MTL News

MIT opens new 'window' on solar energy

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:19:33 -0500

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun's energy that could allow just that.

MIT Develops a 'Paper Towel' for Oil Spills

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:07:44 -0500

A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be an important new tool in the cleanup of oil and other organic pollutants, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the May 30 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

Schmidt to succeed Gibson as associate provost

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:28:08 -0500

Professor Martin Schmidt of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has been appointed Associate Provost, Provost L. Rafael Reif announced this week.

Joel Dawson wins NSF Career Award

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:17:03 -0500

Joel L. Dawson, core member of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories, has won a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program will provide $400,000 over five years to support his group's work in cutting-edge wireless transceiver architectures. The title of his proposal was "Digitally-assisted Architectures for Next Generation RF Transceivers." The focus of the work is to exercise architectural design creativity, as well as leverage mathematical optimization techniques, to maximally exploit deep-submicron CMOS for high performance wireless communications.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the NSF's most prestigious awards in support of the early career development activities of young faculty. The program is designed to recognize young scholars who demonstrate most effectively the integration of research and teaching within their organizations.

More information about the research activity in Prof. Dawson's group can be found at mtlweb.mit.edu/~jldawson.

Landsman gift aids electric energy-related engineering at MIT

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:56:05 -0500

A $4 million gift by Emanuel E. Landsman '58, SM '59, ScD '66 and his wife, Sheila E. Landsman, to the MIT Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) will provide a career development professorship, fellowship support and UROP funds in the fields of power electronics and electric energy-related engineering.

Tomas Palacios wins DARPA Young Faculty Award 2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:52:12 -0500

Tomas Palacios, core member of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) has been awarded the DARPA Young Faculty Award for his project "On-Wafer Integration of Nitride and Silicon CMOS Electronics." This project focuses on the seamless integration of GaN and Si transistors on the same wafer to take advantage of the very high critical electric field and electron velocity of GaN transistors and the capabilities of Si MOSFETs. This integration will result in very significant performance improvements in power electronics, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters and other mixed-signal circuits.

Smart pillbox could be a lifesaver

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:32:42 -0500

An MIT student and collaborators have designed the uBox, a 'smart' pillbox that dispenses pills, alerts the patient that it's time to take the medication, records the time the pill was taken and prevents double-dosing.

Ethernet inventor to kick off MTL Seminar Series

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:03:04 -0500

The Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) Seminar Series kicks-off at 4PM on Tuesday, March 4, with a talk by Dr. Robert M. "Bob" Metcalfe, venture capitalist and Ethernet inventor. The seminar will take place at 50 Vassar Street, room 34-101, Cambridge, MA.

Team develops energy-efficient microchip: Could lead to longer-lasting, self-charging cellphones, more

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:02:42 -0500

Researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments have
unveiled a new chip design for portable electronics that can be up to
10 times more energy-efficient than present technology. The design
could lead to cell phones, implantable medical devices and sensors
that last far longer when running from a battery.

MEMS@MIT announces nominations for the 2008 Senturia Prize

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:36:35 -0500

To: The MEMS@MIT Community
Re: Nominations for the 2008 Senturia Prize

We are now accepting nominations for the Third Annual Senturia Prize for Outstanding Thesis in Micro/Nanosystems. This prize is awarded yearly to a graduating doctoral student whose thesis has made outstanding contributions to their field. In addition to receiving an honorarium, the recipient will present a lecture on their research at the MNSS seminar on May 8, 2008.

MIT gas sensor is tiny, quick: Energy-efficient device could quickly detect hazardous chemicals

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:16:39 -0500

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Engineers at MIT are developing a tiny sensor that could be used to detect minute quantities of hazardous gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents, much more quickly than current devices.

Akinwande, Hoyt named 2008 IEEE Fellows

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:33:04 -0500

MTL Core faculty members Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande and Judy L. Hoyt were named as 2008 IEEE Fellows by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE) Board of Directors on November 20, 2007. The fellowships will be effective as of January 1, 2008.

Akinwande was cited for "contributions to the development of digital self-aligned gate technology and vacuum microelectronic devices," and Hoyt was commended for "contributions to silicon-based heterostructure devices and technology."

Spotlight: MTL FFA Program is key resource for micro- and nano-fabrication in the Boston area

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:45:37 -0500

The MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) has established the Fabrication Facilities Access (FFA) Program as a key resource for micro- and nano-fabrication in the Boston Area. The MTL FFA Program enables trained personnel from participating companies to use the cleanroom facilities of the MTL. The program is open to both domestic and foreign companies.

Sodini receives LeBel Chair of Electrical Engineering

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:00:08 -0500

MTL professor Charles Sodini is one of the latest holders of the LeBel Chair of Electrical Engineering, announced Professor Eric Grimson in an e-mail dated August 27 to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science faculty. The LeBel chair was established by the estate of the late Clarence Joseph LeBel in 1965. The two previous holders of the chair are Amar Bose, who held the chair from 1965 to 1977, and Ken Stevens, who held the chair from 1977 until his retirement this past June. "A recent decision has enabled MIT to split the chair into two new chairs, to which John [Tsitsiklis, professor, EECS; the other chair recipient named in the e-mail] and Charlie have been named," wrote Grimson.

MIT aims to optimize chip designs: Model could reduce fabrication costs

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:42:41 -0500

The computer chips inside high-speed communication devices have become so small that tiny variations that appear during chip fabrication can make a big difference in performance.

Those variations can cause fluctuations in circuit speed and power so the chips don't meet their original design specifications, says MIT Professor Duane Boning, whose research team is working to predict the variation in circuit performance and maximize the number of chips working within the specifications.