There's a surprisingly competitive global race on to grow a 3,000-pound pumpkin. Ian (left) and Stuart Paton pose with a giant pumpkin in their nursery in the New Forest, Hampshire. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The pumpkin's name was Muggle and it weighed as much as a bull moose. At 2,819 pounds and over 21 feet in circumference, this enormous gourd claimed the dual titles of "heaviest pumpkin" and "largest pumpkin by circumference" in the on October 4, 2025.

Brandon Dawson's prize-winning pumpkin weighs as much as a bison. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. After narrowly missing the title last year, electrical vehicle engineer Brandon Dawson won the top prize at the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. His humongous gourd weighed a staggering 2,346 pounds. The annual pumpkin weighing contest has been likened to the Super Bowl of pumpkin growing.

Robots are already adept at certain things, such as lifting objects that are too heavy or cumbersome for people to manage. Another application they're well suited for is the precision assembly of items like watches that have large numbers of tiny parts -- some so small they can barely be seen with the naked eye. "Much harder are tasks that require situational awareness, involving almost instantaneous adaptations to changing circumstances in the environment," explains Theodoros Stouraitis, a visiting scientist in the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). "Things become even more complicated when a robot has to interact with a human and work together to safely and successfully complete a task," adds Shen Li, a PhD candidate in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Li and Stouraitis -- along with Michael Gienger of the Honda Research Institute Europe, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar of the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Julie A. Shah of MIT, who directs the Interactive Robotics Group -- have selected a problem that offers, quite literally, an armful of challenges: designing a robot that can help people get dressed.

Robots are already adept at certain things, such as lifting objects that are too heavy or cumbersome for people to manage. Another application they're well suited for is the precision assembly of items like watches that have large numbers of tiny parts--some so small they can barely be seen with the naked eye. "Much harder are tasks that require situational awareness, involving almost instantaneous adaptations to changing circumstances in the environment," explains Theodoros Stouraitis, a visiting scientist in the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). "Things become even more complicated when a robot has to interact with a human and work together to safely and successfully complete a task," adds Shen Li, a Ph.D. candidate in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Li and Stouraitis--along with Michael Gienger of the Honda Research Institute Europe, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar of the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Julie A. Shah of MIT, who directs the Interactive Robotics Group--have selected a problem that offers, quite literally, an armful of challenges: designing a robot that can help people get dressed. Last year, Li and Shah and two other MIT researchers completed a project involving robot-assisted dressing without sleeves.