#Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) | School of Engineering | MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

[xtruss]

This Tiny, Tamper-Proof ID Tag Can Authenticate Almost Anything

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Engineers Developed a Tag That Can Reveal with Near-Perfect Accuracy Whether an Item is Real or Fake. The Key is in the Glue on the Back of the Tag.

— Adam Zewe | MIT News | Publication Date: February 18, 2024

A Few Years Ago, MIT Researchers Invented a Cryptographic ID Tag that is several times smaller and significantly cheaper than the traditional radio frequency tags (RFIDs) that are often affixed to products to verify their authenticity.

This tiny tag, which offers improved security over RFIDs, utilizes terahertz waves, which are smaller and travel much faster than radio waves. But this terahertz tag shared a major security vulnerability with traditional RFIDs: A counterfeiter could peel the tag off a genuine item and reattach it to a fake, and the authentication system would be none the wiser.

The researchers have now surmounted this security vulnerability by leveraging terahertz waves to develop an antitampering ID tag that still offers the benefits of being tiny, cheap, and secure.

They mix microscopic metal particles into the glue that sticks the tag to an object, and then use terahertz waves to detect the unique pattern those particles form on the item’s surface. Akin to a fingerprint, this random glue pattern is used to authenticate the item, explains Eunseok Lee, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student and lead author of a paper on the antitampering tag.

“These metal particles are essentially like mirrors for terahertz waves. If I spread a bunch of mirror pieces onto a surface and then shine light on that, depending on the orientation, size, and location of those mirrors, I would get a different reflected pattern. But if you peel the chip off and reattach it, you destroy that pattern,” adds Ruonan Han, an associate professor in EECS, who leads the Terahertz Integrated Electronics Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics.

The researchers produced a light-powered antitampering tag that is about 4 square millimeters in size. They also demonstrated a machine-learning model that helps detect tampering by identifying similar glue pattern fingerprints with more than 99 percent accuracy.

Because the terahertz tag is so cheap to produce, it could be implemented throughout a massive supply chain. And its tiny size enables the tag to attach to items too small for traditional RFIDs, such as certain medical devices.

The paper, which will be presented at the IEEE Solid State Circuits Conference, is a collaboration between Han’s group and the Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems Group of Anantha P. Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of the MIT School of Engineering, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of EECS. Co-authors include EECS graduate students Xibi Chen, Maitryi Ashok, and Jaeyeon Won.

Preventing Tampering

This research project was partly inspired by Han’s favorite car wash. The business stuck an RFID tag onto his windshield to authenticate his car wash membership. For added security, the tag was made from fragile paper so it would be destroyed if a less-than-honest customer tried to peel it off and stick it on a different windshield.

But that is not a terribly reliable way to prevent tampering. For instance, someone could use a solution to dissolve the glue and safely remove the fragile tag.

Rather than authenticating the tag, a better security solution is to authenticate the item itself, Han says. To achieve this, the researchers targeted the glue at the interface between the tag and the item’s surface.

Their antitampering tag contains a series of miniscule slots that enable terahertz waves to pass through the tag and strike microscopic metal particles that have been mixed into the glue.

Terahertz waves are small enough to detect the particles, whereas larger radio waves would not have enough sensitivity to see them. Also, using terahertz waves with a 1-millimeter wavelength allowed the researchers to make a chip that does not need a larger, off-chip antenna.

After passing through the tag and striking the object’s surface, terahertz waves are reflected, or backscattered, to a receiver for authentication. How those waves are backscattered depends on the distribution of metal particles that reflect them.

The researchers put multiple slots onto the chip so waves can strike different points on the object’s surface, capturing more information on the random distribution of particles.

“These responses are impossible to duplicate, as long as the glue interface is destroyed by a counterfeiter,” Han says.

A vendor would take an initial reading of the antitampering tag once it was stuck onto an item, and then store those data in the cloud, using them later for verification.

AI For Authentication

But when it came time to test the antitampering tag, Lee ran into a problem: It was very difficult and time-consuming to take precise enough measurements to determine whether two glue patterns are a match.

He reached out to a friend in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and together they tackled the problem using AI. They trained a machine-learning model that could compare glue patterns and calculate their similarity with more than 99 percent accuracy.

“One drawback is that we had a limited data sample for this demonstration, but we could improve the neural network in the future if a large number of these tags were deployed in a supply chain, giving us a lot more data samples,” Lee says.

The authentication system is also limited by the fact that terahertz waves suffer from high levels of loss during transmission, so the sensor can only be about 4 centimeters from the tag to get an accurate reading. This distance wouldn’t be an issue for an application like barcode scanning, but it would be too short for some potential uses, such as in an automated highway toll booth. Also, the angle between the sensor and tag needs to be less than 10 degrees or the terahertz signal will degrade too much.

They plan to address these limitations in future work, and hope to inspire other researchers to be more optimistic about what can be accomplished with terahertz waves, despite the many technical challenges, says Han.

“One thing we really want to show here is that the application of the terahertz spectrum can go well beyond broadband wireless. In this case, you can use terahertz for ID, security, and authentication. There are a lot of possibilities out there,” he adds.

This work is supported, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies.

[jcmarchi]

The tenured engineers of 2024

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The tenured engineers of 2024

In 2024, MIT granted tenure to 11 faculty members across the School of Engineering. This year’s tenured engineers hold appointments in the departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS, which reports jointly to the School of Engineering and MIT Schwarzman College of Computing), Mechanical Engineering, and Nuclear Science and Engineering.

“My heartfelt congratulations to the 11 engineering faculty members on receiving tenure. These faculty have already made a lasting impact in the School of Engineering through both advances in their field and their dedication as educators and mentors,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

This year’s newly tenured engineering faculty include:

Adam Belay, associate professor of computer science and principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), works on operating systems, runtime systems, and distributed systems. He is particularly interested in developing practical methods for microsecond-scale computing and cloud resource management, with many applications relating to performance and computing efficiency within large data centers.

Irmgard Bischofberger, Class of 1942 Career Development Professor and associate professor of mechanical engineering, is an expert in the mechanisms of pattern formation and instabilities in complex fluids. Her research reveals new insights into classical understanding of instabilities and has wide relevance to physical systems and industrial processes. Further, she is dedicated to science communication and generates exquisite visualizations of complex fluidic phenomena from her research.

Matteo Bucci serves as the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of nuclear science and engineering. His research group studies two-phase heat transfer mechanisms in nuclear reactors and space systems, develops high-resolution, nonintrusive diagnostics and surface engineering techniques to enhance two-phase heat transfer, and creates machine-learning tools to accelerate data analysis and conduct autonomous heat transfer experiments.

Luca Carlone, the Boeing Career Development Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics, is head of the Sensing, Perception, Autonomy, and Robot Kinetics Laboratory and principal investigator at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. His research focuses on the cutting edge of robotics and autonomous systems research, with a particular interest in designing certifiable perception algorithms for high-integrity autonomous systems and developing algorithms and systems for real-time 3D scene understanding on mobile robotics platforms operating in the real world.

Manya Ghobadi, associate professor of computer science and principal investigator at CSAIL, builds efficient network infrastructures that optimize resource use, energy consumption, and availability of large-scale systems. She is a leading expert in networks with reconfigurable physical layers, and many of the ideas she has helped develop are part of real-world systems.

Zachary (Zach) Hartwig serves as the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, with a co-appointment at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. His current research focuses on the development of high-field superconducting magnet technologies for fusion energy and accelerated irradiation methods for fusion materials using ion beams. He is a co-founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a private company commercializing fusion energy.

Admir Masic, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, focuses on bridging the gap between ancient wisdom and modern material technologies. He applies his expertise in the fields of in situ and operando spectroscopic techniques to develop sustainable materials for construction, energy, and the environment.

Stefanie Mueller is the TIBCO Career Development Professor in the Department of EECS. Mueller has a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and is a principal investigator at CSAIL. She develops novel hardware and software systems that give objects new capabilities. Among other applications, her lab creates health sensing devices and electronic sensing devices for curved surfaces; embedded sensors; fabrication techniques that enable objects to be trackable via invisible marker; and objects with reprogrammable and interactive appearances.

Koroush Shirvan serves as the Atlantic Richfield Career Development Professor in Energy Studies in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. He specializes in the development and assessment of advanced nuclear reactor technology. He is currently focused on accelerating innovations in nuclear fuels, reactor design, and small modular reactors to improve the sustainability of current and next-generation power plants. His approach combines multiple scales, physics and disciplines to realize innovative solutions in the highly regulated nuclear energy sector.

Julian Shun, associate professor of computer science and principal investigator at CSAIL, focuses on the theory and practice of parallel and high-performance computing. He is interested in designing algorithms that are efficient in both theory and practice, as well as high-level frameworks that make it easier for programmers to write efficient parallel code. His research has focused on designing solutions for graphs, spatial data, and dynamic problems.

Zachary P. Smith, Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor and associate professor of chemical engineering, focuses on the molecular-level design, synthesis, and characterization of polymers and inorganic materials for applications in membrane-based separations, which is a promising aid for the energy industry and the environment, from dissolving olefins found in plastics or rubber, to capturing smokestack carbon dioxide emissions. He is a co-founder and chief scientist of Osmoses, a startup aiming to commercialize membrane technology for industrial gas separations.

[sunaleisocial]

MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

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MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

A new, multidisciplinary MIT graduate program in music technology and computation will feature faculty, labs, and curricula from across the Institute.

The program is a collaboration between the Music and Theater Arts Section in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS); Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in the School of Engineering; and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

“The launch of a new graduate program in music technology strikes me as both a necessary and a provocative gesture — an important leap in an era being rapidly redefined by exponential growth in computation, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interactions of every conceivable kind,” says Jay Scheib,​​ head of the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the Class of 1949 Professor.

“Music plays an elegant role at the fore of a remarkable convergence of art and technology,” adds Scheib. “It’s the right time to launch this program and if not at MIT, then where?”

MIT’s practitioners define music technology as the field of scientific inquiry where they study, discover, and develop new computational approaches to music that include music information retrieval; artificial intelligence; machine learning; generative algorithms; interaction and performance systems; digital instrument design; conceptual and perceptual modeling of music; acoustics; audio signal processing; and software development for creative expression and music applications.

Eran Egozy, professor of the practice in music technology and one of the program leads, says MIT’s focus is technical research in music technology that always centers the humanistic and artistic aspects of making music.

“There are so many MIT students who are fabulous musicians,” says Egozy. “We’ll approach music technology as computer scientists, mathematicians, and musicians.”

With the launch of this new program — an offering alongside those available in MIT’s Media Lab and elsewhere — Egozy sees MIT becoming the obvious destination for students interested in music and computation study, preparing high-impact graduates for roles in academia and industry, while also helping mold creative, big-picture thinkers who can tackle large challenges.

Investigating big ideas

The program will encompass two master’s degrees and a PhD:

The Master of Science (MS) is a two-semester, thesis-based program available only to MIT undergraduates. One semester of fellowship is automatically awarded to all admitted students. The first class will enroll in fall 2025.

The Master of Applied Science (MAS) is a two-semester, coursework-based program available to all students. One semester of fellowship funding is automatically awarded to all admitted students. Applications for this program will open in fall 2025.

The PhD program is available to all students, who would apply to MIT’s School of Engineering.

Anna Huang, a new MIT assistant professor who holds a shared faculty position between the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, is collaborating with Egozy to develop and launch the program. Huang arrived at MIT this fall after spending eight years with Magenta at Google Brain and DeepMind, spearheading efforts in generative modeling, reinforcement learning, and human-computer interaction to support human-AI partnerships in music-making.

“As a composer turned AI researcher who specializes in generative music technology, my long-term goal is to develop AI systems that can shed new light on how we understand, learn, and create music, and to learn from interactions between musicians in order to transform how we approach human-AI collaboration,” says Huang. “This new program will let us further investigate how musical applications can illuminate problems in understanding neural networks, for example.”

MIT’s new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, featuring enhanced music technology spaces, will also help transform music education with versatile performance venues and optimized rehearsal facilities.

A natural home for music technology

MIT’s world-class, top-ranked engineering program, combined with its focus on computation and its conservatory-level music education offerings, makes the Institute a natural home for the continued expansion of music technology education.

The collaborative nature of the new program is the latest example of interdisciplinary work happening across the Institute.

“I am thrilled that the School of Engineering is partnering with the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section on this important initiative, which represents the convergence of various engineering areas — such as AI and design — with music,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering, chief innovation and strategy officer, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of EECS. “I can’t wait to see the innovative projects the students will create and how they will drive this new field forward.”

“Everyone on campus knows that MIT is a great place to do music. But I want people to come to MIT because of what we do in music,” says Agustin Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of SHASS. “This outstanding collaboration with the Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering will make that dream a reality, by bringing together the world’s best engineers with our extraordinary musicians to create the next generation of music technologies.”

“The new master’s program offers students an unparalleled opportunity to explore the intersection of music and technology,” says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of EECS. “It equips them with a deep understanding of this confluence, preparing them to advance new approaches to computational models of music and be at the forefront of an evolving area.” 

[aakin55]

Bridge to the future of engineering School of Engineering faculty are embracing the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing as a bold response to the rapid evolution of computing that is altering and, in many cases, fundamentally transforming their disciplines.

[a-alex-hammer]

Preliminary reports examine options for MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

MIT has issued a set of reports today outlining its progress developing the essential elements of the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.   

The reports summarize the efforts of five working groups which, over the last few months, have been studying ideas and options for the college, including its structure, curriculum, faculty appointment and hiring practices, social responsibilities, and computing infrastructure. The working groups have been informed by a series of community forums; further feedback from the MIT community is now sought in response to the reports.

The Institute announced in October 2018 the creation of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, which represents the biggest institutional change to MIT since 1950. MIT is largely structured around five broad-reaching schools that are the Institute’s main sites for undergraduate and graduate education, and research.

In response to the prevalence of computing in society and academic inquiry, the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing will serve as a campus-wide “bridge” across disciplines. It will advance research in computing and computer science — especially in artificial intelligence — and enhance our understanding of the social and ethical implications of technology.

Working on solutions

The working groups consist of over 100 MIT faculty, students, and staff, and have been in operation since February, with the help of community input and a campus-wide Idea Bank. The groups each submitted separate reports last week.

The working group co-chairs are also part of a steering committee which is helping guide the formation of the new college and has convened frequently in recent months to examine overlapping areas of interest among the groups. Steering committee members also include MIT Provost Martin A. Schmidt, Dean of Engineering Anantha Chandrakasan, and Faculty Chair Susan Silbey.

“I wish to express my deep appreciation to the Steering Committee and to all of the members of the working groups for their dedicated work during the last several months, especially knowing that they had a great deal of territory to cover during a relatively short span of time,” said Schmidt in an email sent to the MIT community today. “We are extremely grateful for their efforts.”

Each working group evaluated multiple, often overlapping ideas about the Schwarzman College of Computing. These working group reports do not represent a series of final decisions about the college; rather, they detail important organizational options, often weighing pros and cons of particular ideas.

The Working Group on Organizational Structure was chaired by Asu Ozdaglar, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and Nelson Repenning, associate dean of leadership and special projects and the Sloan School of Management Distinguished Professor of System Dynamics and Organization Studies.

The group evaluated the best organizational structure for the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in light of the existing strengths of computing research in EECS and the overall needs of MIT’s five schools: the School of Engineering; the School of Science; the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; the School of Architecture and Planning; and the Sloan School of Management.

The working group discussed a structure in which all five schools work to create interdisciplinary core course offerings in the new college. Another key issue the group has been examining is the relationship between the college and EECS. Additionally, the group outlined several ways that faculty can be affiliated with the college while continuing as members of their own departments and programs.

The Faculty Appointments Working Group was co-chaired by Eran Ben-Joseph, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and William Freeman, the Thomas and Gerd Perkins Professor of Electrical Engineering.

The group examined options concerning four related topics: types of faculty appointments, hiring models, faculty rights and responsibilities, and faculty mentoring handbooks. Many faculty hires could be joint appointments, the group proposed, with teaching and research in both the new college and existing departments; the college’s hiring process could also allow for a significant portion of new faculty to have this kind of multidisciplinary status.

If this approach is followed, the working group suggested, joint-faculty roles, rights and obligations need to be well-defined — including research expectations and teaching commitments — and guidelines for faculty mentoring should be established in advance.

The Working Group on Curriculum and Degrees was co-chaired by Srini Devadas, the Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Troy Van Voorhis, the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry.

Proposals from this group include ways to encourage more undergraduates to complete the flexible computer science minor or to pursue “threads” — sets of coursework similar to minors — enhancing computing studies within their own majors. MIT might continue to expand joint degrees or even more-encompassing double majors, and might consider establishing a General Institute Requirement in computing. The group also examined graduate education and developed ideas about graduate degrees and certificates in computation, as well as the expansion of joint graduate degrees that include computing. The group also outlined a variety of ways new curriculum development may occur.

The Working Group on the Social Implications and Responsibilities of Computing was co-chaired by Melissa Nobles, the Kenan Sahin Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and a professor of political science, and Julie Shah, an associate professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and head of the Interactive Robotics Group in CSAIL.

Broadly, the working group examined how best to incorporate social and ethical considerations into the college’s fabric — including education, research, and external engagement. On the education front, the group examined how that stand-alone classes about ethics and social responsibility could be woven into the college curriculum. They also evaluated how smaller educational units about social issues could be incorporated within other classes. The group also proposed new ideas about including an ethics dimension in research and extracurricular learning — such as leveraging MIT’s UROP program or mentored projects to provide a strong grounding in ethics-focused work.

The Working Group on College Infrastructure was co-chaired by Benoit Forget, an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nicholas Roy, a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of CSAIL.   

This working group took particularly in-depth look at MIT’s future needs in the area of computing infrastructure. The group suggested that MIT’s future computing infrastructure is unlikely to be optimized around a single model of computing access, given the diversity of research projects and needs on campus. In general, the group suggested that support for a renewed computing infrastructure and improved data management should be a high priority for the college, and might include expanded student training and increased professional staffing in computing.

The way forward

Members of the MIT community are encouraged to examine the latest reports and offer input about the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

“I invite you to review these preliminary reports and provide us with your feedback, Schmidt said in his letter to the community, adding: “I look forward to further opportunities for community involvement in the early phases and continuing development of our new college.”

He noted that community input will be collected until June 28, after which the final reports will be posted.

The official launch of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing will occur this fall, with the full development of the college occurring over a period of several years. MIT aims to add 50 full-time faculty to the college and jointly with departments across MIT over a five-year period. The Institute has also identified the location for a new building for the college, on the site of 44 Vassar Street, between Massachusetts Avenue and Main Street, and aims to open the new facility by late 2022.

In February, MIT announced the appointment of Dan Huttenlocher SM ’84 PhD ’88 as the first dean of the college. Huttenlocher will begin the new post this summer.

The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing is being supported by a $1 billion commitment for new research and education in computing, the biggest investment of its kind by a U.S. academic institution. The core support for the new college comes from a $350 million foundational gift from Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone, the global asset management and financial services firm.

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[dorcasrempel]

Building a community for statistics and data science at MIT and beyond

As a focal point for statistics at MIT, the Statistics and Data Science Center (SDSC) reflects the unique nature of statistics at MIT: steeped in cutting-edge computation, with both theoretical explorations and novel applications across departments and domains. As part of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), the SDSC also fosters multi-disciplinary collaborations that bring new approaches to complex societal challenges.

These themes — computation, cross-disciplinary collaboration, creative problem-solving — were all on display at the SDSC’s third annual SDSCon, a celebration of the statistics and data science community at MIT and beyond.

SDSCon brought together over 200 participants from academia and industry, with talks ranging from tactics and techniques like machine learning to statistical applications in biology and business. “The purpose of SDSCon is to bring together folks … interested in statistics and data science, to both celebrate as well as build community,” said SDSC director and professor of electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) Devavrat Shah in his opening remarks. School of Engineering Dean Anantha Chandrakasan commented on the work the SDSC has done in building that community by “coalescing a community of scholars across campus around the shared mission to use statistical tools to advance research and education.”

“I feel somewhat like an interloper because I am not a statistician,” joked Esther Duflo in a plenary talk that highlighted how statistical methods are being used in new cross-disciplinary ways to address societal challenges. Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT. Her research uses machine learning to analyze the results of randomized control trials. Combined with data collection and the leveraging of social networks, she seeks to raise the number of children in developing countries who receive crucial, life-saving immunizations.

A panel of talks exploring statistics in the social sciences addressed other key societal challenges. Alberto Abadie, an MIT professor of economics and associate director of IDSS, discussed how data science is driving changes in social science research and policy making. Stanford University’s Ashish Goel looked at tools for public decision making, while Aaron Roth of the University of Pennsylvania explored how social values and ethics can be better embedded into algorithms that make autonomous decisions.

Members of the community of scholars employing advanced statistics tools at MIT gave presentations on their work, ranging from mechanical engineering and IDSS Professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi’s investigation of luck versus skill in fantasy sports, to biology professor and SDSC affiliate Aviv Regev’s design for better experiments in solving large scale challenges in cellular biology. Nike Sun, an MIT math professor, described progress toward a solution in a theoretical geometric problem in classic probability called the Ising perceptron, while John Tsitsiklis, an EECS professor who directs MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, gave a plenary talk focused on gaps between theory and practice in a kind of machine learning known as reinforcement learning.

SDSCon also featured talks from data science practitioners in industry. Dawn Woodard, an adjunct professor at Cornell University who is also director of data science for maps at Uber, demonstrated methods for dynamic pricing and matching in ride hailing. Lester Mackey, an adjunct professor at Stanford and statistical machine learning researcher for Microsoft Research, discussed how machine learning tools are being used to improve weather and climate forecasting that is “subseasonal,” a time period from two to six weeks in the future where precipitation prediction can have a big impact on water management.

The Statistics and Data Science Center, along with IDSS, will join the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing in the fall. The new college, like IDSS, crosses all five schools at MIT, and should serve as a fitting home for what Chandrakasan called the “deep interdisciplinary nature of statistics and data science.”

Said Chandrakasan: “I commend SDSC for providing a shared space among disciplines, and shaping the practice of statistics at MIT in a manner that focuses on multi-disciplinary collaborations that examine some of the most complex societal challenges we face today.”

Building a community for statistics and data science at MIT and beyond syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

[charlesccastill]

Building site identified for MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing

By Rob Matheson

MIT News Office

CAMBRIDGE, MA–MIT has identified a preferred location for the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing headquarters: the current site of Building 44. The new building, which will require permitting and approvals from the City of Cambridge, will sit in a centralized location that promises to unite the many MIT departments, centers, and labs that integrate computing into their work.

In October, MIT announced a $1 billion commitment to address the global opportunities and challenges presented by the prevalence of computing and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) — the single largest investment in computing and AI by a U.S. academic institution. At the heart of the initiative is the new college, made possible by a $350 million foundational gift from Mr. Schwarzman, the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, a global asset management and financial services firm.

The college aims to: connect advances in computer science and machine learning with advances in MIT’s other academic disciplines; create 50 new faculty positions within the college and jointly with existing academic departments; give MIT’s five schools a shared structure for collaborative education, research, and innovation in computing and artificial intelligence; educate all students to responsibly use and develop computing technologies to address pressing societal and global resource challenges; and focus on public policy and ethical considerations relevant to computing, when applied to human-machine interfaces, autonomous operations, and data analytics.

With those goals in mind, MIT aims to construct a building, large enough to house 50 faculty groups, to replace Building 44, which sits in the center of the Vassar Street block between Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Those currently working in Building 44 will be relocated to other buildings on campus.

Scheduled for completion in late 2022, the new building will serve as an interdisciplinary hub for research and innovation in computer science, AI, data science, and related fields that deal with computing advances, including how new computing methods can both address and pose societal challenges. It will stand in close proximity to a cluster of computing- and AI-focused departments, centers, and labs located directly across the street and running up to the intersection of Vassar and Main Streets. All other buildings on campus are about a six-minute walk away.

“You can think of this intersection of Vassar and Main as the ‘entrance to computing,’” says Associate Provost Krystyn Van Vliet, who is responsible for Institute space planning, assignment, and renovation under the direction of the Building Committee, which is chaired by MIT Provost Marty Schmidt and Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz. Van Vliet also oversees MIT’s industrial engagement efforts, including MIT’s Office of Corporate Relations and the Technology Licensing Office.

“The building is intended as a convening space for everyone working to create and shape computing — not just computer scientists, but people who have expertise in the humanities and arts, or science, or architecture and urban planning, or business, or engineering,” Schmidt adds.

Everyone currently located in Building 44 will be moved to their new campus locations by late summer of 2019. Demolition is scheduled to begin in the fall.

While a final design is still months away, a key planned feature for the building will be “convening spaces,” which will include areas set for interdisciplinary seminars and conferences, and potentially an “open office” concept that promotes mixing and mingling. “You can imagine a graduate student from the humanities and a postdoc from EECS working on a project together,” says Dean of the School of Engineering Anantha P. Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Such a building can serve as a place for broad community collaboration and research.”

The centralized location is key to the college’s interdisciplinary mission. Building 44 sits directly across the street from Building 38, which houses the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; the Stata Center, which the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) calls home; and the Research Laboratory of Electronics in Building 36.

Down the road, on the corner of Main Street, stands the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, both of which incorporate computer science and AI into cancer and medical research. Buildings behind the headquarters on Main Street, in the area known as “Technology Square,” contain many biological engineering, nanotechnology, and biophysics labs.

The new building will also neighbor — and possibly connect to — Building 46, which houses the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “When you think about the work of connecting human intelligence and machine intelligence through computing — which can be physically connected to a building where people are working on understanding human intelligence and cognition — that’s exciting,” Van Vliet says.

The building could thus help “activate” Vassar Street, she adds, because buildings along the street are somewhat visually closed off to the public. The new building, she says, could include windows with displays that visually highlight the research conducted behind the walls, like peering into the labs along the MIT halls.

“Right now, when you walk down Vassar Street, people don’t know what’s happening inside most of these buildings,” she says. “By activation, we mean there’s more community interaction and pedestrian traffic, and more visible displays that draw the public into campus and make them aware of what’s going on at MIT. It will help us show the breadth of MIT’s activities all the way down Vassar Street, for both the growing MIT community and our neighbors.”

(Reprinted from MIT News.)

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[jcmarchi]

Karl Berggren named faculty head of electrical engineering in EECS

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Karl Berggren named faculty head of electrical engineering in EECS

Karl K. Berggren, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, has been named the new faculty head of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), effective Jan. 15.

“Karl’s exceptional interdisciplinary research combining electrical engineering, physics, and materials science, coupled with his experience working with industry and government organizations, makes him an ideal fit to head electrical engineering. I’m confident electrical engineering will continue to grow under his leadership,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

“Karl has made an incredible impact as a researcher and educator over his two decades in EECS. Students and faculty colleagues praise his thoughtful approach to teaching, and the care with which he oversaw the teaching labs in his prior role as undergraduate lab officer for the department. He will undoubtedly be an excellent leader, bringing his passion for education and collaborative spirit to this new role,” adds Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Berggren joins the leadership of EECS, which jointly reports to the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering. The largest academic department at MIT, EECS was reorganized in 2019 as part of the formation of the college into three overlapping sub-units in electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-making. The restructuring has enabled each of the three sub-units to concentrate on faculty recruitment, mentoring, promotion, academic programs, and community building in coordination with the others.

A member of the EECS faculty since 2003, Berggren has taught a range of subjects in the department, including Digital Communications, Circuits and Electronics, Fundamentals of Programming, Applied Quantum and Statistical Physics, Introduction to EECS via Interconnected Embedded Systems, Introduction to Quantum Systems Engineering, and Introduction to Nanofabrication. Before joining EECS, Berggren worked as a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for seven years. Berggren also maintains an active consulting practice and has experience working with industrial and government organizations.

Berggren’s current research focuses on superconductive circuits, electronic devices, single-photon detectors for quantum applications, and electron-optical systems. He heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group, which develops nanofabrication technology at the few-nanometer length scale. The group uses these technologies to push the envelope of what is possible with photonic and electrical devices, focusing on superconductive and free-electron devices.

Berggren has received numerous prestigious awards and honors throughout his career. Most recently, he was named an MIT MacVicar Fellow in 2024. Berggren is also a fellow of the AAAS, IEEE, and the Kavli Foundation, and a recipient of the 2015 Paul T. Forman Team Engineering Award from the Optical Society of America (now Optica). In 2016, he received a Bose Fellowship and was also a recipient of the EECS department’s Frank Quick Innovation Fellowship and the Burgess (’52) & Elizabeth Jamieson Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Berggren succeeds Joel Voldman, who has served as the inaugural electrical engineering faculty head since January 2020.

“Joel has been in leadership roles since 2018, when he was named associate department head of EECS. I am deeply grateful to him for his invaluable contributions to EECS since that time,” says Asu Ozdaglar, MathWorks Professor and head of EECS, who also serves as the deputy dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. “I look forward to working with Karl now and continuing along the amazing path we embarked on in 2019.”

[jcmarchi]

MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

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MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program

A new, multidisciplinary MIT graduate program in music technology and computation will feature faculty, labs, and curricula from across the Institute.

The program is a collaboration between the Music and Theater Arts Section in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS); Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in the School of Engineering; and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

“The launch of a new graduate program in music technology strikes me as both a necessary and a provocative gesture — an important leap in an era being rapidly redefined by exponential growth in computation, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interactions of every conceivable kind,” says Jay Scheib,​​ head of the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the Class of 1949 Professor.

“Music plays an elegant role at the fore of a remarkable convergence of art and technology,” adds Scheib. “It’s the right time to launch this program and if not at MIT, then where?”

MIT’s practitioners define music technology as the field of scientific inquiry where they study, discover, and develop new computational approaches to music that include music information retrieval; artificial intelligence; machine learning; generative algorithms; interaction and performance systems; digital instrument design; conceptual and perceptual modeling of music; acoustics; audio signal processing; and software development for creative expression and music applications.

Eran Egozy, professor of the practice in music technology and one of the program leads, says MIT’s focus is technical research in music technology that always centers the humanistic and artistic aspects of making music.

“There are so many MIT students who are fabulous musicians,” says Egozy. “We’ll approach music technology as computer scientists, mathematicians, and musicians.”

With the launch of this new program — an offering alongside those available in MIT’s Media Lab and elsewhere — Egozy sees MIT becoming the obvious destination for students interested in music and computation study, preparing high-impact graduates for roles in academia and industry, while also helping mold creative, big-picture thinkers who can tackle large challenges.

Investigating big ideas

The program will encompass two master’s degrees and a PhD:

The Master of Science (MS) is a two-semester, thesis-based program available only to MIT undergraduates. One semester of fellowship is automatically awarded to all admitted students. The first class will enroll in fall 2025.

The Master of Applied Science (MAS) is a two-semester, coursework-based program available to all students. One semester of fellowship funding is automatically awarded to all admitted students. Applications for this program will open in fall 2025.

The PhD program is available to all students, who would apply to MIT’s School of Engineering.

Anna Huang, a new MIT assistant professor who holds a shared faculty position between the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, is collaborating with Egozy to develop and launch the program. Huang arrived at MIT this fall after spending eight years with Magenta at Google Brain and DeepMind, spearheading efforts in generative modeling, reinforcement learning, and human-computer interaction to support human-AI partnerships in music-making.

“As a composer turned AI researcher who specializes in generative music technology, my long-term goal is to develop AI systems that can shed new light on how we understand, learn, and create music, and to learn from interactions between musicians in order to transform how we approach human-AI collaboration,” says Huang. “This new program will let us further investigate how musical applications can illuminate problems in understanding neural networks, for example.”

MIT’s new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, featuring enhanced music technology spaces, will also help transform music education with versatile performance venues and optimized rehearsal facilities.

A natural home for music technology

MIT’s world-class, top-ranked engineering program, combined with its focus on computation and its conservatory-level music education offerings, makes the Institute a natural home for the continued expansion of music technology education.

The collaborative nature of the new program is the latest example of interdisciplinary work happening across the Institute.

“I am thrilled that the School of Engineering is partnering with the MIT Music and Theater Arts Section on this important initiative, which represents the convergence of various engineering areas — such as AI and design — with music,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering, chief innovation and strategy officer, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of EECS. “I can’t wait to see the innovative projects the students will create and how they will drive this new field forward.”

“Everyone on campus knows that MIT is a great place to do music. But I want people to come to MIT because of what we do in music,” says Agustin Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of SHASS. “This outstanding collaboration with the Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering will make that dream a reality, by bringing together the world’s best engineers with our extraordinary musicians to create the next generation of music technologies.”

“The new master’s program offers students an unparalleled opportunity to explore the intersection of music and technology,” says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of EECS. “It equips them with a deep understanding of this confluence, preparing them to advance new approaches to computational models of music and be at the forefront of an evolving area.” 

[jcmarchi]

Sam Madden named faculty head of computer science in EECS

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Sam Madden named faculty head of computer science in EECS

Sam Madden, the College of Computing Distinguished Professor of Computing at MIT, has been named the new faculty head of computer science in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), effective Aug. 1.

Madden succeeds Arvind, a longtime MIT professor and prolific computer scientist, who passed away in June.

“Sam’s research leadership and commitment to excellence, along with his thoughtful and supportive approach, makes him a natural fit to help lead the department going forward. In light of Arvind’s passing, we are particularly grateful that Sam has agreed to take on this role on such short notice,” says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

“Sam’s exceptional research contributions in database management systems, coupled with his deep understanding of both academia and industry, make him an excellent fit for faculty head of computer science. The EECS department and broader School of Engineering will greatly benefit from his expertise and passion,” adds Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Madden joins the leadership of EECS, which jointly reports to the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering. The largest academic department at MIT, EECS was reorganized in 2019 as part of the formation of the college into three overlapping sub-units in electrical engineering (EE), computer science (CS), and artificial intelligence and decision-making (AI+D). The restructuring has enabled each of the three sub-units to concentrate on faculty recruitment, mentoring, promotion, academic programs, and community building in coordination with the others.

“I am delighted that Sam has agreed to step up to take on this important leadership role. His unique combination of academic excellence and forward-looking focus will be invaluable for us,” says Asu Ozdaglar, MathWorks Professor and head of EECS, who also serves as the deputy dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. “I am confident that he will offer exceptional leadership in his new role and further strengthen EECS for our students and the MIT community.”

A member of the MIT faculty since 2004, Madden is a professor in EECS and a principal investigator in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He was recognized as the inaugural College of Computing Distinguished Professor of Computing in 2020 for being an outstanding faculty member, leader, and innovator.

Madden’s research interest is in database systems, focusing on database analytics and query processing, ranging from clouds to sensors to modern high-performance server architectures. He co-directs the Data Systems for AI Lab initiative and the Data Systems Group, investigating issues related to systems and algorithms for data focusing on applying new methodologies for processing data, including applying machine learning methods to data systems and engineering data systems for applying machine learning at scale.

He was named one of MIT Technology Review’s “Top 35 Under 35” in 2005 and an ACM Fellow in 2020. He is the recipient of several awards, including an NSF CAREER award, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award, and “test of time” awards from VLDB, SIGMOD, SIGMOBILE, and SenSys. He is also the co-founder and chief scientist at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, which develops technology to make roads safer and drivers better.

[charlesccastill]

Building site identified for MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing

By Rob Matheson

MIT News Office

CAMBRIDGE, MA–MIT has identified a preferred location for the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing headquarters: the current site of Building 44. The new building, which will require permitting and approvals from the City of Cambridge, will sit in a centralized location that promises to unite the many MIT departments, centers, and labs that integrate computing into their work.

In October, MIT announced a $1 billion commitment to address the global opportunities and challenges presented by the prevalence of computing and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) — the single largest investment in computing and AI by a U.S. academic institution. At the heart of the initiative is the new college, made possible by a $350 million foundational gift from Mr. Schwarzman, the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, a global asset management and financial services firm.

The college aims to: connect advances in computer science and machine learning with advances in MIT’s other academic disciplines; create 50 new faculty positions within the college and jointly with existing academic departments; give MIT’s five schools a shared structure for collaborative education, research, and innovation in computing and artificial intelligence; educate all students to responsibly use and develop computing technologies to address pressing societal and global resource challenges; and focus on public policy and ethical considerations relevant to computing, when applied to human-machine interfaces, autonomous operations, and data analytics.

With those goals in mind, MIT aims to construct a building, large enough to house 50 faculty groups, to replace Building 44, which sits in the center of the Vassar Street block between Main Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Those currently working in Building 44 will be relocated to other buildings on campus.

Scheduled for completion in late 2022, the new building will serve as an interdisciplinary hub for research and innovation in computer science, AI, data science, and related fields that deal with computing advances, including how new computing methods can both address and pose societal challenges. It will stand in close proximity to a cluster of computing- and AI-focused departments, centers, and labs located directly across the street and running up to the intersection of Vassar and Main Streets. All other buildings on campus are about a six-minute walk away.

“You can think of this intersection of Vassar and Main as the ‘entrance to computing,’” says Associate Provost Krystyn Van Vliet, who is responsible for Institute space planning, assignment, and renovation under the direction of the Building Committee, which is chaired by MIT Provost Marty Schmidt and Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz. Van Vliet also oversees MIT’s industrial engagement efforts, including MIT’s Office of Corporate Relations and the Technology Licensing Office.

“The building is intended as a convening space for everyone working to create and shape computing — not just computer scientists, but people who have expertise in the humanities and arts, or science, or architecture and urban planning, or business, or engineering,” Schmidt adds.

Everyone currently located in Building 44 will be moved to their new campus locations by late summer of 2019. Demolition is scheduled to begin in the fall.

While a final design is still months away, a key planned feature for the building will be “convening spaces,” which will include areas set for interdisciplinary seminars and conferences, and potentially an “open office” concept that promotes mixing and mingling. “You can imagine a graduate student from the humanities and a postdoc from EECS working on a project together,” says Dean of the School of Engineering Anantha P. Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Such a building can serve as a place for broad community collaboration and research.”

The centralized location is key to the college’s interdisciplinary mission. Building 44 sits directly across the street from Building 38, which houses the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; the Stata Center, which the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) calls home; and the Research Laboratory of Electronics in Building 36.

Down the road, on the corner of Main Street, stands the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, both of which incorporate computer science and AI into cancer and medical research. Buildings behind the headquarters on Main Street, in the area known as “Technology Square,” contain many biological engineering, nanotechnology, and biophysics labs.

The new building will also neighbor — and possibly connect to — Building 46, which houses the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “When you think about the work of connecting human intelligence and machine intelligence through computing — which can be physically connected to a building where people are working on understanding human intelligence and cognition — that’s exciting,” Van Vliet says.

The building could thus help “activate” Vassar Street, she adds, because buildings along the street are somewhat visually closed off to the public. The new building, she says, could include windows with displays that visually highlight the research conducted behind the walls, like peering into the labs along the MIT halls.

“Right now, when you walk down Vassar Street, people don’t know what’s happening inside most of these buildings,” she says. “By activation, we mean there’s more community interaction and pedestrian traffic, and more visible displays that draw the public into campus and make them aware of what’s going on at MIT. It will help us show the breadth of MIT’s activities all the way down Vassar Street, for both the growing MIT community and our neighbors.”

(Reprinted from MIT News.)

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