Engineering for the Ecological Age: Lessons from History
John Ochsendorf, a structural engineer, “fell in love with archaeology” during college. His senior thesis at Cornell involved a 600-year-old Incan suspension bridge made entirely out of grass. Ochsendorf learned that this apparently primitive structure owed its astonishing longevity to regular rebuilds by the l
Transportation, the Built Environment and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Developing Cities
It seems that income and travel are inextricably linked. As communities gain wealth and prosperity, their travel footprint increases. While this relationship affords benefits to those in developed nations, it is not scalable. Global population is projected to increase by nearly 2 billion people by 2030. If this newly adde
Engineering a New Attack on Disease
Out of a world population of 6 billion, 57 million people die each year. And while we have gained 20 years in life expectancy since World War 2, diseases like HIV have taken a toll on morbidity in many developing nations. But according to Rick Young, “the global disease burden is much larger than the number of deaths.” Countles
Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What’s Next?
In 1845, the Dietz Company of New York introduced the sperm oil lantern, which nearly wiped out some whale species. A decade or so later, Dietz began to manufacture lamps using other oils, and gas lighting fixtures, giving whales a reprieve. More than a century has passed, and we’re “about to do it again,” says
Leading Change: A Conversation with Ron Williams
In what Dean Dave Schmittlein bills as a master class, Ronald A. Williams discusses how an emphasis on new technology and application of basic values helped turn around the health care giant Aetna.
Williams’ case study begins in 2001, when he arrived to find a corporation bleeding out -- having lost $280 million in th
Lunch with a Laureate: Robert Horvitz
As an undergraduate at MIT, Robert Horvitz did not take a biology course until his senior year. But after only six weeks into his first class with professor Cy Leventhal, he realized this was the field for him. He boldly asked for a recommendation as part of his application to grad school—in biology. “Is it too late?” he
Alzheimer’s Disease: Realizing the Promise of Molecular Medicine
In 1906, when Alois Alzheimer first described the disease that bears his name, it was a rarity; life expectancy in the US was around 50 years, and few people lived long enough to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). But as life expectancies have risen around the world, AD has become vastly more prevalent, and it is now one of the m
Airline Security: Where are We?
The events of 9/11 unleashed a flood of security measures across all dimensions of daily life, many of them aimed at averting repeat attacks on aircraft. So you might imagine that the risks of flying have been much reduced. You’d be wrong, says Arnold Barnett, who has scrutinized the changes in air security regulations, and
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The authors of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy caused a sensation on the Beltway and on campuses across the U.S. Here they walk a respectful MIT audience through their argument that Israel does not deserve unconditional support from the U.S.
Stephen Walt builds a case that a special relationship exists
Bill Porter in Conversation with Howard Anderson
Some of the lessons Bill Porter picked up as a 13-year-old ranch hand in Colorado seem to have lasted a lifetime. When his boss told him to drive over a treacherous mountain pass into town for some chicken feed, Porter said he could not yet drive. He was told, “Just do it.” And when he faced taking a team of horses out to pas
El Sistema: Social Support and Advocacy Through Musical Education
Even in the confines of a panel discussion,
Gustavo Dudamel radiates so much passion and ebullience that it requires little imagination to see him at the podium with a baton in hand. MIT’s 2010 McDermott Award in the Arts winner is, at the tender age of 29, one of the world’s top conductors and music disseminators.
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
From the publisher:
“Heralded as a “sorcerer of narrative” (Foreign Policy) with an instinct for “poetic and intoxicating language” (Freie Presse), twenty-nine-year-old Saša Stanišić bounded onto the international literary scene to great fanfare and acclaim. How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone—the tale
Counting the Dead in Iraq
It’s no wonder there was an outcry when Gilbert Burnham’s group released its report on mortality in Iraq. The numbers of civilian deaths so overwhelmed body counts calculated by other groups that many were stunned or disbelieving, and Burnham earned the enmity of some U.S. and Iraqi government officials.
Bur
Sustainable Accessibility: A Grand Challenge for the World and for MIT
Transportation systems, as we know them today, will simply not sustain the worlds’ growing population. Imagine a projected population of nine billion individuals. If this future population had mobility patterns like drivers in the United States, there would be a staggering 7.6 billion motor vehicles, using 440 million barre
Student Remarks 2006 MLK Breakfast
With a mix of bitterness and hope, these two young men address the legacy of Martin Luther King. David Lowry, a Lumbee Indian, grew up in southeastern North Carolina where the great majority of the Lumbee people reside.
He speaks compellingly of his Lumbee Indian ancestry, and his need to be recognized at MIT and beyond as part
Opening Remarks/How the Brain Invents the Mind
In trying financial times, Susan Hockfield remains optimistic and committed to pursuing MIT’s massive, multi-year initiatives in energy and life sciences. She prefaces her “whirlwind” tour of MIT for an alumni audience by referencing the campus-wide relief at the change in presidential administrations, which promises
Moscow subway derailment kills at least 12
At least 12 people were killed and up to 120 injured when a Moscow underground train derailed between two stations during the morning rush hour, the Emergencies Ministry said. Jillian Kitchener reports.
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Computational Environments with Multimodal Representations of Architectural Design Knowledge
This article discusses interaction between multimodal representations of architectural design knowledge, particularly focusing on relating explicit and implicit types of information. The aim of the presented research is to develop a computational environment that combines several modes of representation, including and integrating different forms of architectural design knowledge. Development of an interactive digital-models library and ontological model of architectural design factors are discus
Village Works
From 1992 to 1993, women in villages of rural north west China were given cameras to record a year of their daily life, as pat of a women's reproductive health programme supported by the Ford Foundation. The resulting pictures not only formed an exhibition, but were used as prompts to discussions with officials on improving conditions in the areas involved. From the main page of the website, users can view a textual introduction to the project, and link to selected photographs, covering: work; f
Nano Server and Azure PowerShell | Nano Server Team Running Nano Server as a guest in Azure, and using some of PowerShell's cool new features to copy files to/from Nano Server, as well as edit and debug remote scripts on Nano Server.
