Jun 8
Breakerspace Image Contest Runner-up: Best Optical Microscope Image
Graciela Rodriguez’s image of the nib of an Esterbrook J Series fountain pen, produced between 1948 and 1957. View all winners and runners-up: buff.ly/i7IYbNZ
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Jun 6
Campus Preview Weekend brought prospective students to pumpkin smashing in the Breakerspace. Since pumpkins aren’t in season, DMSE students carved—and mechanically tested—squash instead.
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May 19
Breakerspace Image Contest Winner: Best Optical Microscope Image
Kevin Shen’s silicon wafer displays geometric shapes that seem computer-generated. The image reflects ingenuity in fabricating and visualizing flawless structures at tiny scales. View all: buff.ly/y1gtG1E
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Feb 18
Students in 3.000 (Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup) explore coffee aromas, learn how beans are processed, and compare Arabica and Robusta varieties.
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4 Dec 2025
Materials Week at DMSE brought materials science and engineering to life with a full slate of dynamic events, including lectures, a holographic rainbow chocolate workshop, materials trivia, Breakerspace tours, and more.
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14 Jun 2025
Pivotal day for both BreakerSpace (first product demo, with engineering samples) and SOLVENERGY (first all hands, with 3 'official' languages).
It's like baby's first kick... except, it's twins!
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5 May 2025
The @MIT_DMSE Breakerspace displayed winning images from the inaugural Breakerspace Microscope Image Contest, which invited all MIT undergraduates to train on microscopic instruments, explore material samples, and capture images.
news.mit.edu/2025/breakerspa…
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12 Apr 2025
Breakerspace Image Contest Runner-Up: Best Optical Microscope Image
Eye cells of a housefly by Robert Sansone. See all winning images: buff.ly/ntr9oEQ
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8 Apr 2025
Breakerspace Image Contest Runner-Up: Best Electron Microscope Image
Anna Beck's high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fibers from a torn event wristband. See all winning images: buff.ly/n93xiQp
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28 Mar 2025
Breakerspace Image Contest Winner: Best Electron Microscope Image
Mishael Quraishi captured the flower Alstroemeria and its pollen-bearing structure, the anther. See all winning images: buff.ly/JzYIlZ2
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24 Mar 2025
Breakerspace Image Contest Winner: Most Challenging Image
Nelushi Vithanachchi’s micro MIT: A tiny replica of the Great Dome sculpted into silicon carbide using focused ion beam. See all winning images: buff.ly/RNH1SmN
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20 Mar 2025
Breakerspace Image Contest Winner: Most Instructive Image
Amelia How’s fractograph of a titanium alloy showing a partially brittle, partially ductile fracture caused by electrochemical hydrogen embrittlement. See all winning images: buff.ly/Qf0ZYim
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5 Mar 2025
Undergraduate Andi Qu had doubts about whether an online order of silk scarves were genuine. Thanks to DMSE’s Breakerspace, he was able to use a Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer to examine the material without damaging the scarves. buff.ly/4ifyA4S
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10 Feb 2025
DMSE’s Professor Jeffrey Grossman speaks with @NBC10Boston about his class 3.000 (Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup). Watch the interview here: buff.ly/40M4vTj
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30 Jan 2025
DMSE’s Professor Jeffrey Grossman speaks about “Coffee Matters,” a new class that uses the department’s Breakerspace laboratory to explore the science of coffee extraction, flavor compounds, and brewing techniques. Read the @BostonGlobe story here: buff.ly/3Cuk6yI
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17 Dec 2024
Taught by DMSE's Professor Jeffrey Grossman, new MIT undergraduate class 3.000 (Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup) debuted in spring 2024 and blends science, hands-on experimentation, and a love for coffee to fuel curiosity. buff.ly/3BxA0YF
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12 Jun 2024
The grad-student-run science discovery program EMERGE that trained local students on electron microscopes in November returned this spring, this time in the DMSE Breakerspace. @MITESatMIT buff.ly/4cgNgh8
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24 May 2024
Stay up to date with DMSE's Frontiers newsletter. In the upcoming spring issue: startups making clean steel and storing renewable energy; a counterintuitive finding about metals; and high school microscopy class in the Breakerspace. Sign up: buff.ly/49LYOb7
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2 Feb 2024
AeroPress coffee makers and electronic coffee scales await students taking the debut 3.000 (Coffee Matters)—materials science through brewing, sipping, and testing coffee and espresso—in the DMSE Breakerspace.
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4 Jan 2024
The opening of DMSE's new Breakerspace, an undergraduate materials lab available institute-wide, was highlighted in MIT's community year in review for 2023. See what else made the list: buff.ly/3TENngf
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