- John Leonard: Android Auto "bring's Google's data-mining right into your car"June 28, 2014CSAIL researcher John Leonard, who helped develop some of the navigational techniques that are used in many autonomous vehicles, spoke to Bloomberg about Android Auto, Google's new system that connects your car to your phone. Watch on the Bloomberg West website.
- Brooks, Raibert & Rus named among "most important people in robotics"June 23, 2014Multiple CSAIL researchers past and present were highlighted in a recent Business Insider story spotlighting "the most important people in robotics." Among the individuals profiled: -Rodney Brooks, former director of CSAIL and founder of Rethink Robotics. -Marc Raibert, former...
- Can we see the arrow of time? Algorithm determines whether video is running forward or backwardJune 20, 2014CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Einstein’s theory of relativity envisions time as a spatial dimension, like height, width, and depth. But unlike those other dimensions, time seems to permit motion in only one direction: forward. This directional asymmetry — the “arrow of time” —...
A charging solution for delivery drones: Take after our feathered friends?June 20, 2014Amazon’s plan to unleash a wave of "delivery drones" has occasionally been criticized as a pie-in-the-sky idea (literally, if they start shipping baked goods). One limitation is that Amazon's devices currently only store enough energy to fly within 10 miles of a fulfillment...- Edelman develops "Julia," new programming language for high performance computingJune 18, 2014As high-performance computing (HPC) bends to the needs of "big data" applications, speed remains essential. But it's not only a question of how quickly one can compute problems, but how quickly one can program the complex applications that do so. "In recent years, people have...
- Vinod Vaikuntanathan named 2014 Microsoft Research Faculty FellowJune 17, 2014CSAIL researcher Vinod Vaikuntanathan was recently announced as one of Microsoft Research’s 2014 Faculty Fellows. The Steven and Renee Finn Career Development Assistant Professor in the EECS department, Vaikuntanathan specializes in cryptography and is a member of the Theory of Computation...
- X-ray vision for the vitals - new wireless technology measures heart rate and breathing through wallsJune 16, 2014These days there's perhaps no hotter tech topic than wearable sensors. Earlier this month, for instance, Apple announced a new “Health Kit” app for smartphones that tracks a person's health. But events such as Fitbit's recent recall of more than 1 million fitness bands over...
- Study reveals causes of core Internet congestion - Netflix, Comcast to discuss at DC net neutrality event 6/18June 15, 2014We have heard a lot of debates over network neutrality, especially in recent headlines involving Netflix and Comcast. Some have argued for the creation of fast lanes due to Internet congestion. But just how congested is the Internet? And what’s causing the congestion?
- Who's using your data? New Web technology lets you track how your private data is used onlineJune 13, 2014By now, most people feel comfortable conducting financial transactions on the Web. The cryptographic schemes that protect online banking and credit card purchases have proven their reliability over decades. As more of our data moves online, a more pressing concern may be its inadvertent misuse by...
- Prof. Scott Aaronson debunks chatbot that "passed Turing Test" (NPR)June 12, 2014CSAIL researcher Scott Aaronson went on NPR this week to debunk the notion that a chatbot actually passed the Turing Test this past week. He said that the chatbot, dubbed "Eugene Goostman", doesn't seem much more evolved than Eliza, the robo-therapist that MIT computer scientists...
- Central heating that follows you around - WiTrack helps power "Local Warming"June 10, 2014As great an innovation as central heating is, it's also a costly and energy-intensive one. Enter "Local Warming," a new system created by MIT researchers that establishes personal climates around individuals – an alternative to heating entire buildings. Led by the ...
- Watch out, Bitcoin - CSAIL researchers help develop virtual currency that's actually anonymousJune 09, 2014One of the biggest myths out there about Bitcoin is that it’s anonymous. Sure, you can theoretically make purchases without revealing your personal info, but your entire payment history is still on public view, including the origin and destination addresses and even your running account...
- Congratulations to the CSAIL class of 2014!June 06, 2014Today MIT held its 148th commencement ceremony. We here at CSAIL would like to congratulate our 2013-2014 graduates and wish them good luck on the next leg of their journey!
Congratulations to the CSAIL class of 2014!June 06, 2014On June 6, MIT held its 148th commencement ceremony. We here at CSAIL would like to congratulate our 2013-2014 graduates and wish them good luck on the next leg of their journey! Below is the complete list of CSAIL students matriculating in both Masters and PhD programs.- CSAIL celebrates graduating PhDs with 2nd annual symposiumJune 05, 2014On Wednesday, CSAIL held its second annual PhD symposium and reception to celebrate the 49 students who graduated during the 2013-2014 academic year. Nine doctoral graduates gave brief presentations on their theses, with topics that ranged from using data in order to prevent infections, to creating...
- CSAIL's Michael Sipser named dean of MIT's School of ScienceJune 05, 2014CSAIL researcher Michael Sipser was recently named dean of MIT's School of Science. Head of the Department of Mathematics since 2004, Sipser has served as the school’s interim dean since December, when he was chosen to replace Marc Kastner, the Donner Professor of Physics; in November,...
- Bake your own robot - printable bots that self-assemble when heatedMay 30, 2014Printable robots — those that can be assembled from parts produced by 3-D printers — have long been a topic of research in the lab of CSAIL Director Daniela Rus. At this year’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Rus’ group and its collaborators...
- Spruce up your selfie
- algorithm could transfer photographers’ styles to mobile picsMay 29, 2014Celebrated portrait photographers like Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and Martin Schoeller made their reputations with distinctive visual styles that sometimes required the careful control of lighting possible only in the studio. Now CSAIL researchers, and their colleagues at Adobe Systems and the...
- Prof. John Leonard offers reality check on Google's self-driving carsMay 29, 2014CSAIL researcher John Leonard, who pioneered one of the basic navigation techniques used in autonomous vehicles, has been optimistic if a bit skeptical about Google's much-hyped self-driving cars. He has taken his camera to the streets of Cambridge to hunt for situations that might be...
- CSAIL expert weighs in on whether Google's latest gadget is a legitimate quantum computerMay 27, 2014Is Google's latest gadget - called "the D-Wave" - a legitimate quantum computer? Wired Magazine recently explored the issue with quantum scientists like CSAIL's Scott Aaronson. From the article: Quantum computing is so new and so weird that no one is entirely sure whether the D-Wave is a...
- Melding computation with imagination: Fox Harrell's work on "Phantasmal Media"May 22, 2014As the only CSAIL researcher with a dual appointment in MIT's program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Fox Harrell occupies an unusual spot in academia. In his research group, the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory (ICE), Harrell and his students take formal analyses of...
- Want to blend in? New algorithms produces instant-camouflageMay 21, 2014If a bulky electrical box has to be placed at the edge of a public park, what’s the best way to conceal it so that it won’t detract from its surroundings? How about an air-conditioning condenser beside a historical building, or a portable toilet along a scenic trail? At the conference...
- From CSAIL to CEO of the biggest web entity you've (probably) never heard ofMay 20, 2014Dr. Tom Leighton, a former CSAIL researcher and MIT professor, co-founded what the New York Times has described as "one of the most important web companies that most people haven't heard of."
- White House & MIT release reports on big data and privacyMay 15, 2014The White House and the MIT both separately released reports on big data and privacy this past week. The White House report stemmed from a 90-day review undertaken by White Counselor John Podesta that included a day-long workshop hosted by the MIT Big Data Initiative at CSAIL. In...
- New algorithm uses NLP techniques to efficiently search video for actionsMay 13, 2014Who did what? Techniques from natural-language processing enable computers to efficiently search video for actions. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- With the commodification of digital cameras, digital video has become so easy to produce that human beings can have trouble keeping up with it. Among the tools...
- Could CSAIL's Andrew Lo help prevent another mortgage bubble?May 08, 2014From today's Chicago Tribune: A few years ago, famed financial engineer Andrew Lo built a computer model that allowed one of the biggest U.S. banks to figure out which customers were most likely to fall behind on credit-card payments. More recently, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- Professor Zeldovich earns tenureMay 06, 2014Effective July 1, Professor Nickolai Zeldovich has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor With Tenure. From the official announcement by Anantha Chandrakasan, head of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) department: Zeldovich is a star in the field of...
- New computer system automatically solves word problemsMay 05, 2014CSAIL researchers, working with colleagues at the University of Washington, have developed a new computer system that can automatically solve the type of word problems common in introductory algebra classes. In the near term, the work could lead to educational tools that identify errors in...
- Soft robots - the future of AI?April 27, 2014In a story about the emerging importance of soft robotics, The Verge recently profiled the soft robotic fish developed by CSAIL Director Daniela Rus and graduate student Andrew Marchese. Read more here.
- CSAIL researchers' competition videos prove that “science is awesome”April 23, 2014
- Improve your self(ie): MIT researcher can predict a photo’s popularityApril 23, 2014Want to rack up more views for your selfie? We can't all take our photos with the president, but a new tool developed by an MIT PhD can help us predict how popular our photos will be.
- Charles Leiserson receives ACM Kanellakis AwardApril 16, 2014CSAIL researcher Charles E. Leiserson was announced today as one of the winners of the 2013 Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, alongside his former PhD student Robert D. Blumofe, for contributions to robust parallel and...
50 ways that MIT has transformed computing: CSAIL celebrates 50 years of computer science with MAC50 symposiumApril 14, 201450 ways that MIT has transformed computer science- Aude Oliva named 2014 Guggenheim FellowApril 12, 2014CSAIL research scientist Aude Oliva has been named a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow in recognition of her contributions to the field of computer science. According to its website, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation appoints Fellows "on the basis of impressive achievement in the past...
CSAIL's National Robotics Week Demo Day draws Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, high school studentsApril 08, 2014- The "Complexonaut" - Prof. Scott Aaronson discusses his adventures in quantum computingApril 07, 2014When he was in elementary school, Scott Aaronson, like many mathematically precocious kids of his generation, dreamed of making his own video games. He had only the foggiest notion of what that entailed, however.
- Big, fast, weird dataApril 07, 2014The “Big Data” research that continues to dominate IT agendas has traditionally focused on making sense of the growing volumes of computer data. Yet in recent years, the volume question has given way to the other V’s of Big Data: velocity and variety.
- New object-orientation algorithm could aid robots in navigation, scene understandingApril 04, 2014Suppose you’re trying to navigate an unfamiliar section of a big city, and you’re using a particular cluster of skyscrapers as a reference point. Traffic and one-way streets force you to take some odd turns, and for a while you lose sight of your landmarks. When they reappear, in order...
- Dina Katabi named Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of EECSApril 04, 2014CSAIL researcher Dina Katabi has been selected for the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. In his announcement, EECS Department Head Anantha Chandraksan said that Katabi "is an ideal candidate for this professorship...
- CSAIL team earns top honors for printable bots at IEEE competitionMarch 28, 2014This week researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) received top honors in multiple categories at an international competition focused on designing affordable, classroom-friendly robots. The team from CSAIL Director Daniela Rus’ Distributed...
- Democratizing data visualizationsMarch 27, 2014In 2007, members of CSAIL's Haystack Group released a set of Web development tools called “Exhibit.” Exhibit lets novices quickly put together interactive data visualizations, such as maps with sortable data embedded in them; sortable tables that automatically pull in upd
- New Web-app platform keeps user data private - and PRISM-proofMarch 26, 2014Researchers at CSAIL have just developed an innovative platform for building web services that keeps user data encrypted at all times and only decrypts it on the user's own computer - helping to prevent hackers, major...
- Could a CSAIL technology help stamp out phony Bigfoot photos?March 26, 2014In 2012, CSAIL researchers developed a video-magnification system that allows you to notice and amplify imperceptible body movements - with applications everywhere from lie detection and law enforcement to being able to detect someone's heart rate just by looking at them. Little did they know...
- Cross-training: helping robots, humans work togetherMarch 24, 2014For MIT professor and CSAIL researcher Julie Shah, cross-training doesn't refer to what you're doing in the weight room - it's an innovative new method of teaching humans and robots to work together on factory tasks in a way that's easy, safe and more productive. Read a recent profile of Shah...
- New parallel-programming research may help make our computers fasterMarch 24, 2014Computer chips have stopped getting faster: The regular performance improvements we’ve come to expect are now the result of chipmakers’ adding more cores, or processing units, to their chips, rather than increasing their clock speed. In theory, doubling the number of cores doubles...
- CSAIL Demo Day (Monday, April 7) - schedule and backgroundMarch 24, 2014Demo summaries
- CSAIL researcher to discuss virtual worlds & culture at MIT Museum 3/27March 23, 2014MIT Associate Professor and CSAIL researcher D. Fox Harrell will be at the MIT Museum March 27 for an evening discussion titled "Creating Cultures in Virtual Worlds." Part of the museum's TalkBack 360 series, the 6 p.m. event also features Todd Harper from the MIT Game Lab...
- Tomas Lozano-Pérez receives MIT's top undergrad teaching honorMarch 17, 2014Tomas Lozano-Pérez was one of five professors to be named to the MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program, MIT's top undergraduate teaching honor. Every year, the program recognizes a handful of professors who are exceptional undergraduate teachers, educational innovators, and mentors. Lozano-P...
- CSAIL leaders visit Qatar as part of $35m CS collaborationMarch 15, 2014This month CSAIL leaders will be traveling to Doma, Qatar to visit representatives at the Qatar Foundation's Qatar Computing Research Institute (QRCI), two years into a seven-year, $35 million agreement to collaborate on a wide-range of research topics in computer science. The...
- DRL group’s soft robotic fish moves like real thingMarch 13, 2014A CSAIL team led by Director Daniela Rus has developed a soft robotic fish that moves like the real thing.
