Culture Goes Beyond Your Lab
When I started grad school, I met the other graduate students in the lab – most of whom, unlike me, had not gone to MIT for undergrad. We had conversations…
Working from 0 to 1 instead of from n to n+1
After pondering for a long time whether I should choose an academic career, I started to rediscover the motivation that originally led me to become a scientist: asking new questions…
Are You Smart Enough to Be at MIT?
The Letter: It is mid-April. You receive an email from the MIT graduate office congratulating you on your admission to MIT. You are overjoyed. You tell your family and friends…
Staying Sane
Brainstorming the challenges of an upcoming graduate school? Let me help. Soon after grad school kicked off I started hearing complaints from my classmates about how insanely intense the workload…
When It’s Hard to Talk
I walk into a meeting with my advisor. I’ve met him before, but this is our first meeting since I joined his lab. He is a leader in the field,…
Fiddling through Grad School
“Do you want to get lunch this weekend?” “Can we get dinner instead? I have a violin class in the afternoon.” You can do that as a grad student? Wow.…
The Risks of Speaking Up
Ping – a new email in my inbox. It was a reminder that I had signed up for the “MIT Can Talk” Oratory Competition, taking place tomorrow. The email window…
Starting Over Summer
Out of school for a year, I was not sure if I could fit in classes, choosing a lab, doing research, and settling down in a new country all at…
Not a Contradiction
“You know,” my wife said, “For our kids, MIT won’t be this abstract place they hear about sometimes in the news. It’ll be home: where they learned to ride their…
The Wonderful World of Procrasti-Baking
You have spent days – maybe even weeks – planning the perfect experiment. You have gathered all the materials you need, written down the protocol in your lab notebook, and…
Exploring Scientific Boundaries
I was recently asked by a colleague of mine here at MIT whether I thought that urban planning and design could be considered true science. His point was that the…
The Yellow Zone
In my very first lecture at MIT Sloan School of Management, a professor started class with a drawing of a huge three-ring target. The bullseye was colored green, the middle…
Don’t Study; Imagine
When I was quite young I asked my mother if I could take apart a VCR – a relic of the old times when movies came from video rental stores…
Doggos or Manatees?
This past fall, I challenged myself and hopped on the machine learning bandwagon. It’s been quite the ride. For those not familiar with the field, machine learning is essentially the…
Where Are All the Engineers in Congress
The United States has elected one of the most anti-science Congresses in the democratic world. Mainstream leaders unabashedly espouse scientifically untenable positions in areas such as climate change, vaccinations, and…
Linguistics Is Basically Physics
“Would they hire you to talk to aliens?” “That’s so funny I have a friend who studies French literature!” “So what do you think of Chomsky’s political views?” “Linguistics? At…
Finding Work-Life Balance Through Sport
After a long day of class or research in lab, there is no better feeling than walking across campus to soccer practice. The stress of the day melts away as…
Passing on the Fountain of Knowledge
As soon as I officially started as a grad student in the Media Arts & Sciences program, I was paired with a more experienced graduate student in the lab to…
My First Desk on Campus
The key to my new student office finally arrived in the mailbox. On my first day as a graduate student of the linguistics program, I found my way to the…
Policy Debate vs. Research
Unlike many of my fellow graduate students in computer science who have been doing programming and math competitions since high school (or potentially earlier), I spent six years in middle…
Getting Your Hands Dirty
How often have you stared at a blackboard wondering whether the formulae you’re seeing will ever be useful in a practical real-life setting? Ever wondered what’s the use of welding…
Shaping Another Person’s Decision
After just 30 days of officially starting grad school in the Synthetic Neurobiology group at the Media Lab, my advisor asked me to help interview a couple of rotation students…
Good Ideas
Even at MIT, good ideas don’t grow on trees. Instead, I’ve found that good ideas have two ingredients: preparation and practice. 1. Preparation. The act of acquiring new knowledge…
Do What You’re (Not) Good At
“What do you want to work on?” This is one of the most expected–and sometimes dreaded–questions that prospective graduate students encounter during the interview process. Because, as they say,…
From Portugal to MIT
I have been a visiting PhD student at MIT since February, coming from a PhD program called MIT Portugal. This is a collaboration between several Portuguese universities and MIT. Some…
Why Would You Want to Do a PhD?
If you are reading this blog post, there is a good chance that you are thinking about a PhD, possibly at MIT. But MIT or not, almost every doctoral program…
In Pursuit of Riches
I am a poor grad student. And I don’t mean in the classic, monetary sense. (Although, let’s be real, what grad student isn’t poor?) I am ‘poor’ in the currency…
A Tale of Two Responsibilities
“So all my office plants died from how high the heat’s turned up.” “Wait. You mean your succulents?” “Yeah. The ones I specifically got for their drought and heat resistance.”…
Learning to Engage in Deep Conversations
In the third year of my PhD, two things happened that dramatically changed the way I see the world: I took MIT’s 40-hour conflict management course in my training to…
MIT Graduate Housing
During my interview weekend at MIT, I went on a brief housing tour of three MIT graduate housing residences that current students lived in. One student proclaimed her room was…
Beyond the Dorms
When I committed to attending MIT for graduate school, I was ecstatic. I immediately began planning out my courses, researching clubs on campus, and looking up potential advisers. But wait,…
The Mysterious Markings on the Bridge to MIT
A bridge: “a structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). As a daily pedestrian across one such bridge (the Harvard bridge, spanning the Charles…
What’s the PC Term for Santa?
The US is often dubbed the land of the free. As someone who was raised in the Middle East, arguably a place not as free, Americans have always seemed to…
Introductions
As a military brat, growing up was often an exercise in how to exist in the in-between. Moving every two years fostered a patchwork identity that seemed too foreign for…
Addir
Every Monday night, I shuffle down Mass Ave, past the towering columns of MIT’s entrance to a small unassuming building almost directly across the street. Inside I meet with a…
