Podcasts

If we want robots to assist us with everyday tasks, they’ll need to be able to manipulate objects on a human level. To do that, they need good fingers. Professor Ted Adelson of MIT CSAIL is developing robotic fingers that are sensitive and soft like human fingers, enabling robots to use their hands intelligently to accomplish chosen tasks.

Read more about Ted Adelson at: Alliances Researcher Spotlight.

“If we want to keep the Moore’s Law momentum going in computing, we have to do something different,” says CSAIL Professor Saman Amarasinghe, whose work with compilers is making them faster, more reliable, and more efficient. He discusses using new technologies like machine learning and modern algorithms and solvers to optimize code and get the performance needed to keep up with the rapid changes happening in industry.

MIT CSAIL Professor Manolis Kellis discusses how the symbiotic relationship between computer science and biology helps us to better understand the complex programming language that is our DNA. Through DNA, we can find the molecular basis of the pathophysiology of a disease and take a more holistic approach to disease treatment, and one day may even predict disease. He explains the impact of human genome and epigenome research on the pharmaceutical industry in developing medicine that is both precise and personalized, dramatically transforming the therapeutic landscape.

Aleksander Madry, Associate Professor at CSAIL, tackles key algorithmic challenges in today’s computing as part of his work in the Theory of Computation Group at CSAIL. His work is described as re-thinking machine learning from the perspective of security and robustness. Madry discusses the evolution of the human and machine interaction and provides insight on adoption of M/L systems over the next few years.

Are we even sure what the internet is today? One of the original architects of the internet, David Clark, Senior Research Scientist at CSAIL, talks about shaping the future of the internet, the potential challenges and what it could become.