What do podcasts and journaling have in common?
I want to be the kind of person who listens to podcasts, but I like music too much.
18 things to do this IAP
Welcome back to campus! Figuring out what to do with yourself at MIT can be hard when you don’t have a schedule, set by classes and UROPs, to regulate your life. Here are some suggestions on how to spend your time this IAP.
My morning commute as an algorithm
I am a creature of routines, and being a Course 6 student has inspired me to algorithmitize (yes, that’s a made up word) my life when possible. For example, I do laundry every Saturday, sometimes earlier when my hamper is 75% full, or my favorite hoodie is in need of a wash. When I moved off campus, I was suddenly faced with a new daily decision: how to get to campus every day. Making an algorithm was the logical next step. Here’s my thought process:
A guide for course evaluations
You’ve probably gotten a deluge of emails asking you to fill out course evaluations. You’ve got a lot on your plate right now with finals and such, so here are a few things to ponder so you can optimize your subject evaluations. You’ve gotta make sure instructors and departments hear your feedback.
Fifty years of Tech Squares
I was introduced to square dancing with Tech Squares, MIT’s square and round dance club. Now I’m at MIT every Tuesday evening, and sometimes more often in a week.
How to adjust to winter break
This will be my sixth winter break at MIT, and I think it is high time I write down some useful tips for how to manage the adjustment from “hell week and finals week at MIT” to the so-stressless-it-is-actually-stressful time period: winter break.
Confidence matters
I am an entrepreneur, and I’m looking to start another company. I did it alone the first time, and I realized it makes sense to find a cofounder because starting a company is a hard and lonely road.
Nir Shavit
America is now my home, but unlike many people who “immigrate” and then go through the process of building a life in their new country, I gradually built a life to the point where I can now say that I have indeed “immigrated.”
Dina Katabi
I grew up in Damascus, Syria, and came to the US to do my PhD. My years as a graduate student at MIT were amazing, with many long nights of heated discussions, coding and searching for intractable bugs, and arguing about social and political issues while solving math problem sets. My best friends were also my office mates. We worked, took classes, and traveled together. By the end of my PhD, I was so attached to MIT, it was hard to leave. I took a faculty job and stayed.
Corporate polish
The other day, a friend of mine put in a good word for me for an amazing internship opportunity. He wrote, “Laura is not corporate polished, but she built a cosmetics manufacturing enterprise with no science background at all. She hustles and makes it happen. If she doesn’t know how to do something, she will figure it out and learn it inside out.”
Munther Dahleh
I was born in a small town in the West Bank in Palestine called Tulkarem. However, I grew up in Amman, Jordan. I came to America when I was 17 years old. I spent 7 years in Texas where I got my BS and PhD. I then came to MIT as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and I have been here since then. I met my wife, Jinane, at MIT, and we raised our three kids (Deema, Hilal, and Yazeed) while we were housemasters at MacGregor house. After living in Cambridge for 30 years, I can confidently say that this is our home.
Hello gorgeous!
Have you met your "other” self? No one likes to admit they have one, but I am starting to become well-acquainted with mine. Lately, she has come alive in 3D and is stronger than ever. Perhaps school stress led my mind to build theories that betray me. I’ll describe her in more detail, and maybe our "other” selves will identify with each other.
Fadel Adib
I was born in Tripoli, Lebanon in 1989 — the same year the civil war ended. I grew up listening to stories of how my parents narrowly escaped the horrors of a sectarian civil war. My parents enrolled us in a secular school, and I didn’t know who among my best friends were Christians or Muslims until I was in middle school. It didn’t really matter to us.
The senior-year question
It doesn’t take long before that dreaded question pops up: “So, what are your plans after graduation?”
Mehran Kardar
I was born in Tehran, Iran and attended the same school for twelve years. Following undergraduate studies at Cambridge University (UK), I moved to Cambridge (US) for graduate studies at MIT in 1979.
Nuh Gedik
I am originally from Turkey. My lab uses ultrafast laser pulses to understand newly discovered materials such as high temperature superconductors.
Ahmed Ghoniem
I grew up in Egypt. After finishing my bachelor's and master’s degrees at Cairo University, I joined the University of California, Berkeley to do my PhD.
Leaving the MIT whirlwind
My first two years of college, I found myself getting caught up in a flurry of so many obligations and classes that I couldn’t even remember how many organizations I was a part of.
Azra Aksamija
I come from Sarajevo, Bosnia, a place historically known as the Jerusalem of Europe.
Stefanie Mueller
One of the great things about working in a research environment is that you are surrounded by so many people from different countries.