Sloan buzzing with start-ups during summer
In mid-May, when second-year Sloan student Philip Cohen visited the nearly 5000 square feet of space on the fifth floor of E52 that would later host 40 start-up companies, the only furniture over there was a 1970s style leather massage arm chair. By June 4, 14 offices and a common area with five large tables had emerged to host the teams until Aug. 31.
The road to Firefly’s 10-year reunion panel
On day one of San Diego Comic-Con International, our Google calendar was a naively tight grid of panels. The plan was to bounce between Hall H (capacity: 6130 people) and Ballroom 20 (capacity: 4908 people), leaving just enough space in our schedule to briskly walk from one room to the next. What we learned on the first day was that at a convention of this size, attending any event isn’t possible without serious forethought and sacrifice.
City Council will wait a week to approve for 300 Mass. Ave; wants to preserve affordable housing in negotiation
MIT and Forest City, the developers of University Park, are poised to receive approval to construct a new life sciences building at 300 Massachusetts Avenue, immediately north of Random Hall.
MIT professor wins $3 million
Physicists are rarely wealthy or famous, but a new prize rewarding research at the field’s cutting edges has made nine of them instant multimillionaires.
Lottery officials knew about Cash WinFall’s flaws
Massachusetts State Lottery officials knew for years that a small group of gambling syndicates had virtually taken over a game called Cash WinFall — winning most of the prizes during high payoff periods — but did nothing about it until the Globe began investigating, according to state Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.
Inspector General’s Report on ‘MIT Group’
In January 2005, James M. Harvey was about to start his final semester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Looking for an interesting independent study project for his last term, he considered a project evaluating the Lottery games Powerball and MegaMillions to determine which was more advantageous from the player’s perspective. While researching Powerball and MegaMillions, he also reviewed other Lottery games for comparison. That was when he began looking at Cash WinFall and noticed its unique “roll-down” feature.
UC Berkeley joins edX initiative
On July 24, University of California, Berkeley joined edX — the online education venture started by MIT and Harvard University — and will offer online classes in the fall. MIT has billed edX as an open platform that universities can use to improve their on-campus education and simultaneously make courses available to worldwide audiences. There are seven classes set to be offered for fall 2012, including BerkeleyX courses “Software as a Service” and “Artificial Intelligence.”
5 RLADs hired, will assume roles Aug. 6
Five candidates have just been hired to serve as Resident Life Area Directors (RLADs), beginning Aug. 6 in MacGregor Hall, McCormick Hall, New House, Next House, and Simmons Hall. Two others have been promoted from their previous position of Residential Life Associate (RLA) when that role was discontinued at the end of this academic year. According to Henry J. Humphreys, Dean of Residential Life and Dining, the housemasters of the remaining dormitories — Baker House, Bexley House, East Campus, Random Hall, and Senior House — will meet with their respective communities about their RLADs in the early fall.
The Tech explores... San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is an annual four-day celebration of the popular arts, that draws over 130,000 attendees from around the world. Originally started in 1970 as a comic book convention, the focus of the Con has since shifted from comic books to everything pop culture, from blockbusters and video games to the latest science fiction and fantasy novels. Some fans make the pilgrimage to see the people who create their favorite media, others to stock up on rare comic books or to spend thousands on the gigantic exhibition floor. Some people just come for the crowds.
Planning Board rejects Novartis courtyard proposal
On July 17, the Cambridge Planning Board reviewed Novartis’ plans for fencing its public access courtyard at the new Novartis campus. The board rejected the plans due to concerns over the courtyard security, requiring Novartis to come back with a new proposal.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s nominee to become the new ambassador to Pakistan said Tuesday that his top priority would be to press the government there to take more forceful measures against the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate whose leaders, sheltered in Pakistan, have mounted a series of attacks against U.S. and other targets in Afghanistan.
Phelps tops another Olympian, but at 77, she grins about it
LONDON — Larisa Latynina won 18 Olympic medals in gymnastics for the former Soviet Union, but she attended swimming Tuesday night. Michael Phelps was racing. He was trying to beat everyone in the pool and Latynina’s record as well. And when the moment came, she knew exactly what a great champion should do. She put on her lipstick.
Shorts (left)
Julian Castro, the Democratic mayor of San Antonio, will deliver the keynote speech at his party’s national convention in September, taking the role that vaulted Barack Obama to national prominence eight years ago.
Indian electrical grid is pressed to its breaking point
WASHINGTON — The Indian electrical grid, said Arshad Mansoor, the senior vice president for research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., is like “a whole bunch of rubber bands.” Cutting some, he said, might make no difference, but cutting another one could make the web fall apart.
Massachusetts aims to cut growth of its ballooning health care costs
The Massachusetts Legislature passed a first-in-the-nation bill Tuesday that seeks to limit the growth of health care costs in the state.
Pedestrian summertime weather to persist
This past July has been quite typical here in the Boston area. Based on the preliminary monthly climate report by the NOAA, the average July air temperature this year was 75.6°F, which was 2.1°F above normal. Total rainfall was 3.40 inches, merely 3 percent higher than the normal.
Rebels in Syria’s Aleppo claim to seize police stations
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels said they took control of at least two important police stations in central Aleppo on Tuesday, maintaining their hold on several neighborhoods despite air assaults and shelling from government troops.
Obama and Congress in step on stronger sanctions on Iran
WASHINGTON — The White House and Congress raced to impose more punishing sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, as that country’s nuclear ambitions resurfaced in the presidential election campaign after Mitt Romney’s pledge to give Israel unstinting support in its confrontation with Iran.
Student input heard in one RLAD debate
The implementation of the new Residential Life Area Directors (RLAD) system has been fraught with all of the problems students have become accustomed to in recent years, particularly regarding student input.
Science, a wondrous and reductive practice
The periodic voyage of celestial bodies, the cosmic rhythm that was only just observable to the humble Earth-dweller, in many ancient civilizations, represented fate, hope and a way of life itself. The Mayans held the Venus cycle in high regard, its movement representing a challenge to the mighty Sun, auspicious timing for territorial war.
The New Political Adscape
One of the many benefits of UROPing in the Political Science Department this summer is that I get to keep a close eye on what’s happening on the campaign trail for the two contenders of the 2012 Presidential Election, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
CORRECTIONS
The headline for the July 11 article on RLADs incorrectly listed the number of RLAD dorms in the headline. At the time, RLADs were expected in five dorms, not nine. As of now, they are expected in seven dorms in the fall.
The good war?
Are we going to invade Britain any time soon? Of course not, their food is terrible. Are we going to invade Canada? Why would we? We already have Taco Bell.
US women’s gymnastics: Gold
The 2012 London Olympics officially started on Friday with a quirky opening ceremony which included the Queen jumping out of a helicopter and lots of corgis.
SPORTS SHORT
Former MIT heavyweight crew coxswain Stephen Young ’09 will represent the United States at the 2012 World Rowing Championships which will be held from Aug. 15 to 19 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This will be Young’s second time coxing at the World Rowing Championships. Last year in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand, he raced in the men’s coxed pair and in the lightweight men’s eight.
Considering the implications of our inventions
My last summer of high school — before I enter the heavenly gates of MIT (thanks to a certain St. Peter called Stu Schmill and the admissions committee) — has been one gigantic conglomeration of everything I have wanted to do but have otherwise slipped up on during the previous eighteen years of my life.
In anticipation of MIT
Here I am, less than a month from starting what will arguably be the best four years of my life. Am I incredibly excited? Scared? Still half-convinced that I was perhaps admitted by mistake?
