Photo of the Week by Owen Franken ’68—Nov. 7, 2009

This week, a collection of photos celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

A man chisels away at a graffiti-covered section of the Berlin Wall that says "Walls Are Not Everlasting!" after the fall of communism in Germany (© Owen Franken for CORBIS).

Revelers wave sparklers and sit atop the Berlin Wall during New Year's Eve festivities, Jan. 1, 1990 (© Owen Franken for CORBIS).

Reunited Germans celebrate New Year's Eve atop the Berlin Wall two months after the border between the divided city was opened. The formal reunification of the two Germanies took place ten months later, on October 3, 1990 (© Owen Franken for CORBIS).

Revelers at the Brandenburg Gate sit on top of a remnant of the Berlin Wall holding candles as they celebrate the first New Year in a unified Berlin since World War II. A month earlier, the Wall was torn down by East and West Berliners, reacting to the fall of the East German Communist government (© Owen Franken for CORBIS).

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.

 

Live on Friday: MIT Rings the NASDAQ Bell!

MIT is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity and NASDAQ OMX has noticed—so the world’s busiest stock exchange invited MIT folks to do the closing bell honors on Friday, Nov. 6. In fact, MIT Alumni Association President Ken Wang ’71 and MIT Enterprise Forum Chairman and President Rich Kivel will do the ringing – and you can watch them live online.

Seven-story NASDAQ screen features MIT Friday 3:30-4:30 p.m.

If you are near Times Square, just wander over at 3:30 p.m. and you can see a video featuring MIT entrepreneurs and inventors continuously displayed on the seven-story high NASDAQ tower, the largest stationary video display in the world. That’s when the MIT Webstream begins as well.

At 3:45 p.m., the actual bell ceremony begins and the event, with close-captioned remarks, is  set to be broadcast on the tower. After the stock market closes, the Webstream returns to the giant video broadcast until 4:30 p.m.

The event is also a chance to showcase Global Entrepreneurship Week, Nov. 16-22, an effort to engage millions of young people around the world in a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. The sponsors are the Kauffman Foundation, which fosters a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, and Make Your Mark, the UK’s national campaign to give people the confidence, skills, and ambition to be enterprising. The MIT Enterprise Forum is a global partner of  Global Enterpreneurship Week.

 

Remember, Remember…

For those Guy Fawkes/V for Vendetta devotees out there, here’s a little origami by master folder Brian Chan ’02, SM ’04, PhD ’09. Learn about Chan’s other work.

Origami by Brian Chan

 

Study Breaks at MIT!

Exams, PSETs, quizzes, projects, presentations! The typical MIT student slaves over these tasks on a normal basis, where can we catch a break? Sure, we could tough it out until the weekend, maybe we can skip a class or two, but an easier way to relieve some stress and just relax is going to a study break. Study breaks are offered by several clubs, dorms, and classes as a way to just chill out and enjoy life outside the Institute’s academic expectations. Usually held during the late afternoon or night, study breaks are more than just “breaks from studying”; they’re interactive and social activities that allow people to meet new people and enjoy each other’s company. Whether it’s a shaved ice study break with the Chinese Students Club, a Cosi sandwich study break with SUMA, or a yoga study break with Baker 6^th, we not only get our mind of PSETs for an hour or two, but we also get to try new things.

The 2013 Class Council

The Class of 2013 recently had their first event on Tuesday, a donut and cider study break in the Student Center. This was definitely my favorite study break of the year because I got to share it with my fellow freshmen. We chowed down on donuts and sipped apple cider while listening to music, looking at sweater designs, and just chilling out before all of the work we had to do that night. Danielle Class, freshman class president, said, “Attending a study break is a simple and low-commitment way to balance your schedule and spend time with your class.” The 2013 class council has plans for future study breaks, and there are several occurring around campus every week. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a study break sometime soon!

 

Smile…or Else!

Lauren McCarthy '08 wearing her Happiness Hat.

Lauren McCarthy ’08 wants people to smile. Seriously. And she has just the tool—the Happiness Hat, a wearable conditioning device that encourages smiling through pain feedback. Kind of like a torture device with a heart.

McCarthy, who received degrees in computer science and engineering and art and design at MIT, is a designer, artist, and programmer whose work explores the structures and systems of social interactions, identity, and self-representation. According to her Web site, “She is interested in the slightly uncomfortable moments when patterns are shifted, expectations are broken, and participants become aware of the system.” She works in a variety of media: video, performance, software, internet art, media installations, and, as seen here, interactive objects and environments.

 

AIDA: Robo-Buddy Navigates Your Routes

AIDA on the job.

A dashboard robot with expressive cartoon eyes now in the works at MIT may someday help you avoid traffic jams, remind you to pick up the milk, and help you have a great night out. This Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) will do that by learning from your expressions and your driving habits.

Researchers say that after a week of using AIDA, it will know your regular stops. After a month, AIDA can suggest the optimal driving route home via your favorite grocery store because it knows you are leaving work and this is the day you shop.

You can watch a YouTube video that profiles this “personal driving companion who understands your personal driving habits, frequent destinations, and the city environment.”

AIDA avoids traffic en route to shopping and home.

AIDA is a project of MIT’s Personal Robots Group and the SENSEable City Lab in collaboration with the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab.

“AIDA builds on our long experience in building sociable robots,” says Prof. Cynthia Breazeal SM ’93, ScD ’00, director of Personal Robots. “We are developing AIDA to read the driver’s mood from facial expression and other cues and respond in a socially appropriate and informative way.”

 

UROP: ‘The Soul of MIT’

Conducting research with faculty may be a given for current MIT undergraduates, but it was  revolutionary  when it was introduced at MIT 40 years ago. Today 85 percent of graduating seniors have participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). The concept permeates MIT life and has been widely adopted throughout the U.S.

Folkers Rojas ’08 has participated in seven UROP projects. Photo: Len Rubenstein, Spectrum

A symposium and a UROP 40th Anniversary Website honors the event. Birthday tributes included a Technology Review story, “The Soul of MIT,” that notes that 45 MIT faculty members, former UROP students themselves, are now mentoring today’s undergraduates. “UROP is not just an experience,” says Edward Boyden ’99, MEng ’99, an assistant professor in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences. “It’s a way to have immediate impact on the lives of millions of people. I see UROP as the soul of MIT.”

Watch a short video about the late MIT Professor Margaret MacVicar ’64, ScD ’67, a legendary educator who founded UROP.

History Highlights

• 1987: Jennifer Wiseman ’87 discovers the Comet Wiseman-Skiff as a UROP student working with EAPS Professor Jim Elliot ’65, SM ’65, an active UROP mentor.
• 2000: In April, John M. Grunsfeld ’80, a former UROP student turned NASA astronaut, returns to discuss his space shuttle mission and presents UROP memorabilia he took into space.
• 2008: The PBS series Design Squad wins the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award. MIT community members, including several UROP students, helped develop this series.

For more, read profiles of six UROP students in the summer 2009 issue of Spectrum.

 

Halloween at MIT

As I understand it, most of the money our class council has (to do fun things for the class of 2010) comes from Career Fair…specifically from the money companies pay to set up shop at MIT and talk to our students/their potential employees. As hundreds of ’10s  and I walked through Boston at 2AM looking for a cab, I learned the reason we weren’t bussed to and from Boos Cruise was because the economy sucks and we made $80,000 less from Career Fair than the class of 2009. Ouch.

Boos Cruise was still quite fun. We set sail from the Boston Harbor and enjoyed three hours of eating, dancing (on two different levels!), and costume-admiring, and I saw classmates  I haven’t seen since…orientation.

Among my favorite costumes: Neon (the element), A “Death Panel,” and a group of cows with udders that produced an alcoholic beverage. To the left is Noah’s Ark. (Everyone had a pair, but not all were present for the picture. Though there was a single unicorn who was not in a pair – hence why there are no unicorns! Genius, right?)

On Halloween itself, I stayed in to study, but watched Grey’s Anatomy with a fellow pre-med friend (it’s our ritual) and bought a Twix Bar from the snack machine to make up for the fact that I wasn’t trick or treating. Maybe next year…

Check out more costume pics taken by the person working Baker Desk on Halloween here: http://picasaweb.google.com/easeen/Halloween2009Baker#

 

Photo of the Week by Owen Franken ’68—Oct. 31, 2009

A nurse cleaning and taking care of a sick child in isolation at Hospital St. Louis, 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.

 

Share Your Science and Tech Talents with the Masses

At the "Science Comes Alive" event at the 2008 Cambridge Science Festival, MIT Club of Boston member John Dolhun PhD '72 led a group of club volunteers in presenting educational experiments and demonstrations for kids.

We all know it’s good to give back and volunteer in our communities. Here’s a fun way to do just that. The Cambridge Science Festival, a nine-day celebration of science and technology that encourages audience participation and discovery, is currently seeking proposals of lectures, performances, family activities, exhibits, tours, debates, workshops, and any other creative activity for the fourth annual event, held April 24-May 2, 2010. The citywide science extravaganza, the first of its kind in the U.S., showcases Cambridge as a leader in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by making science accessible, interactive, and fun. Think movie or art festival, but for STEM.

Past presenters have offered hands-on origami demonstrations, taught the basics of solar cookery, explored sound through numerous musical instruments, run a mystery game using handheld GPS devices, and helped kids build and launch water-bottle rockets. Festival participants are selected through a curated process, and proposals are judged based on audience appeal, technical feasibility, site availability, and funding. Applicants are encouraged to involve community-based organizations in the planning and production of programs. Proposal deadline is December 12, 2009.

Learn more about the festival and submit proposals.