretches a tad, the retirement of Bill "Tuna" Parcells, former Pats coach and professional zinger-slinger.