Jennifer Chu

Jennifer Chu covers mechanical engineering, mathematics, physics, aeronautics, astronautics, and earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences as a writer for the MIT News Office.

Wed, 12/04/2019 - 12:02
Helping Robots Zero In on the Objects That MatterClio method enables robots to quickly map a scene and identify items needed to complete tasks
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 12:02
Imagine having to straighten up a messy kitchen, starting with a counter littered with sauce packets. If your goal is to wipe the counter clean, you might sweep up the packets as a group. If, however, you wanted to first pick out the mustard packets…
Engineers 3D Print Sturdy Glass Bricks for Building StructuresThe interlocking blocks can withstand similar pressures as concrete
Tue, 10/01/2024 - 12:00
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- What if construction materials could be put together and taken apart as easily as LEGO bricks? Such reconfigurable masonry would be disassembled at the end of a building’s lifetime and reassembled into a new structure in a…
Scientists Observe Record-Setting Electron Mobility in New Crystal FilmCould apply to wearable thermoelectric and spintronic devices
Wed, 07/17/2024 - 23:58
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- A material with a high electron mobility is like a highway without traffic. Any electrons that flow into the material experience a commuter’s dream, breezing through without any obstacles or congestion to slow or scatter them…
New Computer Vision Method Helps Speed Electronic Materials ScreeningTechnique characterizes a material’s electronic properties 85 times faster than conventional methods
Wed, 06/26/2024 - 12:03
Boosting the performance of solar cells, transistors, LEDs, and batteries will require better electronic materials made from novel compositions that have yet to be discovered. To speed up the search for advanced functional materials, scientists are…
Benchtop Test Identifies Extremely Impact-Resistant MaterialsHigh-speed experiments help identify lightweight, protective ‘metamaterials’
Wed, 02/21/2024 - 12:03
An intricate, honeycomb-like structure of struts and beams could withstand a supersonic impact better than a solid slab of the same material. What’s more, the specific structure matters, with some being more resilient to impacts than others. That’s…
Tiny Magnetic Beads Could Help to Quickly Detect PathogensFindings point to faster way to find bacteria in food, water, and clinical samples
Tue, 09/05/2023 - 12:03
Getting blood test results can take anywhere from a day to a week, depending on what a test is targeting. The same goes for tests of water pollution and food contamination. And in most cases, the wait time has to do with time-consuming steps in…
Coloring Outside the LinesMathias Kolle’s color-changing materials take inspiration from butterflies and mollusks
Wed, 08/16/2023 - 12:01
For Mathias Kolle, the wings of a butterfly are a window into a better material world. The insect’s iridescence is a result of “structural color” rather than pigments or dyes: A single wing is layered with hundreds of thousands of microscopic scales…
Engineers Invent Vertical, Full-Color Microscopic LEDsStacking LEDs could enable fully immersive VR displays and higher-resolution screens
Thu, 02/23/2023 - 12:00
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- Take apart your laptop screen and at its heart you’ll find a plate patterned with pixels of red, green, and blue LEDs, arranged end to end like a meticulous Lite-Brite display. When electrically powered, the LEDs together can…
MIT Engineers Grow ‘Perfect’ Atom-Thin Materials on Industrial Silicon WafersTechnique could lead to next-generation transistors based on materials other than silicon
Mon, 02/06/2023 - 12:01
(MIT: Cambridge, MA) -- True to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a microchip has doubled every year since the 1960s. But this trajectory is predicted to plateau soon because silicon—the backbone of modern transistors—loses its electrical…
With New Heat Treatment, 3D-Printed Metals Can Withstand Extreme ConditionsTechnique may enable energy-efficient 3D printing of blades for gas turbines or jet engines
Tue, 11/29/2022 - 12:00
(MIT: Cambridge, Massachusetts) -- A new MIT-developed heat treatment transforms the microscopic structure of 3D-printed metals, making the materials stronger and more resilient in extreme thermal environments. The technique could make it possible…