From lattes to legumes: How I found balance in work, life, and finances as a broke grad student
As May came to a close, my bank account delivered a nasty surprise: a balance teetering just above $200 – starkly contrasted by a credit card bill that could make anyone wince. This gut-punch is all too familiar for grad students like me who are trying to make ends meet on a student stipend in […]
Graduate Fellowships — General Overview Webinar 1
Why are fellowships great? What is the application process? What are the types of resources available? Highlight: Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund Fellowship, Regeneron Prize, and OGE Competitive Fellowships.
Hank Green to deliver MIT’s 2025 Commencement address
Hank Green, a prolific digital content creator and entrepreneur with the ethos “make things, learn stuff,” will deliver the address at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 29. Since the 1990s, Green has launched, built, and sustained a wide-ranging variety of projects, from videos to podcasts to novels, many featuring STEM-related topics and a […]
Grad Blog Workshop: Apply by Jan. 6
Have something to say? Blog about it! The MIT Grad Blog is excited to announce its upcoming IAP workshop on blog writing. Please fill out this application by Monday, January 6. You must be available for both sessions. This hands-on workshop will train you how to write an enticing blog post, with individualized feedback from communication staff from across the […]
Transforming fusion from a scientific curiosity into a powerful clean energy source
If you’re looking for hard problems, building a nuclear fusion power plant is a pretty good place to start. Fusion — the process that powers the sun — has proven to be a difficult thing to recreate here on Earth despite decades of research. “There’s something very attractive to me about the magnitude of the […]
Daniela Rus wins John Scott Award
Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was recently named a co-recipient of the 2024 John Scott Award by the board of directors of City Trusts. This prestigious honor, steeped in historical significance, celebrates scientific innovation at the very location where American […]
Introducing MIT HEALS, a life sciences initiative to address pressing health challenges
At MIT, collaboration between researchers working in the life sciences and engineering is a frequent occurrence. Under a new initiative launched last week, the Institute plans to strengthen and expand those collaborations to take on some of the most pressing health challenges facing the world. The new MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative, or MIT HEALS, […]
Have something to say or share? Then blog about it!
Hi MIT Grads! The MIT Grad Blog is excited to announce its upcoming IAP workshop on blog writing. In brief, Attend a 2-day blogging workshop: January 14 and 16, 11am-1pm. Write one blog submission Earn $100 upon completion of post Continue writing for the blog and earn $100 per piece Your work will be eligible for […]
Want to design the car of the future? Here are 8,000 designs to get you started.
Car design is an iterative and proprietary process. Carmakers can spend several years on the design phase for a car, tweaking 3D forms in simulations before building out the most promising designs for physical testing. The details and specs of these tests, including the aerodynamics of a given car design, are typically not made public. […]
MIT delegation mainstreams biodiversity conservation at the UN Biodiversity Convention, COP16
For the first time, MIT sent an organized engagement to the global Conference of the Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity, which this year was held Oct. 21 to Nov. 1 in Cali, Colombia. The 10 delegates to COP16 included faculty, researchers, and students from the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), the Department of […]
Discovering the freedom and fun of art without rules
When I stepped into my first glass torchwork class at Metropolis, one of MIT’s makerspaces, I expected to learn a new type of art. I did not expect my experiences with glass to change the way I organize my life. In my first class, my attempts to create a marble resulted in an unintentional and […]
A new way to create realistic 3D shapes using generative AI
Creating realistic 3D models for applications like virtual reality, filmmaking, and engineering design can be a cumbersome process requiring lots of manual trial and error. While generative artificial intelligence models for images can streamline artistic processes by enabling creators to produce lifelike 2D images from text prompts, these models are not designed to generate 3D […]
From refugee to MIT graduate student
Mlen-Too Wesley has faded memories of his early childhood in Liberia, but the sharpest one has shaped his life. Wesley was 4 years old when he and his family boarded a military airplane to flee the West African nation. At the time, the country was embroiled in a 14-year civil war that killed approximately 200,000 people, displaced about […]
A data designer driven to collaborate with communities
It is fairly common in public discourse for someone to announce, “I brought data to this discussion,” thus casting their own conclusions as empirical and rational. It is less common to ask: Where did the data come from? How was it collected? Why is there data about some things but not others? MIT Associate Professor […]
A scientist’s guide to French macarons
I do not consider myself a baker. I couldn’t tell you the difference between baking soda and baking powder. Do I know the basic ingredients that go into a cake or chocolate chip cookie? No. But do I have a big sweet tooth? Also no. For some inexplicable reason, though, I have become obsessed with […]
MIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 14th annual Executive Visit Days
From Oct. 21 to 22, a delegation of 21 MIT students and one postdoc met in Washington for the 14th Executive Visit Days (ExVD). Organized by the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) and the MIT Washington Office, ExVD enables students to engage with officials and scientists from federal agencies. Students are given a platform to form […]
Troy Van Voorhis to step down as department head of chemistry
Troy Van Voorhis, the Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor of Chemistry, will step down as department head of the Department of Chemistry at the end of this academic year. Van Voorhis has served as department head since 2019, previously serving the department as associate department head since 2015. “Troy has been an invaluable […]
Improving health, one machine learning system at a time
Captivated as a child by video games and puzzles, Marzyeh Ghassemi was also fascinated at an early age in health. Luckily, she found a path where she could combine the two interests. “Although I had considered a career in health care, the pull of computer science and engineering was stronger,” says Ghassemi, an associate professor in […]
Professor Emeritus James Harris, a scholar of Spanish language, dies at 92
James Wesley “Jim” Harris PhD ’67, professor emeritus of Spanish and linguistics, passed away on Nov. 10. He was 92. Harris attended the University of Georgia, the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He later earned a master’s degree in linguistics from Louisiana State University and a […]
To design better water filters, MIT engineers look to manta rays
Filter feeders are everywhere in the animal world, from tiny crustaceans and certain types of coral and krill, to various molluscs, barnacles, and even massive basking sharks and baleen whales. Now, MIT engineers have found that one filter feeder has evolved to sift food in ways that could improve the design of industrial water filters. […]
New solar projects will grow renewable energy generation for four major campus buildings
In the latest step to implement commitments made in MIT’s Fast Forward climate action plan, staff from the Department of Facilities; Office of Sustainability; and Environment, Health and Safety Office are advancing new solar panel installations this fall and winter on four major campus buildings: The Stratton Student Center (W20), the Dewey Library building (E53), […]
A vision for U.S. science success
White House science advisor Arati Prabhakar expressed confidence in U.S. science and technology capacities during a talk on Wednesday about major issues the country must tackle. “Let me start with the purpose of science and technology and innovation, which is to open possibilities so that we can achieve our great aspirations,” said Prabhakar, who is […]
Catherine Wolfram: High-energy scholar
In the mid 2000s, Catherine Wolfram PhD ’96 reached what she calls “an inflection point” in her career. After about a decade of studying U.S. electricity markets, she had come to recognize that “you couldn’t study the energy industries without thinking about climate mitigation,” as she puts it. At the same time, Wolfram understood that […]
A model of virtuosity
A crowd gathered at the MIT Media Lab in September for a concert by musician Jordan Rudess and two collaborators. One of them, violinist and vocalist Camilla Bäckman, has performed with Rudess before. The other — an artificial intelligence model informally dubbed the jam_bot, which Rudess developed with an MIT team over the preceding several […]
Howard University
Join us for an informational to learn about the opportunities for prospective students at MIT. Hear about the MIT Summer Research Program, graduate programs, and fee waivers!
2024 MIT Media Lab: MOSAIC
Are you curious about cutting-edge research and technology? Would you like to connect with other multicultural students who are passionate about inclusion and community at MIT? Are you looking for ways to get involved with the Media Lab – one of MIT’s most innovative environments? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then we’ve […]
Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang wins 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition
Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang, a doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, recently won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition, medaling in both the Graduate and People’s Choice categories for developing materials to stabilize nutrients in food with the goal of improving global health. The annual competition, organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame […]
Dancing with currents and waves in the Maldives
Any child who’s spent a morning building sandcastles only to watch the afternoon tide ruin them in minutes knows the ocean always wins. Yet, coastal protection strategies have historically focused on battling the sea — attempting to hold back tides and fighting waves and currents by armoring coastlines with jetties and seawalls and taking sand […]
School of Engineering faculty receive awards in summer 2024
Faculty and researchers receive many external awards throughout the year. The MIT School of Engineering periodically highlights the honors, prizes, and medals won by community members working in academic departments, labs, and centers. Summer 2024 honorees include the following: Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, professor of brain and […]
Stopping the bomb
“The question behind my doctoral research is simple,” says Kunal Singh, an MIT political science graduate student in his final year of studies. “When one country learns that another country is trying to make a nuclear weapon, what options does it have to stop the other country from achieving that goal?” While the query may […]
Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT
In 1867, five Japanese students took a long sea voyage to Massachusetts for some advanced schooling. The group included a 13-year-old named Eiichirō Honma, who was from one of the samurai families that ruled Japan. Honma expected to become a samurai warrior himself, and enrolled in a military academy in Worcester. And then some unexpected things […]
From “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” to PhD life
Although this is my first year in the Boston/Cambridge area as a PhD student, I actually moved here back in 2021, when the pandemic was still in full swing. I reasoned that even if I didn’t get into MIT, I would like to fulfill a childhood dream of living here that I’ve had since about […]
Graph-based AI model maps the future of innovation
Imagine using artificial intelligence to compare two seemingly unrelated creations — biological tissue and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9.” At first glance, a living system and a musical masterpiece might appear to have no connection. However, a novel AI method developed by Markus J. Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental […]
Faces of MIT: Gene Keselman
Gene Keselman wears a lot of hats. He is a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the executive director of Mission Innovation Experimental (MIx), and managing director of MIT’s venture studio, Proto Ventures. Colonel in the Air Force Reserves at the Pentagon, board director, and startup leader are only a few of the […]
Bridging military service and engineering
For graduate students Kelsey Pittman and Jacqueline Orr, service in the U.S. military led to their interest in engineering, and to the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). Pittman’s first exposure to the military and engineering took place during her undergraduate years at the United States Military Academy West Point. “I remember back […]
Summer from the Sloan Building
As you walk from Boston to the MIT Dome, you will encounter the famous bridge measured in smoots. At 182.2 smoots ± 1 ear, you will see “HALFWAY TO HELL” written on the concrete. As I read this phrase, I thought to myself that it must be vandalism. Only after the summer term did it […]
