Results tagged “mitnewsoffice”

A team of MIT students and professors have completed the preliminary round in the Defense Advanced Recearch Projects Agency's Urban Challenge competition. Representatives from DARPA visited with the team and their vehicle to see if they would be one of the 30 teams of the current 53 who will compete in the semi-finals in October. From the Urban Challenge website: the Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated... more ›

The intended hunger strike was announced at the end of the year last year, and executed in the early days of this month. It's over now. On February 16, 2007, professor James Sherley ended his hunger strike and protest outside of the offices of the MIT president and provost. According to the statement he issued I am ending this part of my struggle. Starting today, I will in fact break my fast, in celebration of... more ›

You can't say the man doesn't deliver on a promise. MIT's Associate Professor of Biological Engineering James Sherley has started the hunger strike he announced before Christmas. He stated February 5 as the start date, and the Herald reports that he's begun his quest today. A hunger strike is an unhealthy way to take off some of the holiday pounds, soon we'll find out if it will be the fast way to tenure track at... more ›

There's an unsettled feeling in Boston at the end of the semester. The undergrads start pouring out of the city when they turn in that last paper assignment or take the last test until they have to do it all again the next year. Professors and TA's are busy grading, trying to get their own work complete so they can find a break in the winter recess. Associate Professor of Biological Engineering James Sherley is looking to stir things up and dominate an otherwise quiet time in academia. He's vowed to avenge the injustice done to him when MIT denied him tenure, he'll protest using a tried and true method of non-violent protest: the hunger strike. more ›

More complicated sciency stuff is on the way from MIT. In February the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems looked to revolutionize the battery world with a microscopic (atomic even!) use of capacitors. They lined up nanotubes in a way to reduce the size of an ultracapacitor to a fraction of their current size – a size competitive with traditional batteries. This week another innovation in power supplies comes from MIT. MIT's Gas Turbine Laboratory, Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems have teamed up to develop the "Engine on a chip." It downsizes a gas powered engine just like the nanotube capacitors downsized the ultracapacitor. The difference here is that while the new nanotube capacitors were able to store power – the engine on a chip would be able to generate power. Instead of lining up nanotubes, this experiment uses silicon chips, carefully etched, and piled on one another. The whole project is still in development. While in theory the system works, and all parts do their job individually, they've yet to complete something where all the parts work together. There is great optimism with the project hoping that they'll be able to get all the parts together and working by the end of the year. The production method is much like manufacture of other computer chips and it allows for a cost-efficient process to mass produce the chips. If everything works out right, according to researchers, for the same size of a battery in a laptop or some other device power could be provided for ten times longer operation. more ›

Image of a katydid, folded by mechanical engineering student Brian Chan. Courtesy MIT News Office more ›