Research

Impact Areas

Lead

Costis Daskalakis

Erik Demaine

Michael Goemans

Piotr Indyk

David Karger

Jonathan Kelner

Tom Leighton

Charles E. Leiserson

Aleksander Madry

Ankur Moitra

Ronitt Rubinfeld

Nir Shavit

Ryan Williams

Virginia Vassilevska Williams

Research Group

Applied Computing Group

We design software for high performance computing, develop algorithms for numerical linear algebra, and research random matrix theory and its applications.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Community of Research

Applied Machine Learning Community of Research

This CoR brings together researchers at CSAIL working across a broad swath of application domains. Within these lie novel and challenging machine learning problems serving science, social science and computer science.

Una-May O'Reilly

Leads

Una-May O'Reilly

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Una-May O'Reilly

Research Group

Broderick Lab

We work in the areas of statistics and machine learning.

Tamara Broderick

Leads

Tamara Broderick

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Tamara Broderick

Research Center

Center for Deployable Machine Learning (CDML)

The MIT Center for Deployable Machine Learning (CDML) works towards creating AI systems that are robust, reliable and safe for real-world deployment.

Aleksander Madry

Leads

Aleksander Madry

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Aleksander Madry

Research Group

Commit Group

We focus on finding novel approaches to improve the performance of modern computer systems without unduly increasing the complexity faced by application developers, compiler writers, or computer architects.

Saman Amarasinghe

Leads

Saman Amarasinghe

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Saman Amarasinghe

Research Group

Complexity Theory Group

Our interests span quantum complexity theory, barriers to solving P versus NP, theoretical computer science with a focus on probabilistically checkable proofs (PCP), pseudo-randomness, coding theory, and algorithms.

Leads

Shafi Goldwasser

Ronitt Rubinfeld

Michael Sipser

Ryan Williams

Virginia Vassilevska Williams

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Shafi Goldwasser

Ronitt Rubinfeld

Michael Sipser

Ryan Williams

Virginia Vassilevska Williams

Research Group

Computation and Biology

Our lab focuses on designing algorithms to gain biological insights from advances in automated data collection and the subsequent large data sets drawn from them.

Bonnie Berger

Leads

Bonnie Berger

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Bonnie Berger

Research Group

Computation Structures Group

Our mission is fostering the creation and development of high-performance, reliable and secure computing systems that are easy to interact with.

+21

Leads

Srini Devadas

Daniel Sanchez

Armando Solar-Lezama

Arvind

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Srini Devadas

Daniel Sanchez

Armando Solar-Lezama

Arvind

+21

Research Group

Computational Connectomics Group

Our group’s goal is to create, based on such microscopic connectivity and functional data, new mathematical models explaining how neural tissue computes.

Nir Shavit

Leads

Nir Shavit

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Nir Shavit

Research Group

Computer-Aided Programming

We develop techniques and tools that exploit automated reasoning and large amounts of computing power to tackle challenging programming problems

Armando Solar-Lezama

Leads

Armando Solar-Lezama

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Armando Solar-Lezama

Community of Research

Computing & Society Community of Research

This community is interested in understanding and affecting the interaction between computing systems and society through engineering, computer science and public policy research, education, and public engagement.

Daniel Weitzner

Leads

Daniel Weitzner

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Daniel Weitzner

Research Group

Cryptography and Information Security Group

We seek to develop techniques for securing tomorrow's global information infrastructure by exploring theoretical foundations, near-term practical applications, and long-range speculative research.

Leads

Shafi Goldwasser

Silvio Micali

Ronald Rivest

Vinod Vaikuntanathan

Butler Lampson

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Shafi Goldwasser

Silvio Micali

Ronald Rivest

Vinod Vaikuntanathan

Butler Lampson

Research Group

Data Systems Group

We conduct research on all areas of database systems and information management.

+15

Leads

Sam Madden

Michael Stonebraker

Tim Kraska

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Sam Madden

Michael Stonebraker

Tim Kraska

+15

Research Group

Decentralized Information Group

We are investigating decentralized technologies that affect social change.

Lalana Kagal

Tim Berners-Lee

Leads

Lalana Kagal

Tim Berners-Lee

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Lalana Kagal

Tim Berners-Lee

Lalana Kagal

Tim Berners-Lee

Research Group

Geometric Data Processing Group

Our group studies geometric problems in computer graphics, computer vision, machine learning, optimization, and other disciplines.

Justin Solomon

Leads

Justin Solomon

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Justin Solomon

Research Group

Haystack Group

We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers blending approaches from human-computer interaction, social computing, databases, information management, and databases.

Lea Verou

David Karger

Leads

David Karger

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Internet of Things

Lead

David Karger

Lea Verou

David Karger

Research Group

Programming Methodology Group

We develop innovative approaches for building software and for solving problems in modern parallel and distributed software systems.

Barbara Liskov

Leads

Barbara Liskov

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Barbara Liskov

Research Group

Quantum Information Science Group

Our research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally.

Peter Shor

Leads

Peter Shor

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Energy

Lead

Peter Shor

Research Group

Software Design Group

Our goal is to find better ways to make software, and ways to make software better.

Daniel Jackson

Leads

Daniel Jackson

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Daniel Jackson

Research Group

Supertech Research Group

We investigate the technologies that support scalable high-performance computing, including hardware, software, and theory.

Charles E. Leiserson

Neil Thompson

Leads

Charles E. Leiserson

Neil Thompson

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Charles E. Leiserson

Neil Thompson

Charles E. Leiserson

Neil Thompson

Community of Research

Systems Community of Research

The Systems CoR is focused on building and investigating large-scale software systems that power modern computers, phones, data centers, and networks, including operating systems, the Internet, wireless networks, databases, and other software infrastructure.

+21

Sam Madden

Leads

Sam Madden

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Sam Madden

+21

Sam Madden

Community of Research

Theory of Computation Community of Research

The goal of the Theory of Computation CoR is to study the fundamental strengths and limits of computation as well as how these interact with mathematics, computer science, and other disciplines.

+20

Costis Daskalakis

Leads

Costis Daskalakis

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Costis Daskalakis

+20

Costis Daskalakis

Research Group

Theory of Distributed Systems Group

We work on a wide range of problems in distributed computing theory. We study algorithms and lower bounds for typical problems that arise in distributed systems---like resource allocation, implementing shared memory abstractions, and reliable communication.

Nancy Lynch

Leads

Nancy Lynch

Research Areas

Learning and Intelligent Systems

Impact Areas

Lead

Nancy Lynch

37 Project Results

Project

Active Learning of Models for Planning

We aim to develop a systematic framework for robots to build models of the world and to use these to make effective and safe choices of actions to take in complex scenarios.

Leslie Kaelbling

Tomas Lozano-Perez

Leads

Leslie Kaelbling

Tomas Lozano-Perez

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Entertainment

Leslie Kaelbling

Tomas Lozano-Perez

Project

Algorithmic Aspects of Performance Engineering

Supertech Research Group

The project concerns algorithmic solutions for writing fast codes.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Alloy

Software Design Group

Alloy is a language for describing structures and a tool for exploring them. It has been used in a wide range of applications from finding holes in security mechanisms to designing telephone switching networks. Hundreds of projects have used Alloy for design analysis, for verification, for simulation, and as a backend for many other kinds of analysis and synthesis tools, and Alloy is currently being taught in courses worldwide.

Daniel Jackson

Leads

Daniel Jackson

Research Areas

Computer-Aided Programming

Impact Areas

Daniel Jackson

Project

An Interlock for Self Driving Cars

Software Design Group

Self-driving cars are likely to be safer, on average, than human-driven cars. But they may fail in new and catastrophic ways that a human driver could prevent. This project is designing a new architecture for a highly dependable self-driving car.

Daniel Jackson

Armando Solar-Lezama

Leads

Daniel Jackson

Armando Solar-Lezama

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Daniel Jackson

Armando Solar-Lezama

Project

Artificial Social Intelligence for Successful Teams (ASIST)

Computational Cognitive Science Group

Model-Based Embedded and Robotics Systems Group

Our goal is to develop a socially intelligent team coacher agent that helps humans communicate, strategize, and work together efficiently.

Leads

Howard Shrobe

Brian Williams

Boris Katz

Zhutian Yang

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Bayesian Optimization for Global Optimization of Expensive Black-box Functions

Learning and Intelligent Systems

We study the fundamentals of Bayesian optimization and develop efficient Bayesian optimization methods for global optimization of expensive black-box functions originated from a range of different applications.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Better Models for Ride-Sharing

Traffic is not just a nuisance for drivers: It’s also a public health hazard and bad news for the economy.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Energy

Project

BlueDBM: Distributed Flash Storage for Big Data Analytics

BlueDBM is an architecture of computer clusters consisting of fast distributed flash storage and in-storage accelerators, which often outperforms larger and more expensive clusters in applications such as graph analytics.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Bridging Theory and Practice in Shared-Memory Parallel Algorithm Design

This project aims to design parallel algorithms for shared-memory machines that are efficient both in theory and also in practice.

Julian Shun

Leads

Julian Shun

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Julian Shun

Project

Compression and Reordering for Parallel Graph Analytics

We plan to develop a suite of graph compression and reordering techniques as part of the Ligra parallel graph processing framework to reduce space usage and improve performance of graph algorithms.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Coresets for Machine Learning Algorithms

Our goal is to design novel data compression techniques to accelerate popular machine learning algorithms in Big Data and streaming settings.

Daniela Rus

Leads

Daniela Rus

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Daniela Rus

Project

Data Civilizer

Data Systems Group

Data scientists universally report that they spend at least 80% of their time finding data sets of interest, accessing them, cleaning them and assembling them into a unified whole.

Michael Stonebraker

Sam Madden

Leads

Michael Stonebraker

Sam Madden

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Michael Stonebraker

Sam Madden

Project

Data Warehouse Construction

Data Systems Group

Historically, DBMSs in the warehouse space partitioned their data across a shared nothing
cluster.

Michael Stonebraker

Leads

Michael Stonebraker

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Michael Stonebraker

Project

Determining Wikipedia's Influence on Science

Supertech Research Group

Wikipedia is one of the most widely accessed encyclopedia sites in the world, including by scientists. Our project aims to investigate just how far Wikipedia’s influence goes in shaping science.

Neil Thompson

Charles E. Leiserson

Leads

Neil Thompson

Charles E. Leiserson

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Learning and Intelligent Systems

Neil Thompson

Charles E. Leiserson

Project

Deterministic Algorithms for Robotic Task and Motion Planning

Our goal is to investigate deterministic algorithms for robotic task and motion planning.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Manufacturing

Project

Distributed Co-prime Sampling Algorithms

To further parallelize co-prime sampling based sparse sensing, we introduce Diophantine Equation in different algebraic structures to build generalized lattice arrays.
With strong relationship to generalized Chinese Remainder Theorem, the geometry properties in the remainder code space, a special lattice space, are explored.

Hanshen Xiao

Leads

Hanshen Xiao

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Hanshen Xiao

Project

Diversity-inducing Probability Measures

We aim to understand theory and applications of diversity-inducing probabilities (and, more generally, "negative dependence") in machine learning, and develop fast algorithms based on their mathematical properties.

Stefanie Jegelka

Suvrit Sra

Leads

Stefanie Jegelka

Suvrit Sra

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Stefanie Jegelka

Suvrit Sra

Project

Drones that Drive

Multi-robot path planning for robot swarms that can both fly and drive

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Energy

Geometric Data Processing Group

Project

Geometry and topology for scientific computing and shape analysis

Computer Graphics Group

Developing state-of-the-art tools that process 3D surfaces and volumes

Justin Solomon

Leads

Justin Solomon

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Data-Driven Inference Group

Justin Solomon

Project

Hidden Influencers, Risk and Causes of Infection

We aim to study the causes and transmission modes of infectious diseases among members of a community in the presence of hidden, asymptomatic spreaders of the pathogen.

Maggie Makar

John Guttag

Leads

Maggie Makar

John Guttag

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Maggie Makar

John Guttag

Project

High-Performance Parallel Clustering

We are designing new parallel algorithms, optimizations, and frameworks for clustering large-scale graph and geometric data.

Julian Shun

Leads

Julian Shun

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Spoken Language Systems Group

Julian Shun

Project

Low-Power Speech Processing Circuits

The creation of low-power circuits capable of speech recognition and speaker verification will enable spoken interaction on a wide variety of devices in the era of Internet of Things.

Leads

Research Areas

Geometric Data Processing Group

Impact Areas

Project

Optimal transport for statistics and machine learning

Linking probability with geometry to improve the theory and practice of machine learning

Justin Solomon

Leads

Justin Solomon

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Geometric Data Processing Group

Justin Solomon

Project

Political Geometry: Establishing Fair Mathematical Standards for Political Redistricting

Gerrymandering is a direct threat to our democracy, undermining founding principles like equal protection under the law and eroding public confidence in elections.

Justin Solomon

Leads

Justin Solomon

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Simit: A Language for Computing on Sparse Systems

Justin Solomon

40 People Results

Leandro Agudelo

Research Scientist

Systems Genomics, CompBio, Topological Integrative Biology, Biology

E lagudelo@csail.mit.edu

Systems Genomics, CompBio, Topological Integrative Biology, Biology

PI
Core/Dual

Saman Amarasinghe

Professor

Compilers, architectures, software engineering

E saman@csail.mit.edu

T 253-8879

Lead

Commit Group

Tiramisu Compiler

Member

Taco: The Tensor Algebra Compiler

Halide

OpenTuner: An Extensible Framework for Program Autotuning

Program Performance Prediction with Deep Learning

Natural Language Processing Group

Compilers, architectures, software engineering

PI
Core/Dual

Regina Barzilay

Professor

Natural language processing, machine learning

E regina@csail.mit.edu

T 258-5706

Lead

Aspect-Augmented Adversarial Networks for Domain Adaptation

Member

Applied Machine Learning Community of Research

Natural language processing, machine learning

Cenk Baykal

Graduate Student

E baykal@mit.edu

RM 32-376C

Member

Coresets for Machine Learning Algorithms

PI
Core/Dual

Tim Berners-Lee

Professor

Systems, privacy, inventor of the World Wide Web

E timbl@w3.org

T 253-5702

Lead

Decentralized Information Group

World Wide Web Consortium

Solid: Social Linked Data

Member

Computing & Society Community of Research

Systems, privacy, inventor of the World Wide Web

PI
Core/Dual

Michael Carbin

Assistant Professor

Programming languages and systems.

E mcarbin@csail.mit.edu

T 253-5881

Lead

Programming Systems Group

The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis

Member

Programming with spaces

Program Performance Prediction with Deep Learning

Applied Machine Learning Community of Research

Programming languages and systems.

Xuhao Chen

Postdoctoral Associate

Parallel Computer Architecture, Data Mining, Machine Learning

E cxh@mit.edu

Parallel Computer Architecture, Data Mining, Machine Learning

PI
Core/Dual

Costis Daskalakis

Associate Professor

Algorithms, Economics, Game Theory, Statistics, Machine Learning

E costis@csail.mit.edu

T 253-9643

Lead

Is the Casino using a Riffle Shuffle?

Understanding Convergence of Iterative Algorithms

Center for Deployable Machine Learning (CDML)

Member

Algorithms, Economics, Game Theory, Statistics, Machine Learning

PI
Core/Dual

Fredo Durand

Professor

Vision, graphics, computational photography

E fredo@csail.mit.edu

T 253-7223

Lead

Computer Graphics Group

Computational Understanding of Visualizations and Graphic Designs

Vision Group

Member

Computational Bounce Flash for Indoor Portraits

Halide

Visual Computing Community of Research

Vision, graphics, computational photography

Barış Ekim

Graduate Student

E ekim@csail.mit.edu

Jamey Hicks

Research Affiliate

E jamey.hicks@accelerated.tech

Member

PI
Core/Dual

Piotr Indyk

Professor

Algorithms, theory, computational geometry

E indyk@csail.mit.edu

T 452-3402

Lead

Sublinear/Streaming Algorithms for Covering Problem

Sublinear Algorithms for Massive Data Problems

Member

Algorithms, theory, computational geometry

PI
Core/Dual

Tommi Jaakkola

Professor

Machine learning, natural language processing, genomics

E tommi@csail.mit.edu

T 253-0440

Lead

Natural Language Processing Group

Aspect-Augmented Adversarial Networks for Domain Adaptation

Learning Strategic Games

Structured Prediction Through Randomization

Interpretability in complex machine learning models

Member

Learning Optimal Interventions

Machine learning, natural language processing, genomics

PI
Core/Dual

Daniel Jackson

Professor

Software design, programming, systems

E dnj@csail.mit.edu

T 258-8471

Lead

Rethinking Software Design

Software Design Group

Gitless: a simple version control system built on top of Git

Déjà Vu: Constructing Apps from Concepts

Security by Design for Cyberphysical Systems

Poirot: Secure Protocol Implementation by Design

An Interlock for Self Driving Cars

Alloy

Wildcard

Member

Espalier

Wildcard

Software design, programming, systems

Siddhartha Jayanti

Graduate Student

E siddhartha@csail.mit.edu

PI
Core/Dual

David Karger

Professor

Helping people manage information

E karger@csail.mit.edu

T 258-6167

Lead

Haystack Group

Mavo: Creating Interactive Data-Driven Web Applications by Authoring HTML

Wikum: Bridging Discussion Systems and Wikis with Collective Summarization

Squadbox: Combating Online Harassment using Friendsourced Moderation

Eyebrowse: Social and Public Web Browsing

Talkademic: Motivating Online Academic Discourse

Member

EQ-Radio: Emotion Recognition using Wireless Signals

Helping people manage information

PI
Core/Dual

Dina Katabi

Professor

Wireless, networks, machine learning

E dina@csail.mit.edu

T 324-6027

Lead

Networks at MIT

Member

Safety Standards for Autonomous Vehicles

Wireless, networks, machine learning

Lucas Liebenwein

Graduate Student

Student and Researcher | Robotics, AI | Advanced Autonomy

E lucasl@mit.edu

RM 32-376C

Lead

Member

Self-Driving Vehicles

Coresets for Machine Learning Algorithms

Student and Researcher | Robotics, AI | Advanced Autonomy

Henry Lieberman

Research Scientist

Henry Lieberman is a Research Scientist at MIT CSAIL, in AI and HCI.

E lieber@MEDIA.MIT.EDU

Henry Lieberman is a Research Scientist at MIT CSAIL, in AI and HCI.

Slobodan Mitrovic

Postdoctoral Associate

E slobo@mit.edu

PI
Core/Dual

Ankur Moitra

Associate Professor

Theory, algorithms, machine learning, complexity

E moitra@csail.mit.edu

T 253-5876

Lead

Efficient Robust Estimation in High Dimensions

Member

Center for Deployable Machine Learning (CDML)

Cryptography and Information Security Group

Theory, algorithms, machine learning, complexity

PI
Core/Dual

Ronald Rivest

Institute Professor

Cryptography, cybersecurity, RSA public-key encryption

E rivest@mit.edu

T 253-5880

Lead

Member

Computing & Society Community of Research

Cryptography, cybersecurity, RSA public-key encryption

PI
Core/Dual

Ronitt Rubinfeld

Professor

Theory, algorithms

E ronitt@csail.mit.edu

T 253-0884

Lead

Sublinear/Streaming Algorithms for Covering Problem

Complexity Theory Group

Member

Theory, algorithms

PI
Core/Dual

Daniel Sanchez

Associate Professor

Architectures, systems, parallel computing, multicores, memory

E sanchez@csail.mit.edu

T 715-4886

Lead

Pervasive Parallelism with the Swarm Architecture

Member

Jenga: Using chip memory more efficiently

KPart: A novel technique for partitioning shared caches