Fifteen applied sciences developed both wholly or partially by MIT Lincoln Laboratory have been named recipients of 2024 R&D 100 Awards. The awards are given by R&D World, a web-based publication that serves analysis scientists and engineers worldwide. Dubbed the “Oscars of Innovation,” the awards acknowledge the 100 most vital applied sciences transitioned to make use of or launched into {the marketplace} up to now 12 months. An impartial panel of skilled judges selects the winners.
“The R&D 100 Awards are a major recognition of the laboratory’s technical capabilities and its position in transitioning expertise for real-world influence,” says Melissa Choi, director of Lincoln Laboratory. “It’s thrilling to see so many initiatives chosen for this honor, and we’re pleased with everybody whose creativity, curiosity, and technical excellence made these and lots of different Lincoln Laboratory improvements potential.”
The awarded applied sciences have a variety of purposes. A handful of them are poised to stop human hurt — for instance, by monitoring for warmth stroke or cognitive harm. Others current new processes for 3D printing glass, fabricating silicon imaging sensors, and interconnecting built-in circuits. Some applied sciences tackle long-held challenges, equivalent to mapping the human mind and the ocean ground. Collectively, the winners exemplify the creativity and breadth of Lincoln Laboratory innovation. Since 2010, the laboratory has acquired 101 R&D 100 Awards.
This 12 months’s R&D 100 Award–profitable applied sciences are described under.
Defending human well being and security
The Neuron Tracing and Energetic Studying Atmosphere (NeuroTrALE) software program makes use of synthetic intelligence methods to create high-resolution maps, or atlases, of the mind’s community of neurons from high-dimensional biomedical knowledge. NeuroTrALE addresses a serious problem in AI-assisted mind mapping: a scarcity of labeled knowledge for coaching AI techniques to construct atlases important for examine of the mind’s neural constructions and mechanisms. The software program is the primary end-to-end system to carry out processing and annotation of dense microscopy knowledge; generate segmentations of neurons; and allow specialists to overview, right, and edit NeuroTrALE’s annotations from an internet browser. This award is shared with the lab of Kwanghun (KC) Chung, affiliate professor in MIT’s Division of Chemical Engineering, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and Picower Institute for Studying and Reminiscence.
Many army and legislation enforcement personnel are routinely uncovered to low-level blasts in coaching settings. Typically, these blasts don’t trigger fast diagnosable harm, however publicity over time has been linked to nervousness, despair, and different cognitive situations. The Electrooculography and Steadiness Blast Overpressure Monitoring (EYEBOOM) is a wearable system developed to observe people’ blast publicity and notify them if they’re at an elevated threat of hurt. It makes use of two body-worn sensors, one to seize steady eye and physique actions and one other to measure blast vitality. An algorithm analyzes these knowledge to detect delicate modifications in physiology, which, when mixed with cumulative blast publicity, could be predictive of cognitive harm. Right this moment, the system is in use by choose U.S. Particular Forces items. The laboratory co-developed EYEBOOM with Creare LLC and Lifelens LLC.
Tunable knitted stem cell scaffolds: The event of artificial-tissue constructs that mimic the pure stretchability and toughness of dwelling tissue is in excessive demand for regenerative drugs purposes. A workforce from Lincoln Laboratory and the MIT Division of Mechanical Engineering developed new types of biocompatible materials that mimic the mechanical properties of native tissues whereas nurturing rising stem cells. These wearable stem-cell scaffolds can expedite the regeneration of pores and skin, muscle, and different mushy tissues to cut back restoration time and restrict issues from extreme burns, lacerations, and different bodily wounds.
Combination deconvolution pipeline for forensic investigative genetic family tree: A quickly rising area of forensic science is investigative genetic family tree, whereby investigators submit a DNA profile to business family tree databases to determine a lacking individual or felony suspect. Lincoln Laboratory’s software program invention addresses a big unmet want on this area: the power to deconvolve, or unravel, combined DNA profiles of a number of unknown individuals to allow database looking. The software program pipeline estimates the variety of contributors in a DNA combination, the share of DNA current from every contributor, and the intercourse of every contributor; then, it deconvolves the completely different DNA profiles within the combination to isolate two contributors, without having to match them to a reference profile of a recognized contributor, as required by earlier software program.
Every year, lots of of individuals die or undergo severe accidents from warmth stroke, particularly personnel in high-risk outside occupations equivalent to army, building, or first response. The Warmth Damage Prevention System (HIPS) supplies correct, early warning of warmth stroke a number of minutes upfront of seen signs. The system collects knowledge from a sensor worn on a chest strap and employs algorithms for estimating physique temperature, gait instability, and adaptive physiological pressure index. The system then supplies a person’s heat-injury prediction on a cellular app. The affordability, accuracy, and user-acceptability of HIPS have led to its integration into operational environments for the army.
Observing the world
Greater than 80 p.c of the ocean ground stays nearly unmapped and unexplored. Traditionally, deep sea maps have been generated both at low decision from a big sonar array mounted on a ship, or at increased decision with gradual and costly underwater automobiles. New autonomous sparse-aperture multibeam echo sounder expertise makes use of a swarm of about 20 autonomous floor automobiles that work collectively as a single massive sonar array to realize the perfect of each worlds: mapping the deep seabed at 100 occasions the decision of a ship-mounted sonar and 50 occasions the protection charge of an underwater automobile. New estimation algorithms and acoustic sign processing methods allow this expertise. The system holds potential for considerably enhancing humanitarian search-and-rescue capabilities and ocean and local weather modeling. The R&D 100 Award is shared with the MIT Division of Mechanical Engineering.
FocusNet is a machine-learning structure for analyzing airborne ground-mapping lidar knowledge. Airborne lidar works by scanning the bottom with a laser and making a digital 3D illustration of the world, referred to as some extent cloud. People or algorithms then analyze the purpose cloud to categorize scene options equivalent to buildings or roads. Lately, lidar expertise has each improved and diversified, and strategies to investigate the info have struggled to maintain up. FocusNet fills this hole by utilizing a convolutional neural community — an algorithm that finds patterns in pictures to acknowledge objects — to routinely categorize objects inside the level cloud. It could possibly obtain this object recognition throughout various kinds of lidar system knowledge without having to be retrained, representing a serious development in understanding 3D lidar scenes.
Atmospheric observations collected from plane, equivalent to temperature and wind, present the highest-value inputs to climate forecasting fashions. Nevertheless, these knowledge collections are sparse and delayed, presently obtained via specialised techniques put in on choose plane. The Transportable Plane Derived Climate Remark System (PADWOS) presents a strategy to considerably increase the standard and amount of those knowledge by leveraging Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (EHS) transponders, that are already put in on greater than 95 p.c of business plane and nearly all of normal aviation plane. From the bottom, PADWOS interrogates Mode S EHS–geared up plane, gathering in milliseconds plane state knowledge reported by the transponder to make wind and temperature estimates. The system holds promise for enhancing forecasts, monitoring local weather, and supporting different climate purposes.
Advancing computing and communications
Quantum networking has the potential to revolutionize connectivity throughout the globe, unlocking unprecedented capabilities in computing, sensing, and communications. To comprehend this potential, entangled photons distributed throughout a quantum community should arrive and work together with different photons in exactly managed methods. Lincoln Laboratory’s precision photon synchronization system for quantum networking is the primary to offer an environment friendly answer to synchronize space-to-ground quantum networking hyperlinks to sub-picosecond precision. Not like different applied sciences, the system performs free-space quantum entanglement distribution by way of a satellite tv for pc, without having to find advanced entanglement sources in area. These sources are as a substitute situated on the bottom, offering an simply accessible take a look at setting that may be upgraded as new quantum entanglement era applied sciences emerge.
Superconductive many-state reminiscence and comparability logic: Lincoln Laboratory developed circuits that natively retailer and evaluate larger than two discrete states, using the quantized magnetic fields of superconductive supplies. This property permits the creation of digital logic circuitry that goes past binary logic to ternary logic, enhancing reminiscence throughput with out considerably growing the variety of gadgets required or the floor space of the circuits. Evaluating their superconducting ternary-logic reminiscence to a traditional reminiscence, the analysis workforce discovered that the ternary reminiscence may sample match throughout all the digital Library of Congress almost 30 occasions sooner. The circuits symbolize elementary constructing blocks for superior, ultrahigh-speed and low-power digital logic.
The Megachip is an strategy to interconnect many small, specialised chips (referred to as chiplets) right into a single-chip-like monolithic built-in circuit. Able to incorporating billions of transistors, this interconnected construction extends gadget efficiency past the boundaries imposed by conventional wafer-level packaging. Megachips can deal with the growing dimension and efficiency calls for made on microelectronics used for AI processing and high-performance computing, and in cellular gadgets and servers.
An in-band full-duplex (IBDF) wi-fi system with superior interference mitigation addresses the rising congestion of wi-fi networks. Earlier IBFD techniques have demonstrated the power for a wi-fi gadget to transmit and obtain on the identical frequency on the identical time by suppressing self-interference, successfully doubling the gadget’s effectivity on the frequency spectrum. These techniques, nevertheless, haven’t addressed interference from exterior wi-fi sources on the identical frequency. Lincoln Laboratory’s expertise, for the primary time, permits IBFD to mitigate a number of interference sources, leading to a wi-fi system that may improve the variety of gadgets supported, their knowledge charge, and their communications vary. This IBFD system may allow future good automobiles to concurrently hook up with wi-fi networks, share highway data, and self-drive — a functionality not potential in the present day.
Fabricating with novel processes
Lincoln Laboratory developed a nanocomposite ink system for 3D printing practical supplies. Deposition utilizing an active-mixing nozzle permits the era of graded constructions that transition progressively from one materials to a different. This skill to manage the electromagnetic and geometric properties of a cloth can allow smaller, lighter, and less-power-hungry RF parts whereas accommodating massive frequency bandwidths. Moreover, introducing completely different particles into the ink in a modular style permits the absorption of a variety of radiation sorts. This 3D-printed shielding is predicted for use for shielding electronics in small satellites. This award is shared with Professor Jennifer Lewis’ analysis group at Harvard College.
The laboratory’s engineered substrates for fast superior imaging sensor improvement dramatically cut back the time and value of creating superior silicon imaging sensors. These substrates prebuild most steps of the back-illumination course of (a way to extend the quantity of sunshine that hits a pixel) straight into the beginning wafer, earlier than gadget fabrication begins. Then, a specialised course of permits the detector substrate and readout circuits to be mated collectively and uniformly thinned to microns in thickness on the die degree somewhat than on the wafer degree. Each facets can save a venture tens of millions of {dollars} in fabrication prices by enabling the manufacturing of small batches of detectors, as a substitute of a full wafer run, whereas enhancing sensor noise and efficiency. This platform has allowed researchers to prototype new imaging sensor ideas — together with detectors for future NASA autonomous lander missions — that may have taken years to develop in a standard course of.
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, holds promise for fabricating advanced glass constructions that may be unattainable with conventional glass manufacturing methods. Lincoln Laboratory’s low-temperature additive manufacturing of glass composites permits 3D printing of multimaterial glass gadgets with out the necessity for pricey high-temperature processing. This low-temperature approach, which cures the glass at 250 levels Celsius as in comparison with the usual 1,000 C, depends on easy parts: a liquid silicate answer, a structural filler, a fumed nanoparticle, and an non-compulsory practical additive to supply glass with optical, electrical, or chemical properties. The approach may facilitate the widespread adoption of 3D printing for glass gadgets equivalent to microfluidic techniques, free-form optical lenses or fiber, and high-temperature digital parts.
The researchers behind every R&D 100 Award–profitable expertise might be honored at an awards gala on Nov. 21 in Palm Springs, California.
