CBA News & Notes

November 12, 2017

Prof. Gershenfeld's new book Designing Reality, written with his brothers Joel and Alan, comes out Nov 14:

http://designingreality.org

Here he is on assembling assemblers for the inaugural Science, Technology & Innovation Exchange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA2wBdxy7Hc
Work at CBA on programmable matter and self-reproducing replicators is presented in Skylar Tibbits' new book on Active Matter:

https://mitpress-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/books/active-matter
Adam Savage's full CBA tour has been posted:

http://www.tested.com/art/makers/684731-adam-savages-maker-tour-mits-center-bits-and-atoms-part-1

http://www.tested.com/art/689904-adam-savages-maker-tour-mits-center-bits-and-atoms-part-2

http://www.tested.com/art/makers/709067-adam-savages-maker-tour-mits-center-bits-and-atoms-part-3

http://www.tested.com/art/makers/716498-adam-savages-maker-tour-mits-center-bits-and-atoms-part-4
Alum Raffi Krokorian is the DNC's new CTO:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dncs-technology-chief-is-phishing-his-staff-good
We're pleased to add to our digital fabrication facility a 3 kilowatt fiber lasercutter, developed at alum Saul Griffith's Otherlab by a team including current CBA student Jake Read:

http://cba.mit.edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/tools/#Fablight_3000_Laser_Cutter

We've also added a new Biosafety Level 2 lab for work on synthetic cells.
Here are contributions from CBA to the microfluidic isolation of bacterial nucleoids:

https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/protocol/10.1007/978-1-4939-7098-8_22

and on enhancing CRISPR specificity:

http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/08/147686
CBA has received an award from DARPA's FUN DESIGN program:

https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/DARPA-SN-17-71/listing.html

to study morphogenesis in design tools.
A CBA team survived successful zero-g flight testing of robotic locomotion through cellular structures:

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/feature/payload_performance
Composites Manufacturing magazine featured CBA's work on morphing wings in an article on ground-breaking university R&D:

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/digital/2017/Composites-Manufacturing-July-August-2017-Issue.pdf
CBA patents issued on digital material construction:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9809001.PN.&OS=PN/9809001&RS=PN/9809001

and assembly:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9809977.PN.&OS=PN/9809977&RS=PN/9809977
Metropolis magazine mentions MIT's fab lab as one of the reasons Boston is one of the world's best design cities:

http://www.metropolismag.com/cities/the-worlds-best-design-cities-2017
Photos and videos have been posted from FAB13 in Chile:

http://fab13.fabevent.org

FAB14 will be France in 2018, and it was announced at the meeting that FAB15 will be hosted by Egypt, and FAB16 by Canada.
Following FAB13, CBA research was presented at the ALMA radio telescope at 16,000 feet:

https://twitter.com/almaobs/status/907677186626375680
A CBA team deployed a fab lab in Bhutan, linking Gross National Happiness with physical sustainability:

http://thebhutanese.bt/fab-lab-in-olakha
CBA's work with the The Fab Foundation on fab labs in Northern Ireland received a Golden Bridges Award:

https://aisling-events.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/GBAgenda.pdf

This is an occasional newsletter on the activities of CBA and its partners; to be added or removed from this list, or to submit items, please contact cba_news@cba.mit.edu