The first 71 days of office
President L. Rafael Reif, MIT’s 17th, has begun his “freshman year” at MIT, as he told the Class of 2016 during its Convocation. He is now entering his third month in office since assuming the role on July 2. The Tech interviewed Reif about his first summer on the job and his plans for the future.
New lung cancer study suggests more-tailored drug treatment
The first large and comprehensive study of the genetics of a common lung cancer finds that more than half the tumors from that cancer have mutations that might be treated by new drugs that are already in the pipeline or that could be easily developed. For the tens of thousands of patients with that cancer — squamous cell lung cancer — the results are promising because they could foretell a new type of treatment in which drugs are tailored to match the genetic abnormality in each patient, researchers say.
Hockfield appointed to the HKS
Former MIT President Susan J. Hockfield will be the Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) Marie Curie Visiting Professor this academic year, the school’s Dean, David T. Ellwood, announced on Friday. Ellwood and other members of the HKS faculty had several discussions with Hockfield, after which she was nominated and approved by tenured faculty. She will be affiliated with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and will continue to serve as a professor of neuroscience at MIT.
Alcator C-Mod may lose funds
President Obama’s budget request to Congress for fiscal year (FY) 2013, announced in February, proposed to shut down MIT’s federally-funded Alcator C-Mod, a tokamak (toroidal magnetic confinement device). To give itself six more months to agree on a formal appropriations bill, Congress will pass a continuing resolution this month. The resolution will likely sustain funding for Alcator C-Mod at current levels until the final budget for FY 2013 is out. If the final budget passed by Congress is in line with the president’s request, technical, engineering, and administrative staff would be laid off, and some 30 PhD students in Nuclear Science & Engineering (Course 22) would be forced to graduate by October 2013.
Far from ‘junk,’ DNA dark matter crucial to health
Among the many mysteries of human biology is why complex diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric disorders are so difficult to predict and, often, to treat. An equally perplexing puzzle is why one individual gets a disease like cancer or depression, while an identical twin remains perfectly healthy.
Differing views on Koch’s Main Street
One of the side issues in the city’s planning process is the Main Street streetscape at the new Koch Institute, Building 76.
Three fraternities join rush
Fraternity rush was busier than ever this year, with three additional fraternities joining the recruitment craze — Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE), which was on rush suspension for two years; Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig), whose founding fathers are expanding their group; and Beta Theta Pi (Beta), which is recruiting a group of founding fathers to start anew.
MIT unresponsive on Kendall development
With six hours of public meetings on Kendall and Central Squares this week across two committees, the city is trying to decide between competing plans for Kendall Square, but MIT has still not weighed in definitively on its intentions.
EdX to offer proctored exams worldwide
Yesterday, edX announced a partnership with Pearson VUE that would allow students the option of taking a proctored final exam for their online class. Under the agreement, those enrolled in an edX course will have the option of taking the course final exam at one of over 450 Pearson VUE test centers in more than 110 countries, for a nominal fee. The proctored test will be the same rigorous test that those who take it fully online experience.
Redditor President
There are many ways to measure the traction of a social media platform: time spent, page views or unique users. But it might be useful to add one more metric: if the leader of the free world stops by to answer questions from your users, you’re probably doing OK.
Summer recap
As you enjoy your burrito from the new Chipotle that opened up in Kendall this June, you may wonder what else has changed on campus over the summer. Here’s a summary of some of the topics The Tech has covered to get you up to speed.
Major players in online education market
With most new markets comes competition, as is the case with online education. Today, there are four major platforms that produce content specifically for online instruction: Coursera, Udacity, and edX, which provide university-level content, and Khan Academy, which largely targets K-12 education. While they all offer content designed specifically for web-based instruction, they differ slightly in missions, delivery, and focus.
Freshmen move using FYRE
For the first time in two years, Baker lost its spot as the most popular choice for incoming freshmen in the summer housing lottery. Maseeh, MIT’s newest dorm, overtook Baker this year as the most popular dorm — 303 people, or 26 percent of the freshmen class put down Maseeh as their top choice, while a staggering 66 percent (753 people) ranked the dorm in their top four. Baker had the second highest number of first choice votes, but came in fourth overall in terms of top four rankings, with 667 votes, slightly behind Burton-Conner (711 people) and Simmons (703).