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Bloomberg Businessweek features Skylar Tibbits’ research on self-assembling materials. By exposing specially engineered materials to heat, moisture or light, Tibbits demonstrates how they can assemble into useful components.
“When it comes out of the 3D printer, the robot is just a sheet made of a polymer called polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. The sheet is sandwiched between two rigid polyester films. Slits cut into the films affect how the PVC sheet will fold when it is heated,” writes UPI reporter Brooks Hays of new work with self-assembling robots.
New Scientist writer Aviva Rutkin reports that MIT researchers have developed a new process in which flat cut-outs are able to self-assemble into robots when heated. "What we would like is to provide design tools that allow people who are not experts to create their own machines," explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
In a piece for Wired, Olivia Solon writes about how Professor Daniela Rus’ research group has developed, “a system of 2D patterns cut into plastic that can self-fold under heat into 3D shapes.”
MIT researchers have helped to produce an algorithm that applies professional photograph editing to self-portraits, writes Billy Steele for Engadget. The software uses existing works to make a match with the captured image, explains grad student YiChang Shih.
“Eventually she can see a world where people can use an algorithm to analyze an image, create blueprints and print out fully functional robots. This could be a big deal in manufacturing, health care and, yes, toys,” writes NBC News writer Keith Wagstaff of Professor Daniela Rus’ work with self-assembling robots.
The Boston Globe profiles Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia and the new low-cost urine test she developed to detect cancer, as well as her work applying engineering techniques to medicine.
John Daly writes about new research from MIT that shows organic materials could be used to conduct electricity and emit different colors of light. The research could have major implications for the development of photovoltaic cells and solar energy
“Living materials based on bacteria and grown in a Boston lab could point to a greener way of manufacturing,” writes BBC News reporter Roland Pease of new MIT work to develop living materials.
“Now researchers at MIT have devised a way to combine a living E. coli cell with inanimate building blocks, like gold nanoparticles and quantum dots, to create a hybrid ‘living material,’” writes Dexter Johnson in IEEE Spectrum.
Nadia Drake writes in Wired about MIT researchers developing living materials. “By tricking E.coli into incorporating gold nanoparticles or quantum dots into their proteins, the team has crafted biofilms with a range of crazy capabilities,” Drake reports.
Los Angeles Times reporter Amina Khan reports on how MIT researchers are creating living materials by incorporating inorganic matter into bacterial cells. The living material could be used to make batteries, solar cells or even biomedical devices.