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When computer vision works more like a brain, it sees more like people do
From cameras to self-driving cars, many of today’s technologies depend on artificial intelligence (AI) to extract meaning from visual information. Today’s AI technology has artificial neural networks at its core, and most of the time we can trust these AI computer vision systems to see things the way we do — but sometimes they falter. […]
Computational model mimics humans’ ability to predict emotions
When interacting with another person, you likely spend part of your time trying to anticipate how they will feel about what you’re saying or doing. This task requires a cognitive skill called theory of mind, which helps us to infer other people’s beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions. MIT neuroscientists have now designed a computational model […]
Tackling the MIT campus’s top energy consumers, building by building
When staff in MIT’s Department of Facilities would visualize energy use and carbon-associated emissions by campus buildings, Building 46 always stood out — attributed to its energy intensity, which accounted for 8 percent of MIT’s total campus energy use. This high energy draw was not surprising, as the building is home of the Brain and […]
Scientists discover how mutations in a language gene produce speech deficits
Mutations of a gene called Foxp2 have been linked to a type of speech disorder called apraxia that makes it difficult to produce sequences of sound. A new study from MIT and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University sheds light on how this gene controls the ability to produce speech. In a study of mice, […]
NeuroTransmissions: May 2023
PhD student Wei-Chen Wang is moved to help people heal
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of Spectrum. ___ When he turned his ankle five years ago as an undergraduate playing pickup basketball at the University of Illinois, Wei-Chen (Eric) Wang SM ’22 knew his life would change in certain ways. For one thing, Wang, then a computer science major, wouldn’t be […]
Francesca Riccio-Ackerman works to improve access to prosthetics
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of Spectrum. ___ In Sierra Leone, war and illness have left up to 40,000 people requiring orthotics and prosthetics services, but there is a profound lack of access to specialized care, says Francesca Riccio-Ackerman, a biomedical engineer and PhD student studying health equity and health systems. There […]
Bionics researchers develop technologies to ease pain and transcend human limitations
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of Spectrum. ___ In early December 2022, a middle-aged woman from California arrived at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the amputation of her right leg below the knee following an accident. This was no ordinary procedure. At the end of her remaining leg, surgeons attached a […]
Modeling the marvelous journey from A to B
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of Spectrum. ___ Nidhi Seethapathi was first drawn to using powerful yet simple models to understand elaborate patterns when she learned about Newton’s laws of motion as a high school student in India. She was fascinated by the idea that wonderfully complex behaviors can arise from a […]