HarvardX & MITx merge under edX
They’re called MOOCs, and it was the M for Massive that really started turning heads.
Forces of nature converge on campus
Despite the blatant lack of the anticipated apocalypse, 2012 was a good year for disasters. Last year saw several out-of-the-ordinary occurrences, including a hurricane, two major power outages, and a small earthquake.
Annual MLK exhibits opens
Tonight marks the opening of the Lobby 10 installation from the Martin Luther King Jr. Design Seminar (17.920), an IAP course where students learned about the Civil Rights Movement and discussed topics like race and identity. The installation will be up until the night of Jan. 14.
Gaggle cops 133rd Managing Board elections
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the V133 managing board!
6.x70 — Pick your poison
Have you ever wanted to design a website, battle robots, or see who can write the smartest code? MIT students engaged in these activities through several competitions during IAP, most notably 6.270, 6.370, and 6.470. Last week, the winners to these student-run competitions were announced.
US accuses S&P of fraud in suit on loan bundles
The Justice Department late Monday filed civil fraud charges against the nation’s largest credit-ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, accusing the firm of inflating the ratings of mortgage investments and setting them up for a crash when the financial crisis struck.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Experiencing Techfair 2013
“Please leave your resumes at home,” read Techfair’s preface to the event, reassuring students not to expect a stressful recruiting atmosphere.
IAP brings changes, challenges
Independent Activities Period (IAP) is a time for many students to travel or intern off-campus, while others come back to campus early to take classes, participate in coding and design challenges, or attend some of the numerous student-run activities offered during January. Although one might expect IAP to be a quiet time on-campus since not all students have returned, January was a busy month at the Institute.
Power failure delivers surge to Super Bowl ratings
CBS came close to matching the audience levels of the two most-watched television events of all time Sunday night, turning an electrical failure in the New Orleans Superdome into a likely ratings advantage for its coverage of Super Bowl XLVII.
Rafael Reif is in the House
President L. Rafael Reif moved into Gray House on Saturday with his wife, Christine, continuing an MIT tradition and joining the more than 5000 students living on campus. Cradled in the L of Senior House, the president’s residence was part of architect William Welles Bosworth’s original design for MIT’s Cambridge campus and is nearly a century old.
Online Media: Year-in-Review
The Tech focused more of its efforts on digital innovation and data journalism in 2012 with the creation of a new Online Media team focused on developing The Tech’s online presence using multimedia, social media, and interactives. Beginning with the religion project, we produced a series of videos and interactive graphics on religion on campus based on a schoolwide survey. At the end of spring, we covered President Reif’s inauguration using traditional print media mixed in with audio podcasts, videos, and interactive graphics. In the fall, we investigated and visualized stress at MIT based on another schoolwide survey in our “Under Pressure” project.
Bexley, EC, Random, Baker to receive RLADs in Fall 2013
The Residential Life Area Director (RLAD) program is expanding to include Bexley, Random, Baker, and East Campus, Christina Davis, Director of Residential Life Programs, confirmed. If RLADs for these dorms are found, that would leave Senior House as the only undergraduate dorm without an RLAD.
Unraveling the Enigma - MIT Mystery Hunt 2013
At 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18. Mystery Hunt team Sleipnir’s Wranglers was prepared for the long haul. Their classroom in Building 12 was outfitted with snacks, caffeine, a chalkboard, and even a webcam so their remote solvers could join the atmosphere of the live hunt. As they excitedly opened the first puzzle, little did they know they would be a part of the longest hunt in history.
Chisholm granted high honor
MIT’s Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm has been awarded the National Medal of Science, one of 12 recipients in 2012, the White House announced in December. The National Medal of Science is annually given to individuals “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, or engineering sciences,” according to the National Science Foundation. In a White House ceremony this Thursday, President Barack Obama will present the award to Chisholm — the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental engineering, and the 48th MIT scientist to win the honor — for her research in microbial oceanography.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: An inside tour of the MassDOT
MIT students frequently use the T and other MassDOT transit systems; since 2010, our IDs even come with a built-in Charlie Card chip. But most students are unfamiliar with the inner workings of the transit system. I was excited to take advantage of one of the opportunities offered this IAP and take a tour of several MassDOT (Massachusetts Department of Transportation) facilities, including an underground ventilation tunnel system, bus operator training school, and the organizational headquarters for the T.
An optimistic Menino returns to the public stage
In a speech by turns sentimental and unabashedly bullish, Mayor Thomas M. Menino returned to the public stage Tuesday night after a lengthy illness and offered a buoyant vision of Boston, celebrating accomplishments and outlining initiatives for the future.
Meet the RLADs
When the Residential Life Area Director (RLAD) position was announced via a leak from one “Tim Beaver” this summer, students and GRTs alike were up in arms about the impending addition of an administrator to the dorms without prior notification. The RLAD of each dorm is meant to work as both an administrative assistant to the housemaster as well as a source of support for students and GRT. The seven RLADs, two of whom were previously Residential Life Associates (RLAs), started their new jobs in August and moved into the spaces created for them in their respective west campus dorms.