Navigating our cities
With new advancements in technology and the abundance of data, we can better understand the interactions between people and their urban environments. As a result, improvements in urban planning can pave the way for more efficient and environmentally cleaner cities. Researchers at the MIT Senseable City Lab aim to predict and study these improvements from a critical point of view. As conducting research to learn about people’s habits in their urban environment requires members of the lab to consider many diverse viewpoints, the Senseable City Lab is made up of a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, and social scientists. With this diversity of researchers comes a diversity of technologies being utilized in the lab. “Reflecting the diversity of the lab, and the Urban issues, we use big data analysis, machine learning techniques, but also robotics and design,” says the director of the lab, Professor Carlo Ratti.
Taking advantage of the human genome
Manolis Kellis, professor of computer science, applies his computer science background to find unique solutions to problems in biology.
Understanding diseases at the nanoscale
Researchers at the Nanomechanics Laboratory strive to utilize the mechanical properties of nanomaterials to study the progression and to understand the mechanisms of sickle cell disease and other life-threatening diseases.