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Tech Connection - A monthly e-newsletter for MIT Alumni

April 2007

	SPOTLIGHTS
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In This Issue:

Watch Domo, an Interactive Robot, Help Others

MIT researchers are developing an intelligent, robotic helper--a humanoid called Domo who can respond to touch and place objects accurately. A robot like Domo could some day help the elderly with household tasks like putting away dishes or work interactively with people on an assembly line, says Aaron Edsinger EE '01, an MIT postdoctoral associate, pictured right with Domo. Watch YouTube videos of Domo making a drink and helping clean up.

CAMPUS NEWS

• MIT Admits Class of 2011; Ranks 7th in Parents' Choice
  Get the stats on the 1,533 students admitted to the freshman class. And learn what schools topped MIT in a Princeton Review survey of dream schools as ranked by parents and students.

• Free Site Gives the Buzz on Business School Applications
  Sloan MBA '07 students Tom Duterme and Jose Almirall have created a Web site, MBA Buzz, that demystifies the stressful process of applying to business schools and helps applicants determine their chances of getting into their preferred school.

• Imagining MIT as an Architectural Revolution
  A new book, Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century, provides an inside view of the billion-dollar building program, begun in the 1990s, that transformed MIT's dated campus into an architectural showplace. Hear the author, William J. Mitchell, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning during the transformation, at an April 30 book talk on campus.

Shirley Ann Jackson '68 Wins Vannevar Bush Award

Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who has led a national movement to respond to a quiet crisis in the science and engineering work force, will be the first African-American woman to receive the National Science Foundation's Vannevar Bush (Class of 1916) Award for lifetime achievement in May.

Spectrum Profiles International Experiences

An MIT education is global because of the many international students and scholars on campus and because faculty and students are engaged in projects around the globe. The spring issue of Spectrum, a resource development newsletter, profiles students who have worked at a Ferrari plant in Italy, taught villagers to make coal from waste in Ghana, and designed housing solutions for Beijing's huge immigrant population.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

• Lack of Fuel May Limit U.S. Nuclear Power Expansion
  A lack of investment in the nuclear industry over the past 20 years may have a sustained impact on new plans for nuclear power, says an MIT expert on the industry. Limited supplies of fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed and growing interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations.

• Detecting How Brain Folds Develop
  The role of the folded, outer layer of the brains of large mammals remains a mystery. Now a team led by MIT researchers and medical colleagues is using computer graphics and magnetic resonance imaging to observe how those folds develop and decay, a tool that could lead to early diagnosis of neurological disorders such as autism.

• Ocean Model Captures Diversity of Underwater Forests
  MIT scientists have created a model of the ocean that is the first to reflect the vast diversity of the invisible forests there--tiny, single-celled green plants that produce half the oxygen on Earth.

What Matters: Powering Up with Better Hybrids

The Toyota Prius is the poster child of fuel-efficient hybrid transportation, but Rit Booth '74 argues that a parallel technology - flywheel-mechanical hybrid power systems - has the potential to be a better energy storage alternative than electric hybrid systems. Booth, who holds a patent on an innovative power transfer control method, says research funding needs to go to multiple hybrid futures.

MIT World Videos Series: Learning without Barriers / Technology without Borders

In these seven-videos, eminent thinkers reflect on educational challenges. MIT president emeritus Charles Vest argues in Globalization and Higher Education that knowledge sharing is a key response to increasing competition. Hal Abelson, MA '73, professor of computer science, introduces a panel on Effective Examples of Educational Technology.

Get Fresh News from Technology Review

Want updates between the bi-monthly issues of Technology Review? Go to the TR web site and sign up for email newsletters including Emerging Technologies, offered Monday through Friday, or weekly newsletters focusing on Energy, Biotech, Biztech, Nanotech, and Infotech.

Join Friends and Classmates at Technology Day 2007

All alumni are invited to attend Technology Day 2007, June 9, for a presentation by MIT faculty on improving today's sources and uses of energy. Topics include the political context and coordination required for change, better uses of fossil fuel and nuclear energy, and needed improvements in the built environment. Register to attend by clicking on your class year, group, or General Tech Reunion.

EVENTS

• Hockfield Visits Ohio, April 30, Delaware Valley, May 7
  MIT President Susan Hockfield is slated to participate in Northeast Ohio's 100th Anniversary Celebration, April 30, and then to visit the Delaware Valley club meeting, May 7, which will include a talk on the DuPont-MIT Alliance.

• Learn about Student International Development Projects, New York, May 10
  Senior Lecturer and MacArthur Fellow Amy Smith '84 will discuss the student D-Lab Project, which works on international development, appropriate technology, and sustainable solutions for communities in developing countries.

• MIT Enterprise Forum Broadcast on A.B.L.E. Tech, June 6
  How can the latest technologies and developments provide better life experiences for elderly, injured, and disabled people? Find out from members of the MIT Media Lab and noted inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen at the next MIT EF Global Broadcast, "A.B.L.E. Tech," on June 6th. Register today to attend live at MIT or a local viewing site or learn how to set up a live viewing location anywhere: 617-253-0015 or mitef@mit.edu.

Shifting Locales? You Can Add a Seasonal Address Online

Now you can add your seasonal address to your Infinite Connection information so you can receive notices of local events and postal mail from MIT at your new location.

About Tech Connection

Tech Connection, a monthly e-newsletter for alumni and friends of MIT, is available in HTML and text-only formats. Please email mitalum@mit.edu to request the text-only format or to subscribe.

Please email comments to:
Nancy DuVergne Smith
Editorial Director
MIT Alumni Association