The most recent email you sent was likely encrypted using a tried-and-true method that relies on the idea that even the fastest computer would be unable to efficiently break a gigantic number into factors.

Toward a code-breaking quantum computer

Someday, you may want your home robot to carry a load of dirty clothes downstairs and deposit them in the washing machine in the far-left corner of the basement. The robot will need to combine your instructions with its visual observations to determine the steps it should take to complete this task.

Researchers use large language models to help robots navigate

The tiny device could enable a user to rapidly create customized, low-cost objects on the go, like a fastener to repair a wobbly bicycle wheel or a component for a critical medical operation. Credit: Sampson Wilcox, RLE

Smaller than a coin, this optical device could enable rapid prototyping on the go.

Researchers demonstrate the first chip-based 3D printer

Researchers developed a modular fabrication process to produce a quantum-system-on-chip which integrates an array of artificial atom qubits onto a semiconductor chip. Image: Sampson Wilcox and Linsen Li, RLE

A new quantum-system-on-chip enables the efficient control of a large array of qubits, moving toward practical quantum computing.

Modular, scalable hardware architecture for a quantum computer

A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task. The researchers, from MIT and elsewhere, also built a simulator that can evaluate control algorithms for shape-shifting soft robots. Image: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

A new algorithm learns to squish, bend, or stretch a robot’s entire body to accomplish diverse tasks like avoiding obstacles or retrieving items.

A better way to control shape-shifting soft robots

The advance offers a way to characterize a fundamental resource needed for quantum computing.

Scientists tune the entanglement structure in an array of qubits

Adam Zewe

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