MIT Media Lab Opens New Modern Facility

MIT opened its doors on Friday for the official opening of its 163,000 square foot expansion to the MIT Media Lab.

MIT Media Lab Opens New Modern Facility Justin Meisinger: MIT opens its doors on Friday for the official opening of its 163,000 square foot expansion to the MIT media lab. The addition feature seven laborites to vote to advancing technologies that enhance how humans interact with machines. One lab is the life long kindergarten lab that develops technology to assist and design. Mitchel Resnick: Yeah, I think I feel at home in this new building because to me it feels like a big kindergarten but some people might see this to me or insulting to be compared to kindergarten but to me it’s a great compliment or a high honor because I think we want to help a lot of people here to read a lot, to have creative cooperation’s as same with the kids at kindergarten worked together playfully. We think that’s going to lead to the most creative innovative work here at the Media Lab. Justin Meisinger: Adjacent to older portion of the Media Lab the new complex designed by Mac and his associates is almost entirely comprised of white walls and glass. With the few splashes of color, each of the seven laborites known as the cube is focused on a different festive media technology. The biomechatronic lab aims to produce better prosthetics. Standard prosthetics are passive and can be awkward. However enhanced ones, like seen here have motors attached to better mimic the normal gate of someone with both feet. Grant Elliot: That every time that you leave the ground your foot can actually generate a significant amount of energy and that’s been difficult to achieve in the past because we’ve been restricted to passive devices like new sprints which can’t release anymore energy that you put into them. But as we start to start motors and it’s not for series spring combinations where we can get that pick power to the very high to the catapult. You can start to build things that are too much bigger but can actually produce this effective 300% efficiency that we see in the— Justin Meisinger: The $90 million facility was designed around a principle of light in open space connecting the workshop interior with the outside world. The world outside is the inspiration for many of the lab’s inventions. Like the city car that is electric and fold up to save space. The wheels each house in electric motor leaving room for the chassis to bend in half. With researchers students and scientist all freshly moved in, they're all now left with the challenge of how to best use the new space. Mitchel Resnick: Well we’re still in the process of moving in and gaining to understand this space and we’ve only been here in a short amount of time. So we’re still figuring out the best way to make full use of the new space to be able to really make it our home. So we’re still in the process somewhat of getting settled. But you know we love it and one thing you can see is that the students here are already spending more time here just because they love being on the space. Justin Meisinger: Reporting from MIT in Cambridge I'm Justin Meisinger, IDG News Service.