http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2941/what-secret-technology-is-darpa-hiding-from-us
Funny column–“As to whether your rail gun would win the science fair, I’d say that would depend where you pointed it, wouldn’t you?,” indeed.
Last year the agency examined social networking as a high-speed information conduit with its Network Challenge, in which contestants were encouraged to use sites such as Facebook and Twitter to locate ten giant red balloons tethered around the U.S. Displaying the instinct for simplicity that marks true genius, the winners, a team from MIT, completed the challenge in less than nine hours by offering cash bounties for balloon info.
The beer cooler high atmosphere camera kit is another recent offering from the MIT lads. What other cool things have they done?
MIT is famous for what are known as Hacks