MIT PKG IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge grants more than $60,000 to student-led teams to address pressing societal issues
Now in its 22nd year, the MIT Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Public Service Center’s IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge has prepared over 200 student-led teams to utilize innovation for social good. In addition to providing over $1.1 million in funding, the PKG Center has enlisted diverse partners to mentor teams in refining and implementing their ideas. […]
Innovators across the world gather at MIT to take their businesses to the next level
A new MIT Bootcamp brought 48 experienced and emerging innovators from six continents to campus as they learned how to scale their ventures. The Venture Advancement Program, which ended on May 12, was organized by MIT Open Learning and delivered a mix of lectures, workshops, and mentoring sessions from leading MIT academics and startup veterans. […]
Bioinspired robotics class offers intriguing surprises
When MIT’s mini cheetah perfectly executed a backflip on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the audience screamed and applauded wildly. If this machine — which also pranced around the stage like a show dog and stretched in several different directions — could perform such a difficult maneuver, one that is impossible for most humans, […]
Polymer Day 2023 showcases interdisciplinary innovation
Chemical “upcycling,” or converting plastics into higher-value products, to the left. Materials that repair damage and restore themselves to the right. Straight ahead: fibers that can be woven into fabrics and used as microphones or loudspeakers. Such was the varied innovation that crowded MIT’s Morss Hall on Polymer Day 2023. Sixty-four teams from schools throughout […]
Suzanne Freeman and Mariel Garcia-Montes receive 2023 Jeanne Guillemin Prize
Suzanne Freeman and Mariel Garcia-Montes are the recipients of this year’s Jeanne Guillemin Prize at the Center for International Studies (CIS). The prize provides financial support to women studying international affairs, a field that has long been dominated by men. Jeanne Guillemin, a veteran colleague at CIS, endowed the fund shortly before her death in 2019. […]
Bringing the social and ethical responsibilities of computing to the forefront
There has been a remarkable surge in the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence to address a wide range of problems and challenges. While their adoption, particularly with the rise of AI, is reshaping nearly every industry sector, discipline, and area of research, such innovations often expose unexpected consequences that involve new norms, new expectations, […]
Meet the tight-knit technical staff who help MIT.nano handle any challenge
When MIT.nano opened in 2018 in Building 12, now the Lisa T. Su Building, it became the new home at MIT for suites of nanoscale characterization and fabrication equipment, including those previously housed in Building 39. And when a core team of people moved along with these tools and instruments, MIT.nano also became the repository […]
From labs to the streets, experts work to defuse childhood threats to mental health
Threats to lifelong mental health can arise for young children from sources including poverty, abuse or neglect at home, and racism, inequity, and pollution outside their doors, but the hopeful message that a range of experts brought to MIT on May 11 was that amid these many risks, approaches to provide effective protections and remedies […]
First MIT Latinx graduation celebration held
With about 200 family members, alumni, faculty, staff, and fellow students looking on, the MIT Latinx Graduate Students Association (LGSA), Latino Cultural Center (LCC), and Latino Alumni of MIT (LAMIT) held the inaugural MIT Latinx Graduation on May 31 at the MIT Media Lab. The celebration acknowledges and honors the achievements of Latinx students graduating from MIT […]
Evolution through example and action
“May we breathe life into the values we espouse as a community,” enjoined Senior Associate Dean Blanche Staton at a recent reception to honor MIT Graduate Women of Excellence. “May we bring our minds, hands, and hearts into our places and spaces, and may we continue to lift up our graduate women and all our […]
New MIT fellowship supports student research on governance innovation with Global South governments
This summer, five MIT graduate students will travel to Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, and Cape Verde as part of a new fellowship to explore how governance innovations are making governments more transparent and accountable to citizens in regions of the world that are underrepresented in global innovation and design research. The students will be embedded within […]
How MIT’s fab labs scaled around the world
What do a student tinkerer in Bhutan, a design professional in Nairobi, and an artist in Brazil have in common? They’re part of a global community of makers benefiting from the fab lab network, which provides the space, equipment, and training to make (almost) anything. Today the fab lab network includes more than 2,500 centers […]
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu asks SA+P advanced degree recipients to be forces for good in Boston and beyond
Evoking the historic impact that the late urban planners and MIT faculty Tunney Lee and Mel King had on the city, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu challenged the 2023 graduates of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) to remember to put people first throughout their careers. “Everything you sketch, plan, shape, and build — the spaces […]
2023 MIT Commencement: Images from social media
The Class of 2023 had much to celebrate this week! We’ve compiled a snapshot of social media posts celebrating the new graduates, their families, their mentors, and others in the MIT community who helped make Commencement a success. MIT commencement speech tomorrow 😬. I’m not promising my graduation hat isn’t gonna fly away 400ft into […]
Academic Integrity: Understanding MIT’s Expectations of You
MIT has strong community values, expectations, and policies that govern all aspects of life here, including how you will complete your coursework and research – and you are expected to know them. What are MIT’s academic values and expectations? How can you learn them and avoid common pitfalls that have gotten other students in trouble […]
Mark Rober tells MIT graduates to throw themselves into the unknown
At today’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony, Mark Rober — engineer, inventor, and YouTuber — urged MIT’s graduating class to cultivate a sense of optimism and collaboration, and, in our uncertain world, to “pick what you think is the best path and just move forward.” A warm and sunny Killian Court served as the setting for a […]
President Sally Kornbluth’s charge to the Class of 2023
Below is the text of President Sally Kornbluth’s Commencement remarks, as prepared for delivery today. Anna, and A.J. – thank you both, for your remarks and for your leadership. There’s an old piece of wisdom from show business: Never follow an act with kids, or animals – or, as we’ve just seen…with Mark Rober! But since […]
MIT Corporation elects eight term members, two life members
The MIT Corporation — the Institute’s board of trustees — has elected eight full-term members, who will serve five- or three-year terms, and two life members. Corporation Chair Diane Greene SM ’78 announced the election results today; all positions are effective July 1. The nine full-term members are: Armen Avanessians ’81; Stephen D. Baker ’84, […]
Driven to driverless
When Cindy Heredia was choosing an MBA program, she knew she wanted to be at the forefront of the autonomous driving industry. While doing research, she discovered that MIT had a unique offering: a student-run driverless team. Heredia applied to MIT to join the team, hoping to get hands-on experience. “My hope is that we’re […]
He made linear algebra fun
The following series of numbers might help to summarize the MIT career of MathWorks Professor of Mathematics Gilbert “Gil” Strang ’55, who taught his last class on May 15. 3+2+61=66, or 75% of his life Strang has spent 66 of his 88 years at MIT — as a student, an instructor, and a faculty member. […]
Professor Emeritus Arnoldo Hax, who reprioritized corporate strategy, dies at 87
Arnoldo Hax, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management and an operations management expert who introduced a customer-centered approach to competitive strategy with his Delta Model, died April 20. He was 87. Hax joined MIT Sloan in 1973 as a member of the Operations Management group. An […]
CoCo: A real-time co-creative learning platform for young people
CoCo is a new co-creative learning platform that empowers educators to engage children and teens in an endless variety of collaborative creative computing experiences with peers — regardless of whether they are sitting next to one another in a classroom or connecting remotely across continents. The platform supports real-time collaboration across multiple types of interactive […]
Join the Grad Blog editorial team!
The MIT Grad Blog serves as an avenue for MIT students to share their experiences with peers and prospective students. As an editor, you would help bloggers like you hone their story into a compelling post. We are looking for strong writers who can edit and collaborate on organizational work for the blog. You will typically spend […]
Join the Grad Blog editorial team!
Dear MIT grad students, We’re excited to announce that the MIT Grad Blog is searching for several new editors! As you all know, the Grad Blog serves as an avenue for MIT students to share their experiences with peers and prospective students. As an editor, you would help bloggers like you hone their story into […]
Help select Committed to Caring profs!
Do you want to help select the next group of faculty honored as Committed to Caring? This program recognizes faculty members who have gone above and beyond to make a positive impact in the lives of graduate students. By joining the selection committee, you can help keep the process student-driven! Your commitment will be to […]
Nominate your caring prof by July 4th!
Do you know a faculty mentor who goes above and beyond to make an impact in the lives of graduate students? Nominate them as a Committed to Caring professor! This is a wonderful way to say thanks for help with professional development, creating a great work environment, or whatever else they do for you and […]
Celebrating the impact of IDSS
The “interdisciplinary approach” is something that has been lauded for decades for its ability to break down silos and create new integrated approaches to research. For Munther Dahleh, founding director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), showing the community that data science and statistics can transcend individual disciplines and form a […]
Tackling the MIT campus’s top energy consumers, building by building
When staff in MIT’s Department of Facilities would visualize energy use and carbon-associated emissions by campus buildings, Building 46 always stood out — attributed to its energy intensity, which accounted for 8 percent of MIT’s total campus energy use. This high energy draw was not surprising, as the building is home of the Brain and […]
Kelsey Merrill ’22, MEng ’23 named to 2023 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll
Kelsey Merrill ’22, MEng ’23, a master’s of engineering student in electrical engineering and computer science, has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) for her outstanding efforts to advance nonpartisan democratic engagement at MIT. She joins 175 students nationwide named to the ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for promoting […]
Civil discourse project to launch at MIT
A new project on civil discourse aims to promote open and civil discussion of difficult topics on the MIT campus. The project, which will launch this fall, includes a speaker series and curricular activities in MIT’s Concourse program for first-year students. MIT philosophers Alex Byrne and Brad Skow from the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy […]
Escape the lab: Summer fun!
In Cambridge, summer is a season you just can’t beat. The sunshine is fierce, radiant, and clarifying. The heat is a welcome break from the chill, damp months of spring and winter. People bloom from the secret recesses of their homes and step out into the light, tentatively blinking, stretching, unfolding. Yet somehow you find […]
MIT community members who work to eradicate sexual violence recognized at 2023 Change-Maker Awards
On April 24, MIT celebrated outstanding students and employees at the annual Change-Maker Awards for their diligent work to eradicate sexual misconduct and support survivors. These architects of positive change exemplify one of MIT’s core values: striving to make our community a more humane and welcoming place where all can thrive. Hosted by MIT Violence […]
Alvaro Sahagun receives the 2023 OGE Service Award at the RISE Awards
A collaborative effort of the Institute Community and Equity Office, Intercultural Engagement (i.e.), LBGTQ+ Services, Office of the First Year, Office of Graduate Education, Office of Minority Education, and Women and Gender Services — the RISE AWARDS celebrates MIT faculty, staff, and students on their work with diversity, inclusion, and social justice on and off […]
Understanding boiling to help the nuclear industry and space missions
To launch extended missions in space, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is borrowing a page from the nuclear engineering industry: It is trying to understand how boiling works. Planning for long-term missions has NASA researching ways of packing the least amount of cryogenic fuel possible for efficient liftoff. One potential solution is to […]
Six ways MIT is taking action on climate
From reuse and recycling to new carbon markets, events during Earth Month at MIT spanned an astonishing range of ideas and approaches to tackling the climate crisis. The MIT Climate Nucleus offered funding to departments and student organizations to develop programming that would showcase the countless initiatives underway to make a better world. Here are […]
First-of-its-kind Indigenous immersive incubator gathers on MIT campus
An historic delegation of 10 Indigenous artists and advisors recently gathered on MIT’s campus to share their work with each other and with the MIT community. The theme of the ISO Indigenous Incubator at MIT gathering was “Indigenous Knowledge and Immersive Technologies.” Led by the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) of Canada and hosted by the […]
