Volume 52, Number 27 TechTalk Wednesday, May 21, 2008 S e r v i n g Th e MIT Co mm u n i t y

A phone? QUESTION: What do you see in these pictures? MIT helps develops new A bottle? image-recognition software David Chandler News Office

It takes surprisingly few pixels of information to ANSWER: be able to identify the subject of an image, a team They’re all the same. led by an MIT researcher has found. The discovery Professor Antonio could lead to great advances in the automated iden- Torralba created these tification of online images and, ultimately, provide a A person? low-resolution images, basis for computers to see like humans do. in which the circled Antonio Torralba, assistant professor in MIT’s shapes were inserted Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Labo- and are all identical, ratory, and colleagues have been trying to find out to demonstrate how what is the smallest amount of information—that Cars? context affects our is, the shortest numerical representation—that can recognition of objects. be derived from an image that will provide a useful PHOTO / ANTONIO TORRALBA indication of its content. A shoe? uPlease see PICTURES, PAGE 3

MIT: Microbe adhesion depends Defying Gravity on surface stiffness Researchers craft bacteria-resistant films Anne Trafton News Office

Having found that whether bacteria stick to surfaces depends partly on how stiff those surfaces are, MIT engineers have created ultrathin films made of poly- mers that could be applied to medical devices and Above, bacteria stick other surfaces to control microbe accumulation. Shorebirds take to the stiffer surface. The inexpensive, easy-to-produce films could advantage of Below, Researchers at provide a valuable layer of protection for the health surface tension MIT have manipulated care industry by helping to reduce the spread of hospi- to capture prey the mechanical stiffness tal-acquired infections, which take the lives of 100,000 of polymer films, like people and cost the United States an estimated $4.5 PHOTO / RAINEY SCHULER the surface below, so billion annually. Anne Trafton bacteria are less prone The researchers, who described their work in a News Office MIT researchers to stick to them. paper in an upcoming issue of Biomacromolecules, have figured out found they could control the extent of bacterial how the phalarope, As Charles Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird adhesion to surfaces by manipulating the mechanical a shorebird with a beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds’ feeding strat- stiffness of polymer films called polyelectrolyte multi- long, narrow beak, egy. A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has layers. Thus, the films could be designed to prevent transports food now explained exactly how some shorebirds use their accumulation of hazardous bacteria or promote growth from the tip of its long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into of desirable bacteria. beak to its mouth. their mouths. “All other factors being equal, mechanical stiffness The phalarope, commonly found in western North of material surfaces increases bacterial adhesion,” said America, takes advantage of surface interactions Krystyn Van Vliet, the Thomas Lord Assistant Profes- between its beak and water droplets to propel bits of sor of Materials Science and Engineering and the food from the tip of its long beak to its mouth, the paper’s anchor author. research team reports in the May 16 issue of Science. Van Vliet and her colleagues found the same trend These surface interactions depend on the chemi- in experiments with three strains of bacteria: Staphylo- cal properties of the liquid involved, so phalaropes and coccus epidermidis, commonly found on skin, and two about 20 other bird species that use this mechanism are types of Escherichia coli. extremely sensitive to anything that contaminates the uPlease see SURFACE, PAGE 5 uPlease see BIRD BEAKS, PAGE 8

PEOPLE NEWS Microbe bash Hope on the Horizon

A sea-dwelling microbe discovered only 20 years ago by MIT experts sound off on various researchers including Professor Penny Chisholm is the technologies that could drive the focus of a two-day “party” of sorts later this month. economy in coming years.

PAGE 3 PAGE 6-7 PAGE 2 May 21, 2008 u PEOPLE MIT Tech Talk Entrepreneurship contests reward energy, diagnosis plans ‘Diagnostics for All’ team takes top prize in annual 100K Competition

David Chandler News Office

Business plans focused on harnessing clean energy and making fast, inexpensive medical diagnostic devices were big winners last week in a series of high-profile entre- preneurship competitions at MIT. Diagnostics for All, a nonprofit company that has developed a unique process for making simple medical test kits out of paper, was the top winner of MIT’s 100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The company’s inexpensive tests require only a single drop of blood to provide a color- coded response indicating the presence of any of several different diseases. The week’s biggest winner, however, was a company called FloDesign Wind Turbine, which has an innovative way of building wind turbines with much shorter blades, housed inside a ring, based on jet-engine designs. The system can generate power in much slower winds than a conventional windmill and is said to be three to four times more efficient. Because of its smaller overall size, it is also expected to cost less. FloDesign won the inaugural $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize and also won the separate Ignite Clean PHOTOS / JEREMY GILBERT Energy competition, sponsored by the Members of the grand-prize-winning team in the MIT 100K Competition, including Roozbeh Ghaffari, second from left and below, MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, for who is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Micromechanics Group at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. an additional $100,000. And the publicity those were narrowed down to 35—a total generated by the contests has already led to of five finalists in each of seven catego- discussions with potential venture capital ries ranging from aerospace to biotech. investors (including Al Gore’s company, Winners were selected in each of the seven according to press reports), who may areas—with prizes of at least $10,000 for provide the $8 million the company says each. it needs to build a full-scale operational This year, for the first time, the audience prototype. that packed Kresge Auditorium for the final Nearly two decades after its creation, the 100K contest awards also got to pick their 100K competition has become the world’s own winner. The Audience Choice award, leading business-plan contest. Organizers an additional $10,000, went to Covalent say the competition has facilitated the birth Solar, a team made up of three MIT alums of more than 85 companies with a market who came up with an inexpensive way of capitalization of more than $10 billion to concentrating sunlight onto photovoltaic date. This year’s 100K contest started out cells using sheets of treated plastic, without last fall with 230-plus entries. In February, requiring a mechanism to track the sun.

AWARDS & HONORS Gardeners’ group Erez Lieberman, a graduate student de Neufville have all been appointed as Fabiola Lopez-Duran, a doctoral candi- holding plant sale in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health professors at Portugal’s Instituto Superior date in architecture, has been named one Sciences and Technology; and Ankur Técnico. The four are currently involved of 29 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral The MIT Gardeners’ Group May Moitra, a graduate student in Electri- with the MIT Portugal Program, and their Dissertation Fellows for 2008. The 2008 event will be a plant sale in conjunction cal Engineering and Computer Sciences, new assignments will strengthen the rela- Newcombe Fellowship, a highly competi- with our colleagues at Endicott House. have both been awarded Hertz Fellow- tionships between MIT and Portugal and tive national award, provides $23,000 for The sale will be on Wednesday, May ships from the Fannie and John Hertz facilitate the development of courses and 12 months of work on a dissertation in the 21, and Thursday, May 22, from 9 a.m. Foundation, a nonprofit organization the conduct of research programs. humanities or social sciences that addresses to 2 p.m. on the “dot” lawn outside of focused on empowering young scien- Cecilia Scott, a sophomore in mechani- questions of religious or ethical value. Building 54. tists and engineers. Valued at more than cal engineering, is the first MIT student Noubar Afeyan, a senior lecturer in the Staff from Endicott House (with help $250,000, Hertz Fellowships are unique to be named a Udall Scholar, which is MIT Sloan School of Management, was from the Gardeners’ Group) will be no-strings-attached fellowships allowing awarded to students who are committed to honored recently in New York City as one selling a selection of vegetables, herbs, exceptional applied scientists and engineers environmental careers or Native Ameri- of the 2008 Ellis Island Medal of Honor flowers, and other garden-related items. the freedom to pursue their own ideas with can and Alaska Native tribal public policy recipients. The award recognizes Noubar’s The sale is a great way to get healthy financial independence under the guidance or health care. Winners receive a $5,000 contributions to the local community, and reasonably priced plants while also of the finest professors at the country’s top stipend for tuition. as well as his extensive role in support- supporting the greenhouses at MIT’s universities. The Merage Foundation, established ing long range visions for the country of Endicott House. Community members The Camille and Henry Dreyfus by immigrants to the United States, Armenia, its business environment and who expect to buy a lot of plants should Foundation recently selected Dr. Moham- announced that Brain and Cognitive culture, and world-wide understanding and try to bring boxes. mad Movassaghi, a professor in the MIT Sciences senior Rany Woo has been awareness of Armenian issues. Chemistry Department, as a 2008 Camille named a Merage Foundation fellow. The Chemistry Professor Richard R. Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. The $75,000 foundation awards $10,000 stipend annu- Schrock is among the eight new foreign unrestricted award will support Movas- ally for two years toward the efforts of members elected to Britain’s Royal Society. saghi’s research program. fostering education, traveling and learning, Schrock is distinguished for his seminal MIT professors Daniel Roos, Dava securing mentors and supporting intern- contributions to synthetic and mechanistic Newman, David Marks and Richard ship opportunities. inorganic and organometallic chemistry.

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PHOTOS / DONNA COVENEY Happy anniversary PROCHLOROCOCCUS LEFT: Professor Penny Chisholm in 1988. RIGHT: Now, 20 years later, Chisholm holds a container Researchers holding bash 20 years filled with Prochlorococcus microbes. Its proliferation in the world is tracked on the screen behind after microbe’s discovery her.

Elizabeth Thomson News Office Environmental Studies and Biology, was on the team that ton.html). discovered the microbe and first described it in the jour- That wealth of genomic data, all available on the public nal Nature. Her co-discoverers are Robert J. Olson, Erik genome database, is facilitating new discoveries—and ques- A sea-dwelling microbe of global importance discovered R. Zettler, and John Waterbury of Woods Hole and Ralf tions. For example, Chisholm said, “just a few weeks ago a only 20 years ago by researchers, including one at MIT, is Goericke and Nicholas A. Welschmeyer, then at Harvard. fellow e-mailed me that he’d found a gene in Prochlorococ- the focus of a two-day “party” of sorts later this month. Chisholm, Olson and Waterbury will be attending the cus that encodes an antibiotic. We didn’t know that! What The ProchlorococcusFest, to be held May 30-31 at MIT, ProchlorococcusFest, which was co-organized by Chisholm role is there for an antibiotic floating around in the ocean?” will feature a range of talks highlighting past, current and and Professor Zackary Johnson ’94 of the University of Future research directions include understanding the future research on the smallest—and most abundant— Hawaii, who began working on Prochlorococcus while a role of viruses and predators in shaping the structure of the photosynthetic organism in the oceans. postdoc in Chisholm’s lab. Prochlorococcus community. “Viruses are important not “It’s been a really exciting ride,” said MIT Professor Among other important Prochlorococcus research only as a source of mortality for Prochlorococcus, but also Penny Chisholm, commenting on what’s been learned advances, scientists have sequenced the genomes of 12 because they help move genes around, which is important about Prochlorococcus since it was first identified. The tiny different strains of the microbe. “If we can understand to the evolution and stability of the system,” Chisholm said. cells—there are 100 million in a quart of seawater—are now how this one cell evolved and assembles into these rich Another unknown? “We’re just now starting to understand known to play a key role in the ocean carbon cycle, which is communities, we’ll better understand microbial diversity in what eats Prochlorococcus.” important in climate regulation. general,” said Chisholm, who participated in some of the For more information on the ProchlorococcusFest, go Chisholm, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of sequencing (see http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/plank- to: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pro2008/. PICTURES: MIT helps create image-recognition software Planning under Continued from Page 1 To find out how little image infor- data—small enough to fit in the RAM Deriving such a short representa- mation is needed for people to recog- memory of most current PCs, and way for Diversity tion would be an important step nize the subject of a picture, Torralba to be stored on a memory stick. The toward making it possible to catalog and his co-authors tried reducing image database and software to enable the billions of images on the Internet images to lower and lower resolution, searches of the database, are being Leadership Congress automatically. At present, the only and seeing how many images at each made publicly available on the web. ways to search for images are based level people could identify. Of course, a system using drastically Planning is under way for MIT’s Diversity Leader- on text captions that people have “We are able to recognize what is in reduced amounts of information can’t ship Congress, an event that will be held next year as entered by hand for each picture, and images, even if the resolution is very come close to perfect identification. a keystone of the Institute’s ongoing efforts to further many images lack such information. low, because we know so much about At present, the matching works for enhance its long-standing commitment to diversity on Automatic identification would also images,” he says. “The amount of the most common kinds of images. campus. provide a way to index pictures people information you need to identify most “Not all images are created equal,” he The congress, which President Susan Hockfield download from digital cameras onto images is about 32 by 32.” By contrast, says. The more complex or unusual announced during MIT’s Martin Luther King Jr. their computers, without having to go even the small “thumbnail” images an image is, the less likely it is to be celebration breakfast in February, will include lead- through and caption each one by hand. shown in a Google search are typically correctly matched. But for the most ers from across MIT’s academic, administrative, and And ultimately it could lead to true 100 by 100. common objects in pictures—people, student communities. machine vision, which could someday Even an inexpensive current digital cars, flowers, buildings—the results As Hockfield noted in her address at the breakfast, allow robots to make sense of the data camera produces images consisting of are quite impressive. “The Diversity Leadership Congress will give us a coming from their cameras and figure several megapixels of data—and each The work is part of research being forum to learn from each other and to reflect on one out where they are. pixel typically consists of 24 bits (zero carried out by hundreds of teams another’s experiences of MIT. It will give us a chance “We’re trying to find very short or one) of data. But Torralba and his around the world, aimed at analyz- to learn together from people who have successfully codes for images,” says Torralba, collaborators devised a mathematical ing the content of visual information. built a culture of inclusion in other organizations, “so that if two images have a similar system that can reduce the data from Torralba has also collaborated on relat- and then to think together, creatively, about the next sequence [of numbers], they are prob- each picture even further, and it turns ed work with other MIT researchers steps for MIT. From this shared understanding, we ably similar—composed of roughly out that many images are recogniz- including William Freeman, a profes- will develop goals for changing the way we operate, the same object, in roughly the same able even when coded into a numerical sor in the Department of Electrical and we will come away with a vivid sense that each of configuration.” If one image has been representation containing as little as Engineering and Computer Science; us bears direct responsibility for creating this kind of identified with a caption or title, then 256 to 1024 bits of data. Aude Oliva, professor in the Depart- change.” other images that match its numerical Using such small amounts of data ment of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Chancellor Phillip Clay, Vice President for Institute code would likely show the same object per image makes it possible to search and graduate students Bryan Russell Affairs and Secretary of the Corporation Kirk Kolen- (such as a car, tree, or person) and so for similar pictures through millions and Ce Liu, in CSAIL. Torralba’s work brander, and Vice President for Human Resources the name associated with one picture of images in a database, using an is supported in part by a grant from Alison Alden are co-chairing the planning effort. can be transferred to the others. ordinary PC, in less than a second, the National Science Foundation. The co-chairs are working with a variety of faculty “With very large amounts of Torralba says. And unlike other Torralba stresses that the research and staff stakeholders across campus to develop ideas images, even relatively simple algo- methods that require first breaking is still preliminary and that there will for the conference. Among those consulted include rithms are able to perform fairly well” down an image into sections contain- always be problems with identifying the Committee on Race and Diversity, The Initiative in identifying images this way, says ing different objects, this method uses the more-unusual subjects. It’s similar for Faculty Race and Diversity, the Council on Staff Torralba. He will be presenting his the entire image, making it simple to to the way we recognize language, Diversity, and representatives from the Undergradu- latest findings this June in Alaska at a apply to large datasets without human Torralba says. “There are many words ate Association and Graduate Student Council, and conference on Computer Vision and intervention. you hear very often, but no matter they will also be reaching out to many other groups Pattern Recognition. The work was For example, using the coding how long you have been living, there for feedback. done in collaboration with Rob Fergus system they developed, Torralba and will always be one that you haven’t The organizers welcome input from the community at the Courant Institute in New York his colleagues were able to represent heard before. You always need to be to help shape this conference. Suggestions and ques- University and Yair Weiss of Hebrew a set of 12.9 million images from the able to understand [something new] tions may be e-mailed to [email protected]. University in Jerusalem. Internet with just 600 megabytes of from one example.” PAGE 4 May 21, 2008 u RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk FEMA trailer gets MIT student ingenuity plus high-tech new lease batteries yields advanced all-electric Porsche Nancy Stauffer batteries valued at $2,030 each, plus a battery-management MIT Energy Initiative system. The team began by removing the original engine, on life exhaust lines and fuel tank and installing an electric motor and motor controller, the batteries and battery-management Sarah H. Wright With a click and a hum, the sleek Porsche 914 pulled system, a battery charger and various smaller components. News Office away from the curb while onlookers watched anxiously Each of the batteries is equipped with a built-in computer and the passenger gazed down at a laptop plugged into the that monitors its conditions—ideal for the data-gathering dashboard. task. A little bit of hurricane history has come Why the drama? Once powered by a conventional gasoline However, getting all the computers to communicate with to MIT. A FEMA trailer, one of thousands of engine, the 1976 Porsche now operates on 18 high-tech one another and with the battery-management system—a mobile homes the Federal Emergency Manage- batteries—the result of work by dedicated MIT students and separate computer—proved a challenge. While the students ment Agency purchased to shelter victims of their mentors. had made great strides with a commercial converter kit, they hurricanes Katrina and Rita, is now parked in Converting the car to an advanced electric vehicle is an ultimately had to scrap it because it was designed to handle an MIT rental space at 620 Putnam Ave. in achievement in itself and serves to demonstrate the viability 12 conventional lead-acid batteries rather than 18 lithium Cambridge. of the technology. But for the students, the real fun starts ion batteries. They subsequently redesigned the wiring and Jae Rhim Lee, lecturer in the visual arts now. Said mechanical engineering graduate student Craig reprogrammed both the motor controller and the battery program, began organizing the FEMA trailer’s Wildman, “Now we get to take data while we’re driving. We controller. trip to MIT in 2007. That year, thousands of can record everything that happens on a laptop, come back The two test drives thus far have been confined to MIT the mobile units were sent to surplus yards after and change parameters, and test drive it again.” With the parking lots, so serious data-gathering is yet to come. In the formaldehyde, an embalming fluid used in manu- Porsche as a test platform, the students can monitor condi- meantime, Irene Berry, team leader and a graduate student facturing the trailers, was found to cause illness tions in the car while looking for ways to increase efficiency, in mechanical engineering and the Technology and Policy in trailer residents. performance and range, and to bring down costs. Program, has done some performance estimates with a Lee worked through The Porsche was donated two years ago by Professor Yang vehicle-modeling computer program. She found that the FEMA and the Pennsylvania Shao-Horn of mechanical engineering and the Electrochem- Porsche should have a top speed of up to 100 miles per hour Surplus Property Division ical Energy Laboratory, who with her husband, Quinn Horn, with an estimated range of 130 miles before the batteries to have the trailer donated bought it on eBay and made it available to students interested need recharging—a task achieved by plugging it into a wall and delivered to Cambridge in converting it to electric power. In addition to providing socket for about five hours. The car should consume about on April 30. The previously an unusual opportunity for hands-on learning, the project 185 watt-hours per mile of electricity, the equivalent of about unused trailer now has a new will ultimately yield information valuable to Shao-Horn’s 65 miles per gallon of gasoline. lease on life: It will serve research on advanced batteries. What’s next for the electric Porsche? One idea is to modify as centerpiece for a new “In the laboratory we work on materials to make batter- how the batteries are wired together. “We should be able course on research as artistic ies safer, last longer and have higher energy,” she said. “But to change our range and performance characteristics very Jae practice and for the MIT we are also interested in gaining a good perspective on the easily,” said Josh Siegel, a freshman who has been restoring Rhim Lee FEMA Trailer Challenge, system. What’s involved in building an electric vehicle, and cars in imaginative ways since he was 14. The students are organized with the Public what’s required of the batteries?” also thinking about developing conversion guidelines that Service Center, providing students with a labora- The student project took off last year when Valence will enable others to do what they’ve done—without the fuss. tory in which to explore building techniques and Technology Inc. donated 18 lithium phosphate rechargeable environmental health and justice issues, Lee says. “The trailers are a symbol of response to disaster, and they are the response. Having one here provides a hands-on way to study the histo- ry of emergency management after Katrina,” says PHOTOS / DONNA COVENEY Lee SM ’06, a specialist in built forms, such as LEFT: Students converted a coffins, and biological types, such as mushrooms, Porsche into an electric car that straddle life and death. with state-of-the-art batteries Lee has seen emergency management after in the trunk of the car. Katrina up close. She volunteered in New BELOW: They take it for a spin Orleans on the architecture department’s LIFT on campus as team leader House project in 2005 and still works at the city’s Irene Berry walks alongside. Office of Recovery Development and Manage- ment. The trailers, she says, provide both shelter and a constant reminder of how many Gulf Coast residents remain isolated and traumatized. “There are historical, psychosocial, technical and scientific issues to explore, with the trailer as a lab and an anchor,” Lee says. By spring, co-teaching with Ute Meta Bauer, associate professor and director of the visual arts program, she had assembled a FEMA trailer team of five undergraduate and gradu- ate students. She devised the interdisciplinary FEMA Trailer Project course, the point of departure for a visual arts program lecture series on zones of emergency. The FEMA Trailer Project will focus on historical, design and environmental issues in the fall. There’s an economic component, too—currently, FEMA has about 41,000 unused trailers for sale. “The trailer is a heavy symbol. Now that we’ve got one here, I want students to engage hands- on with the materials and the questions. For example, how can this be used? If the materials are safe, could it be a mobile health-care unit? A food pantry? A trauma center? It’s a great labora- tory,” Lee says. Student projects in the FEMA trailer course include developing a life-cycle analysis to investigate the trailer’s environmental impact, from manufacturing to disposal or recycling; full environmental testing of materials and air quality in the trailer and interviews with current and former trailer residents. It’s unclear whether MIT’s trailer is tainted by formaldehyde; people visiting or working in the trailer aren’t required to take any special precautions. The MIT FEMA Trailer Project, comprised of the Trailer Challenge and the course, received funding from the MIT Council for the Arts and the Visual Arts Program. At the conclusion of the course, the Visual Arts Program and the School of Architecture and Planning will donate the trailer to a community organization, according to Lee. MIT Tech Talk u RESEARCH May 21, 2008 PAGE 5 MIT creates new material for fuel cells Increases power output by more than 50 percent

be made to flow through an appliance connected to the battery or fuel cell. The principal differ- ence between the two? Fuel cells get their energy from an external source of hydrogen fuel, while conventional batteries draw from a finite source in a contained system. The MIT team focused on direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), in which the methanol is directly used as the fuel and reforming of alcohol down to hydrogen is not required. Such a fuel cell is attrac- tive because the only waste products are water and carbon dioxide (the latter produced in small quantities). Also, because methanol is a liquid, it is easier to store and transport than hydrogen gas, and is safer (it won’t explode). Methanol also has a high energy density—a little goes a long way, making it especially interesting for portable devices. The DMFCs currently on the market, however, have limitations. For example, the material currently used for the electrolyte sandwiched between the electrodes is expensive. Even more important: that material, known as Nafion, is permeable to methanol, allowing some of the fuel to seep across the center of the fuel cell. Among PHOTO / AVNI ARGUN AND NATHAN ASHCRAFT other disadvantages, this wastes fuel—and lowers the efficiency of the cell—because the fuel isn’t The new thin material available for the reactions that generate electricity. was developed by Using a relatively new technique known as layer- MIT engineers for use by-layer assembly, the MIT researchers created in methanol fuel cells. an alternative to Nafion. “We were able to tune the structure of [our] film a few nanometers at a Elizabeth Thomson tunable and better-performing materials,” said time,” Hammond said, getting around some of the News Office Paula T. Hammond, Bayer Professor of Chemi- problems associated with other approaches. The cal Engineering and leader of the research team. result is a thin film that is two orders of magnitude She noted that the new material also has potential less permeable to methanol but compares favorably MIT engineers have improved the power output for use in other electrochemical systems such as to Nafion in proton conductivity. of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent batteries. To test their creation, the engineers coated a through technology that could help these envi- The work was reported in a recent issue of Nafion membrane with the new film and incor- ronmentally friendly energy storage devices find Advanced Materials by Hammond, Avni A. Argun porated the whole into a direct methanol fuel cell. a much broader market, particularly in portable and J. Nathan Ashcraft. Argun is a postdoctoral The result was an increase in power output of electronics. associate in chemical engineering; Ashcraft is a more than 50 percent. The new material key to the work is also consid- graduate student in the same department. The team is now exploring whether the new erably less expensive than its conventional indus- Like a battery, a fuel cell has three principal film could be used by itself, completely replacing trial counterpart, among other advantages. parts: two electrodes (a cathode and anode) sepa- Nafion. To that end, they have been generating “Our goal is to replace traditional fuel-cell rated by an electrolyte. Chemical reactions at the thin films that stand alone, with a consistency membranes with these cost-effective, highly electrodes produce an electronic current that can much like plastic wrap.

SURFACE: Researchers create new films Continued from Page 1 about 50 nanometers (billionths of a meter) Stiffness has usually been overlooked in thick, with layers of polyelectrolytes (a class of studies of how bacteria adhere to surfaces in charged polymer). Alternating layers are added favor of other traits such as surface charge, at different pH (acidity) levels, which deter- roughness and attraction to or repulsion from mines how stiff the material is when hydrated water. The new work shows that stiffness by near-neutral pH liquids, such as water. should also be taken into account, said Van Polymer films assembled at higher pH (up to 6) Vliet. are stiffer because the polymer chains cross- The new films could be combined with link readily and the polymers do not swell too current methods of repelling bacteria to boost much; those added at lower, more acidic pH their effectiveness, said Michael Rubner, an (down to 2.5) are more compliant. author of the paper and director of MIT’s Van Vliet says the team’s results could be Center for Materials Science and Engineering. explained by the relationship between surfaces Those methods include coating surfaces with and tiny projections from the bacterial cell antimicrobial chemicals or embedding metal walls, known as pili. Stiffer surfaces may nanoparticles into the surface, which disrupt reinforce stronger, more stable bonds with the the bacterial cell walls. bacterial pili. The researchers are now working “For those bacteria that readily form on figuring out this mechanism. biofilms, we have no delusions that we can The research was funded by the National prevent bacterial films from starting to form. Science Foundation, National Institutes of However, if we can limit how much growth Health and the Arnold and Mabel Beckman occurs, these existing methods can become Foundation Young Investigator Program. much more effective,” Rubner said. Maricela Delgadillo, a senior in materi- Jenny Lichter, graduate student in materials als science and engineering, and Takehiro science and engineering, and Todd Thompson, Nishikawa, a former postdoctoral researcher at a graduate student in the Division of Health MIT, now at the Advanced Medical Engineer- Sciences and Technology, are joint lead authors ing Center in Osaka, Japan, are also authors of of the paper. They note that the films could the paper. also be used on medical devices that go inside the body, such as stents and other cardiac implants. “Once a foreign object enters into the body, if you can limit the number of bacteria going in PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY with it, this may increase the chances that the Assistant professor of material immune system can defend against that infec- science and engineering Krystyn tion,” said Thompson. Van Vliet, left, Director of the Another possible application for the films is Center for Materials Science and to promote growth of so-called “good bugs” by Engineering Michael Rubner, tuning the mechanical stiffness of the material graduate student Jenny Lichter and on which these bacteria are cultured. These senior Maricela Delgadillo, both in films could stimulate growth of bacteria needed materials science and engineering, for scientific study, medical testing, or indus- examine new surface coatings that trial uses such as making ethanol. limit the growth of bacteria The researchers built their films, which are PAGE 6 May 21, 2008 u NEWS CELLS BIOSOLAR EMBEDDED ELECTRONICS Michael S. Strano Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering One transformation on the near term horizon is the embedding of low-cost electronics into almost every object that we encounter on a day-to-day basis. A pair of sunglasses may have the ability to project a visual display accessing the Internet, have an embedded cell phone and actuate other devices as one glances at them. The technology for this already exists. Flexible personal level. Everyday objects may sense, detect electronic paper and electronic clothing will change and constantly adjust to our environment, controlling the way information is projected and harnessed at a temperature, lighting, noise level, etc. BIOENGINEERING Phillip Sharp foods by biologically based processes. Institute Professor Thus, design of biological organ- isms and engineering of production New technology is a source of processes will be more important wealth that can elevate the standard tomorrow than today. We need to of living of all humankind. For the make investments now. In the short first time we are challenged not only term, the merging of engineering and to enhance our way of life but also biology will generate new technolo- to also protect all life forms. Part of gies that will impact the economy the response to this challenge will be through generation of better medi- increasing production of materials and cines, agriculture and materials. HOPE LIFE EXTENSION on the Mehmet Fatih Yanik cells. Beyond the scientific and techno- Asst. Professor of Electrical Engineering logical hurdles, temporary challenges will include the cost versus benefit of Significant extension of the human these technologies, legal and ethical HORIZON lifespan by disease-preventive and tissue- concerns, and regulations and stra- As the economy appears to falter and as more Americans fear that the country regenerative technologies within the tegic investment choices among next one to two decades will dramatically various options. The current is on the wrong track, here’s something to keep in mind: There is hope on the impact the world economy. These tech- economic slowdown may delay horizon. nologies will probably span everything this revolution, but I strongly from small molecule therapies and nano- believe it is unstoppable, and History is filled with examples of how technology helped usher in new eras of and microscale devices to whole organ hopefully it will take place prosperity. The rise of the Internet is a good case in point: Few people who expe- replacement technologies using stem within most of our lifetimes. rienced the economic recession of the early 1990s could have foreseen how the Web and related information technologies would improve their lives and unleash whole new industries within a few short years. To help build the case for optimism, the MIT News Office asked a collection of EDUCATION MIT faculty and researchers for their thoughts on potentially life-altering tech- Eric Klopfer qualities that have become the envy of the rest nologies that lie just around the corner. Here’s a sample of what they said: Scheller Career Development Professor of the world, will be required. Look for schools of Science Education and Educational to embrace systems that emphasize and enhance Technology these characteristics, including games, media, collaboration and social networking. These The economy of tomorrow will be determined products will bridge the widening gap between by the students today. As we begin to realize that what students do in and out of school. Solutions strict standards-based education has squeezed out such as these, which incorporate both services and much of what makes the U.S. education system software, could be the next frontier for schools, unique, new solutions will be required. Solu- providing business opportunities and preparing tions that emphasize creativity and innovation, for future innovation.

Ed Boyden PROBLEM Benesse Career Development Professor; Asst. Professor, MIT Media Lab & Dept. of SOLVING Biological Engineering We humans are terrible at taking MITIGATING future problems seriously and solv- ing them, especially those that present consequences more than a few days off. AUTISM A great need is the ability to effectively solve problems when they are small, or Rosalind W. Picard at least before they become enormous Professor of Media Arts and Sciences threats. This problem is present at the personal, the community and the An estimated $35 billion in direct medical, direct non- global level—whether it’s dealing with medical, and “lost productivity” costs are spent each year personal diet and exercise and diabetes, to care for children diagnosed with autism or global climate change. Why are we and related disorders in America. Beyond so bad at anticipating, deciding and these financial costs, however, is the enormous acting upon the prevention of problems opportunity cost incurred by not enabling in the future? One possibility is that we these individuals to become full participants in need to use our knowledge of the mind society. to engineer better information-handling My students and I are building new tech- tools and software, for visualizing, nologies to enable people diagnosed with understanding and figuring out how to autism—now 1 in 150 American children— fix problems. We need to understand to be able to communicate better and have data and deal with problems at a higher better independent and interdependent living skills. level: Information, by itself, is not These technologies are also likely to have some enough. application for people with Parkinson’s, sleep disorders, non-verbal learning disabilities epilepsy and other problems. u NEWS May 21, 2008 PAGE 7 Shuguang Zhang Leslie Bromberg Associate Director, Center for DIGITIZATION Principal Research Engineer Biomedical Engineering Neil Gershenfeld FUSION Plasma Science and Fusion Center Among the most pressing challenges Director, Center for Bits and Atoms At the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, our to civilization, nothing is greater than largest projects involve fusion energy research, which securing our energy future. The most significant coming technology has great potential benefit for the long term, but not A low-cost and flexible biosolar is the digitization of fabrication, the impact for the immediate future. However, other developing energy nanodevice is one of the long- of which will be analogous to the digitiza- plasma technologies and spin-off technologies could term solutions. Currently, solar cells tion of communication and computation. have a more immediate benefit. are expensive and not affordable—even Like those earlier revolutions, the conse- Imagine using garden, forest and household wastes for the most-developed nations. Radical quence will be personalization, in this case, to make energy. Using plasma to convert waste to solutions must be found. Nature has allowing anyone to make almost anything, fuel could make a substantial difference in our lives. already made efficient photosynthesis anywhere. Coupled with digital video and The hydrocarbons from waste could be turned into molecular nanomachines in thermo- digital libraries, this means that the former- hydrogen-rich gas, which could be passed through philic photosynthetic bacteria, algae and ly scarce resources (facilities, books, people) catalysts to create liquid fuel. Although the process of advanced technical institutions (such plants. We can isolate or emulate them could increase the cost of fuel, it is CO2-neutral and to stabilize them in extended time onto as MIT) can become much more widely would provide energy security (i.e., independence inexpensive semiconducting nanostruc- accessible. from fuel provided by unstable governments). The tured surface in extremely high density question is: Can we make it small enough so that fuel to directly harvest photons. This process can be generated in a distributed manner? And will must be simple, easy to follow and the fuel be stable and have the characteristics neces- affordable even for developing nations. sary for use in internal combustion engines? Our laboratory is developing the process for a decentralized or individual- ized system for low-cost photovoltaic devices: biosolar cells. ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY Paula Hammond A number of the challenges in achieving high storage Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering capacity and being able to generate power in a highly effi- cient manner involves manipulating the interfaces between Long-standing efforts to manipulate materials on the organic and inorganic material systems and facilitating the nanometer scale are coming to fruition in some areas. One pathways of charge in devices. In recent years, there has of those areas is electrochemical energy—devices such as really been an explosion in the number of methods and solar cells, capacitors and supercapacitors, fuel cells and the level of control over which we can do that. This could batteries. Electrochemical energy involves the reduction mean we’re on the cusp of very real achievement in this and oxidation of materials to either generate energy or to area—leading to new, more-efficient photovoltaic devices, HOPE store it. batteries and fuel cells. on the ues to talk about growth—how there will be no tradeoffs and how technology will mean we won’t have to choose. It’s not at all clear that that’s correct. TRANSCENDING The pressure for growth in India and China will not slow, so the price for primary commodities will continue to escalate. Correspondingly, the rate at HORIZON which we emit carbon dioxide, use up fresh water supplies and put arable land TECHNOLOGY and the oceans under stress will continue to increase. We have already started As the economy appears to falter and as more Americans fear that the country to see significant political problems in countries suffering from severe envi- is on the wrong track, here’s something to keep in mind: There is hope on the Rebecca Henderson ronmental stresses—Sudan is the most obvious example—and it is possible horizon. Eastman Kodak LFM Professor, we’ll begin to see breakdowns or partial failures in the global supply chains MIT Sloan School of Management that provide developed regions such as Europe and the United States with History is filled with examples of how technology helped usher in new eras of very significant fractions of their needs. prosperity. The rise of the Internet is a good case in point: Few people who expe- We tend to assume that everything is nicely linear and everything either When the MIT News Office asked goes up very gently or comes down very gently. Historically that’s not accu- rienced the economic recession of the early 1990s could have foreseen how the Rebecca Henderson for her thoughts, she rate. We’ve had very nonlinear times—the most obvious would be the Great Web and related information technologies would improve their lives and unleash replied that she did not necessarily agree Depression. But once you get accelerating economic and political pressure whole new industries within a few short years. with the premise. Henderson foresees then it becomes increasingly difficult to do anything about the environmental significant social, political and environmen- root causes. To help build the case for optimism, the MIT News Office asked a collection of tal stresses around the world in the coming Think about it: Here we are, one of richest societies the world has ever MIT faculty and researchers for their thoughts on potentially life-altering tech- years—challenges that technology will not be known, and we are not comfortable making at least minimal sacrifices to able to fix by itself. postpone or take out insurance against climatic stress. Now, suppose we all get nologies that lie just around the corner. Here’s a sample of what they said: a lot poorer and there’s massive political unrest: Who is going to put a carbon I think what we have here is a social and political prob- tax in place? You can quite straightforwardly write a scenario in which we do lem, not a technological problem. I don’t mean to call into nothing to curb carbon output and the kind of nonlinear effects that scientists question the technological enterprise or suggest that we are worried about start to kick in—things such as a collapse in the world’s fish- at MIT don’t have an extremely important role to play. But eries by 2050, or an increase in the release of methane from permafrost that without the political and social will to value externalities—most causes an acceleration in global warming and a corresponding rise in sea levels. obviously carbon but more generally environmental destruc- I must stress that I think most of these problems are eminently containable. tion—we’re not going to use these technologies until it’s too little, But left unchecked, we could see cumulative shocks that make an incredibly too late. complex and interlinked system begin to need to become much less complex I am struck by how the political discourse across the world contin- and much less interlinked.

SUSTAINABLE CITIES ROBOTS William J. Mitchell Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences The building and rebuilding of our cities in “smart” sustainable form will produce the next big improvement in our lives. This is an essential task, and a massive one that has the potential to generate a long-term economic boom. As with the Internet, the revolution will not result from a single technology, but from the timely convergence of multiple streams of technological development.

PHOTOS / ISTOCKPHOTO PHOTOS One part of it will be the replacement of the clunky, inefficient, dangerous gasoline-powered automobile with personal mobility systems based upon fleets of lightweight, “smart,” wirelessly networked electric vehicles. A second part will be the emergence of clean, efficient, geographically distributed systems for electricity genera- tion, storage and distribution. A third part will be the embedding of networking capability and intelligence in buildings and products of all kinds. And finally, ubiquitous networking will—like a nervous system— Rodney Brooks years ago we now have thousands tie all this together so that cities respond, like intelligent organisms, Panasonic Professor of Robotics on active duty in the U.S. military to dynamic changes in their environments and the needs of their and millions cleaning the floors of inhabitants. As the baby boomers age, the American homes. This is the lead- demographics of Europe, North up to a classic hockey-stick growth America, East Asia and Australia curve. Just as computers we inter- will demand that the productiv- act with personally (e.g., desktops, The MIT News Office wants to hear from you ity of all aspects of manual work laptops, PDAs, cellphones) trans- increase dramatically. Fortunately, formed our lives over the last 25 What technologies do you think will help usher in a new era of prosperity? Feel free to send us robots are just now maturing to years, so, too, will robots transform your submissions and we will publish a sampling online. Submissions should be no more than 125 the point where they can help with our lives over the coming 25. And words and should be e-mailed to [email protected]. real productivity at practical prices. it just so happens that Massachu- From virtually no mobile robots setts is the epicenter of this nascent deployed anywhere in the world six industry. PAGE 8 May 21, 2008 u NEWS MIT Tech Talk

MIT In the World

One team came up with a clever adapter to turn The other attachment is a table that snaps onto the a conventional four-wheeled chair into a tricycle front of the chair, above the armrests, with a set of powered by hand-operated pedals. Many people who tough nylon bags attached. This would allow people On a roll can’t walk use such pedal-powered tricycles to travel in wheelchairs to carry products with them, and then long distances along dirt roads, because the three- display them conveniently for sale on the table. Street Students help bring mobility to wheeled structure is much more stable than a four- vending is a very common source of income in many wheeler on uneven surfaces, and turning pedals by developing nations, and this attachment could help developing countries hand is a much more efficient way of covering long disabled people become self-supporting. distances than turning the rims of the large rear wheels All of the designs were developed in close consulta- David Chandler of conventional wheelchairs. tion with people who work on wheelchair construction News Office But such chairs are larger and heavier than conven- in Tanzania, Kenya, Vietnam, the Philippines and other tional ones and are often not suitable for indoor use. locations in the developing world, so the designs, mate- While some people use two different chairs, one for rials and construction methods were carefully chosen Throughout the developing world, 20 million people indoors and the other for covering long distances, that’s to be appropriate and accessible. These consultations need wheelchairs but are unable to get them. And even an option that’s unaffordable by many people—and were made possible by partnerships Winter has formed the lucky ones who do get them—usually through takes up a lot of extra space even for those who can with 13 wheelchair workshops—the local companies charitable donations—often get chairs designed for afford it. that develop chairs adapted to the specific needs of the smooth floors and sidewalks of the industrialized So this team developed an attachment made out of local conditions—in nine different countries. world, which can be difficult or even impossible to use ordinary bicycle parts—easy to obtain in most develop- This summer, several of the students will travel to on the unpaved roads and narrow hallways that people ing nations—that simply clamps onto the front of a some of those countries, some with the help of grants often face. regular wheelchair, raising its two small front wheels from MIT’s Public Service Center, to further develop Amos Winter, an MIT graduate student in mechani- off the ground and substituting a bicycle wheel further these concepts into production-ready prototypes. “We cal engineering, has spent much of the last three years out in front. The attachment also uses the bicycle’s really try to foster the collaborative aspect of this class,” trying to address these problems by working with gearing system to allow more efficient power for climb- Winter says. “We’re not trying to solve problems for wheelchair workshops in various countries in Africa ing steep slopes. The whole attachment could be built the people in these countries, we’re trying to solve and Asia to help develop new designs. His focus has for well under $100, the team concluded—a fraction of problems with them.” been on chairs that work better under the rough the cost of a separate chair. Because of this close collaboration, Winter says conditions they face in each location, that can be made Two other teams concentrated on developing attach- that “these all have a pretty good likelihood of being locally with readily available materials and by local ments to help people who use wheelchairs to be able applied” to real production. Of the four other designs workers, and that are rugged enough to stand up to the to work and earn a living. One of these is a small cart developed during last year’s class, he says, three are rough roads, gear-clogging dust and wet and muddy that can be towed behind the chair, to enable people actively being produced, and elements of the fourth are conditions they often face. to carry heavy loads without the strain and awkward- also being applied. This semester, for the second time, Winter also ness of having to balance it on their laps as the move Without access to a wheelchair, Winter says, “most taught a class on wheelchair design for the developing around. For example, in many countries where women people were using crawling as their primary means of world. The 22 students in this year’s class split into five are expected to fetch water for the household, often getting around.” So providing affordable, appropriate teams and each came up with new variations on how over long distances, this cart would allow them to easily chairs is “a huge need, with a huge potential for impact. to help bring mobility to people whose lives could be carry a large bucket behind them, without affecting the It means these people can go out and get a job, instead dramatically changed by it. stability or mobility of the chair. of staying around the house.”

BIRD BEAKS: Work finds that phalaropes defy gravity to get food up their long, thin beaks Continued from Page 1 To unravel the mystery, Bush teamed up with Manu In this stepwise ratcheting fashion, the drop travels water surface, especially detergents or oil. Prakash, a graduate student in MIT’s Center for Bits and along the beak at a speed of about 1 meter per second. “Some species rely exclusively on this feeding mecha- Atoms, and David Quere, of the École Polytechnique in The efficiency of the process, which the authors dub nism, and so are extremely vulnerable to oil spills,” said Paris, a visiting professor in MIT’s math department at the the “capillary ratchet,” depends on the beak shape: Long, John Bush, MIT associate professor of applied mathemat- time of the study. They built a mechanical model of the narrow beaks are best suited to this mode of feeding. The ics and senior author of the paper. phalarope beak that allowed them to study the process in study highlights the sensitivity of this mechanism to the Wildlife biologists have long noted the unusual feeding slow motion. opening and closing angles of the beak: “Varying these behavior of phalaropes, which spin in circles on the water, The process depends on a surface interaction known as angles by a few degrees can change the drop speed by a creating a vortex that sweeps small crustaceans up to the contact angle hysteresis, typically an impediment to drop factor of 10,” Quere said. surface, just like tea leaves swirling in a tea cup. motion on solids. For example, raindrops stick to window The capillary ratchet also depends critically on the The birds peck at the surface, picking up millimetric panes due to contact angle hysteresis. In the case of the beak’s wettability—a measure of a liquid’s tendency to droplets of water with their prey trapped inside. Since bird beak, the time-dependent beak geometry couples bead up into droplets or spread out to wet its surface. the birds point their beaks downward during the feeding with contact angle hysteresis to propel the drop upward. Oil is much more “wetting” than water, so if the beak is process, gravity must be overcome to get those droplets “This may be the first known example where droplet soaked in oil from a spill, this process won’t work. from the tip of the bird’s long beak to its mouth. Until motion is enabled rather than resisted by contact angle The researchers note a potential application of nature’s now, scientists have been puzzled as to how that happens. hysteresis,” Bush said. design: “We are currently exploring microfluidic devices Scientists speculated that the feeding strategy depended As the beak scissors open and shut, each movement in which this mechanism could be exploited for directed on the drop’s surface tension. Surface tension normally propels the water droplet one step closer to the bird’s droplet transport, allowing for controlled stepwise motion dominates fluid systems that are small relative to raindrops mouth. Specifically, when the beak closes, the drop’s lead- of microliter droplets,” Prakash said. (for example, the world of insects), but it was not clear ing edge proceeds toward the mouth, while the trailing The research was funded by the National Science how it could benefit shorebirds. A key observation was edge stays put. When the beak opens, the leading edge Foundation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scienti- that in order to propel the drop, the birds open and close stays in place while the trailing edge recedes toward the fique (France) and MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. their beaks in a tweezering motion. mouth.

ABOVE: Screenshots from a video PHOTOS / RAINEY SCHULER show water going up the beak. The MIT researchers have figured out full video is available on the News how the phalarope, a shorebird Office web site at http://web.mit.edu/ with a long, narrow beak, newsoffice/2008/bird-beak-0515.html transports food from the tip of its beak to its mouth. MIT Tech Talk u NEWS May 21, 2008 PAGE 9

HR@Your Service COMMENCEMENT 2008

One of the best things about working at MIT is the opportunity for career advancement. Some people have several jobs in their tenure here, while others have several careers. Just consid- er Diana Hughes, who started at MIT eight years ago with “no intention of staying more than a year,” she says. Hughes is a prime example of some- one who worked hard, took advantage of MIT’s resources and benefited from excellent managing and mentor- ing along the way. Her first job was a one-year position in the Reference Publications Office. She was referred by an MIT colleague, who, as so many of us do, recommended MIT as a great place to work. Her job as communica- tions assistant got extended another six months and during this time, Hughes “went to every session HR had” on career planning. She attended workshops on interviewing skills, on writing resumes, on learning about her Myers-Briggs type. She worked closely with what was formerly the Workforce and Career Planning Office, now called Career and Talent Management, and found a new position as communica- tions coordinator for the HR Payroll Project. “I had a small nervous breakdown when I first started,” jokes Hughes, ABOVE: Facilities carpenter Rick Hadge checks and replaces old wood in the Commencement platform in preparation for referring to the vastness of this project graduation on June 6. and the experience of reporting to new BELOW, LEFT: Facilities carpenter Judd Carlisle replaces wood from the platform. people with different work styles. But BELOW, RIGHT: Facilities carpenter Bob Stewart works on putting the stage together for Commencement. she continues: “Being uncomfortable is sometimes a good thing.” Her manager at the time, Alyce Johnson, recognized her discomfort and asked her how she likes to learn. This mentoring PHOTOS / DONNA COVENEY made a huge difference and she ended up staying on the project for four years. During this project she became communications and project manager for Jerry Grochow, vice president of IS&T. “Working directly for a VP was a great experience as I continued to build my skills,” remembers Hughes. “Jerry was incredibly supportive,” providing opportunities for her to grow and use her learning on the job. She ended up getting promoted to special assistant. The experience was clearly win-win, as Grochow remarks, “Diana is just the type of person we are looking for on MIT administrative staff: energetic, organized, gets along with people, interested in career advancement by both taking academic subjects and gaining practical experience. I was pleased to be able to work with her on strategies for personal development while keeping her here at MIT.” Indeed, Hughes’ ability to apply what she learned from her professional development courses is every trainer’s success story. For example, Hughes took a facilitation course and then used her new knowledge in work meetings. By working with colleagues such as Johnson, who is the manager in orga- nization and employee development (OED), Hughes learned about a whole new field and realized that she had a natural affinity for it. This exposure led Hughes to pursue a master’s degree in OED, and, after three years, Hughes graduated on May 17. Even better, she landed a job at Lincoln Lab as IT transformation lead. “This is a huge job, and I’m grateful for the network CLASSIFIED ADS I’ve built up back on campus as I start Members of the MIT community may submit Stuffed Toys, Microwave Oven, Dresser/cabi- flrs, garage + add’l parking, large backyard, near to build a bridge between IS&T and one ad each issue. Ads should be 30 words net, Baby car seat. Photos avail. Contact Izzah T; $1,900/mo. Lucy [email protected],253-5291. HR colleagues here.” maximum; they will be edited. Submit by e- Khan [email protected]. Ph: 713-505-8377, Hughes’ career trajectory took her mail to [email protected] or mail to Classifieds, 832-744-4895 Occidental Grand Aruba—Suite with king size to unexpected places and she took Rm 11-400. Deadline is noon Wednesday the bed, pull out couch, eat in kitchen, two bath- advantage of those places. Her career week before ­publication. Cannondale mountain bike - $100 - X30181 rooms. Available any one week you want from advice is to take the time to figure out May through mid December (Saturday to Satur- what you really want to do. In addition, FOR SALE Classic mahagony office arm chairs. $125/chair. day stay). $1500. Call Mary 781-248-3662 find a mentor to help you navigate the Exceptional condition. Manufactured by Paine scene and who believes in you. As she Air Conditioner, portable with remote control, Furniture. Paine tag attached to bottom of one SERVICES says, “Alyce believed in me before I 9000BTU/hr, ‘Sears’ 9000BT MDS, used one chair. Dimensions and photos available. peg- season, $60 (paid $594.99 new). Call Ron, [email protected]. No time to clean? Excellent house cleaner avail- believed in myself.” Finally, recognize 617-452-2327 able w/glowing refs from MIT clients. Houses, that you are really in control of your condos, or apartments in Boston area. Reason- own career—but realize that there are King Size Box Spring mattress, Sofa Seat, Iron- RENTALS able rates. Call Ana (617) 846-5298; leave mes- plenty of people and resources to help ing Stand, Book Shelf (small), Study Table & Brookline—Attractive brick duplex apt, Griggs sage. you along the way. chair, 4 Living Room Chairs, Baby High Chair, Park; two spacious bedrms, 1.5 baths, dining rm, Baby Booster Seat, Double seat Stroller, fireplaced living rm, screened porch, hardwood PAGE 10 May 21, 2008 u NEWS MIT Tech Talk Who ya gonna call? Riskbuster! David Chandler everything out of kilter. system, Leveson says. Professor Nancy News Office Sometimes, there is no failure in the tradi- “We used to build systems that were simple Leveson has tional sense: Each part of the system did what enough so that you could test everything, and it was supposed to do, but there was an under- test the interactions,” she says. “Now, we’re developed unique Whenever something really bad happens lying error in the overall design. That’s what building systems so complex that we can’t in this high-tech world—or whenever some- happened, for example, in the loss of NASA’s understand all the possible interactions.” While approach to one wants to make sure it doesn’t—there’s a Mars Polar Lander a few years ago, after the traditional analysis assumes a linear, causal good chance that before long, someone will lander’s engineers failed to inform colleagues chain of events, accidents in complex systems managing risky be calling Nancy Leveson. Or wishing they working on its onboard software of a poten- often unfold through very nonlinear effects, businesses had. And whether the issue involves anything tially dangerous source of “noise.” feedback loops and so on. from advanced spacecraft to pharmaceuticals or For Leveson, the turning point came in Leveson calls her new approach STAMP, critical computer systems, chances are the MIT 2000, when she realized, “after about 20 years, for System-Theoretic Accident Model and professor of aeronautics and astronautics and nobody was making any progress” in figur- Processes. She has set up a company to imple- engineering systems will have a good answer to ing out how to manage the risks of complex ment the system in analyzing a wide variety of the problem. systems, she says. “Usually, that’s means there’s systems in different fields, and is finishing a Risk analysis for complex systems like something wrong with the underlying assump- book on the system that will be issued by MIT nuclear power plants or space shuttles typi- tions everybody is using.” Press this fall. In the meantime, chapters of the cally involves analyzing sequences of failures, She realized that the basic component-based book are available online on Leveson’s web site figuring out every part of the system that might approach to assessing risk was something (http://sunnyday.mit.edu/book2.pdf). fail and what effects that might have, and that had prevailed at least since World War “Nancy Leveson has developed a control- putting all those pieces together—essentially, a II, and “it just didn’t apply” to many of the based modeling approach to systems safety bottom-up way of looking at things. Leveson, highly computerized technological systems in which can be applied to complex networks of after nearly three decades of working on such operation today. “Accidents just occur differ- hardware and humans,” says professor Jeffrey problems, has revolutionized the field by devel- ently. Risk has changed as the technology has Hoffman, a colleague of Leveson’s in MIT’s oping a new top-down way of analyzing the changed.” So she started developing her new Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. risks of complex systems, which leads to a more approach, based on systems theory. “Her work has elicited considerable inter- integrated approach to managing the risks. At first, she was afraid that nobody would est inside NASA, where safety analysis has MIT Professor of Her advice and analysis have been applied in take her radical new approach seriously. “I traditionally concentrated on the reliability of Aeronautics and recent years to helping a presidential commis- thought people would just think I was nuts,” individual pieces of complex systems.” Astronautics and sion understand how to prevent the commu- she says with a laugh. But when she started While NASA is using her new approach to Engineering Systems nications failures that led to the space shuttle applying her new approach to specific cases, analyze risks in the development of the Orion Nancy Leveson Columbia accident, helping pharmaceutical such as identifying the potential for inadver- spacecraft that will replace the shuttle, and in companies manage the risks of new drugs being tent launch in the new missile defense system, developing a future robotic planetary probe, introduced, and helping the Federal Aviation it clearly worked: It identified significant the Japanese space agency has gone even Administration assess new technology for air hazardous scenarios that nobody had noticed further: They sent two engineers to work in traffic control. She’s also investigated how to otherwise. Leveson’s lab for a couple of years and observe make sure that a new missile defense system “We tried it on extremely large, complex how she does her analysis, and have been being developed by the U.S. would not be systems, and it worked much better than what applying the lessons learned to their space vulnerable to an accidental launch, and how to people do now,” she says. “I realized we could systems while creating improved tools. reduce the risks of corporate fraud that could solve problems that weren’t solvable before.” Though her work focuses on disasters, damage the economy. The new approach to analysis led to a whole Leveson is upbeat about what she does. Using What tends to happen in complex, high-tech new way of dealing with the risk management the old ways, she says, “it was discouraging systems, Leveson has found, is not so much a of complex, socio-technical systems. Instead to have something that only works in a small random failure of one or two parts of a system, of looking at the individual components and subset of cases.” But with her new approach, but rather a gradual drift over time from a safe trying to minimize the chances that each would she says, “it’s very exciting to have something operation to one where the safety margins fail, “what you really want is to enforce safety that actually works, and to be able to apply this have eroded and one small problem can throw constraints” on the behavior of the entire in the social and organizational realm.”

The cost of repealing blue laws land again. And there were dozens of smaller MIT class asks: choices to be made, including the materials to use for the structure, the kind of batteries to use Sarah H. Wright religious contributions once the blue and the best ways of communicating data back News Office laws were repealed. They found no Fly me to the moon? change in other charitable activity, David Chandler to Earth. Gruber notes. News Office Hoffman, a former astronaut who flew Repealing America’s blue laws not To confirm their findings and to five shuttle missions and carried out the first only decreased church attendance, complete the economic portrait, the repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, donations and spending, but it also authors also analyzed budget data Even for MIT, where so many classes and says this class served a dual purpose. First, as led to a rise in alcohol and drug for four major Christian denomina- activities involve competitions and the creation students in the class do every year, they got use among people who had been tions over the past 40 years. Church of proposals that might lead to new businesses to solve a very specific challenge to design an religious, according to a new study expenditures declined significantly and to solving large technological challenges, entire space mission, learning about all the by economists Jonathan Gruber of since the repeal of the blue laws, this one was unusual. This semester’s aero-astro different aspects involved in that process, from MIT and Daniel Hungerman of the they found. graduate space systems engineering class, 16.89, evaluating the technical tradeoffs involved in University of Notre Dame. Gruber and Hungerman did more was aimed at figuring out whether MIT could, every choice of hardware or strategy, to the Blue laws, or Sunday closing laws, than track how individuals chose to or should, mount an entry into the $20-million challenges of working together as an effective refer to statutes that restrict certain allocate their resources on Sunday Google Lunar X-Prize competition, announced team. activities on the Christian Sabbath. once the malls were opened, a last fall. Going through that process “illustrates some By the end of the 19th century, change widely celebrated from the After three and a half months of research on of the basic principles of the design process,” nearly every state had at least some early 1960s onward as freedom from what it would take to meet the prize’s require- Hoffman says, and thus fulfills the pedagogi- law prohibiting certain activities on old-fashioned ways. ments—getting a privately-funded robotic craft cal purpose of the course. But in addition, “in Sunday. The 1960s saw the begin- They considered the nega- to the moon, having it travel at least 500 meters this case, the idea of designing a lunar robotic ning of push to repeal these laws in tive consequences for individuals once it gets there, and sending back streams of mission is interesting in its own right,” and favor of commerce, although a few or society from loosening secular high-definition still and video imagery—the because of the possibility that an MIT-led team still remain on the books. constraints and they found those bottom line the students arrived at was: Yes, we might actually enter the contest, gives this proj- In their study, which appears in consequences in behaviors associ- can (technically)! ect an extra dose of reality and excitement. the May 2008 edition of The Quar- ated more with Saturday night than Whether it’s possible to raise the necessary “It’s not just a paper study, in the sense that terly Journal of Economics, Gruber Sunday morning. funding and pull together the necessary part- something is riding on it,” Hoffman says. And if and Hungerman show what happens Using data from the National nerships with industry, and whether the invest- the decision is made to go ahead with a contest when religious services must Longitudinal Survey of Youth ment of time, money and hard work is worth entry, “it’s a major undertaking, a multiyear compete with shopping, hobbies and (NLSY) on consumption of alcohol pursuing, are matters still under discussion. A project. It will mean putting together a team— other activities. and illegal drugs, the economists decision is expected within about six weeks, says students will come and go, and faculty will To measure that competition, they found that repealing the blue laws Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor of the provide continuity,” he says. studied the large number of states did lead to an increase in drinking Practice Jeffrey Hoffman, who taught the class There were 15 students in the class, but if that repealed their blue laws over and drug use. together with Professor Edward Crawley. MIT decides to enter the competition, the team the past 50 years. (Massachusetts, What’s more, they found that A prize entry would cost between $20 and might include some of them as well as others for example, repealed its blue laws individuals who had attended church $30 million, the class concluded, most of it for who are not yet involved. “We would hope to in 1994.) and stopped after the blue laws purchasing launch services to get the craft into attract others, including participants from other “That policy-driven change in were repealed showed the greatest low-Earth orbit. departments,” such as EECS, CSAIL, EAPS state laws allowed us to identify increase in substance abuse, Gruber The class looked at several different options and the MIT Sloan School of Management. secular competition, as opposed to notes. for each phase of the mission. For example, “It’s a big challenge,” Hoffman says. Ten interreligious competition, which Those effects have significant one choice is whether to launch the craft to teams have already officially registered to had been studied before,” Gruber economic and social implications, the moon directly from Earth, or send it into participate in the lunar challenge, which was says. “We wanted to find out how the authors say. Earth orbit first and then to the moon. Another created by X-Prize Foundation founder Peter people spent their time and money.” The study, “The Church vs. is how to achieve the 500-meter trip once it Diamandis ’83, SM ’88. Among the teams is a The economists used data from the Mall: What Happens When arrives on the moon: Either having a wheeled student group from Carnegie-Mellon Univer- the General Social Survey on Religion Faces Increased Secu- rover or a spherical “roller” separate from sity, which has a partnership with Raytheon religious attendance and from the lar Competition?” can be viewed the craft after lunar touchdown, or using a and has vowed to reach the moon by July 20, Consumer Expenditure Survey to online at http://www.mitpress- “hopper” approach, by having the whole craft 2009—the 40th anniversary of the first lunar show a very strong reduction in journals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ land, then take off again, move to the side, and landing by astronauts. religious attendance and a decline in qjec.2008.123.2.831. MIT Tech Talk u NEWS May 21, 2008 PAGE 11 Disarmament expert sees U.S.-Iran solution Sarah H. Wright News Office

An MIT expert on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is gaining recognition for his work in developing a possible face-saving solution to the tense nuclear standoff between the United States and Iran. Jim Walsh, research associate in MIT’s Security Studies Program at the Center for International Studies, says the United States and Iran could develop significant common purpose if Iran’s uranium enrichment program were managed and operated on Iranian soil by a multilateral consortium— and if the United States were to give up its demands that Iran abandon its nuclear activities completely. Walsh developed his proposal with colleagues William Luers, former U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela, and Thomas Pickering, former U.S. ambassador to six countries, including Russia and Israel, and the ABOVE: An airport diagram of Boston’s Logan International Airport shows the runway United Nations. intersection lights, takeoff hold lights and runway entrance lights (in red). “This is a historic moment for U.S. leadership. Sanctions aren’t work- BELOW: A Runway Status Lights operational concept depicts a notional deployment of ing and Iran has accelerated its uranium enrichment. Multilateral manage- runway intersection lights, takeoff hold lights and runway entrance lights. ment of Iranian nuclear facilities will provide transparency about their fuel program and reduce the chances of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons,” says Walsh. Walsh and his colleagues’ proposal was recently featured in The New York Review of Books and in MIT’s Audits of the Conventional Wisdom. The title is, “A Solution for the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Standoff.” Walsh also presented his research on Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the Senate Committee on Home- land Security and Govern- mental Affairs on April 24, 2008. It was his third appear- ❞ ance before Congress to Multilateral management of testify on U.S.-Iran relations. Tensions about Iran’s nucle- Iranian nuclear facilities will ar program, mounting for provide transparency about their decades, have nearly boiled over this year. Multilateral fuel program and reduce the management of Iran’s nuclear program has been proposed chances of Iran acquiring before; Walsh’s plan is draw- ing widespread interest now as nuclear weapons. many officials are looking for Jim Walsh a way out of the potentially research associate, dangerous U.S.-Iran standoff, MIT’s Security Studies Program he notes. Taking the lead on resolv- ing the nuclear standoff would give the United States a chance to work with Iran on defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda and on developing common goals in Afghanistan and Iraq, Walsh says. Washington’s historic moment—the opportunity to negotiate with Iran Logan to get Lincoln Lab-developed on managing its nuclear program—arises from two recent propitious devel- opments, Walsh says. First, the National Intelligence Estimates concluded in December 2007 that Iran halted its weapons program in 2003. Second, the runway safety system United States and Iran have held successful direct talks on Iraq, reducing the flow of improvised explosive devices and foreign fighters through Iran. Dorothy Ryan supporting successful extended operational “These events have created the political space for new thinking about MIT Lincoln Laboratory evaluations of RELs and THLs at Dallas-Fort the U.S.-Iran relationship, and they demonstrate that negotiations with the Worth and RELs at San Diego. The Labora- Iranian Republic can produce tangible results,” the authors write. tory is also scheduled to support an operation- Walsh and his colleagues have met regularly with Iranian academics and Next year, Boston’s Logan International al evaluation at Logan once RELs, THLs and policy advisers over the past five years, and Walsh met twice with Iranian Airport will become one of the first U.S. RILs, which will have their first-in-the-nation President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a U.S. visit. Walsh has visited Iran airports to deploy Runway Status Lights deployment at Logan, have been installed in three times and will return there in June. (RWSL), a new technology originally devel- late 2009. Tehran has changed since Walsh’s first visit in 2006, illustrating the oped at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as part of In the early 1990s, Lincoln Laboratory marginal effects of U.S. sanctions, in effect since the 1979 hostage crisis, he the Federal Aviation Administration’s continu- developed a preliminary operational concept says. ing program to improve runway safety. of runway-status lights followed by a concept “Wealthier neighborhoods don’t look like they are suffering from sanc- RWSL—an automated, all-weather safety demonstration at Logan. In the mid-1990s, tions. There’s a construction boom, with new buildings and shops going up. backup to pilots, airport vehicle operators, and NASA Langley Research Center reported One result of the new sanctions is that wealthy Iranians who had kept their air-traffic controllers—is designed to aid in the results of a cockpit simulation study of money in foreign banks have brought it back to Iran; they’re investing in the prevention of runway accidents while not pilot acceptance of runway-status lights while real estate at home,” Walsh says. “Nobody has stopped buying oil.” interfering with the efficient tempo of opera- the Volpe National Transportation Systems Sanctions have also been ineffective, according to Walsh, because they tions required at high-capacity airports. The Center studied the design and physical reflect a mismatch between U.S. policy and U.S. goals. system was developed at Lincoln Laboratory installation of runway-status lights at Logan “Economic sanctions are a long-term strategy; they’re not designed to under the FAA’s Runway Incursion Reduction International Airport. achieve near-term goals like containing or dismantling a nuclear program. Program. All of these studies concluded that runway- The United States needs to take the initiative in the near term,” Walsh says. The RWSL system improves safety by status lights could be an effective means Taking that initiative would quickly profit both the United States and enhancing the situational awareness of flight to prevent runway incursions and runway- Iran, he says. Through upgraded international safeguards and inspections, crews and vehicle operators through automat- conflict accidents and would be supported multilateral ownership and management will provide the United States ic and timely status lights that indicate when by pilots and controllers, provided that the transparency about Iran’s production of nuclear fuel. In exchange for accept- runways are occupied. The automatic control performance of the surveillance and light ing the multilateral plan, Iran would be able to jointly own and operate of the lights is performed by software-based control logic could be optimized to be an enrichment facility on its own soil and also enjoy increased trade with control logic driven by a fusion of primary compatible with high-density airport opera- Europe, among other benefits. and secondary radar data that provides an tions. However, it was concluded at the time “The process is likely to be painful and difficult, but the reward may be a accurate picture of runway usage by aircraft that the existing surface surveillance quality more stable and peaceful Middle East,” the authors write. and ground vehicles. The RWSL concept was inadequate to support an RWSL system comprises takeoff hold lights (THLs), runway with a low enough false-activation rate to be entrance lights (RELs), final approach runway compatible with operations at a complex, busy occupancy signals (FAROS) and runway inter- airport. In the past decade, FAA-sponsored No Tech Talk next week section lights (RILs). programs have advanced surface surveil- Operationally suitable versions of RWSL lance technology to the level needed to make In honor of Memorial Day, there will be no Tech Talk on Wednes- are being tested at the Dallas-Fort Worth RWSL practical. In 2002, Lincoln Labora- day, May 28. The next Tech Talk will be published on June 4 and International Airport and the San Diego tory reinstated its RWSL development effort include the Awards and Honors special section. For ongoing MIT International Airport. Lincoln Laboratory is under FAA sponsorship. news updates, please go to the News Office web site at web.mit.edu/ newsoffice/. PAGE 12 May 21, 2008 u NEWS MIT Tech Talk How I spent my semester

Making wheelchairs RIGHT: Junior Mario Bollini races lab instructor Gwyn Jones as part of a wheelchair class taught by mechanical engineering graduate student and Amos Winter (seen below in Tanzania).

Winter’s course challenged students to come up with new variations on how to help bring mobility to the 20 million people in the developing world who need wheelchairs.

Read more about the class in this week’s ‘In Terrascope Dean for Undergraduate the World’ Education Daniel Hastings, column. above, and Pat Bras, left, take Page 8 part in the Terrascope exhibit. Terrascope is a yearlong program in which students are asked to solve complex problems and to communicate some aspect of their learning by designing and building museum-style exhibits.

Toy design Civil engineering sophomore Brooke Jarrett, left, and freshman Christian Segura- Rivera, below, demonstrate their creations for MIT’s Toy Product Design course.

Curling Sean Rogers, Elizabeth Finn and Jamie Smadbeck, all juniors in chemical engineering, have been experimenting with ice and a curling stone in an effort to quantify the best ice condition for curling.