SHAC, Chancellor clarify the committee’s role after students worry about its transparency
Refuting concerns that a decision on freshman housing is being reached in secret, which came along with concerns of general lack of transparency, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart PhD ’88 unequivocally said that “any suggestions that decisions have been made are false.”
A return to relative warmth
The Boston area is experiencing a return to climatologically normal temperatures after record cold enveloped the region over President’s Day Weekend. The most severe part of the cold outbreak came on Sunday, when both the high (12°F) and low (-9°F) temperatures were the coldest ever observed in Boston on February 14. An extraordinarily cold polar air mass was to blame for the frigid outbreak, which spread throughout the northeastern United States. The unique extremity of the cold air mass was captured by a weather balloon measurement in Albany, New York, on Saturday night, which measured -23.4 °F at the 850 millibar level (a height of about 1.4 kilometers) — the coldest temperature ever observed at that height in Albany.
Gravitational waves from collision of black holes detected
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves. We did it,” David Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, announced Feb. 11.
Gravitational waves, in the words of MIT researchers
MIT physicists gathered in the Bush Room under MIT’s dome on Feb. 11 to share some important news. The world knows what came next: in parallel with an event at the National Science Foundation, the scientists announced their breakthrough in making the first direct observation of gravitational waves. The cause of the waves was equally spectacular: a billion years ago, two black holes collided and outputted 50 times more power than all the suns in the universe.
Metropolitan Warehouse will not become dorm
The Metropolitan Moving & Storage Warehouse will not become a dorm. Instead, a new undergraduate residence will be constructed “from the ground up,” most likely in West Campus.
Physicists detect gravitational waves, proving Einstein right
A team of physicists who can now count themselves as astronomers announced Thursday that they had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding 1 billion light-years away, a fleeting chirp that fulfilled the last prophecy of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
As Apple resists, encryption fray erupts in battle
WASHINGTON — Last month, some of President Barack Obama’s top intelligence advisers met in Silicon Valley with Apple’s Timothy D. Cook and other technology leaders in what seemed to be a public rapprochement in their long-running dispute over the encryption safeguards built into their devices.
Reif announces education initiatives
President Reif announced four new education initiatives last Tuesday in response to the report from the Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education.
Discovering the Zika virus
HONG KONG — Yap Island, a tiny island in the Western Pacific best known for using huge stone discs as currency, was facing a medical mystery.
DSLx initiative to offer online mini-courses that teach ‘soft skills’
The Division of Student Life (DSL) is in the process of launching its DSLx Life Learning initiative, which aims to teach MIT students “soft skills,” according to the website.
Zika virus testing made available in limited cases
MIT Medical has made Zika virus tests available to certain community members who have recently returned from an area affected by the virus, according to an email.
Academic Council group will implement BSU recs
After the Black Students’ Union (BSU) and Black Graduate Students’ Association (BGSA) each published a set of recommendations addressing racial and mental health issues on Dec. 9, the Academic Council, a group of senior administrators, formed a working group to address the points and plan their execution. They are now laying out a plan for implementing the recommendations.
A struggle within MIT’s IT department over its future
The sweeping transformation that is currently underway at MIT’s Information Systems and Technology office is one that is unprecedented in its scope and backlash from employees. Many students and faculty are familiar with IS&T, which maintains services ranging from email accounts to Athena clusters across campus — technologies that underlie everyone’s time at MIT. Fewer people, however, are aware of the changes that have redefined the organization over the past year.
Housemasters discuss renaming position due to ‘feelings of offense’
A proposal to change the housemaster title is currently under discussion by housemasters and students alike.
A taste of winter
After an extended period of spring-like conditions, winter is returning to the Cambridge area. Today between three and eight inches of snow is expected to fall as a low pressure system moves northward along the eastern seaboard. As Massachusetts will be on the northwestern flank of the system as it moves by, there will be snow — with the possibility of large quantities depending on the path of the system. The National Weather Service has announced a winter storm warning for today. After the storm passes, temperatures should be cool, especially overnight, and the skies should be relatively clear.
Lean on Me to offer anonymous venue for student support
Andy Trattner ’17 and a team of students launched a mental health platform, Lean On Me, Tuesday. Students will be able to use the platform by texting a hotline to receive support from peers. The team includes Trattner as CEO, COO Linda Jing ’17, CTO Amin Manna ’17, and Board Member and MIT alumnus Nikhil Buduma ’15.
Letter from the Editor
From ongoing research and new publications, to awards, events, and initiatives, there is no shortage of news on MIT’s campus. Between start-ups, student life, classes, and competitions, how should we judge what to report on, and what to leave aside?
Museum of Math aims to show off ‘magic of math’ with ‘Beaver Run’
NEW YORK — The latest exhibit at the National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan was supposed to have been put on display last fall, except it was not quite working.
Letter from the Editor
The Tech printed its first issue in 1881, in the year of the twentieth anniversary of MIT's founding. The founding board of editors set a mission for the fledgling publication, brought into being by “public spirit:” The Tech would provide “an avenue for the expression of public opinion.”