Modern fabrication tools such as 3D printers can make structural materials in shapes that would have been difficult or impossible using conventional tools. Meanwhile, new generative design systems can take great advantage of this flexibility to create innovative designs for parts of a new building, car, or virtually any other device. But such "black box" automated systems often fall short of producing designs that are fully optimized for their purpose, such as providing the greatest strength in proportion to weight or minimizing the amount of material needed to support a given load. Fully manual design, on the other hand, is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Now, researchers at MIT have found a way to achieve some of the best of both of these approaches.

You die at the beginning of Mass Effect 2. It's 2183, and you--Commander Shepard--have just saved every space-faring species in the Milky Way from an extra-galactic threat. In the resulting explosion, you're flung into the void, drifting as you struggle to breathe. The military logs you as "killed in action." But of course, a deceased protagonist does not a sequel make. Your corpse is soon found and brought back to life. Much of the work seems automated.