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 Page by Page: The Class of 2006 OnlineWeb sites from graduate students and undergraduates in the Class of 2006 reveal a spirited, productive, quirky, well-traveled bunch. Pictures from Iceland to the arctic seas, America to Oceania populated galleries as well as artful photographs and those of family and friends—even shots of troublesome computer screens. Some sites reflected that quintessential MIT humor, such as the hilarious homemade video, starring numerous students, on Alexandru Salcianu's site about how MIT's food trucks, with "a balanced diet of starch, vegetable, and meat substitute," sustain happy and productive graduate students. Or Kayla Jacobs' documented sightings of a yellow spiky physics hat that provides good Karma for physics tests. Content ranged from lists—concerts attended, music collections, books read, favorite quotes, and more—to a quest for the perfect French bread recipe, a virtual paper doll, and snowflake-generating code. Blogs tended to be more journal-like this year although some students had a different focus. Jameel Khalfan and Zain Gulamali blog about all things fashion. Whether highly designed, content rich, or spare and telling, the Class of 2006's Web sites reflect unique and engaging personalities. Read on to learn more about them.
All About MeColorful design and a unique layout enhance media arts and sciences PhD student Hugo Liu's original content, which includes algorithmic musical compositions, award-winning code that generates snowflakes, a clickable timeline of his research projects with detailed descriptions and visuals, and an intellectual diary. Creative, observant, tingly, and quixotic are just some of the ways brain and cognitive science major Katherine Gallagher describes herself. Her site " Indie Kate" reflects many of these, especially her witty characterizations of friends. Her wish list includes silk long underwear and a subscription to TV Guide, and her list of her passions includes numbers, indie rock, and a "glass of milk so cold and refreshing that your whole chest becomes chilly." Physics major Kayla Jacobs relies, in part, on a yellow spiky physics hat to make her think faster. Learn why and see who else on campus uses the hat's powers. Also read Jacobs' story, "A Tragically Tragic Tragedy," limericks she likes about physics and math, and how she became interested in refrigerator magnets on her spunky site. Barun Singh, a grad student in computer vision and a web designer on the side, presents a clean, well-organized site with links to articles he's written for The Tech newspaper, such as one about a peer support program for grad students and a dwindling list of 43 things he'd like to accomplish, like finish creating his open-source software and write a song. He also includes illustrated lists of books read and favorite music and photos of his pet bunnies. The father of innovism, neuroscience major Daniel Pouzzner, hopes to improve and enlarge civilization through his concept, described as the union of radical pragmatic naturalism with psychological cognitivism. Read a primer on innovism or any number of his essays, ranging from politics to military science and the brain and cognitive sciences. Overworked grad students playfully relieve stress in the video about campus food trucks found on computer science PhD student Alexandru Salcianu's site. He also lists open-source software projects for which he's a contributor/maintainer and interesting quotes from books he's read. Earth, atmospheric, and planetary science graduate student Cegeon Chan's site derived from a productive bout of procrastination. Try his quiz to see how well you know him (hint: he thinks Taco Bell fits nicely into the food pyramid) or link to his weather page for a quick snapshot of the current state of the atmosphere. Share in computer science doctoral student Jason Rennie's quest to perfect his French bread recipe in his journal, pick up new recipes from his chef wife, learn about his college sports rankings system, see his wine ratings, or read any of a number of articles, including "Why Sums are Bad" and "Restaurant Review Problem Statement." Mai's Scribbles v. 8.0, math and electrical engineering and computer science major Mariana Baca's site, melds art and academics in a pleasing way. Check out the patents under her name, including one for a software program "A Flexible History Manager for Manipulating Data and User Actions," and her paintings and sculptures in a variety of media, including pastels, acrylics, steel, glass, and wood. Music is an important part of civil and environmental engineering graduate student Piyush Hari's life. His site includes videos of him in concert singing and playing the guitar and mp3s of his songs. His index page beckons you to enter (you'll have to go there to see), and the site also includes a journal-like blog and academic projects including a picture of temperature-gradient color coding for building 7. Multilingual Alex Ochoa, a biology major, offers his site in Spanish, French, and English and provides an open-source XML code for it. He also archives hundreds of photos, ranging from a lovely panoramic of Killian Court in winter to a shot of the blue screen of death he encountered while having computer problems. Kenneth Barr's straightforward organization divided into work and play offers a glimpse of the EECS doctoral student's time at MIT and at the University of Michigan. View extensive photo galleries, lists of his favorite movies, a page detailing an iPod problem his quest for a fix, and solutions to problems people approach him with, such as installing and coping with Linux and Pintools for cache simulation.
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Copyright ©2006 Massachusetts
Institute of Technology