Tag: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

  • Nation & World

    Harvard launches Arts and Sciences campaign

    FAS Dean Michael D. Smith formally launched the $2.5 billion Harvard Campaign for Arts and Sciences on Saturday morning at a standing-room only alumni event at Sanders Theatre.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    National parks face dangerous foe

    Thirty-eight of the United States’ national parks are experiencing “accidental fertilization” at or above a critical threshold for ecological damage, according to a study led by Harvard University researchers and published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Robots to the rescue

    The Second Annual Northeast Robotics Colloquium highlighted Harvard’s work on the next generation of robotics.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The beep ball player

    Aqil Sajjad is blind, but he loves sports. So he’s playing on beep ball, a sport that features a chirping baseball that is delivered by a sighted pitcher to a blindfolded batter.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Where students own their education

    The class Applied Physics 50 is grounded in a teaching philosophy that banishes lectures and encourages hands-on exploration, presenting a collection of best practices gleaned from decades of teaching experience and studious visits to college physics classrooms nationwide.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Advancing science and technology

    The National Science Foundation is awarding grants to create three new science and technology centers this year, with two of them based in Cambridge. The two multi-institutional grants total $45 million over five years.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Forks, knives, beakers

    New York Times columnist Harold McGee and chef Dave Arnold introduced this year’s “Science and Cooking” public lecture series, which runs through December.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Wildfires projected to worsen with climate change

    A Harvard model predicts that by 2050, wildfire seasons will be three weeks longer, up to twice as smoky, and will burn a wider area in the western United States.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Perfecting digital imaging

    Despite advances, the best software and video cameras cannot seem to get computer-generated images and digital film to look exactly the way our eyes expect them to. Harvard’s Hanspeter Pfister and Todd Zickler are working to narrow the gap between “virtual” and “real” by asking the question: How do we see what we see?

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Designing a cleaner future

    A slum on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, received major media attention when the world realized it’s where computers go to die. That was when Harvard undergraduate Rachel Field ’12 devoted her senior thesis project to addressing the problem. Her solution was an award-winner.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A globe-trotter, by design

    School of Engineering and Applied Sciences graduate William Marks departs Harvard with a hat trick of achievements: a Fulbright Scholarship, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship at Cambridge University in England, and an offer of admission to Harvard Business School’s 2+2 M.B.A. program.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Taking stock of technology

    At the recent Harvard IT Summit, Anne Margulies, vice president and University chief information officer, mentioned how Harvard had been at the forefront of information technology since its inception, even to the point of naming the burgeoning field.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A pragmatic way to teach science

    Harvard scientists at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been helping fifth graders in Boston’s Hennigan Elementary School this spring, bringing technical expertise and life experiences to help students better understand science and engineering, and visualize college careers of their own.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A Little Idea | From My House to Our Harvard

    Harvard students turn little ideas into big solutions every day. From My House to Our Harvard | 2012 FAS Film

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Robotic insects make first controlled flight

    The demonstration of the first controlled flight of an insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade’s work, led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Robot hands gain a gentler touch

    Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed an inexpensive tactile sensor for robotic hands that is sensitive enough to turn a brute machine into a dexterous manipulator.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Imagining impact, and believing in it

    Sixth annual Harvard College Innovation Challenge supports student projects through a year of development and beyond. From common roots — intellectual curiosity and the desire to make life just a little bit easier — 64 ideas blossomed this year in the challenge.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A sweet arrival in Allston

    The latest retail outlet to arrive in Barry’s Corner, Swissbäkers, opens its doors.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hello again, climate change

    Superstorm Sandy’s hurricane winds and torrential downpours killed at least 106 people, left millions without power, and caused billions of dollars in damage. It also got people talking again about climate change.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pecking order

    Harvard researchers have found that a new investigation of tissues and signaling pathways in finches’ beaks reveals surprising flexibility in the birds’ evolutionary tool kit.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Thou shall be inventive’

    Chef-mixologist Dave Arnold and kitchen science author Harold McGee kicked off the third season of the “Science and Cooking” lecture series, looking at both the history and versatility of food.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Clues in the cucumber’s climb

    Harvard researchers, captivated by a strange coiling behavior in the grasping tendrils of the cucumber plant, have characterized a new type of spring that is soft when pulled gently and stiff when pulled strongly.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Feeding culinary curiosity

    A summer program aims to teach local schoolchildren that the kitchen and the laboratory — both intimidating places to newcomers — are a great place to explore their natural curiosity, and to learn lifelong healthy habits, too.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Artificial jellyfish swims in a heartbeat

    A team of researchers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology has turned inanimate silicon and living cardiac muscle cells into a freely swimming “jellyfish.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Touch, drag, learn

    Research by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggests that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond play.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Meticulous design

    A recent SEAS workshop emphasized comprehensive planning, cultural awareness, and a holistic approach to design in developing solutions to global problems.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Degrees of success

    A breakdown of degrees awarded at Harvard’s 361st Commencement.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Ahead of the learning curve

    From the $40 million Hauser gift to support teaching and learning initiatives to the recent announcement of the global online platform edX, Harvard tackled the future of higher education head-on in 2011-12. As the University’s 375th anniversary draws to a close, the Gazette asked some prescient professors: “What’s the one big idea that will transform…

    16 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sharing design, in all its forms

    The first Design Fair at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) displayed the wealth of ideas that have emerged at SEAS throughout this past academic year.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Self-assembly as a guide

    Vinothan Manoharan, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and physics at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, wants to make self-assembly — when particles interact with one another and spontaneously arrange themselves into organized structures — happen in the laboratory to treat life-threatening diseases or manufacture useful objects.

    4 minutes