Lobby 7 gathering highlights hope, provides outlet for fears after election
U.S. presidents may come and go, but MIT will always be a place where people “work together to make a better world,” President L. Rafael Reif wrote in an email to the MIT community yesterday night.
Anti-Trump demonstrators take to the streets in several U.S. cities
It was a rough night for number crunchers. And for the faith that people in every field — business, politics, sports and academia — have increasingly placed in the power of data.
New House to undergo two years of renovation with a staggered schedule
Planners from the Office of Campus Planning and MIT Capital Projects groups have recommended that MIT fully renovate and repair New House instead of rebuilding it, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart PhD ’88 and Vice President of Student Life Suzy Nelson informed New House residents in an email Sunday.
Clear and cold weather during the weekend
A cold front swept through the area on Wednesday, and it will be followed by high pressure and mostly clear skies on Thursday. The high pressure system over Montana and low pressure system over southern Hudson Bay will both shift east during Veterans Day, and the cyclonic flow from the low pressure system will bring us cold air from the northwest. This cold front is expected to pass through the area on Friday evening and give us temperatures close to freezing on Friday night, and low temperatures on Saturday. The southeastward-moving high pressure system will build up during its passage over the Great Lakes early Saturday, and the westerly flow caused by it will bring dry, warmer air into the area on Sunday. Expect mostly clear skies throughout the weekend. The dry air and clear skies are expected to persist through Tuesday. Except for Friday night and Saturday, the temperatures are normal for this time of year: climatological mean high and low temperatures are 53°F and 40°F, respectively. While we experienced more rain than usual in October, the yearly accumulation is significantly lower than climatology: 27 compared to 37 inches. This is still far from the lowest recorded precipitation accumulation at this time of year, which was 20.27 inches in 1965.
Survey to assess declining 6-1 enrollment goes undergrad-wide
A survey created to assess declining enrollment in Course 6-1 (Electrical Engineering) has been repurposed into an undergraduate-wide survey regarding students’ perceptions of academic majors.
Time to vote or photo op?
If you are hoping to document your vote by taking a photo of your ballot, you may be headed for a legal gray area that in some states has grown only murkier in the days leading up to Election Day.
New Media Lab algorithm brings Halloween scares to the world of AI
A team from the Media Lab recently debuted an artificial intelligence project called The Nightmare Machine in time for Halloween. The project involves training a deep learning algorithm to generate scary depictions of buildings and human visages.
Showers precede weekend cool-down
The Institute’s relatively rainy autumn continues today, as a low pressure system will develop and pass from west to east over southern New England. This storm will likely bring light to moderate rain showers to the Boston area throughout this afternoon and evening. Depending on its exact track, the frontal system could also bring another spike in temperatures: areas to the south of the center of the low will see temperatures in the upper 60s, while those to the north will remain in the 50s (°F). If the storm does pass to the north, a warmer afternoon with significantly less rain is possible. This afternoon’s storm system could bring up to a half-inch of rainfall, continuing a relatively rainy trend that began around a month ago. The weather monitoring station atop the Green Building has measured 7.30 inches of rain since September 30th, compared to just 6.56 inches in the four months prior. The fall and winter months generally feature more precipitation than those in the summer, so more rainy weather will be needed to alleviate the current drought in Massachusetts. After tomorrow’s storm moves out to sea, the sun will return for the weekend. However, temperatures will be kept a few degrees below normal by a brisk northerly wind on Friday, and by the presence of an upper-level trough on Saturday and Sunday.
MIT encourages students to “hack” the library
A report published last Monday by MIT’s Task Force on the Future of Libraries encouraged members of the MIT community to “hack the library” in an effort to reinvent the modern research library.
Smoking litter caused Random roof deck fire
“Improper disposal of smoking material” was the cause of the Random Hall fire this summer, wrote Jared and Laurie Berezin, Random Hall heads of house, in an email to the dorm’s social list. The heads of house suggested implementing a no-smoking policy on the roof, a policy already in place throughout the dorm.
An Engine for innovation
A panel of entrepreneurs and business leaders joined MIT administrators Wednesday night in kickstarting a new initiative created to invest in research with strong long-term potential but less promising short-term profitability.
Faculty committee recommends a computational thinking GIR
A committee of faculty across departments recommended a 12-unit “computational thinking” requirement for all undergraduates, which would cover programming basics.
Pumpkin drop, Family Weekend, early voting
Applications for the TBP Service and Engineering Fellowships are due on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. The fellowship aims to sponsor MIT community members seeking to pursue a service engineering project this coming IAP.
Weekend will be warmer, windy, and wet
The best chance for rain will come tonight, as the first of two low pressure systems passes over New England from the west.
40 percent of MIT's power will come from solar
MIT has partnered with Boston Medical Center (BMC) and the Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation (POS) to construct a 60-megawatt solar farm on 650 acres of land in North Carolina, demonstrating a new alliance-based model for economically reducing carbon emissions.
75% of undergrads drank underage, The Tech's survey on alcohol and drug use finds
A majority of MIT students have never smoked tobacco or marijuana, but drink alcohol on a monthly or weekly basis. Most feel confident in their ability to care for someone who they believe has had too much to drink; in the 12 months prior to taking The Tech’s alcohol and drug survey, 45 percent of respondents had encountered at least one person they thought was in physical danger as a result of alcohol poisoning. Respondents from Senior House, fraternities, and off-campus living groups were more likely than other students to have tried marijuana in the year before the survey was administered.
Behind the data: how we analyzed the alcohol and drug survey
In 2014, The Tech sent a survey to undergraduates about their use of alcohol and restricted substances. The story behind this survey is in three acts: administering the survey, analyzing the data, and publishing the results. This article aims to shed some light on the analysis, to ensure adequate transparency and reproducibility. Finally, we want to guarantee to all survey participants that their anonymity has been respected.
Summer weather can’t last forever: windy and rainy days ahead
This week has had quite the juxtaposition of autumn leaves with temperatures up to 80°F (27°C). Hope you all got your Instagram pictures taken because these temperatures won’t be sticking around much longer! In fact, seven years ago this week, Boston had already had its first snowfall of the season. Up to four inches fell in the Boston area on October 19, 2009 resulting in unhappy Patriots fans due to a nearly snowed-out game and bemused Florida-raised college students.