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MIT-Led Team Designs Two Airplanes That Would Use 70% Less Fuel Than Current Models

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An MIT-led team has designed an airplane that is estimated to use 70% less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of NO x. million research contract to develop environmental and performance concepts that will help guide the agency’s aeronautics research over the next 25 years. Click to enlarge. .

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MIT proof-of-concept demo of ionic wind propulsion for aircraft

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MIT researchers have demonstrated that an aircraft with a 5-meter wingspan can sustain steady-level flight using ionic-wind propulsion. The researchers describe their proof of concept for electroaerodynamic (EAD) airplane propulsion in a paper in the journal Nature. The MIT team’s final design resembles a large, lightweight glider.

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MIT researchers use neural networks to speed materials design; 5 weeks vs 50 years for flow battery proof-of-concept

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Now, researchers at MIT have found a way to streamline the discovery process using a machine learning system. MIT professor of chemical engineering Heather Kulik says they “are really fascinating, functional materials that are unlike a lot of other material phases. These can exist in a vast number of different forms.

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MIT study finds Uber & Lyft increase congestion, decrease transit ridership and don’t affect vehicle ownership

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Researchers at MIT report that the entrance of transportation network companies (TNCs)—specifically Uber and Lyft, which together have a 98% share of the market—in cities led to increased road congestion in terms of both intensity (by 0.9%) and duration (by 4.5%); an 8.9% —Diao et al.

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MIT researchers propose subsea version of pumped hydro for renewable energy storage

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Researchers at MIT are proposing using a variation on pumped hydroelectric systems for storage of electricity produced by offshore wind farms. MIT has filed for a patent on the system. These structures would serve both as anchors to moor the floating turbines and as a means of storing the energy they produce. Earlier post.).

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MIT, NASA, ORNL team developing “neutron microscope”

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Researchers at MIT, working with partners at NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have developed a new concept for a “neutron microscope”—a compact focusing-mirror-based small-angle neutron scattering instrument—that would use neutrons instead of beams of light or electrons to create high-resolution images. Earlier post.)

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DOE awards Core Power and MIT Energy Initiative funding for floating nuclear power research project

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The US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program ( NEUP ) has awarded research funds to the MIT Energy Initiative, CORE POWER, and the Idaho National Laboratory for a three-year study into the development of offshore floating nuclear power generation in the US. Concept of OFNP. Source: MIT CANES.

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