Pushing a 4X4 out of the sand in the Algerian Sahara (© Owen Franken).
Curious about Owen Franken? View more of his work via the Franken Photo of the Week category, learn more in this profile, read a What Matters opinion column he wrote called “Life in Brownian Motion,” or visit his Web site.
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Don’t hold back. We want to see pictures of you and your friends dressed up as flying spaghetti monsters. We want to see your dog dressed like Don from Mad Men and your baby sister dressed like an iPhone. Post your photos to the MIT Alumni Association Flickr group, and we’ll choose a winner by Friday, November 5.
From everyone at Slice: Happy Halloween!!!
Credit: http://fooyoh.com/geekapolis
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Becoming MIT is one of two books to celebrate the Institute's 150th anniversary.
A new book titled Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision paints an engaging portrait of the evolution of the Institute from William Barton Rogers’s novel laboratory-based system of instruction to today’s pioneering research.
Commissioned as part of MIT’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2011, the book relates stories about turning points that helped define MIT, such as its transformation from an undergraduate engineering school into a research university in the early 20th century, the rapid expansion after World War II fueled by defense contracts, and the local uproar over the perceived riskiness of recombinant DNA research.
The chapter titled “Time of Troubles for the Special Laboratories” tells of student and faculty debates during the Vietnam War-era about MIT’s role as the country’s largest defense contractor. In 1969, 48 faculty pledged themselves as the Union of Concerned Scientists to “critical and continuing examination of governmental policy in areas where science and technology are of actual or potential interest.” This Union of Concerned Scientists, still based in Cambridge, became a powerful voice on matters spanning nuclear weapons and power, climate change, and alternative energy.
The “Mergers and Acquisitions” chapters describes Harvard’s three attempts to incorporate MIT during the 1870-80s, efforts led by Charles W. Eliot, Harvard’s longtime president who had previously taught at MIT. The Institute said no, no, no—even though Harvard offered to re-name the combined engineering school after Rogers.
Essay authors range from Professor of the History of Technology Merritt Roe Smith, who writes about MIT’s foundation years, to Sloan Professor Lotte Bailyn, who delves into gender issues. Associate Professor and award-winning author David Kaiser edited the volume, which includes an epilogue by President Susan Hockfield. Alumni receive a 20 percent discount on Becoming MIT and all other MIT Press books.
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The early days of the Sloan School expansion.
I had the opportunity to tour the new Sloan building last week, and it’s pretty impressive. It’s been occupied since the beginning of the semester, and for the first time in decades, all Sloan faculty are together in one building, instead of spread among eight.
It connects to E52 and E60 and includes 205 offices, 6 classrooms, 30+ group study rooms, dining, an Executive Education suite, lounge areas, and new, usable outdoor spaces including a rebuild of Sloan Plaza. See other specs and learn more about the building (pdf, page 3) in this article from News@MITSloan.
There are lots of interesting touches, as you’ll see below. Other notables: there are both tiered and flat classrooms (the latter with an awesome array of mobile whiteboards) that can later be converted—tiered classrooms can become flat and vice versa. There’s underground parking for personal autos, Zipcars, and bikes. And showers and lockers allow students to easily change into business attire when necessary. Below, some of the other features of the new building on campus.
The expansion, all grown up. Both entrances are so impressive that Sloan likes to say there are two front doors. This is the view from Main Street. Architects were Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners with lead designers Bruner/Cott Architects.
Located on the first floor, the 100 Main Marketplace is MIT’s most comprehensive retail food location, serving the Sloan School and the surrounding MIT community. The floor in this part of the building, shown in the lower image, is made of crushed beer bottles, just one of many green features. Sloan is waiting to hear about its LEED certification.
The walls and stairs are made of imported Solnhofen limestone so old (155 million years, actually), you can see fossils in it, like those shown right.
Just about everything in the building uses smart technology, including the lighting and window shades, which help reduce energy use. Sunshades and screens on the southern façade, for example, maximize light while reducing solar heat gain and minimizing heat loss. Room temperatures will adjust if sensors detect people in them.
This Sol LeWitt painting graces one wall. Writing next to the rays notes their positioning.
The spectacular view from a conference room.
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John Holdren ’65, SM ’66
At Monday’s David Rose Lecture in Nuclear Technology, held in Wong Auditorium, Obama’s chief science advisor John Holdren ’65, SM ’66 addressed the energy/climate-change challenge and spoke briefly about nuclear energy’s role in meeting it. In a nutshell, Holdren was careful to detail the energy challenge’s complexity and said nuclear could be helpful but wouldn’t be enough.
“The world isn’t running out of energy, Holdren said, “but increasing dependence on imported oil and natural gas is producing economic vulnerability and increased international tension over access… burning coal for electricity and burning oil in vehicles is causing air pollution, with severe impacts on public health… and CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning are the largest driver of global climate disruption.”
“What this means,” he said, “is that we have to figure out how to meet transport needs with less oil and economic aspirations with less carbon dioxide. There are only three options: Mitigate, adapt, suffer.”
By mitigate, Holdren meant take measures to reduce the pace and magnitude of the changes in global climate caused by human activities. By adapt, he meant take measures to reduce climate change’s adverse impact on humans, and by suffer he just meant suffer. Suffer the adverse impacts that aren’t avoided by either mitigation or adaptation.
Holdren detailed some realities about each of the three options, paying particular attention to mitigation. “Stabilizing at 450 ppmv Co2 -e means 2050 global Co2 emissions must be at least seven to nine gigatons of carbon per year (GtC/yr) below [current business as usual estimates].” In other words, to really have an impact we need to figure out a way to cut current 2050 emissions projections by at least 50 percent. How? To put it in perspective, Holdren listed some ways to avoid just one gigaton of carbon per year in 2050:
Obviously there are policy implications to each of the above list items. In that vein, Holdren said we need to remove barriers to pick the low hanging fruit, we need carbon pricing to motivate reaching higher into the tree, and we need research, development, and demonstration to lower the highest fruit into reach. (Holdren was big on fruit metaphors–earlier in the talk he said he thinks the term NIMBY is outdated and should be replaced with BANANA–”Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody.”) Check out the slide below for a better sense of the sort of policy measures Holdren was referring to.
Click the image to view a larger version.
According to Holdren, the Obama administration’s strategy has been “to promote recognition that the problem is real and early action is preferable to waiting,” which could feel weak to some but Holdren said they have to start somewhere. They’ve also focused on providing research funding, revitalizing inter-agency cooperation, working with Congress, and working with other major emitting countries to build cooperation and joint policies.
Holdren had spent a lot of time describing the energy/climate-change problem and putting the various solutions in context so that by the time he got around to the role of nuclear it was clear where he was going. “It’s not a silver bullet,” he said. “This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it… but there’s no free lunch.” He said he had read through the recommendations of MIT’s nuclear fuel cycle study (first published in 2003, then updated in 2009) and felt that the researchers had “reached all the right conclusions.” A summary report of the 2010 version is now available. Take a look at it here (pdf).
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More than 450 alumni gathered for ALC. Photo: Liv Gold.
The Alumni Leadership Conference drew more than 450 alumni to campus Oct. 22-23 to hear from President Hockfield and other Institute leaders, to build new planning and organizational skills, to prepare to celebrate MIT’s 150 anniversary, and to make new MIT connections.
Presentations will be online soon, but you can get a taste of the annual event by scanning the trail of tweets from selected sessions at a special ALC Twitter account. Most tweets were tagged #ALC2010. Here are sample posts:
Social Media Marketing
• Social Media: distribute the same content in social media, email, print etc. Effort is not lost–medium needs to match audience.
Being an Educational Counselor (the people who interview prospective students)
• [Admissions' Kim] Hunter: Interviews are optional but important because increases admission chances because we know more about the student.
Keynote by President Hockfield
• Hockfield: Engaged in MIT2030–a process of studying the campus that provides a format for our academic agenda to expand.
Alumni Association and Campaign Updates
• [AA President Anne] Street: Have you seen PlanetMIT? Great tool especially when you travel.
• [Annual Fund chair Doug] Bailey: 70% of dollars come from 10% of donors.
Shining the Spotlight: How the World Gets to See MIT
• Why should alumni help propagate news office content? BC ppl have an emotional connection to MIT and sci and tech innov. Feels good.
Critique Boutique: MIT Branding and Your Group
• Email subject line tips: Mobile devices may truncate them; front-load critical words.
Read more online…And, of course, start from the end and read up for chronological order.
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Professor Patrick Henry Winston ’65, SM ’67, PhD ’70
A few days ago, I was almost trampled by a herd of freshmen stampeding out of 26-100, so I went in to see what had been happening. It turned out to be a 7.01 lecture, freshman biology.
Being in 26-100, somehow the Big Event came to mind. It happened a long time ago when I took 6.01, Introduction to Circuit Theory. Professor Amar Bose, who later founded Bose Corporation, lectured. Electrical engineering sophomores sat at two-person tables, equipped with—hard to believe today—colorful stamped-aluminum ash trays.
In those days, students often made a hissing noise, like a snake, whenever an instructor announced a quiz or told a particularly corny joke. Bose didn’t like it; he considered it insulting. On the first day of class, he announced there would be no hissing.
A few weeks later, somebody hissed. Bose said that whoever hissed would have to leave, and someone left.
Then, a lecture or two later, early in the lecture, someone hissed again. But this time the culprit refused to identify himself. So Bose left, and that lecture was gone forever. Those who knew the hisser or sat close to him gave him a pretty hard time. Nobody in the class ever hissed at Bose again. Alumni still talk about it at reunions: “Do you remember when Bose walked out?”
We knew Bose respected us because he put 100 hours a week into 6.01. We respected him because he didn’t put up with what he considered insults. Mutual respect is the stuff from which great education emerges.
When Bose walked out, it licensed me to say when I became a professor myself, that there would be no newspaper reading in my classes. Later, I took pride in being among the first to forbid open laptop computers* in my classrooms, believing that reading papers, surfing the web, and doing email is as insulting as hissing. I respect my students, and I want them respect me.
*Every once in a while I look in on a lecture from the back of the hall. After checking 10 of the open laptops, I leave. I have yet to see one that isn’t being used to surf the web or read email.
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Young ballet students in Paris (© Owen Franken).
Curious about Owen Franken? View more of his work via the Franken Photo of the Week category, learn more in this profile, read a What Matters opinion column he wrote called “Life in Brownian Motion,” or visit his Web site.
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More than thirty years ago Nikon launched the International Small World Competition to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through light microscopes. Photomicrographers from an array of scientific disciplines have submitted photos since then, vying for one of 20 annual prizes (prizes range from $100 to $3000 toward the purchase of Nikon equipment.)
With numerous labs on campus, it is probably not surprising to hear that MIT alumni have competed in the contest. Scroll down to see a couple of their submissions.
Particles used to detect multiple DNA oligomers (100x) Credit: Daniel Pregibon PhD '08
Quantum dot nanocrystals deposited on a silicon substrate (200x) Credit: Seth A. Coe-Sullivan SM '02, PhD '05
View more images from the Nikon galleries. Want to learn more about optical microscopy, digital imaging, and photomicrography? Check out Nikon’s MicroscopyU for educational information and resources.
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Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte '66, MAR '66 describes the lab's early days.
Update: Wired’s Oct. 24 article:”Building The Next Big Thing: 25 Years of MIT’s Media Lab”
Portal to the future. Perhaps that’s an apt image for the MIT Media Lab, which has been a fount of new ideas on how technology can enable better lives for everyday people for 25 years now. And they do it in a rather radical, open-atelier way with academic disciplines melding together and physical walls disappearing, especially in their new headquarters. If you missed the Oct. 15-16 event, you can still tune in:
Watch all six Media Lab 25th Anniversary sessions or select appealing speakers or topics. For example, check out a panel on the Soul of the Lab I, moderated by John Hockenberry, the host of NPR’s “The Takeaway,” who suggested the Media Lab’s essence “has to do with…street fights—the ability to fight the tradition ways of doing things.” Speakers included Google head Eric Schmidt and artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky who recommended that to cultivate fresh thinking, “You don’t study subjects, you study thinkers.”
Media highlights:
The BBC coverage focuses on Natan Linder of the Fluid Interfaces group who explains why his LuminAR lamp can change the way individuals access the internet.
Listen to the NPR podcast of Ira Flatow’s “Science Friday” to hear Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte ’66, MAR ’66 describing the birth and future of the lab and researchers comment on current projects.
Former Technology Review editor Bob Buderi shared his tips from the day on his Xconomy blog post—such as a vision of a future Media Lab in space and a snapshot of ideas from new faculty including synthetic neurobiology and a camera that can operate at a trillion frames per second.
Forbes was most impressed with Professor Rosalind Picard’s work on measuring emotional responses for uses such as measuring facial expressions for market research or signaling caretakers about rising stress levels of children who have autism spectrum disorders.
Read The Tech for more, including Schmidt’s pivotal question: “What happens when you have a powerful browser in the hands of people who have never seen anything except television…”
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