
A Nature Lover’s Journey in Cambridge
How MIT changed my perspective on little things
Are you a nature lover? I sure am, and I only realized how important it was to me when I moved to Cambridge after being admitted to the PhD program in the MIT’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences department. I felt nature deprived for quite some time before experiencing a shift in my perspective. Before coming […]

The Vicious Cycle of Boston Leases
New Year, New Lease
Raise your hand if you hate moving! The Greater Boston Area, especially lovely places such as Allston, Cambridge, and Somerville, can be quite a painful place August 31st when most housing rental leases end. For one night, until the new lease begins on September 1st, many people become practically homeless — or worse, many students […]

The Pod Leader Experience
Mentoring for the MIT Summer Research Program
Every year, the Office of Graduate Education (OGE) hosts around 40 undergraduate students from around the country to engage in meaningful research at MIT during the summer. This effort, called the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), aims to provide underrepresented minorities an opportunity to conduct research at world-renowned labs on campus. The cohort consists of […]

When Science Is More Art than Science
Or how I learnt to start worrying and stop loving science
Maybe climate change is a hoax and vaccinations cause autism. Maybe 9/11 was an inside job, the earth is as flat as my grandma’s pancake, pineapple belongs on a pizza, and you should switch to Geico. Just maybe. Being the curious species that we are, we have to entertain all possibilities, even if they sound […]

Graduate Student becomes Chickpea Master Masher
Finding new skills in unfamiliar places
I am sitting at my desk, debugging some code that does not seem to work. The week has been tiring, to say the least. But next week is Brunch Week! When I first joined MIT, I was plagued by the usual imposter syndrome. This fear of not fitting in not only impacted my work, but […]