Three MIT affiliates receive Schmidt awards
Two MIT faculty were recently honored by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt. MathWorks Professor Jörn Dunkel received the 2023 Schmidt Science Polymath award, and professor of computational cognitive science Josh Tenenbaum was named a Schmidt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow. Also winning a Schmidt Science Polymath award was Surya Ganguli ’98, MNG […]
Peer coaching helps graduate students thrive
Eventually she became aware that her PhD was taking longer than average, which fueled her doubts. When the pandemic delayed her research, she worried about falling even further behind. Then, in the spring of 2020, she got an email about the launch of the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Coaching Program for students. Her first reaction was, […]
Working to beat the clock on climate change
“There’s so much work ahead of us and so many obstacles in the way,” said Raisa Lee, director of project development with Clearway Energy Group, an independent clean power producer. But, added Lee, “It’s most important to focus on finding spaces and people so we can foster growth and support each other — the power […]
Celebrating diversity and cultural connections
The aroma of global delicacies filled MIT’s Bush Room, as students made cultural connections and answered trivia questions at the third “Heritage Meets Heritage” event. The event is organized by MIT Global Languages, and has become a tradition. It was first held in spring 2022, and again that fall. The third event, held Oct. 19, […]
Aging Brain Initiative symposium showcases “cutting-edge” research across MIT
Spanning computer science, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, neuroscience, and other disciplines, presenters at MIT’s Aging Brain Initiative Symposium Oct. 23 delivered a rich and diverse sampling of the university’s research to address a major global problem: neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “We still don’t completely understand the mechanism underlying the […]
Five MIT affiliates receive awards from the American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) recently honored five MIT community members for their contributions to physics: Professor Wit Busza, Instructor Karol Bacik, postdocs Cari Cesarotti and Chao Li, and Pablo Gaston Debenedetti SM ’81, PhD ’85. Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics Wit Busza, the Francis L. Friedman Professor of Physics Emeritus, and a researcher in the Laboratory […]
Rewarding excellence in open data
The second annual MIT Prize for Open Data, which included a $2,500 cash prize, was recently awarded to 10 individual and group research projects. Presented jointly by the School of Science and the MIT Libraries, the prize highlights the value of open data — research data that is openly accessible and reusable — at the Institute. The […]
Future Leaders in Aerospace prepares the next generation for research careers
MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) recently hosted the 2023 Future Leaders in Aerospace Symposium, inviting women and underrepresented minorities in aerospace fields to campus for a two-day program. The symposium was open to applications from recent graduates and students within one to two years of earning their PhD, with the goal of helping […]
Collective Bargaining Agreement Updates
Get collective bargaining agreement updates on the OVC website here.
Materials science and engineering career fair connects students with industry opportunities
Students in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) got to mingle with potential employers interested in their specific skills this fall when the department held its first DMSE Career Fair. More than 20 companies, organizations, and laboratories set up booths in Walker Memorial on Oct. 20 while undergraduates and graduate students streamed […]
Computational imaging researcher attended a lecture, found her career
Soon after Kristina Monakhova started graduate school, she attended a lecture by Professor Laura Waller ’04, MEng ’05, PhD ’10, director of the University of California at Berkeley’s Computational Imaging Lab, who described a kind of computational microscopy with extremely high image resolution. “The talk blew me away,” says Monakhova, who is currently an MIT-Boeing […]
Kristala Prather named head of the Department of Chemical Engineering
Kristala L. J. Prather ’94, the Arthur Dehon Little Professor, has been named the new head of the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChemE), effective Jan. 1, 2024. “Professor Prather has already demonstrated tremendous leadership in her role as executive officer in ChemE. Her contributions to the department, particularly in navigating challenges throughout the pandemic, have […]
Spoken-word collaboration shows off the MIT community’s musical talents
What do you get when you cross MIT student and alumni raps with other community members’ electronic dance music, rhythmic riddles, and heartfelt love songs? You get MITverses, a new spoken-word musical collaboration sponsored by the MIT Music Production Collaborative. Community members from across the Institute were invited to record their singing, vocal loops, and […]
Meet the 2023 tenured professors in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
In 2023, 11 faculty were granted tenure in the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Isaiah Andrews PhD ’14 is a professor in the Department of Economics. He is an econometrician who develops reliable and broadly applicable methods of statistical inference to address key challenges in economics, social science, and medicine. He is […]
Explained: Generative AI
A quick scan of the headlines makes it seem like generative artificial intelligence is everywhere these days. In fact, some of those headlines may actually have been written by generative AI, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that has demonstrated an uncanny ability to produce text that seems to have been written by a human. But […]
Rita Andrade
Monday: Remote Tuesday: 3-107Wednesday: RemoteThursday: 3-107Friday: Remote I can help you with inquiries regarding any aspect of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
The Beaver visits Father Sky: Meet MIT’s First Nations Launch team
Earlier this year, MIT’s First Nations Launch team participated in the 2023 First Nations Launch, an international NASA-Artemis Student Challenge hosted by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium that focuses on Indigenous representation and science in aerospace engineering through rocketry. It was the first time MIT has ever competed in this challenge, now in its 15th […]
GlycoMIT Symposium celebrates advancements in glycobiology
On Oct. 5, the Department of Chemistry, funded by a generous donation from Frank Laukien ’94, hosted the GlycoMIT Symposium, an interdepartmental celebration of advancements in glycobiology research. Defined broadly by the National Institutes of Health, glycobiology is “the study of the structure, biosynthesis, biology, and evolution of saccharides (also called carbohydrates, sugar chains, or […]
Centering feminism
There’s a black-and-white photo from a 1920s beauty pageant in a gilt frame hanging above the desk in MIT Professor Lerna Ekmekcioglu’s office. The Jazz Age image features white flapper girls in white dresses. There’s an unsettling commonality among the women in the photo. “I found this at a garage sale,” Ekmekcioglu recalls, “and thought […]
Three from MIT named American Physical Society Fellows for 2023
Three members of the MIT faculty have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society (APS) for 2023. The APS Fellowship Program was created in 1921 for those in the physics community to recognize peers who have contributed to advances in physics through original research, innovative applications, teaching, and leadership. According to the APS, each year no […]
Panel examines Israel-Hamas conflict
As the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas unfolds, observers and news reports depict the prospect of a near-term halt in warfare as being unlikely. A panel of experts at an MIT public event on Nov. 1 evaluated the dynamics of the conflict, and discussed the elements that could be necessary for longer-term stability — […]
MIT D-Lab works to empower artisanal women miners in Colombia
In Colombia, approximately 60 percent of gold extraction originates from an informal sector known as artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Among them are “las chatarreras,” women who arrive early in the morning at the mines to scavenge and collect rocks or tailings discarded by male miners. Through a project launched in 2020, MIT D-Lab is […]
How to decarbonize the world, at scale
The world in recent years has largely been moving on from debates about the need to curb carbon emissions and focusing more on action — the development, implementation, and deployment of the technological, economic, and policy measures to spur the scale of reductions needed by mid-century. That was the message Robert Stoner, the interim director […]
The City Science Network empowers local communities to collaborate globally
The City Science group at the MIT Media Lab, directed by Principal Research Scientist Kent Larson, launched the City Science Network nine years ago to create sister labs around the world that could share data, code, design ideas, and systems for analysis, simulation, and community engagement. Today, 10 affiliated City Science labs are operating in […]
2023-24 Takeda Fellows: Advancing research at the intersection of AI and health
The School of Engineering has selected 13 new Takeda Fellows for the 2023-24 academic year. With support from Takeda, the graduate students will conduct pathbreaking research ranging from remote health monitoring for virtual clinical trials to ingestible devices for at-home, long-term diagnostics. Now in its fourth year, the MIT-Takeda Program, a collaboration between MIT’s School […]
The architecture of serendipity
I have been in the Netherlands for the last 8 years. Starting at MIT did not require me to move immediately since all of my classes are still online. However, even without making the move to Boston, I did experience the cultural shock of MIT. MIT has a special quality and that special something finds […]
Generating opportunities with generative AI
Talking with retail executives back in 2010, Rama Ramakrishnan came to two realizations. First, although retail systems that offered customers personalized recommendations were getting a great deal of attention, these systems often provided little payoff for retailers. Second, for many of the firms, most customers shopped only once or twice a year, so companies didn’t […]
The power of representation and connectivity in STEM education
On Oct. 13 and 14 at the Wong Auditorium at MIT, an event called Bridging Talents and Opportunities took place. It was part of an initiative led by MIT Latinx professors and students aimed at providing talented Latinx high school students from the greater Boston area and various Latin American countries a unique chance to […]
Forging climate connections across the Institute
Climate change is the ultimate cross-cutting issue: Not limited to any one discipline, it ranges across science, technology, policy, culture, human behavior, and well beyond. The response to it likewise requires an all-of-MIT effort. Now, to strengthen such an effort, a new grant program spearheaded by the Climate Nucleus, the faculty committee charged with the […]
Designing cleaner vehicles
Adi Mehrotra knew that his time at MIT wasn’t up yet when he finished his undergraduate degree in 2022. During his first four years at the Institute, he was a critical member of the Solar Electric Vehicle Team (SEVT) and eventually led the group to victory in a five-day, 900-mile race. Later, he translated the […]
Steven Barrett named head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Steven Barrett, the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has been named the new head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), effective Nov. 1. “Professor Barrett is incredibly well-suited to serve as leader of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Having served as associate department head since 2021 and interim department head […]
A new record for Math Prize for Girls wins
Florida Virtual School senior Jessica Wan was the winner of the 15th Math Prize for Girls (MP4G) annual contest for female-identifying contestants, held Oct. 6-8 at MIT. She scored 17 out of 20 questions, which added up to make Wan the MP4G’s most successful contestant in its history; she also won the contest last year […]
Jessica Bonitatibus
Monday: Remote Tuesday: 3-107Wednesday: 3-107Thursday: RemoteFriday: 3-107 I can help you with the Graduate Community Fellows program and the Graduate Student Experience Grants program. I love to travel!
Turning engineers into well-rounded communicators
For MIT engineering students and postdocs, tasks like writing grant proposals, applying to jobs, and presenting research findings require not only technical expertise but also the ability to clearly communicate. For the last 10 years, the MIT School of Engineering’s Communication Lab has helped students and postdocs develop those communication skills. Using principles like understanding […]
A kind of person, or kind-of a person?
I close my eyes and imagine a world where I am only this: a violinist on a stage, where the music becomes my everything. I often play this way, temporarily blind to the reality that, after my final note fades, I will spend the rest of tonight staring blankly at a blinking terminal cursor. Music […]
A marvel in masonry shows the art of the possible
In the Hudson River Valley, on a hill inside the Storm King Art Center, a new addition to the country’s leading outdoor sculpture collection was unveiled this fall. “Lookout,” by the eminent American sculptor Martin Puryear, is a beguiling, domed brick structure with confounding curves, a walk-in entrance, and 90 apertures. The sculpture “could be […]
