Research

Impact Areas

Lead

Una-May O'Reilly

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

Center for Brains, Minds and Machines

Our main goal is developing a computationally based understanding of human intelligence and establishing an engineering practice based on that understanding.

Tomaso Poggio

Leads

Tomaso Poggio

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Tomaso Poggio

Research Group

Clinical Decision-Making Group

We focus on furthering the application of technology and artificial intelligence in medicine and health-care.

+11

Peter Szolovits

Leads

Peter Szolovits

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Manufacturing

Lead

Peter Szolovits

+11

Peter Szolovits

Community of Research

Cognitive AI Community of Research

This CoR aims to develop AI technology that synthesizes symbolic reasoning, probabilistic reasoning for dealing with uncertainty in the world, and statistical methods for extracting and exploiting regularities in the world, into an integrated picture of intelligence that is informed by computational insights and by cognitive science.

Howard Shrobe

Leads

Howard Shrobe

Research Areas

Robotics

Impact Areas

Lead

Howard Shrobe

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

Computational Biology Group

We seek to understand the mechanistic basis of human disease, using a combination of computational and experimental techniques.

Manolis Kellis

Leads

Manolis Kellis

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Manolis Kellis

Research Group

Computational Cognitive Science Group

We study the computational basis of human learning and inference.

Joshua Tenenbaum

Leads

Joshua Tenenbaum

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Joshua Tenenbaum

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

Computational Genomics Group

We develop new machine learning techniques and algorithms to model the transcriptional regulatory networks that control gene expression programs in living cells.

Dave Gifford

Leads

Dave Gifford

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Dave Gifford

Research Group

Computational Perception & Cognition

We combine methods from computer science, neuroscience and cognitive science to explain and model how perception and cognition are realized in human and machine.

Aude Oliva

Leads

Aude Oliva

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Aude Oliva

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

Community of Research

Human-Computer Interaction Community of Research

The focus of the HCI CoR is inventing new systems and technology that lie at the interface between people and computation, and understanding their design, implementation, and societal impact.

Stefanie Mueller

Leads

Stefanie Mueller

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Manufacturing

Lead

Stefanie Mueller

Research Center

Internet Policy Research Initiative

Our mission is to work with policy makers and cybersecurity technologists to increase the trustworthiness and effectiveness of interconnected digital systems.

Leads

Daniel Weitzner

Hal Abelson

David Clark

Lalana Kagal

Karen Sollins

Gerald Sussman

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Daniel Weitzner

Hal Abelson

David Clark

Lalana Kagal

Karen Sollins

Gerald Sussman

Research Group

Lecturers

Lecturers in CSAIL

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Research Group

Medical Vision Group

We develop new algorithms for medical image analysis and visualization of medical imagery.

Polina Golland

Leads

Polina Golland

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Polina Golland

Research Group

Sensing, Learning and Inference

We develop scalable algorithms for analysis of complex, high-dimensional data.

John Fisher

Leads

John Fisher

Research Areas

Robotics

Impact Areas

Energy

Internet of Things

Lead

John Fisher

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

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

Computer Architecture

Impact Areas

Lead

Sam Madden

+21

Sam Madden

Research Group

Tidor Lab

We focus on the analysis of complex biological systems at both the molecular level and the systems level.

Bruce Tidor

Leads

Bruce Tidor

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Bruce Tidor

Community of Research

Vertical AI Community of Research

This CoR takes a unified approach to cover the full range of research areas required for success in artificial intelligence, including hardware, foundations, software systems, and applications.

Martin Rinard

Leads

Martin Rinard

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lead

Martin Rinard

Research Group

Vision Group

Our researchers create state-of-the-art systems to better recognize objects, people, scenes, behaviors and more, with applications in health-care, gaming, tagging systems and more.

Leads

Ted Adelson

Fredo Durand

John Fisher

William Freeman

Polina Golland

Berthold Horn

Aude Oliva

Antonio Torralba

Eric Grimson

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Transportation

Lead

Ted Adelson

Fredo Durand

John Fisher

William Freeman

Polina Golland

Berthold Horn

Aude Oliva

Antonio Torralba

Eric Grimson

Research Group

Weiss Laboratory for Synthetic Biology

The Weiss Lab seeks to create integrated biological systems capable of autonomously performing useful tasks, and to elucidate the design principles underlying complex phenotypes.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Computational Cognitive Science Group

26 Project Results

Project

A Counterfactual Simulation Model of Causal Judgment

We develop a computational model that explains how people make causal judgments in physical scenes by mentally simulating counterfactual outcomes and comparing those to what actually happened.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory (ICE Lab)

Project

AIRvatar System: A Framework for Analyzing Virtual Identities

Human-Computer Interaction Community of Research

AIRvatar is a system that telemetrically collects and analyzes fine-grained data on users’ virtual identities and the process used to create them.

D. Fox Harrell

Leads

D. Fox Harrell

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Human-Computer Interaction Community of Research

D. Fox Harrell

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

Weiss Laboratory for Synthetic Biology

Impact Areas

Daniel Jackson

Project

Artificial tissue homeostasis

In order to be able to design synthetic organs that function autonomously, we will need to engineer artificial tissue homeostasis. To control the size of these artificial tissues, two major mechanisms will have to be engineered.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Cardiac MRI analysis

We develop image analysis algorithms for whole-heart cardiac MRI in patients with severe congenital heart disease.

Polina Golland

Leads

Polina Golland

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Polina Golland

Project

Clinical Intervention Prediction with Neural Networks

Integrating multi-modal clinical data and using recurrent and convolution neural networks to predict when patients will need important interventions.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Clinical Neuroimaging

We develop novel algorithms for neuroimage segmentation, registration, and joint modeling of brain structure with clinical and genetic data.

Polina Golland

Leads

Polina Golland

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Polina Golland

Project

Computational Multicopter Design

Computer Graphics Group

A system that can help you to design our own drone!

Tao Du

Leads

Tao Du

Research Areas

Computational Design and Fabrication Group

Robotics

Impact Areas

Energy

Manufacturing

Transportation

Tao Du

Project

Crowdsourcing in Graphics and Vision

Our goal is to develop new applications and algorithms that leverage the skills of distributed crowdworkers, notably for image and video processing applications.

Alexandre Kaspar

Leads

Alexandre Kaspar

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Alexandre Kaspar

Project

Drug Target Identification Via Computational Modeling

Tidor Lab

We use computational models of biological pathways in disease to estimate the range of possible responses to various hypothetical drugs, given patient variability and limited pathway-relevant data.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Weiss Laboratory for Synthetic Biology

Project

Flexible cellular platforms for reconfigurable biocircuits

Existing methods for cloning and recombination of DNA enable construction of arbitrary sequences. However, the sequential nature of these techniques makes them time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, while the transformation of an existing plasmid into a host strain can be reliable when a selection marker is used, there are many current limitations: the number of different plasmids that can be co-transformed is limited by the choice of markers and compatible origins of replication; plasmids are less stable than chromosomal DNA and are difficult to maintain indefinitely without mutation; and cistronic interactions cannot be designed since each new nucleotide sequence added is on an unconnected DNA molecule. To overcome these limitations, we are designing reconfigurable chromosomes consisting of both fixed and variable regions. While the fixed region is carefully optimized and tuned ahead of time, the variable region can be modified in the field, at the point-of-use, leading to rapid and on-demand realization of novel biocircuits with many different phenotypes.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

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

Justin Solomon

Project

Geometry in Large-Scale Machine Learning

Machine Learning

Data often has geometric structure which can enable better inference; this project aims to scale up geometry-aware techniques for use in machine learning settings with lots of data, so that this structure may be utilized in practice.

Justin Solomon

Stefanie Jegelka

Leads

Justin Solomon

Stefanie Jegelka

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Internet of Things

Justin Solomon

Stefanie Jegelka

Project

Metagenomic Binning Through Low-Density Hashing

Our goal is to develop better metagenomic binning by origin species of fragments of sequenced environmental DNA.

Bonnie Berger

Leads

Bonnie Berger

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Bonnie Berger

Project

Monitoring Fetal Health

We develop algorithms for fetal MRI interpretation, to enable noninvasive fetal monitoring from MRI.

Polina Golland

Leads

Polina Golland

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Polina Golland

Project

Population-level Tumor Growth Inhibition Modeling

Tidor Lab

We develop, parameterize, and validate a model for tumor growth inhibition using in vivo mouse data and study the effects of modeling uncertainty and inter-individual variability on drug candidate efficacy predictions.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Decentralized Information Group

Project

PrivacyML - A Privacy Preserving Framework for Machine Learning

Computing & Society Community of Research

We are developing a general framework that enforces privacy transparently enabling different kinds of machine learning to be developed that are automatically privacy preserving.

Lalana Kagal

Vaikkunth Mugunthan

Leads

Lalana Kagal

Vaikkunth Mugunthan

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Lalana Kagal

Vaikkunth Mugunthan

Project

Quantification of Pulmonary Edema in Chest Radiographs

We develop machine learning algorithms to automatically and quantitatively assess the severity of pulmonary edema from chest x-ray images.

Polina Golland

Leads

Polina Golland

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Computational Connectomics Group

Polina Golland

Project

Reconstructing Neural Circuits from Mammalian Brain

Theory of Computation Community of Research

We develop algorithms, systems and software architectures for automating reconstruction of accurate representations of neural tissue structures, such as nanometer-scale neurons' morphology and synaptic connections in the mammalian cortex.

Yaron Meirovitch

Nir Shavit

Leads

Yaron Meirovitch

Nir Shavit

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Model-Based Embedded and Robotics Systems Group

Yaron Meirovitch

Nir Shavit

Project

Securing IoT

IoT devices primarily use free embedded Linux which has many security flaws. We are conducting penetration tests on IoT and developing a secure version of embedded Linux.

Howard Shrobe

Leads

Howard Shrobe

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Clinical Decision-Making Group

Internet of Things

Howard Shrobe

Project

Semi-Supervised Regression with Cycle Wasserstein Regression GANs

Using adversarial signals and a cycle-consistency based regularization, we can supplement paired regression tasks with unpaired data to improve regression performance.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Project

Structure-based Inhibitor Design Against ZIKV Protease

Tidor Lab

This project uses computational biology and chemistry tools to design a pharmaceutical to combat the Zika Virus.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Theory of Computation Community of Research

Project

Towards Context-Aware Functional Genomics

Computation and Biology

We aim to develop a context-aware data-driven functional genomics framework that can characterize tissue-specific gene representations, provide context-aware genotype to phenotype mapping, and enable network-based exploration of disease genetics.

Bonnie Berger

Leads

Bonnie Berger

Research Areas

Impact Areas

Clinical Decision-Making Group

Bonnie Berger

Project

Using Clinical Domain Knowledge for Processing Physiological Data

Using medical knowledge to improve learned representations of patient health trajectories.

Leads

Research Areas

Impact Areas

28 People Results

Mazdak Abulnaga

Graduate Student

medical vision

E abulnaga@mit.edu

Member

Geometric Data Processing Group

Geometry and topology for scientific computing and shape analysis

medical vision

PI
Core/Dual

Ted Adelson

Professor

Vision, touch sensing, robotics

E adelson@csail.mit.edu

T 253-0645

Lead

Embodied Intelligence Community of Research

Blood Pressure Imager

Member

Natural Language Processing Group

Vision, touch sensing, robotics

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

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

Vertical AI Community of Research

Covering All K-mers Using Joker Characters

Natural language processing, machine learning

PI
Core/Dual

Bonnie Berger

Professor

Computational biology, genomics

E bab@csail.mit.edu

T 253-1827

Lead

Towards Context-Aware Functional Genomics

Metagenomic Binning Through Low-Density Hashing

Computation and Biology

Member

Computation Structures Group

Theory of Computation Community of Research

Unsupervised Speech Processing

Computational biology, genomics

Yu-An Chung

Graduate Student

Speech and language processing, machine learning

E andyyuan@mit.edu

Lead

Member

Spoken Language Systems Group

Speech and language processing, machine learning

PI
Core/Dual

David Clark

Senior Research Scientist

Internet architectures, communications policy, security

E ddc@csail.mit.edu

T 253-6003

Lead

Advanced Network Architecture Group

Internet Policy Research Initiative

Member

Computing & Society Community of Research

Systems Community of Research

Internet architectures, communications policy, security

Adrian Dalca

Research Scientist

E adalca@csail.mit.edu

Member

Clinical Neuroimaging

Mustafa Doga Dogan

Graduate Student

E doga@mit.edu

Member

HCI Engineering Group

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

Member

Computational Bounce Flash for Indoor Portraits

Halide

Vision, graphics, computational photography

R. David Edelman

Director, Project on Technology, Economy & National Security

Machine learning, cybersecurity, governance

E rde@mit.edu

T 258-6389

Machine learning, cybersecurity, governance

Barış Ekim

Graduate Student

E ekim@csail.mit.edu

Gregory Falco

Research Affiliate

Dr. Falco is a hacker and expert in IoT and IIoT cybersecurity.

E gfalco@mit.edu

Dr. Falco is a hacker and expert in IoT and IIoT cybersecurity.

PI
Core/Dual

John Fisher

Senior Research Scientist

Vision, machine learning, signal processing

E fisher@csail.mit.edu

T 253-0788

Lead

Sensing, Learning and Inference

Member

Vision, machine learning, signal processing

Michael Foshey

Mechanical Engineer/Project Manager

Additive Manufacturing, Robotics, Digital Fabrication

E mfoshey@mit.edu

Additive Manufacturing, Robotics, Digital Fabrication

PI
Core/Dual

Polina Golland

Professor

Vision, medical imaging, statistical inference

E polina@csail.mit.edu

T 253-8005

Lead

Quantification of Pulmonary Edema in Chest Radiographs

Cardiac MRI analysis

Clinical Neuroimaging

Member

Data-Driven Inference Group

Vision, medical imaging, statistical inference

PI
Core/Dual

John Guttag

Professor

Machine learning, medicine, data-driven inference

E guttag@csail.mit.edu

T 253-6022

Lead

Hidden Influencers, Risk and Causes of Infection

Predicting Adverse Events Across Changing Electronic Health Record Systems

Machine Learning for Insights in Basketball Strategy

Detecting Voice Misuse to Diagnose Disorders

Member

Systems Community of Research

Machine learning, medicine, data-driven inference

Fern Keniston

Senior Administrative Assistant

Research and Education Support

E fern@csail.mit.edu

T 253-5860

RM 32/ 32-250A/ 391

Member

Clinical Decision-Making Group

Research and Education Support

Konstantin Krismer

Graduate Student

E krismer@mit.edu

Member

Computational Genomics Group

Ruizhi Liao

Graduate Student

E ruizhi@mit.edu

Member

Quantification of Pulmonary Edema in Chest Radiographs

Razvan Marinescu

Postdoctoral Associate

Postdoctoral Associate working with Polina Golland on neuroimaging.

E razvan@csail.mit.edu

RM 32-D475B

Member

Clinical Neuroimaging

Anyscale Learning for All ALFA

Postdoctoral Associate working with Polina Golland on neuroimaging.

PI
Core/Dual

Una-May O'Reilly

Principal Research Scientist

Applied AI and ML in cybersecurity, healthcare, education

E unamay@csail.mit.edu

T 253-6437

Lead

Adversarial Cyber Security

GIGABEATS: Data science for medical sensor data

MOOC Learner Project: Data science for e-learning

Member

Distributed Robotics Laboratory

Applied AI and ML in cybersecurity, healthcare, education

PI
Core/Dual

Daniela Rus

Director

CSAIL director, robotics, AI, data science, privacy

E rus@csail.mit.edu

T 258-7567

RM 32/ 32-368/ 374

Lead

Social Network Extraction from GPS Datasets with Coresets

Safety Standards for Autonomous Vehicles

Soft Contact Modeling

Practical Secure Computation

Self-Driving Vehicles

Robust Learning for Autonomous Vehicles

Brain-Controlled Robots

Planning in Congestion for Autonomous Vehicles

Socially-Compliant Behavior for Autonomous Driving

Coresets for Machine Learning Algorithms

M-Blocks Modular Robotics

Robot Compiler

Distributed Robot Garden

Route and Motion Planning for Mobility-on-Demand with Rules of the Road

Member

Social Network Extraction from GPS Datasets with Coresets

Task-Driven Co-Optimization Of Articulated Robots

Wearable Blind Navigation

Drones that Drive

Better Models for Ride-Sharing

SoFi - The Soft Robotic Fish

Controlling drones and other robots with gestures

Using Muscle Signals to Lift Objects with Robots

Embodied Intelligence Community of Research

Helping robots learn using demonstrations

CSAIL director, robotics, AI, data science, privacy

Nalini Singh

Graduate Student

E nmsingh@mit.edu

RM 32-D475B

Member