Boston sets new all-time seasonal snowfall record
Big news! As of Sunday night, members of the MIT community can proudly proclaim that they lived through Boston’s snowiest winter on record. Sunday’s snowfall brought the seasonal total to 108.6 inches, beating the previous record of 107.6 set in the winter of 1995-1996. Congratulations!
New cybersecurity initiatives launched
MIT launched three cybersecurity initiatives at the Cybersecurity at MIT event last Thursday.
Lupe Fiasco will headline this year’s SpringFest concert
This year’s SpringFest headliner will be hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco, accompanied by opener Bad Rabbits, a Boston-based funk rock and R&B band.
Young Guru defends record companies in lecture at MIT
Gimel Androus Keaton, the audio engineer, record producer, and DJ better known by his stage name “Young Guru,” delivered a lecture at MIT on Mar. 6 in which he discussed the impact of new technologies on music and other creative industries.
After second freshman's death, some professors lighten students' workload
Christina E. Tournant ’18, who lived in Maseeh Hall, died last Thursday in Florida while on voluntary medical leave. She was the second freshman MIT had lost in a week.
MIT develops new Ebola testing method
Members of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) have developed a thin paper strip that can detect the Ebola virus in ten minutes when exposed to a sample of a patient’s blood, an improvement over previous methods that took days and required a laboratory setting.
Y Combinator partners tell MIT students to steer clear of big-name companies
On Thursday evening, over a hundred students gathered in room 54-100 to learn something that is usually not formally taught in MIT classes: how to run a startup.
Bitcoin Expo addresses the future of the currency
Speakers travelled from all over the country to 26-100 last weekend to discuss the future of bitcoin during MIT’s second annual Bitcoin Expo. The event was live-streamed to benefit remote viewers.
MIT participates in International Development Hackathon; MIT students in half of winning teams
This year, the Tufts Entrepreneur Society and Tufts Empower groups joined MIT to organize the annual International Development Hackathon (IDHack), which took place Feb. 13-14 at Tufts University. For the past two years, MIT’s Global Poverty Initiative (GPI) student group has partnered with a Harvard student group to plan the annual IDHack.
MIT student, police officers testify about Sean Collier's death
The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent murder of MIT police officer Sean Collier entered its second week with emotional testimonies and never-before released evidence about Collier’s death.
Financial aid budget, exceeding $100 million, is highest ever
MIT will allocate $103.4 million to undergraduate financial aid next year, the MIT Corporation announced at a meeting on March 6.
Phoebe Wang’s cause of death determined
The death of MacGregor resident Phoebe Wang ’17 on Sept. 21 has been ruled a suicide, according to an email from Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Massachusetts chief medical examiner’s office. The cause of death was listed as “asphyxia due to displacement of oxygen.”
Boston inching toward snowfall record
The onslaught of major snowstorms that struck the Boston area in late January and February has left the city just inches shy of the all-time record for snowiest winter. That record of 105.7 snowfall inches, set in the winter of 1995-1996, will be tied if an additional 1.9 inches of snowfall are recorded at Logan Airport before July 1st. In fact, the record has a chance to be broken this weekend, as a low pressure system will bring moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north to New England in the form of rain and snow. At this time, it appears most likely that the storm will begin as a mostly-rain event on Friday night or Saturday morning before a possible changeover to snow showers on Saturday night or Sunday. Although above-freezing temperatures may make snow accumulation challenging during this storm, there may be another chance for the record to be broken as snow showers move through the area on Monday night. That this record is on the verge of being surpassed is especially impressive considering that the seasonal snowfall total stood at only 5.5 inches as of January 23.
CORRECTIONS
An article about a recent production of the Boston Ballet, Lady of the Camellias, incorrectly attributed the book that the ballet was based on to Alexandre Dumas, who is famous for writing The Three Musketeers and The Count of Montecristo. The book, La Dame aux Camelias, was in fact written by Dumas’ bastard son, who was also named Alexandre Dumas.
Christina Tournant, freshman of Maseeh Hall, dies in Florida
Christina E. Tournant ’18, who lived in Maseeh Hall, has died at home in Florida while on voluntary medical leave, President L. Rafael Reif wrote in an email to campus last Friday.
Tsarnaev's lawyer: brother, not Dzhokhar, killed Sean Collier
The defense attorney for alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said Wednesday that it was his brother Tamerlan, and not Tsarnaev himself, who killed MIT Police Officer Sean Collier on April 18, 2013.
Matthew Nehring, freshman of East Campus, dies
A dorm meeting was held Sunday afternoon in East Campus with representatives from MIT Mental Health and MIT Student Support Services, as well as chaplains, the East Campus graduate resident tutors, and Chancellor Cynthia A. Barnhart PhD '88.
New career fair hoped to strengthen MIT-Arab ties
MIT needs to develop its relationship with the Arab World, according to the MIT Arab Students Organization (ASO). This is the focus of their most recent effort, the MIT Middle East and North Africa Career Fair (MENA).