Subterms
With billions of books, news stories, and documents online, there’s never been a better time to be reading — if you have time to sift through all the options. “There’s a ton of text on the internet,” says Justin Solomon, an assistant professor at MIT. “Anything to help cut through all that material is extremely useful.” […] More
A new study co-authored by an MIT economist shows that improved translation software can significantly boost international trade online — a notable case of machine learning having a clear impact on economic activity. The research finds that after eBay improved its automatic translation program in 2014, commerce shot up by 10.9 percent among pairs of […] More
A new museum is coming to New York City in 2023, the year of hip-hop’s 50th birthday, and an MIT team has helped to pave the way for the city to celebrate the legacy of this important musical genre — by designing unique creative experiences at the intersection of art, learning, and contemporary technology. With […] More
“My goal is to make computing ‘normal’ for girls,” says Sabina Chen from Lincoln Laboratory’s Advanced Capabilities and Systems Group, who led a workshop that taught middle school girls how to program a robotic car to autonomously follow colored cones. The girls attended this enrichment class for eight consecutive Saturdays from September to November. “The […] More
When your mother calls your name, you know it’s her voice — no matter the volume, even over a poor cell phone connection. And when you see her face, you know it’s hers — if she is far away, if the lighting is poor, or if you are on a bad FaceTime call. This robustness […] More
Computer vision models have learned to identify objects in photos so accurately that some can outperform humans on some datasets. But when those same object detectors are turned loose in the real world, their performance noticeably drops, creating reliability concerns for self-driving cars and other safety-critical systems that use machine vision. In an effort to […] More
In its first year of operation, the Intelligent Towing Tank (ITT) conducted about 100,000 total experiments, essentially completing the equivalent of a PhD student’s five years’ worth of experiments in a matter of weeks. The automated experimental facility, developed in the MIT Sea Grant Hydrodynamics Laboratory, automatically and adaptively performs, analyzes, and designs experiments exploring […] More
Cameras and computers together can conquer some seriously stunning feats. Giving computers vision has helped us fight wildfires in California, understand complex and treacherous roads — and even see around corners. Specifically, seven years ago a group of MIT researchers created a new imaging system that used floors, doors, and walls as “mirrors” to understand […] More
