What happens in MIT's architecture department? A new 12-minute video takes you inside for an overview guided by department chair Nader Tehrani and several prominent faculty. You learn, for instance that project sizes can range from the size of a human body, like the Defensible Dress project, to the scale of a building up to a chunk of an urban landscape or the future of manufacturing.
Working in Washington: An Interview with Professor Xav Briggs
Briggs has served for four years as the Obama Administration's associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing agencies, including Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury.
"Part of the art of functioning in those environments is frankly being able to deal with imperfect information, dealing with personalities, and dealing with ideology at some cases, but at the same time doing your best to find the better answers and advocate for them," Briggs says.
He has a national reputation for his work on policy and research concerned with the consequences of segregation by race and income and with efforts to respond, such as through housing mobility programs. He believes this experience will inform his future work particularly on regional economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, and opportunity.
Interested in more? Visit the MIT TechTV collection and browse by most popular videos to find these short gems:
- Robotic Opera: MIT Media Lab Professor Tod Machover discusses his opera, Death and the Powers.
- Ice Wall: see the wall and hear from the creator of the art piece made of ice blocks with seeds frozen inside.
- Trash Track: the video, which won the NSF International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, uses technology to expose the challenges of waste management and sustainability.
