Matt Damon to speak at MIT's 2016 commencement
Actor and filmmaker Matt Damon will be the commencement speaker for the Class of 2016, MIT announced Thursday.
‘Unprecedented’ rise in violations prompts police note on scooters, skateboards indoors
The fall semester has seen “an unprecedented increase” in the number of people riding scooters or other “wheeled devices” to get around inside buildings on campus, according to MIT Police.
Course 6 employs survey to measure student workloads
Part of a larger institutional response to student feedback, MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has been collecting data on its students’ workloads since last spring. And the results are starting to take effect behind the scenes.
MIT senior Vo Tien Phong receives a 2016 Marshall Scholarship
Vo Tien Phong ’16 will spend next year studying physics at Cambridge University as a recipient of the Marshall Scholarship.
Sean Perry, Picower Institute technical associate, dies at 39
Sean Perry, a technical associate at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, died suddenly in his hometown of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, on Monday, Nov. 23. He was 39.
Future buildings and remodels will aim for LEED Gold standard
MIT’s Office of Sustainability gave a set of recommendations Monday that will help MIT set its long term plan for sustainability on campus; one long-term goal of the plan is to bring new and newly renovated buildings on campus up to the LEED Gold standard.
MIT likely to rebury 1957 time capsule
MIT will likely rebury the 58-year-old time capsule unearthed last week at the construction site of the future MIT.nano building. The time capsule, uncovered more than nine centuries earlier than intended, currently resides in the MIT Museum.
Vigil held for high levels of atmospheric carbon
About 70 people gathered for a vigil in Lobby 10 Monday to commemorate the start of month 2 of Fossil Free MIT’s sit-in and collectively acknowledge that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are not likely to ever again drop below 400 parts per million.
Admissions officer: MIT doesn’t check Facebook profiles
With all of the admonishments parents, counselors, and advice websites issue to high school students to keep their online presence professional, nobody could fault applicants for assuming that MIT admissions officers will scour their Facebook profiles. Nevertheless, the assumption would be false.
CORRECTIONS
Last Thursday’s article about the Undergraduate Association’s proposed increase to the student life fee incorrectly stated that at $1,200 per student group per year, $349,000 is needed for the current student groups, additional student-oriented activities, and UA internal operations. In fact, the sum of $349,000 does not include UA internal operations. Also, the article said the student life fee had previously been raised by the Graduate Student Council, which is not confirmed. The article further said that recent UA resignations were due to issues related to student group funding, citing the UA president, who actually only said the resignations were partly due to money issues.
MIT to send students, faculty to Mongolia to help spur innovation
MIT will launch a pilot program that will send MIT students and faculty to Mongolia to further entrepreneurship, innovation, urban planning, and university faculty development.
A quiet Thanksgiving holiday in store
A large high pressure system will continue to creep up the Carolina coast today, keeping skies clear and sunny in Boston. This high will keep weather cool and dry through Saturday, when an approaching upper level disturbance will bring a chance of rain to the area.
New House suffers third pipe burst
A heating hot water pipe burst in New House earlier this week, resulting in a fire alarm and the evacuation of the building.
Walk and vigil commemorate victims of Paris terror attacks
The French community at MIT led a silent walk for remembrance and solidarity on Wednesday night following the Paris terrorist attacks last week.
Audit: sluggish processing and a ‘hidden deficit’ caused UA crisis
Slow transaction processing and a burgeoning “hidden deficit” caused the UA to overestimate its available funds each fiscal year since 2011, according to an Institute audit that UA President Matthew J. Davis ’16 released to undergraduates Tuesday.
Cold front means rain, cool air to end the week
A cold front passing over the eastern U.S. will bring with it some rain and wind to end the week here in Cambridge and some cold overnight lows through the weekend. While we won’t be getting the chance of snow and Arctic air that will intrude down into the Midwest, we should have a chance to see the thermometer readings drop below freezing for the first time this month. Saturday will be the best day to go outside, with clear skies and quieter winds than the rest of the week.
Institute Double Take
Sunsets in my home state of Florida are usually pretty boring, but here in Cambridge they can be quite spectacular. I walked out of the student center and had to run back in to grab a camera.