Frontiers in Technology
Technology Office
Promoting Innovative R&D for Today and the Future
Investments cultivated and managed by the Technology Office support the long view of technology for national security. Novel, impactful projects, many of which take a decade or more to come to fruition, push the very frontiers of technology development. We also focus on fostering innovation and creative thinking, both of which are essential to sustaining long-term technical excellence and relevance.
Technology Office Frontiers
The Technology Office works to enhance inventiveness and innovation at the Laboratory through various opportunities and Laboratory-wide activities that sustain a culture of creative problem solving and innovative thinking.
Technology Office News
Featured Projects
quantum systems and science
Diamond Magnetometer
Engineered diamonds show promising capability for use in quantum sensing of magnetic fields.
advanced materials
Self-Healing Materials for Vibration Damping
New materials that are chemically inspired by nature could be tailored at the molecular level to dissipate vibrations in microsystems. Materials that can survive repeated external stresses could enable a next generation of enhanced microsystems.
advanced devices
Low-Cost High-Vacuum Pump
A new concept for a low-cost vacuum pump may enable development of a portable mass spectrometer that achieves high-performance chemical detection.
energy
Smart Photovoltaic Microgrids for Cooking in Disadvantaged Communities
By connecting a PV microgrid powered by solar panels to homes, engineers could provide people who live in regions of power-insecurity with the energy to cook their meals. Unused power could be applied to phone-charging stations.
Advancing our Research
Technology Office Challenges
We challenge Laboratory teams to creatively address emerging problems in national security. We present a scenario that reflects a potential problem — for example, how to weed out false news from true reports — and hold a competition between teams who propose plausible, innovative solutions.
Advanced Research Technology Symposium
A student stops at a poster to learn more about the researcher's work.
The Technology Office organizes the Advanced Research Technology Symposium (ARTS), a recurring event held at MIT to connect with academics, students, and entrepreneurs on MIT campus and in the New England area. We seek to encourage and enable the development of advanced technologies in support of national security. The symposium highlights some of the most pressing challenges confronting our nation's security and well-being, and proposes ways advanced technology can help address these challenges. Presentations, poster sessions, and panel discussions engage attendees.