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 A modern-day Renaissance man, Hawley pioneered the internet of things, won the Van Cliburn amateur piano competition, and published the world’s largest book.   Michael Hawley, a former MIT professor who was recognized globally as a modern-day Renaissance man, died on Wednesday, June 24, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after battling a long illness. …

Michael Hawley, former professor of media arts and sciences, dies at 58 Read More »

 MIT CSAIL researchers say improving computing technology after Moore’s Law will require more efficient software, new algorithms, and specialized hardware.   In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that could fit on a computer chip would grow exponentially — and they did, doubling about every two years. For half a …

If transistors can’t get smaller, then coders have to get smarter Read More »

 An MIT system uses wireless signals to measure in-home appliance usage to better understand health tendencies.   For many of us, our microwaves and dishwashers aren’t the first thing that come to mind when trying to glean health information, beyond that we should (maybe) lay off the Hot Pockets and empty the dishes in a …

What can your microwave tell you about your health? Read More »

 Tiny, battery-free ID chip can authenticate nearly any product to help combat losses to counterfeiting.   To combat supply chain counterfeiting, which can cost companies billions of dollars annually, MIT researchers have invented a cryptographic ID tag that’s small enough to fit on virtually any product and verify its authenticity. A 2018 report from the …

Cryptographic “tag of everything” could protect the supply chain Read More »

 External system improves phones’ signal strength 1,000 percent, without requiring extra antennas.   We’ve heard it for years: 5G is coming.  And yet, while high-speed 5G internet has indeed slowly been rolling out in a smattering of countries across the globe, many barriers remain that have prevented widespread adoption. One issue is that we can’t …

A smart surface for smart devices Read More »

 Associate Professor Yury Polyanskiy is working to keep data flowing as the “internet of things” becomes a reality.   In the secluded Russian city where Yury Polyanskiy grew up, all information about computer science came from the outside world. Visitors from distant Moscow would occasionally bring back the latest computer science magazines and software CDs …

Sending clearer signals Read More »

 Connected devices can now share position information, even in noisy, GPS-denied areas.   A new system developed by researchers at MIT and elsewhere helps networks of smart devices cooperate to find their positions in environments where GPS usually fails. Today, the “internet of things” concept is fairly well-known: Billions of interconnected sensors around the world …

System helps smart devices find their position Read More »

 RFID-based devices work in indoor and outdoor lighting conditions, and communicate at greater distances.   By 2025, experts estimate the number of “internet of things” devices — including sensors that gather real-time data about infrastructure and the environment — could rise to 75 billion worldwide. As it stands, however, those sensors require batteries that must be …

Photovoltaic-powered sensors for the “internet of things” Read More »

 Efficient chip enables low-power devices to run today’s toughest quantum encryption schemes.   MIT researchers have developed a novel cryptography circuit that can be used to protect low-power “internet of things” (IoT) devices in the coming age of quantum computing. Quantum computers can in principle execute calculations that today are practically impossible for classical computers. …

Securing the “internet of things” in the quantum age Read More »

 New system breaks up cache memory more efficiently to better protect computer systems against timing attacks.   In January the technology world was rattled by the discovery of Meltdown and Spectre, two major security vulnerabilities in the processors that can be found in virtually every computer on the planet. Perhaps the most alarming thing about …

Defending against Spectre and Meltdown attacks Read More »