April / May 2008

Balance

Maintaining a satisfying equilibrium can be a challenge, but members of the MIT community achieve an even keel in many facets of life. Learn about the world's first robotic ankle, research into irrational behavior and financial security, MITers walking the halls of justice, and how alumni meld science with religion, motherhood with careers. Even enjoy some Guinness-sized balancing acts.

Work/Life Equilibrium

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/ZoneCreative

Grand pram: student's chaise offers temporary escape
Resembling a baby carriage for grown-ups, Dreaming Lounge offers a way to center students who feel off-balance or who need a break from all the rational knowledge they must absorb.

At the intersection of science and belief
Can science and religion harmoniously coexist in one's life? Brother Guy Consolmagno, '74, SM '75, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, shares how he fuses religious devotion and scientific fervor in his What Matters column. Read about a frank discussion on whether MIT students and faculty could—or should—link their faith to their careers.

Dr. Mom—the truth about the mommy track
Becoming a stay-at-home mom was not an easy role for physician Tara Bishop '97 to assume. She felt embarrassed to be wasting her MIT degree and bored at the lack of intellectual stimulation. Read about her struggles.

Maintaining multiple personas online
A new social networking site lets users create multiple profiles—with different privacy settings—to help balance personal and professional needs.

Work/life resources for MIT community
Questions about elder care, parenting, job flexibility? The MIT Center for Work, Family, & Personal Life provides services and resources on these issues and more.

The advantages of closing a few doors
In his book Predictably Irrational (HarperCollins, 2008), MIT Professor of Behavioral Economics Dan Ariely explores the difficulty most people have with dropping options, even those that clearly waste time or money. Try the game to see how you fare.

Center researches work/life issues in health care, high tech, and legal services
The MIT Workplace Center, part of the Sloan School of Management, brings together groups concerned with work-family issues in three critical regional industries, eliciting ideas and promoting coordinated problem solving.

Scheduling balance
The Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programs offers workshops, online learning modules, and other resources aimed at helping students improve their academic performance and strengthen learning skills. Find tips for crafting a well-balanced schedule.

Making time for art
Admissions Office guest blogger Danbee Kim '09 has found musical theater to be a welcome diversion to her MIT studies.

Mind over stress
Pete Sanders '72 has developed easy-to-learn techniques that can reduce stress in less than a minute and activate the brain's joy center without drugs.

Women students find serenity together
Residents of the Women's Independent Living Group, one of the few all-women housing options at MIT, support one another as they blend academics with sports, theater, volunteer work, and more.

How to prepare new courses and stay sane
Tomorrow's Professor blog offers tips on what to do and not do when preparing a course for the first time.

Held in strict confidence
The MIT Ombuds Office provides confidential, neutral, and informal assistance to faculty, postdocs, students, and staff who have concerns arising from or affecting their work and studies at MIT.

Research in the Balance

Engineering a leg to stand on
MIT engineering students have developed a new prosthetic leg-fitting system for India's Jaipur Foot Organization. The new method works without electricity and saves on other resources as well.

River plants may play major role in health of ocean coastal waters
The removal of too many aquatic plants in rivers and streams contributes to nutrient overload, which can subsequently lead to coastal dead zones—oxygen-deprived areas where nothing can survive.

MIT's 'clutter detector' could cut confusion
Visual clutter can confuse, but an MIT team has identified a way to measure the mess that could lead to more user-friendly displays and maps.

MIT's 'exoskeleton' lightens the load
Researchers at MIT have created a device to lighten the burden for soldiers and others who carry heavy packs.

Robotics

Robotic ankle research gets off on the right foot
The world's first robotic ankle, developed by a team at MIT, proves to be an important advancement for lower-limb amputees.

Biomechatronics Group
Advances the sciences of biomechanics and biological movement control through research on balance, leg movement, and more and applies that knowledge to the design of human rehabilitation and locomotion. Watch a video describing the group's work and find research resources including a video on humanoid balance control.

Robo-One workshop
Students build and program commercialized humanoid robots through this Independent Activities Period class, tackling common problems such as walking up stairs, running, even fighting. View recent videos from annual competitions.

Robot Locomotion Group
This CSAIL Center for Robotics group builds machines that can achieve extraordinary agility and efficiency. Projects have included quadruped locomotion on rough terrain and the "Toddler." Watch the video results.

Killer cells may actually be picky eaters
An MIT researcher has shown that white blood cells, which keep the body healthy by destroying bacteria and fungi, don't kill microbes indiscriminately but discern subtle differences before engulfing their prey.

Avenue queue: one long wait inspired career shift
Find out how Professor Richard Larson became a key figure in queue psychology—the study of how to make waiting bearable and even enjoyable.

"On Balance" newsletter explores natural and man-made worlds
Explore current research from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which seeks to understand natural systems, foster intelligent resource use, and design sustainable infrastructure.

Medical examiner supports prevention
Christina Stanley '85, the chief deputy medical examiner in San Diego county, balances the grim nature of her work by focusing on her office's contributions to preventing avoidable deaths.

OpenCourseWare

Materials at Equilibrium
This materials science and engineering course studies the laws of thermodynamics, computational modeling, statistical thermodynamics, and more.

Sustainable Energy
The assessment of current and potential future energy systems is covered in this chemical engineering course.

Online autobahn promises to sharpen net video
A new product from Swarmcast monitors data flow to optimize video quality. The company seeks to turn the Internet into a viable alternative to cable and satellite TV.

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Mark Evans.

Justice

Students construct artful arguments
Should a death row inmate receive an organ transplant? Should the Iranian Shah be allowed into the U.S. for cancer treatment? Students on the MIT Debate Team hone their skills in regular tournaments.

Alumni in the law

Family's Public Service Inspires Puerto Rico's Top Attorney
Roberto Sanchez-Ramos '89, the secretary of justice of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, represents the island in all criminal and civil litigation.

Youngest Judge Appointed to U.S. Court of Appeals
Kimberly Moore '90, SM '91 was the first in her family to attend college, the youngest person to join the federal judiciary, and the first sitting federal judge to give birth.

Bridging the gap between promise and performance
The MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice conducts interdisciplinary research on issues such as forced labor in the global economy. A new quarterly journal, Human Rights & Human Welfare, explores human rights through the latest literature.

OpenCourseWare

Justice
A political science course exploring fundamental questions about the ideal of a just society and the place of liberty and equality in such a society.

Violence, Human Rights, and Justice
An anthropology course that scrutinizes the contemporary problem of political violence and the conception of human rights as a vehicle to protect citizens against abuses of the state.

Environmental Justice
An urban studies and planning class that examines, among other issues, the foundations of the environmental justice movement and the application of environmental justice analysis to environmental policy and planning.

Political Philosophy: Global Justice
A political science course exploring the foundations and norms of justice that apply beyond the borders of a single state, including the idea of global democracy and rights to control borders.

Voting for more than just either-or
New computer software developed by MIT researchers promises to make preferential ranking systems just as easy as traditional voting—and to give results that leave more people satisfied, particularly when there is a crowded field of candidates.

MIT Press

Environmental Justice in Latin America (2008)
Edited by David V. Carruthers
Scholars and activists offer analysis and case studies that illustrate the connections between popular environmental mobilization and social justice in Latin America.

Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice (2007)
By David Naguib Pellow
Examines the export of hazardous wastes to poor communities of color around the world and charts the global social movements that challenge them.

MIT World: Human Rights and Politics in Israel-Palestine
Prominent human rights activists Anat Biletzki and Jeff Halper argue that any conceivable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must begin by acknowledging the bleak realities of Palestinian life under Israeli rule.

Copyright©2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology