Taxi riders don’t fear cold: data
For years, Boston’s Department of Transportation has collected GPS data on every taxi pickup and drop-off throughout the city. It is an astonishing accumulation of raw numbers on how Bostonians get around, ripe with opportunity for analysis.
Late-night T service starts strong
The MBTA’s extended late night hours of service, which began March 28, mean that the T and certain bus routes will now run for nearly 90 minutes longer on Friday and Saturday nights. The final trains from downtown stations will leave at about 2:30 a.m. during extended hours, according to the MBTA’s website.
CORRECTIONS
A quote in an April 4 article about MIT’s performance in the Putnam Mathematical Competition incorrectly attributed a quote about the exam to Travis Hance. The quote was actually from Tianyou Zhou.
Chemical engineering professor appointed associate provost
Karen K. Gleason ’82, a chemical engineering professor, began her appointment as associate provost last Monday.
Harvard College sophomore dies after falling from building
Andrew Sun, a Harvard College sophomore, died 4 a.m. Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital after falling from a building in downtown Boston the day before, The Crimson reported in an online article that morning.
CORRECTIONS
To clarify a Tuesday, April 1 article about the election of the Sharma/Ndengeyingoma ticket to the UA presidency/vice presidency, while Sharma was quoted saying she wanted to re-establish presidential summits in the style of former P/VP Craighead/Walsh, current UA president Sidhanth Rao said in an email to The Tech that similar summits did occur this semester, but did not occur during the Fall 2013 semester.
MIT team wins first in Putnam math contest
MIT took first place in the 2013 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition this year, only the seventh time the Institute has claimed the top prize of $25,000 since the founding of the competition almost a century ago. This year’s team was composed of Benjamin P. Gunby ’15, Mitchell M. Lee ’16, and Zipei Nie ’15, all of whom placed in the top 25. The team members were designated before the competition from among a larger group of MIT students taking the test.
How Kendall Square became a biotech hub
In the 1970s, if you stood at the corner of Main and Vassar streets and looked out from the edge of the MIT campus, you would see nothing but a vacant lot. Kendall Square had been vacated by the decline of manufacturing and by businesses escaping to the suburbs, leaving only a few scattered outposts, such as Draper Laboratories and the Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center.
NEWS BRIEFS
In an effort to raise capital to fund academic projects, campus development, and research, MIT sold $550 million in Series B Taxable Revenue Bonds, according to MIT News.
Sharma and Ndengeyingoma win election for UA presidency
On March 21, after weeks of campaigns from three tickets, Shruti Sharma ’15 and Billy Ndengeyingoma ’15 emerged as the winners of this year’s Undergraduate Association elections for president and vice president. In preparation for their upcoming administration, Sharma and Ndengeyingoma have described three overarching themes for their tenure on their campaign website: the MIT educational experience, communication and visibility, and the residential campus of the 21st century.
Group urges checks on online learning at MIT
Concerned about the pace of change brought about by online learning, an Institute subcommittee is now preparing to recommend a “face-time” degree requirement, strong oversight of on-campus MITx experiments, and a “conservative initial approach” to awarding credit for edX classes.
High court weighs patents on software
In a case with the potential to reshape the software industry, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday seemed poised to issue fresh limits on patents for computer-based business methods.
2017s’ GIR pass rates continue to improve
The Class of 2017’s pass rate for the math and science General Institute Requirements (GIRs) was 97.2 percent last semester, an improvement over last year’s rate of 96.7 percent. Around 12.9 percent (144 students) of the Class of 2017 received at least one flag in a GIR, given to students who have a D or F in a class five weeks into the semester, and 86.8 percent (125 students) of those who received one or more flags passed their GIRs.
Family and friends remember Hadi Kasab
When Hadi Kasab was a boy in Lebanon, he went through a phase of carrying a small briefcase to school.
Patrick J. McGovern, member of Corporation, dies
Patrick J. McGovern ’59, a longstanding MIT supporter who made the gift that launched MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, died March 19 at the age of 76. As an MIT undergraduate, McGovern studied biophysics and later went on to found International Data Group (IDG), a publisher of computer-related news, information, and research.