That's an answer too long and boring for this post (and for maybe any post; the last few months have been either a) pretty nonexciting, b) nonexciting to people who don't care about operating systems research and development, c) exciting, by which I mean "Stargate SG-1 only has two days left on Hulu!", or d) all of the above). However, here is an apology blog post, complete with interesting topic and colorful pictures! Also, something or other about MIT, because that's my job, right?

Also, true to form, I have returned bringing you something of a double (or triple -- slightly debatable) pun in the title and subtext. For starters, and for something MIT-related, let's talk about Splash.

Splash is a pretty cool program that MIT runs every year (biannually, I think?); by 'MIT', I mean my friend Michele and a few of her cohorts in the Educational Studies Program office -- which is student-run, woot woot -- and by 'pretty cool', I mean this:

Splash is a program lasting for one weekend where MIT students can teach /almost/ anything, and high / junior high school students can learn less than or equal to /almost/ anything. It's a pretty cool program to consider when in high school; although I wouldn't recommend taking it as a program to pad your MIT application (something I get asked about far too often >_<), I would recommend taking it as an awesome experience. My friend Maysarah, from my (local) high school attended it once; he came back with a ton of exciting stories and a duct-tape tophat (and more, but my memory's going -- you know, once you turn 19 it all goes downhill). This means he obviously took classes more interesting than mine.

My classes, I say? What, do you ask, do I mean by that? Also, what do I mean by the last two sentences with their overloaded ugly grammatical structure? Good question. Well, this year, I kicked myself into shape in time to fill out the teacher application form for Splash, and decided to teach two classes. The ensuing disaster played out something like this:

Class 1: Beat Me at Kirby's Avalanche!
In high school, I used the ZSNES emulator to play the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Kirby's Avalanche. I played it with three or four friends, and got pretty good at it. A game always (rather loosely) compared to Tetris when one first sees it, it involves creating combinations of falling, popping blocks to drop more blocks on your opponent's screen. It looks something like this:

And the class was something like this:

(Ok, not exactly like that, but that image came up in my google search and I decided to use it). The Splash program gave me the money to buy a SNES console with two controllers, a copy of Kirby's Avalanche, and several pounds of assorted candies. For an hour, I battled any challengers who wanted to take me on for a shot at winning a prize, and at the end the two people to beat me walked away with the grand prize of the SNES and game and the second prize of all the extra candy. I had an awesome time teaching and playing the game, and a more awesome time losing.

Class 2: Pointers on Pointers
This class was a little more academic; having just taken MIT's 6.828 this fall (maybe more on that later; it's the one class I've taken here so far (the rest being mostly requirements) that I actually *really* cared about and was interested in). 6.828 is MIT's junior/senior/graduate/something level operating systems course; we spend the semester studying, reading about, and developing operating systems. After a semester of that class, I was fully brushed up on my C-fu (C, the programming language) and wanted to share my enthusiasm for the awesome construct that is the memory pointer. The class began with an intro to variables in programming and memory, and ended with development of a stack tracing program for Linux and an out-of-time overview of fun things to do with function pointers. If that all sounded like gobbledegook, the moral of the story is: I have this awesome but extremely geeky interest, and for an hour a classroom full of high school students both wanted to and did sit and listen to me talk about it, and hopefully they had fun.

Now, that was Splash; time to talk about my most recent splash (har, har): an experiment in the physics of waves*.

*(apparently, moving an almost-full fish tank on the top shelf of a wheeled shelving unit can lead to several gallons of slimy, fish-solution-treated water splashing onto you and your clothes)

Starring:

Tiny guppy #1!

Tiny guppy#2!

Two dalmatian mollies!

Two SWEET tiger platies!

And various plants.

Yep. I got fish. Not as exciting as I'm making it seem, but I love it; for better or for worse, I find them about as equally mesmerizing as TV. Eventually, I'll have more fish in the tank, but right now it's still developing a stable population of necessary bacteria... yada, yada, yada, too soon. (For the aquarium lovers among you: any suggestions for more freshwater fish for a 29G?) The awesome part, though, is that I'm allowed to keep these fish in my dorm. Not only that; we're allowed to keep cats. I love living in a dorm with pets, because when everybody's gone to sleep and you find yourself still awake and still working during the witching hour, they're incredible company. It's incredibly soothing to have something moving and alive in your room at all times -- e.g. fish -- and incredibly more soothing to have something nuzzling your foot when all other life around you has retired for the night *(ok, maybe only if that something is a cute, fuzzy, cat/dog/other pet). One reason I really like my dorm at MIT.

Which is why I'll just end with this: meet my friend, Cat.

Last Friday I went to Pulse: “Our Heritage, Our Heart,” an event that explores Black culture through the arts. It was really cool to see so many different aspects to Black Culture and watch performers from all over the Boston Area. Some of the performances from MIT included Rambax, Gospel Choir and Mocha Moves.

ABOVE: MIT Gospel Choir Performing.

ABOVE: Mocha Moves (It was really hard to get a clean photo for obvious reasons, but the movement adds its own artistic quality!)

I was taking African Music this semester (21M.293, to those who are interested), and we watched videos of Senegalese drumming during lecture. Watching Rambax at Pulse, I was able to experience what we had learned in person. Videos are one thing, but attending a live performance is another. While some of the energy translated in the videos, all of the energy came through in Rambax’s performance.

I loved that spoken word and literature was also included that evening. I feel that literature and speech can often be overlooked as an art form. One of the texts narrated that evening was Malcolm X’s “You Can’t Hate The Roots Of A Tree And Not Hate The Tree.” I had never heard it before, but I think that the metaphor is true.

There were also performances of original spoken word. What impresses me about it is how a person can get into their performance to convey emotion and meaning (which holds true for the arts overall). Spoken word is about more than poetic text. There is facial expression, body language and voice inflection that help set the tone.

ABOVE: Victoria Okuneye '13 performing spoken word,"What Have You Done with our Men?" (Photo taken by Joy Ekuta '13)

There is a lot of talent at MIT. Pulse and similar events are wonderful because you are able to see a variety of performances in one evening. Attending Pulse allowed me to see that the Arts at MIT and psetting are one in the same. It requires collaboration and cooperation with others. Otherwise, many of the activities here at MIT would not be possible, including academics.

The 150 exhibition was equally dazzling, showcasing 150 of MIT’s best inventions, events, people, surprises and hacks through the years (and if you haven’t seen it yet and find yourself in Cambridge before it all comes down in December 2011- definitely go!)

One of my favorite artists, Christopher Janney, is just one of several whose work is profiled in the “artistic MIT” portion of the exhibit.

And then on my second month on the job, I had the real pleasure to listen to Tod Machover animatedly describe the FAST Arts Festival just another of many pieces to this impressive celebration going on around campus all Winter into Spring. I made a mental note to check it out.

I was in the thick of reading applications as February whizzed by and my partner reminded me that we hadn’t been out on a date – or even out of pajamas – all winter long it seemed.

“Looks like we will need to wait till summer to go see some art,” she said looking over her laptop screen to me on the other side of the couch typing away on mine.

“Not so fast,” I said back, “How about a daylong pilgrimage to MIT to see three lectures/demonstrations about radical research on music and language, and vision and neuroscience? And then I’ll take you to dinner to that restaurant we’ve been meaning to try and we’ll finish it all off with a concert to hear the Language of Music by the Lontano Ensemble in the Kresge Auditorium. And it’s all free!”

Wow. This is why this MIT is such a great place to be.

I’m looking forward to this Saturday at the FAST festival. Maybe I’ll see you there.

As with all great blog posts, we begin this one with a screencap:

via -screencaps

If you think you’ve just stumbled into the wrong part of the blogosphere, rest assured you’re in the right place. It is Elizabeth here. There are no silly videos of me singing off-tune today. There are no silly doodles that I drew during class today. Nay – today… we get down to BUSINESS. What you’re looking at is a screenshot from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo &dagger Juliet, the 1999 movie adaptation of the Shakespearean classic (or, as most people refer to it – “The-one-with-the-guns-instead-of-swords” or “The-one-with-Leonardo-DiCaprio-and-that-other-actress-whose-name-I-don’t-remember”). And what you’re reading is an assignment for 21L.004 (Reading Poetry). Taught by the wildly-entertaining Professor Stephen Tapscott, this class is a foray into poems that the 21L (Literature) department has deemed “important” (actually, we’re going to cover Eliot and Milton would have to agree that those fellas are pretty important, so I am subsequently quite stoked). Our class of 17 students has been studying Shakespeare for the past couple weeks – his sonnets and in particular, Romeo and Juliet – and it is that time of year where the obligatory paper has come a-knockin’. But... Prof. Tapscott told someone during class, “Instead of a paper, write a review of a performance and post it on your blog if you have one… I dare you!” Our class had just watched the Luhrmann adaptation and naturally, being the good Division I Varsity Blogger that I am (a title I wear with great pride, mind you) and being a person incapable of backing down from challenges, I sent Professor Tapscott this e-mail. And naturally, Professor Tapscott, being the total boss professor that he is, gave me the go-ahead. Why am I doing this? Because I think this is more fun than dragging my literary feet through a dry analysis and I figured you all would appreciate getting a glimpse into the humanities here. So here we are, about to embark on my scathing review calm, rational, objective response (sorry guys, I promised him I’d be civil) of Luhrmann’s adaptation. Away we go!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the movie, Romeo &dagger Juliet was made in the 90’s by Baz Luhrmann (who also directed Moulin Rouge! and Australia) and is a modern-day translation of the Shakespearean classic. Luhrmann maintains the original dialogue but everything is set in a modern-day Verona Beach, California (are you cringing yet?), with the Capulets as cheese-tastic Latino gang-members and the Montagues as equally cheese-tastic surfer-dude/beach-bum gang-members. Mercutio is the only non-white/non-hispanic character in the movie, Friar Lawrence is an old, “herb”-growing California hippy, and the two families are rivaling business empires.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s cut to the chase. I'm going to save you all the trouble of deciphering literary jargon, nix the expository sophistication and lay it all out here: Luhrmann's Romeo &dagger Juliet was entertaining and parts of it were salvageable, but mostly just in the way that Glee is entertaining and salvageable – that is, it relies on gimmicks and occasionally has something insightful to say, but essentially just leaves you thinking to yourself, “Wow, I probably could have done something productive with my life but instead of watching that visual spectacle.” By choosing commercial flashiness over literary integrity, he compromises the characters and thematic elements. Luhrmann takes a little too much artistic license for my liking, pulling the already-depressing story to bounds of borderline-comical tragedy. The moral of his story is that the world is awful, and I had a hard time taking something that took itself so seriously all that seriously.

Let’s begin with that initial screenshot of Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Those goobers are actually Sampson and Gregory, Romeo’s posse. The actual play opens up with a kerfuffle between some Montagues and Capulets, an event we discussed during class as something that wasn’t the most significant event in the play but had its merit in practicality - fights are fun to watch and grab an audience's attention right from the beginning. The fight in the movie is instead played up as something of more significance and has a darkness about it that seems unfitting to the original play. It sets the mood for the rest of the movie, though, because this adaptation in general is dark, cynical and hopeless.

I think the only way to really understand the Luhrmann adaptation is to consider his audience. The movie’s a very commercial production – the sets, the cinematography, the colors – it all very much plays out like an 80’s MTV music video. It’s fun to watch, and I’m sure a suspicious number of teenagers had a newfound interest in Shakespeare after this movie came out. He’s trying to make Romeo and Juliet cool, he trying to say “Hey kids R+J can be hip and edgy and not some stuffy play you read in high school!” The problem with this sort of approach is that it over-simplifies several issues and plays up or blatantly creates new ones. For example, something we discussed in class was why Romeo is in love with another girl (Rosalind) at the beginning of the play. Does the beginning permit Romeo to change and develop as a character? The effect to which this is addressed in the movie is pretty simple from Romeo’s perspective: I love Rosalind. I am emo because she doesn’t love me back. Why does life suck so much? I love Rosa-oh wait, who’s that hot chick? I’ve never met this Juliet girl before but I’m in love with her based on what I’ve gathered from her physical appearance. No really, I’m legit in love with her. Rosalind? Who’s Rosalind? The theory that starting out as a dog gives Romeo room to grow up would work if Romeo did end up having any sort of character development whatsoever in the movie. But he doesn’t.

via romeoandjulietfan Being handsome gives you no right to brood, emo kid. Buck up already.

Like Romeo's emotions, everything in this movie is caricatured – the immorality and hypocrisy of the parents, the devastatingly melodramatic score of the movie – there’s a scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet which is really the highlight of how over-the-top this movie is. Paling around with Mercutio and the gang, Romeo takes ecstasy, utters the famous “Thy drugs are quick” line (Yes. Luhrmann actually abuses the line in this context instead of at the end of the play) and sneaks into a Capulet house party. Mercutio does a song and dance in drag and Des’ree sings a smooth jamz R&B number in the background. It’s all very bizarre, put together like an obligatory “Hey, someone’s on drugs – that gives us liberty to literally put ANYTHING WE WANT in this scene!” scene (think of the “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” scene in Across the Universe). And when Romeo and Juliet finally do meet and exchange flirtatious banter, there’s something about the way Clare Danes finishes her sentences with upward inflections that I found particularly grating. "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much...? Which mannerly devotion shows in this...? For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch...? And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss...?" Stop it, girl! Not every sentence is a question! There’s a clip of it here.

via romeoandjulietfan

Admittedly, there were some clever effects that Luhrmann incorporated into this scene. As Prof. Tapscott pointed out during class, the two first see each other through an aquarium and it’s ambiguous as to who they’re infatuated with; the camera angle is positioned so that it appears as though each character is gazing at the reflection of themselves. Does loves show us to ourselves? Or maybe, if you fall in love this quickly, can you really call it love? Is it narcissism? Are they in love with themselves? With the idea of love? It really was a shame that I couldn’t really appreciate the nuisances, though – I guess I was too busy recovering from the preceding visual diarrhea that had just assaulted my retinas. I also couldn’t get past the overt symbolism – Juliet wearing an angel costume and Romeo wearing a knight costume, compounded by him whisking her away from her mother by pulling her into and elevator with love carrying them upwards above the party as they share their first kiss. (If the Montague bozos hadn’t made you cringe, this should have.) It’s bad enough that Luhrmann thinks that all his audience wants is visual stimulation, but adding this cheap attempt at poignancy is a little patronizing – it's almost as if he's saying, “Here – go play with this My First Metaphor&trade in the sandbox now.” In general, the figurative nuances in this movie just rubbed me the wrong way. Luhrmann heavily uses religious iconography throughout the movie, especially around the wicked characters. The guns have Marian icons on them, there are crucifixes everywhere, everyone seems to hang out at the church and go to confession despite being impious in their everyday relations. The icing on the cake is when Romeo kills Tybalt – Tybalt falls in epic slo-mo under a huge statue of Jesus, a statue which happens to be under repair and covered in scaffolding. Now, I dislike self-righteous preachyness and am up for fighting the Man just like any other self-absorbed twentysomething, but that commentary against religious hypocrisy and the ridiculously overt irony seems to come out of left field. You could certainly make the case that it rests on legitimate Shakespearean grounds and that similar commentary is implied in the original play, but the execution of such a thesis was just plain gaudy in the movie.

via slayground Mmm, subtle. NOT.

In fact, all of the thematic elements in this movie are distilled to a point of simplification that makes a farce out of love and conflict. Where’s the authenticity in this movie? I’m not saying that everything has to be set in proper time and setting and I’m not against adding one's own flavor to adaptations. I don’t necessarily mean literal authenticity – if you want to do Romeo and Juliet set in 2020 in space and execute it well, I can dig it – but I’m looking for authenticity of spirit without the compromise of the characters. And if you're going to change the characters - improve them, don't make them worse. The Juliet in this movie is so unabashedly juvenile. Coupled with the lack of character development (of all the characters, really) and her naïveté, it perpetuates the notion that love is physical, love is purely impulsive. The movie also perpetuates the notion that “pretty shiny things” are enough to amuse an audience, and that people don’t want to be intellectually challenged in the least bit during their movie-watching experience. Baz Luhrmann, have a little more respect for your audience. Come on, young adults of the world! Stand for higher-quality cinema! You deserve something better than Jersey Shore and Michael Bay movies! I will not be roped in by fantastic visual effects and pretty people! I will… ope, sorry. Looks like I got distracted by an Avatar re-run on TV (just kidding. This is my point, people!).

It was interesting getting to watch this movie with my class, as we’d been discussing the nature of adaptations during the past couple lectures. Discussions are something we have a lot of in 21L.004 – in fact, we pretty much sit in a circle for 1.5 hours twice a week and interpret texts. Sometimes Prof. Tapscott cold-calls on people, which is hilarious (unless you’re the one that he calls) because it results in things like “The Pennybaker Phenomenon” (Pennybaker’s a guy in our class who is writing his paper on Luhrmann’s use of glass symbolism in the movie) being coined. Getting to watch the movie gave us a chance to exercise our cognitive and interpretive skills to something outside of lecture, kind of how a problem set gives you the chance to apply the things you learn during lecture. No lie, with about 20 hours devoted to science and engineering classes a week, this class is like a sanctuary. And it’s through these entertaining discussions that we come across some probing questions like, How do the conditions of performance shape something as an art-form? If you’ve gotten this fair through this post, you know how I’d answer this question with regards to Romeo &dagger Juliet. So is the movie worth watching? It’s an entertaining 2 hours.

As for me, well – I’m watching Glee tonight.

[Addendum: I sent Prof. Tapscott the post a couple days ago, and he responded, "So oddly enough I agreed with your interpretation when I first saw the movie... and it surprises me that the film is old already, but it does seem to still capture a sense of a social period in love with media and brand names and violence. Here's what I wonder: are we right to resist the glitz and stylized violence, or is the film making a critique of a society that grounds itself in these phenomena? By your reading the film works like those films of 'The Great Gatsby,' pretending to be anti-materialist but loving to photograph the old cart, the great clothes, Robert Redford's craggy face.... I really don't know what I think, whether the over-the-top nature of the visual spectacle constitutes a critique of a culture of spectacular violence and media saturation. You sure make a solid case that argues 'no'-- and the evidence of Luhrmann's other films would seem to back you up."

What do guys think? Any humanities fans out there want to add to the discussion?]

MIT: The Game is a revolutionary breakthrough in admissions technology. Designed and built by current MIT freshman Victor Hung '14, with music by admissions staff, it allows students to experience all the best parts of an MIT education (burritos, roller coasters, and such) from the comfort of their own homes.

The game was conceived almost a year ago, when Admissions held a mini- GameJam during the 2010 IAP. We more or less locked a half-dozen current students in a room with a bunch of pizza and soda for 48 and let them come up with a bunch of ideas for levels and build very simple versions of them.

Since last fall Victor Hung '14 has been collecting slivers of time that drop between the cracks in his schedule and has built out these concepts and ideas into a full Facebook game. With MIT: The Game, you will be able to participate in all the most important aspects of an MIT education, including:

• Building all the burritos you can eat at the campus taqueria
• Navigating the flood of fellow students down the Infinite Corridor
• Riding the East Campus Roller Coaster
• Finding your way through the labyrinthine tunnels
• Getting your (virtual) MIT diploma

We began closed beta testing of the game to our Early Action admits last month. Nearly all of them survived! So now we're ready to unleash the zombie virus release it to the world!

To play the game, you may click here.

A few pre-emptive FAQs:

• MTG isn't loading for me!
  It probably is. The flash file is packed with so much awesomeness that it weighs in at a solid ~7 megabytes. If you're not on MIT's lightspeed internet connection, it may take a few moments, or minutes, to download for the first time. It's worth the wait though. We promise.
• MTG wants access to my profile information. Gadzooks! Are you collecting information from my Facebook machine?
  No! We have an office policy against Facebook/mySpace/Googlestalking prospective students and applicants. MTG only collects your Facebook ID number, which is a numeric string that allows us to keep track of your scores so that our leaderboard works. We are not collecting anything else. We will not use it for anything other than the leaderboard.
• A bug! I found a bug!
  Congratulations, e-entomologist! There may still be some lurking out there. Specifically, we have been receiving some reports that for some users, some of the time, the roller coaster duplicates. Why? It is a mystery. But refreshing the page seems to make it go away, and we are working on a fix.
  
  If you have another, different bug to report, or if you want to send us e-valentines and/or commendations of some kind, you may email admitfbookgame-dev [at] mit [dot] edu.

And enjoy the game!

From a bottle of Honest Tea, purchased from MIT's Student Center

I’m taking a total of 45 credits, the fewest credits I’ve ever taken at MIT. Part of the reason for that is that one of my classes (1.013) has a four-hour lab 12-4pm on Wednesday, which blocks out a lot of other classes. For that reason, 21F.702 (Spanish II) and 14.02 (Macroeconomics), two candidates for a fifth class, were not truly feasible. But, I’m a second semester senior! I’ll enjoy the extra time this term, even though it’ll still be less leisurely than last term, when I didn’t have class until 1pm any day of the week.

1.011 – Project Evaluation (9 credits)

Required by all Course IC students (although generally taken during junior year), the aim of this course is to provide the tools engineers need to evaluate projects and determine whether they are worthwhile and feasible (from environmental, social, and financial standpoints). Over the past couple weeks, the course has been heavily focused on the financial aspects, which I am, to some extent, quite grateful for, considering I couldn't fit 14.02 into my schedule.

1.013 – Senior Civil and Environmental Engineering Design (12 credits)

As you can imagine, this is that big class that is supposed to cap off your four-year experience in Civil and Environmental Engineering. This is considered a reunion of sorts, as all the Course I seniors, regardless of whether they focused in civil engineering or environmental engineering, or transportation, structures, or geotechnics, come back together for this one final class. There are a number of people in the class who I honestly haven't seen since sophomore year. The class has a few small projects throughout the term, but the main outcome of the class is a report on one of three real issues – the renovation of MIT’s Sailing Pavilion, the revitalization in South Florida’s Cowbone Marsh, and the improvement of South Florida’s coastal structures. I’m working on the last project, and the a couple people from the South Florida Water Management District came up to MIT two weeks ago to tell us about the project. They even said that if we happened to be in Miami during Spring Break, they could show us the waterways by helicopter (tempting offer, I know…).

1.041 – Transportation Systems (12 credits)

Although I have had a longtime interest in transportation, this is my first transportation course ever. So far, we’ve done a lot of MATLAB modeling of networks, car following dynamics, and, now, GIS. Easily the best moment of the class was when our TA last Wednesday asked for feedback on the problem set and someone sternly remarked that if he says an assignment is "due Wednesday" (as it was), it should not be due at 1:00am. Indeed, I hadn’t started the assignment by 10pm and had to cancel my quick nap when he “reminded” us (via e-mail) that it was due in three hours. Our TA took the comment rather well, but now whenever he mentions a due date for a problem set, everyone in the class responds, “What time?” He’s never going to live that one down.

4.440 – Building Structural Systems I (12 credits)

The only course I’m taking this semester that isn’t required for Course I, I was drawn to the class by the lab component (three hours on Fridays) and the architectural angle of the course. Aside from a seminar-style Islamic architecture course last term, I haven’t taken a single architecture course during my time at MIT (and I think it's important for civil engineers to meet their architect comrades). While some of the concepts are a bit basic for a civil engineering senior (as I was forewarned), the course has begun to teach me some nifty graphical concepts that would be useful in civil engineering, but which, for some reason, have been left out of curriculum. The professor noted that he has long thought the course should be required for civil engineering sophomores (when the engineering concepts aren’t so basic). Also, I am looking forward to our design projects, where we build structural elements and models.

On Friday, we completed our first such project. We had to building a balsa wood column 12-36 inches tall and less than five inches in diameter. Prizes were to be awarded for the column that could withstand the greatest load relative to weight and greatest load multiplied by its height squared (to encourage people to build taller).

The undergraduates, for some reason, were seriously outperformed by the graduate students. Seriously. Take a look at our creations:

And here is my pair's structure being tested...

...and destroyed...

The undergraduates’ strongest column held 2,147 lb, but it was widely believed to be outside the regulations because it was cut from sheets of balsa wood, rather than from strips of wood. Ignoring that one, the strongest column among the fourteen undergraduate teams belonged to myself and classmate Adam ’11; our column held 1,202 lb. Somehow, though, that figure was bested by six of the twelve graduate student teams, with their strongest column holding an unbelievable 5,268 lbs! Balsa wood! We held the highest pressure-per-column-mass ratio among the undergraduates (with 24.2 lbs/g; yes, I know the units are painful), but we were – again – outdone by one of the graduate teams, whose column had a pressure-per-mass ratio of 59.1 lbs/g. Their column was also the lightest of all, coming in at a shockingly light 16 grams (the heaviest were above 250 grams).

This is no ordinary changing of the guard though, as Eric Grimson is no ordinary faculty member. He loves MIT, which is no small thing to say considering he knows what it's like to be a student here (he got his PhD in Mathematics here in 1980, and presumably hasn't left his lab and doesn't know what year it is.)

More than just being around here though, he has served on numerous committees and won countless awards for his excellence in teaching. I'd be tempted to say I'm a bit biased, as he was my 6.01 professor, but the nearly unanimous excitement around campus leads me to dismiss such temptation.

The thing is, as you might infer from the awards and excitement, Prof. Grimson is a wonderful guy. He's incredibly fair and reasonable, and he genuinely cares about his students and the culture at MIT. When I was taking 6.01, there was one day where I was hosed beyond belief and slept through my lab section. This was a fairly substantial crisis as a project was due to be turned in that day, as well as the lab work itself which was a non-trivial part of my grade. I sent Prof. Grimson an email explaining how my body wasn't listening when I told it we had to wake up for class, and asked if there was a way I could make up the lab section. I didn't have much hope for my cause, as it was explicitly stated in class that attendance in your lab section was mandatory with no excuses, but I had to try.

To my nigh-infinite gratitude, Prof. Grimson sent me back an email saying he understood and would allow me to attend the Friday lab. This meant he personally had to open the class archives, remove me from my original lab section, and add me to the Friday section just for the day. After that, he had to move me back to my original section.

That's a lot of hassle for one student, and it would've been much easier for him to say "Sorry Charlie", but hassle he suffered for my sleep deprived butt that week.

Those of you who choose to come here in the future are truly lucky to have Grimson as your chancellor, and I, like everyone else, am excited that he'll be mine while I'm here. With all the praise, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that there have even been some Grimson-related fan art submissions, like this gem:

or this, more MIT-ish form of art:

yeah, I'd say any man who can get hackers to pull a hack for him is a man worthy of MIT's respect.

Let me introduce you to my next-door neighbor, Nora '12. An aspiring limnologist*, she works part-time at the New England Aquarium. In lieu of an interview, she jumped into the nearest tank and wrestled a rowdy octopus into submission.** The director gave her the job instantly.
*limnology: the study of inland waters
**DISCLAIMER: if you are anyone other than Nora, attempting to reenact this feat may result in serious injury, excessive brinyness, animal cruelty, or a restraining order.

Pretty much any Chuck Norris Fact with his name replaced with Nora's is true. If you're still having trouble visualizing her incredible badassitude, this picture should help.

Here are just a few of the animals that Nora has housed during her stay at MIT:

Yep, you get the picture. Whenever I interact with Nora, she smoothly beguiles me into poring for hours over topics like subtle differences in the anatomy of different whale subspecies, or the social behavior of catfish. If she ever decided to turn her powers against humanity, the world would probably be ruled by dolphins within a matter of weeks.

Anyways, Nora was kind enough to do a Q&A for my blog, so enjoy!

----------

Did other people from your high school know about MIT? What made you decide to come here?
When people from my high school asked where I was going to college and I said "MIT," I got a lot of blank looks. My school was in a small suburb outside of Madison, WI, and I was actually the first person to get into MIT. The major reasoning behind my decision to go here was that it was far away from my parents. For some reason, though, I think that inspired them to visit me more than they would have if I went to UW-Madison.

What inspired you to get into limnology?
It's like the (awesomer) freshwater version of marine biology. This field is notably much more prevalent back in Wisconsin. When I was little I took weekend classes where we would go ice fishing for northern pikes and then dissect them.

How has being at MIT helped you in this regard?
MIT has been really good for networking. It opens a lot of doors--for example, my internship at the New England Aquarium last spring. What's really great is that even though I have this really obscure interest in fish that MIT does not specialize in, I have had tons of great opportunities to pursue this interest through MIT connections. Also, I can keep fish tanks in my dorm room, which is a major plus.

Tell us what working at the aquarium is like.
Ridiculously awesome. I have gotten to do some of the coolest stuff: go swimming in some of the exhibits, sit in on a sea turtle surgery, and play with the octopus. The people there are also insanely awesome. Some of them spend most of their time swimming in Brazilian rivers or researching in Fiji. It doesn't get better than that.

Do you have post-graduation plans, or any particular life goals?
My parents said I couldn't take a job as a crab fisherman on "Deadliest Catch," so I think I am going to settle for going to vet school after MIT and specializing in aquatic animal medicine. I'm particularly interested in fish farm and hatchery management. However, if there's anything you learn during your time in college, it's that plans change. Who knows what I'll be when I grow up.

Tell us about your weirdest/funniest animal-related incident.
I used to take my pet rats to class in the hood of my sweatshirt. They became proficient in differential equations, electricity and magnetism, and basic Python programming. It was always funny when they stopped sleeping during class (they were really bad about napping during lectures) and poked their heads out, because I would hear people behind me gasp and be like, "What is that?!?!"

----------

That concludes this interview -- even as I type this, someone is outside Nora's door asking for veterinary advice. It turns out we're not so different at heart; we're both willing to get mauled in pursuit of our interests, she by vicious animals and I by heavy machinery and segfaults. (Although we try our best to avoid such maulings.)

So, to end on a sappy but true cliché that the admissions site has reiterated many times, there is no rote set of actions that makes you a candidate to attend MIT. Just find things you love to do, and do them. Blogger out!

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4486 2011-02-27T14:11:39Z 2011-02-27T14:29:26Z

Warning: post may contain dangerously high amounts of "daaaaaaaawwwwww"

Chris Peterson First of all, apologies for the radio silence. I've been sequestered in reading and committee for the last few weeks. Today may be a Sunday, but it is no different. But before I once again immerse myself in the awesomeness that is all of you, I wanted to share this different awesome thing.

This thing is TOFU.

TOFU is the baby of Ryan Wistort, a grad student over at the Personal Robots research group. I often characterize the Media Lab as being "the place where everything cool that has been invented over the last 20 years has been invented."

(Reminder to self: blog entry about the ML at some point this summer)

Anyway, here is how Ryan describes TOFU:

TOFU is a project to explore new ways of robotic social expression by leveraging techniques that have been used in 2d animation for decades. Disney Animation Studios pioneered animation tools such as “squash and stretch” and “secondary motion” in the 30’s. Such techniques have since been used widely by animators, but are not commonly used to design robots. TOFU, who is named after the squashing and stretching food product, can also squash and stretch. Clever use of compliant materials and elastic coupling, provide an actuation method that is vibrant yet robust. Instead of using eyes actuated by motors, TOFU uses inexpensive OLED displays, which offer highly dynamic and lifelike motion.

That all sounds very fancy and highminded but the important thing is that TOFU is freakin adorable

Remember, all based off Pixar dynamics. So it's art, imitating art, imitating life - and it makes me make this face:

Yes please!

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4483 2011-02-23T16:53:36Z 2011-02-24T00:23:38Z

How some classes at the Institvte are justifiably hard.

Rachel '12
source: http://xkcd.com/863/

Last night, I had a convincing nightmare that I was trying to double major in 18 and 6-3 and had mysteriously forgotten about 6 required classes, which I would have to pack into senior year. I'm not making any of this up. It probably stems from a talk I had with a double 18/6-3 yesterday, rather than some unconscious, lurking Freudian terror.

Flash back to the real world, where school is still kind of hard despite having little in the way of required classes. A classmate and I each spent four hours writing three 12-bar arrangements of a Thelonious Monk song for a recent 21M.340 assignment. Hopefully, we are not just intrinsically awful at jazz, and this will get easier as we gain more familiarity with the notation and subject. Sadly, classes here tend to compensate by progressing in difficulty at a slightly faster rate than one adapts.

So with that out of the way, I have some actual comp sci psets incoming. As a member of Generation Y, I expect everything I'd ever want to know to be neatly packaged in an organized, clearly-explained Wikipedia entry as the first Google hit on the topic. But instead, when I look up clarifications of concepts we learned in class, I get a slew of research papers with long-winded titles and, if I'm lucky, a sad little wiki stub.

Me: "Hey google, show me some concrete examples of using the noisy channel model for machine translation!"
Google: "Sure thing! GRAPHEME BASED MACHINE TRANSLATION OCR CORRECTION UNSUPERVISED WORD SENSE DISAMBIGUATION BLARGASDFJHKL;WASDHURGBLUG would you like to see more results?"

This has often been true of my high-level classes, with the exception of Sipser's computation and complexity theory class, which uses the textbook that he wrote for it, which is so good that literally every university with an equivalent class bases their curriculum on it.

The omnipotent hand of Google fails me only occasionally, but whenever this happens, it's a sobering reminder that many classes here don't just consist of century-old axioms distilled into a form gentle enough to be diffused into our frail young minds -- sometimes, they're actually based on a bunch of fresh research the professor thought looked cool when he visited a conference last year. Which, in turn, is unsoberingly motivational.

...I'm also reminded that I should go to office hours more often.

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4482 2011-02-23T03:33:53Z 2011-03-04T05:44:03Z

I don't remember signing up for this

Jenny X. '13 Well...if there’s one thing you can know for sure about studying at MIT, it’s that time flies by - whether it’s funtymz or seriousbusinesstime. Long hours spent working might seem like eternity, but we somehow always get past it and immediately get behind another battle before we even realize...

Spring semester so far, the new battle for architect majors in my year is ... CODING.
Yeahhh - What the...

I’ll be first to say that when I planned to major in Architecture @ MIT, I thought I’d be drawing pretty pictures. From my past entries, that’s clearly incorrect, but I’ve also had an exciting, adrenaline-rushing - albeit tiringgg - time learning all about model-making, 3D modeling, 3D printing, etc.

But now for 4.113 - Applied Architecture Design Studio I, we have to code...with programming languages. A few of us have some programming background, but for the rest of us (me!) it’s like … I don’t know, catching up with the rest of MIT. (Just kidding, architecture pride.)

But seriously though, for our first project in 4.113, each one of us had to thoroughly research a natural example of self-assembly or self-organization. I picked oscillating chemical reactions (reactions that oscillate in time and space), so I had to pore over chemistry textbooks and scientific journals for information on the mechanism of these reactions. The idea is to extract how self-organizing mechanisms occur in nature and adapt them into ways architectural elements can populate and self-organize in any given space. So basically, I’m trying to write code that aggregates geometric elements in a defined space as if chemical reactions are adding a certain ion in a petri dish...and pray that what I create look as interesting as this:

An oscillating chemical reaction. Source

It would be a pain to manually draw recurring shapes over and over on a 3D modeling program, so that’s where the coding comes in. We’re using Python for the Rhino modeling program. While I’m totally intimidated by coding, I’m also genuinely excited for what I come up with...because chances are, it will help me. (Last semester I spent 6 hours drawing line segments, and 6 more raising them to different inclines).

How would you feel if MIT had a programming requirement for graduation - like the swim requirement? Just saying...so many majors need it here anyway...And as far as I can tell, it’s quite useful :P This is what I've been playing with in Python for Rhino:

Not sure how I'm going to make it more oscillatingchemicalreaction, but that thing would have taken eons without programming.

Anyways, the second class I’m taking is 4.302 - Introduction to Visual Arts for Majors...Let’s just say this class makes me put on my artsyfartsy hat and speak all I feel about emotions, identities, parts and whole, bodies, the familiar vs. unfamiliar - also known as, the abstract thoughts that run through my head abberantly, and often unnoticed. So I thank this class for teasing out some of the artist juice I’d like to think I have inside me. Our first project is about body-extension, which means building something that when engaged with the body creates a meaningful SENSORIAL experience. I also thank this class for ‘sensorial’ - my new favorite word.

The third course in the architecture repertoire is 4.605 - Introduction to the History and Theory of Architecture....This is like a history class but with much more visuals. While we look at slides of ancient villages and cities, a TA is hovering around Google Earth on the side trying to show us what the present day locations look like. This class makes me want to travel everywhere - I’m really tempted to just drop everything and go live in a historical African village for a while, like this:

In addition to these three classes, I’m also taking 15.812 Marketing Management in my effort to complete a minor in Management. I’m really liking it so far. The lectures and case studies are immediately applicable in real life; I mean, my shopper IQ went up by like 50 points after the first lecture. Lastly, I’m taking 21F.108 Chinese II Streamlined as a part of my HASS Concentration in Chinese; Chinese I Streamlined was easy, but now the essays take me 2 hours a piece … :( But anywaysss

Thanks for reading this rambling interlude of my spring courseload!

Let me know if you have any questions about anything I mentioned;

Yay school!

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4480 2011-02-21T20:52:59Z 2011-03-03T05:59:20Z

How to go abroad 101

Becca '12 The other day I dropped off my application to the International Honors Program in the mailbox across from WILG. So begins my journey to study abroad in college. The International Honors Program is a unique program in that it examines a thematic topic in multiple countries. The program I am applying to is called “Cities in the 21st Century”, which looks at the forces affecting the development of cities around the world. If accepted, I will be travelling with a group of about 30 students to Detroit, Michigan; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; and Hanoi, Vietnam to gain a better understanding of the social, political and economic systems that affect cities.

I had always expected to study abroad in college, but when I came to MIT, I wasn’t sure it would work out. It is always more difficult to study abroad while studying engineering because engineering programs at almost all schools have strict graduation requirements. At the beginning of my sophomore year, however, I decided I did want to study abroad in a more traditional sense. After studying abroad in high school, I am aware that most college programs do not provide the same type of immersion experience that I got in the Czech Republic, so I was looking for a program that didn’t promise that and rather had a different focus. I looked at many programs, but in the end decided that IHP would offer me the experience I was looking for.

Although not many students take part in traditional study abroad programs at MIT (an exception being the Cambridge-MIT Exchange, which is a year-long direct exchange program with Cambridge University; MIT Madrid, which sends students for a semester to Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Universidad Complutense de Madrid; and several departmental programs), MIT does a great job of providing many opportunities to go abroad to work, volunteer and learn for shorter time periods, such as during the summer or IAP. I have been able to take advantage of many of these opportunities, and would without a doubt suggest that you try to as well. Hopefully a short description of my experiences will convince you to take advantage of any opportunity you have to travel (especially if someone else is paying), no matter where you end up.

A pretty common question for people to ask me is where I’m going next. My first international experience was a trip to South Africa when I was 2 years old, but I fell in love with traveling was after a family trip to France and Germany when I was 11. When I was 14 years old, I decided I wanted to do a youth high school exchange, and so at 15, I embarked for my year abroad in the Czech Republic. Proximity made it possible for me not only to see a lot of the Czech Republic, but also Eastern Europe during my year, and when I got home after 11 months abroad, I knew I wanted to keep traveling, learning new languages and exploring.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to travel before I got to MIT, and the opportunity to share my experiences. Even if you have not traveled abroad before, MIT has a ton of resources to fund travel and projects abroad. I’ve had the chance to go on four major trips thanks to MIT:

1) England: The summer of my freshman year, I traveled with 9 other girls from my crew team and our coaches to compete in the Henley Women’s Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, England. Although we didn’t make it past the first round of competition, rowing against crews such as Yale, and British clubs that include national team members, it was an amazing bonding experience for our team, and created the basis for the growth and success of our team.

There are several varsity teams that have had the opportunity to compete internationally in the past, though recently funding has not been available for this kind of travel and many teams have had to cancel their plans. Nonetheless, being on a varsity team is an incredible experience, which many bloggers have written about. The whole list can be found here

2) Uganda: My freshman year I helped start MIT’s chapter of Engineers without Borders with Helen D. ’12. The summer after that year, Helen and I traveled to Ddegeya, Uganda with two mentors to complete our chapter’s first assessment trip. While in Uganda, we worked with the community to identify their more pressing problems, and then continued to take data and understand the community. The information we collected and the relationships formed are the basis of the work EWB has been doing over the past 2 years. Since Helen and I went in Summer 2009, we have sent two other groups of students to Ddegeya, and for each trip, the Public Service Center funded at least one student who traveled.

The Public Service Center helps MIT students find and fund volunteer opportunities locally, nationally and internationally. They are a great resource at MIT and work with individuals, groups and student groups who are trying to “serve the nation and the world”. There are a ton of resources, both monetary and general support in the PSC, and I highly encourage anyone interested in service to look more into the opportunities they have and the groups they support.

3) Brazil: During IAP my sophomore year I took part in a Harvard field course called Energy, Water and the Environment. As an MIT student, you can cross-register for classes at Harvard, including field and other special courses. During three weeks in IAP, I traveled to Brazil with 10 Harvard students and several faculty members. Together with 14 students from the Escola Politecnica at Universidade Sao Paulo and Brazilian faculty, we learned about urban water, ethanol, hydropower and oil in Brazil. It involved lectures from people in industry, Brazilian and American professors, field visits and projects. It was an awesome opportunity to get hands-on experience that related to what I was learning in my engineering courses.

In order to help fund this experience, I received a Kelly-Douglas traveling fellowship, a fellowship program that is run through the Literature Department at MIT. They support a wide range of projects, generally relating to the humanities, arts and social sciences, as well as humanitarian projects.

4) Mexico: I spent last summer in Mexico City with MISTI Mexico. Seeing how people work in another country and gaining the ability to navigate that system helped me formulate my own work goals. I had the opportunity to travel to different parts of Mexico on the weekends, while working during the week, and got to meet people from all over the world, while living in one of the world’s biggest megalopolises.

MISTI is an incredible program that sends about 400 students abroad every year to work in internships and doing research. Each country program (Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Spain) has a coordinator at MIT that helps you search for internships or research positions, and MISTI (or sometimes your company) will give you a stipend that covers travel, housing, food and often some other extra expenses. The language and class requirements vary across the programs, but they are not difficult to satisfy and MISTI can provide a great summer experience.

I highly recommend taking advantage of the travel opportunities that you will have at MIT. Traveling is expensive, and it is great to be doing it on someone else’s dime. Traveling can help you learn about yourself, contribute to a variety of projects and meet people from around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad at MIT, the Global Education Office has lots of brochures and people to help you navigate through the requirements. Even though not many people take part in traditional study abroad programs, it is definitely possible with some advance planning.

To end, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite travel quotes:

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”
-St Augustine

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign”.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world”.
-Freya Stark

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home”.
-James Michener

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable”.
-Clifton Fadiman

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world”.
-Mary Anne Radmacher Hershey

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4479 2011-02-21T04:34:55Z 2011-03-02T05:26:47Z

my first video

Quinton McArthur Last week, I attended the MUSE Colloquium hosted by MIT’s NSBE Chapter at the Black Students Union on campus. NSBE is a wonderful organization that promotes academic excellence, professional development, information sharing, and networking for aspiring young Black engineers. Participants at the MUSE Colloquium displayed their summer research from 2010 via PowerPoint presentations. The three best presentations won scholarship money to help support their continued research. 1st Place won $500: 2nd Place won $350: 3rd Place won $150.

Long time MIT Lecturer, Sekazi Mtingwa, kicked off the event by sharing a bit about his research in physics. I made a little video of the event. Here are the highlights. Enjoy!

PS - Please forgive my camera shake. This is my first Iphone video ever. I promise to get a better camera for my future productions. ;-)

]]> tag:www.mitadmissions.org,2011://1.4478 2011-02-18T18:09:15Z 2011-02-28T12:45:20Z

An alum's perspective!

Maggie L. '12 Hey folks, TGIF! I got an email from Tanya '10 earlier this week, who said that she wanted to write up a little entry about how GEL prepared her for life outside of the MIT bubble. I love hearing other students' take on this program because it's one of those "you get what you give" sort of experiences, so different people take away different messages. Matt '11, another GEL, was featured in the winter 2011 issue of MIT's Spectrum newsletter that goes out to "friends and supporters" of MIT. I agree that the hands-on approach helps this program stand out from all my lecture-based classes!

Anyway, Tanya's text begins below. Enjoy!
=================================================

It could have been any number of early mornings my freshman year at MIT. There I was, slaving over a 18.02 or 8.012 pset at 3AM, being really no closer to finishing than I was a few hours earlier. On his way through the lounge, one of the upperclassmen in my dorm stopped by to comfort me. “Don’t worry,” he said, “After this, the real world will be easy.”

I heard that sentiment echoed many times during my years at MIT from anyone from second-term freshmen to recent alums returning to regale us with tales of life after graduation. For most of my time at the Institute, I fully believed them, using their optimism and encouragement to convince myself to pull through just one more all-nighter. The problem is, being a recent graduate myself, I’m not entirely convinced they were right.

The problem with psets and labs are that they are confined, defined problems with a predetermined solution. You know when you have reached the “right answer,” and the problems are intentionally designed to be solved by one or two people, ideally of the same background and skill set. Ask anyone from the “real world” how realistic that situation is and chances are you’ll be greeted with a mixture of laughter and sympathetic looks.

MIT does the best job in the world for preparing you for the technical challenges you will face in industry, and if your future job involves sitting in a cubicle solving well-defined problems fed to you by a benevolent manager, then you’re in luck because the “real world” will probably seem pretty easy compared to your time at MIT.

However, for the vast majority of you who will work in teams made of people with diverse backgrounds on problems that are both ill-defined and complex, you may find that MIT only gave you a few pieces of the puzzle.

That’s why it’s so great that programs like GEL are becoming part of the MIT curriculum. GEL very much fills a hole left by traditional coursework, and that’s how to deal with all the parts of your job that aren’t solitary technical problem-solving. To highlight this gap, I’ll give an example from my own post-MIT experience.

When I started grad school, my first (and still ongoing) project was part of an industry collaboration with my lab and involved running a coordinated study across four countries, all of whom would have their own quasi-independent operating teams. One of those countries is China, and there have been a lot of unanticipated complications arising both from the language barrier and cultural differences.

Each of the teams also wanted to pull the project in a certain direction, and we had to make sure that the teams were given enough independence while still ensuring that their data would contribute to the overall project. Furthermore, our main industry contacts (and therefore the people to whom we had to report) were PR and marketing professionals who understood very little about academic research.

It has been a separate challenge to try to run a legitimate research project while also fitting into the timescale and budget imposed by our industry collaborators, all while justifying our decisions to people whose background and knowledge of the field is completely different.

I might have been in over my head, but luckily some of the core skills of the GEL program taught me how to work with people from diverse backgrounds and internationally.

Many GEL ELLs taught me effective communication skills so I could effectively share my ideas with someone of a non-technical background and, similarly, understand their point of view and goals.

My GEL InternshipPlus took me to England, where I learned to work with people from a different culture and in a different work environment. Finally, my contacts in the GEL program are a vital and consistent support network for me: I have reached out to the GEL staff for help with my current project even though I have graduated, and their assistance has been invaluable.

I can’t really say that any of my academic classes at MIT prepared me for many the challenges I’ve faced since graduating, and with the dynamics of both industry and academia changing rapidly, it’s reasonable to say that you too might be surprised by the things required of you once you leave the relative safety being evaluated based purely on coursework.

The value of the GEL program is in preparing you to face those challenges. Not only will you know more what to expect, but you will be prepared and will therefore excel in ways that you never knew you could.

I am grateful every day that I had GEL to teach me the things I never would have learned at MIT otherwise, and I know that I will apply many of the lessons I learned in the program throughout my career. I highly encourage all of you to take advantage of one of the best opportunities MIT has to offer. You won’t regret it.

]]>