September 20, 2006

Home , Christopher Adler, Susan Hockfield

Volume 51 – Number 2 Wednesday – September 20, 2006 TechTalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY MIT center to tackle energy crisis MIT President Susan Hockfield has tional offerings and the necessary campus Robert C. Armstrong, the Chevron Profes- roles in developing both the agenda and announced the establishment of the MIT infrastructure, leading over several years sor and head of the Department of Chemi- the resources needed to build a major cen- Energy Initiative (MITEI), in line with to the establishment of a new interde- cal Engineering. ter on campus, said Canizares. the recommendations of an Institute-wide partmental laboratory or center that will Moniz and Armstrong, who served as An Energy Council made up of faculty group of faculty convened in June 2005 to involve researchers from all five schools. co-chairs of the ERC, will be director and from all five schools will help implement help MIT understand how best to tackle Hockfield noted that the breakthrough associate director, respectively, of MITEI. the research and educational goals out- the world’s energy crisis. contributions of MIT faculty and students They will coordinate existing energy lined in the ERC report. Hockfield said Hockfield thanked the members of the to energy issues will have even greater activities across the Institute and guide the its membership would be announced later Energy Research Council (ERC) for artic- impact as parts of a coherent answer to development of relationships with other this semester. ulating recommendations that will allow the world’s energy problems. “When institutions, industry and government Additionally, two new task forces will MIT, with its unique talents and capabili- MIT focuses on large issues of great pub- agencies, Hockfield said. focus on education and campus opera- ties, to address what she called “one of the lic importance, we are able to get things “Organizationally, the scope and reach tions. The Energy Education Task Force most urgent challenges of our time.” done,” she said. across the Institute of the new center will work closely with the dean for under- According to Hockfield, in a Sept. 20 Commenting that “vision and direction envisaged by the ERC are unprecedented, graduate education and academic depart- letter to the MIT community, MITEI will will be critical to the success of this effort,” so careful planning and coordination are ment chairs to coordinate cross-listed edu- address “the science, technology, policy, Hockfield announced that MITEI will be required at many levels of the MIT admin- cational offerings, recommend new sub- and systems design required to meet the led by Ernest J. Moniz, the Cecil and Ida istration,” according to Vice President for global energy challenge.” As a “virtual Green Professor of Physics and Engineer- Research and Associate Provost Claude R. See ENERGY center,” it will progressively build focused ing Systems and co-director of the Labora- Canizares, to whom MITEI will report. Page 6 research programs, coordinated educa- tory for Energy and the Environment, and Moniz and Armstrong will play key Hockfield unveils major campus building program

MIT President Susan Hockfield has announced a major campus development program that will invest approximately $750 million dollars in new and renovated facilities on the Institute’s 154-acre Cam- bridge campus. The initiative includes the construction of three major academic buildings—a new building that will house the Center for Cancer Research and related bioengineer- ing laboratories; a new home for the MIT Sloan School of Management; and a building that will extend the existing Media Laboratory—as well as housing for more than 550 graduate students. “MIT’s new capital projects will allow our faculty and students to do their very best work while continuing to strengthen the life of the Institute community,” Hock- PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY field wrote in a Sept. 13 letter to the Insti- tute community. Hot new technology “Our investments will amplify our work in critical, high-impact areas of education MIT researchers working on the next generation of nuclear technology test-fit a prototype fuel capsule using the manipulators of a and research—fields that will improve hot box at MIT’s Research Reactor. They are, from left, graduate students Tyler Ellis and David Carpenter; Pavel Hejzlar, principal human health, strengthen entrepreneur- research scientist; Gordon Kohse, principal research engineer, nuclear reactor lab; and Professor Mujid Kazimi. Story on Page 4. ship and economic growth, and address pressing social needs. Private philanthro- py is absolutely essential for ambitious projects such as these; we are profoundly grateful to the many alumni and friends Materials scientists tame tricky carbon nanotubes who have already committed their gener- ous support,” she said. Deborah Halber human hair—have properties that make that work as “handles” that allow the tubes The new Center for Cancer Research News Office Correspondent them potentially useful in nanotechnol- to be assembled and manipulated. But facility will be located next to the David H. ogy, electronics, optics and reinforcing these molecular bonds also destroy their Koch Biology Building and across Main composite materials. With an internal bond- conductivity. Street from the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Based on a new theory, MIT scientists ing structure rivaling that of another well- Now Young-Su Lee, an MIT graduate Institute. It will house “life scientists and may be able to manipulate carbon nano- known form of carbon, diamonds, carbon student in materials science and engineer- engineers working at the frontiers of can- tubes—one of the strongest known materi- nanotubes are extraordinarily strong and ing, and Nicola Marzari, an associate pro- cer research. They will build on recent als and one of the trickiest to work with— can be highly efficient electrical conductors. fessor in the same department, have iden- advances in cancer biology, diagnosis and without destroying their extraordinary The problem is working with them. tified a class of chemical molecules that therapy and help to develop emerging electrical properties. There is no reliable way to arrange the preserve the conductivity. areas at the interface of science and engi- The work is reported in the Sept. 15 tubes into a circuit, partly because grow- Using these molecules as handles, Mar- neering, including nanotechnology and issue of Physical Review Letters, the jour- ing them can result in a randomly oriented zari and Lee said, could overcome fabrica- computational and mathematical modeling nal of the American Physical Society. mess resembling a bowl of spaghetti. See BUILDING Carbon nanotubes—cylindrical carbon Researchers have attached to the side See NANOTUBES molecules 50,000 times thinner than a walls of the tiny tubes chemical molecules Page 4 Page 3

RESEARCH NEWS PEOPLE

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH STRATEGIC THINKING NO HORSING AROUND A tool developed at MIT helps take the guesswork As part of MISTI Week, Professor Richard J. Sloan students do some serious work for Polo Ralph out of cost estimating. Samuels will discuss the challenges facing East Asia. Lauren. Page 2 Page 3 Page 8

HELP FOR EPILEPTICS COMFORT ZONE MUSICAL FIRSTS Researchers are developing a device that would President Susan Hockfield dedicates the new Works by MIT composers Evan Ziporyn and sense oncoming seizures and perhaps prevent them. student lounge adjacent to Lobby 10. Christopher Adler premiere at Carnegie Hall. Page 4 Page 3 Page 8 PAGE 2 September 20, 2006 NEWS MIT Tech Talk

Faculty appointed to 17 named professorships DIGITALK: WHERE IT’S AT E-mail quota doubled Seventeen faculty members have in immunology. Cecil and Ida Green Career Develop- been appointed to named professor- Kerry Emanuel, professor of ment Professorship. Cecil Green was In response to requests from ships. All appointments are for three- meteorology, has been chosen to hold a member of the Class of 1923 and the MIT community, Informa- year terms and became effective July 1 the Breene M. Kerr Professorship for founder of Texas Instruments. tion Services and Technology unless otherwise noted. a five-year term. This chair was estab- John Ochsendorf, assistant profes- (IS&T) has doubled the e-mail Assistant Professor Regina Barzilay lished through gifts from Breene M. sor of architecture, has been named to quota from 500 MB to 1 GB. All of electrical engineering and computer Kerr to honor distinguished profes- the Class of 1942 Career Development accounts that receive e-mail at MIT science has been selected to hold the sors at MIT. Professorship. post office servers po9, po10, po11, Douglas T. Ross Career Development Dennis Kim, assistant professor Asuman Ozdaglar, assistant profes- po12 and po14 will benefit from this increase. Professorship of Software Technology. of biology, has been selected to hold sor of electrical engineering and com- The new quota enables the community to keep Suzanne Berger, professor of political the Robert A. Swanson Career Devel- puter science, has been selected to pace with the increasing volume, size and variety science, and Dick Yue, associate dean of opment Professorship in the Life hold the Class of 1943 Career Develop- of e-mail exchanged in today’s collaborative work engineering, have been named to two- Sciences. The chair was established ment Professorship. environments. year terms as Class of 1960 fellows. in 1986 by Robert A. Swanson, a James Paradis, head of the Program In conjunction with the e-mail quota increase, Andrea Campbell, associate pro- 1969 graduate of MIT and the in Writing and Humanistic Studies, IS&T encourages you to review e-mail manage- fessor of political science, has been co-founder and chief executive officer will be the next Robert M. Metcalfe ment recommendations related to spam, backup, chosen for the Alfred Henry and Jean of Genentech. Professor of Writing. The chair was WebMail and managing your inbox. For more Morrison Hayes Career Development Associate Professor Young Lee of established in 1986 by Metcalfe, Class information, go to web.mit.edu/ist/topics/ Professorship. The professorship was physics has been named to the Mark of 1968, and a member of the Corpo- email/quota-upgrade.html. established by Alfred Henry Hayes, Hyman Jr. Career Development Pro- ration. It is located in the School of Updates to system software who received a degree in chemical fessorship. This chair was established Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences engineering from MIT in 1929, and in 1998 through a bequest from Mark and is intended for faculty members of Automatic updates ensure that your comput- his wife. Hyman Jr., Class of 1939. distinction who have a strong commit- er is running the latest system software with Christopher Capozzola, associate Assistant Professor Retsef Levi of ment to writing instruction. the most current security updates. This makes professor of history, has been selected the Sloan School of Management has Rosalind Williams, director of the your machine less vulnerable to break-ins and as the inaugural holder of the Lister been named to the Robert N. Noyce Program in Science, Technology and resulting disruptions of service. IS&T strongly Brothers Career Development Profes- Career Development Professorship. Society, has been named to the Bern recommends that all community members con- sorship. This professorship was estab- Stuart Licht, assistant professor of Dibner Chair in the History of Science figure their machines for automatic updates, lished by two brothers who graduated chemistry, has been selected to hold and Technology for a five-year term. which are provided at no charge. Here are the from MIT—Gordon Lister, Class of the Samuel A. Goldblith Career Devel- Lizhong Zheng, associate professor key details for Windows, Macintosh and Linux 1930, and Donald Lister, Class of 1934. opment Professorship. The chair was of electrical engineering and computer users. Jianzhu Chen, professor of biol- established by friends of Samuel A. science, has been chosen for the KDD On Windows computers, use MIT’s Windows ogy, has been named to the Ivan R. Goldblith, a longtime MIT professor Career Development Professorship Automatic Update Service (WAUS) for critical Cottrell Professorship for a five-year and administrator. in Communications and Technology. patches and service packs. WAUS includes Win- term. The Cottrell Professorship was Assistant Professor David Mc- This chair was established in 1983 by dows Server Update Services (WSUS), which created in 1991 through a bequest Adams of the Sloan School of Man- the Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co. of deploys updates for the Windows Operating Sys- from Ivan R. Cottrell to fund research agement has been chosen to hold the Tokyo. tem and Microsoft Office products. WSUS also adds support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems. This automatic update service may be used by MIT faculty, staff and students on MIT- MIT tool aids owned and personal machines. Computers in the win.mit.edu domain are subscribed to WAUS by default. For more information and configuration cost estimates for instructions, see the WAUS documentation at web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/updates/. Apple’s Software Update checks for Mac OS complex projects updates weekly by default. It’s available through System Preferences or, if you run Mac OS X Michelle Gaseau 10.3 or later, from the Apple menu. Through Lead Aerospace Initiative Software Update’s Preferences, you can switch to daily checks and choose to download important updates in the background. If you have Consider the following scenario: A questions about setting up the Software Update, project manager at a major aerospace refer to the Apple page at docs.info.apple.com/ company is about to bid on the develop- article.html?artnum=106704. ment of a new air fighter for the U.S. Air MIT community members with machines Force. running Red Hat Enterprise Linux can use The bid must bring the project in on IS&T’s Red Hat Network (RHN) Service to auto- time, on budget and meet all the gov- matically update their systems. Since the Red ernment’s requirements. If the bid is too Hat Enterprise Linux operating system has fully low, the project will miss these markers; integrated RHN support, there is no software to too high and the company will be seen as download. However, you do need to register for wasteful or inefficient and may disqualify the service; for details, go to the Red Hat Net- itself from the competition. work page at web.mit.edu/ist/topics/linux/rhn. Now a new, first-of-its-kind systems html. engineering cost- estimation model PHOTO / GRAHAM RAMSAY To minimize security risks, all users should developed by an MIT researcher can Front row: Kathy Boisvert, program coordinator; Sora Song; Lu Yi; Jeanne also configure their computers to receive ensure that the bid is right on target, Lenzer. Back row: Clark Boyd; Boyce Rensberger, director; Lila Guterman; automatic virus definition updates. To learn which means project risk (and costs) can Elizabeth Howton; Zheng Yu; Herton Escobar; Richard Friebe; Stephanie Nano; more, see the Virus Protection at MIT page at be reduced. The model allows compa- Molly Seamans, administrative assistant; Wycliffe Muga; Tetsuro Yamada. web.mit.edu/ist/topics/virus/. nies and organizations to develop more accurate bid proposals, thereby eliminat- Barker’s new media suite ing excess “cost overrun” padding that Knight Fellows arrive on campus Beginning this fall, members of the MIT com- is often built into these proposals. Twelve science journalists from Agency, or Xinhua—are the two munity will be able to use a new media suite The Constructive Systems Engineer- five countries, plus the United largest in the world, each supplying in Barker Library for viewing visual media and ing Cost Model (COSYSMO), now avail- States, have begun exploring the many hundreds of news outlets. conducting group meetings, instruction sessions able commercially, helps eliminate the classrooms and laboratories of MIT The MIT community is invited to and presentations. The suite, on the fifth floor of guessing game played by many large as part of the 24th year of the Knight meet the new Knights at a reception Building 10, is equipped with a 48-inch plasma corporations in planning and executing Science Journalism Fellowship. today from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Faculty screen, a VCR/DVD player, and laptop and com- large systems in many different indus- This is the largest group of Knight Club. The event is sponsored by puter station connections. It’s ideal for viewing tries. It also helps government agencies Fellows in 14 years. Technology Review magazine, the selections from Barker’s collection of more than evaluate proposals from contractors with Together they reach the greatest MIT News Office and the Knight 200 engineering-related DVDs and videos, and a more objective approach. number of readers and listeners Fellowships. it’s also web- and cable-accessible. The room can “In the past, a program manager ever represented by a class of The Knight Fellowship is funded be reserved for groups of up to 15 people by would look at an earlier aircraft program Knights. The print publications have chiefly by an endowment from calling the Barker Service Desk at x3-5661 or and estimate by analogy, but now we can a combined circulation of around 15 the John S. and James L. Knight sending e-mail to [email protected]. Barker million. In addition, the two news Foundation. For more information Library will host an open house in the suite on Thursday, Oct. 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. See PROJECTS agencies represented—Associated about the fellows, visit web.mit. Press and the New China News edu/newsoffice/2006/knight.html. Digitalk is compiled by Information Services Page 7 and Technology.

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Permission is granted to excerpt or reprint any Printed on recycled paper Communications Assistant ...... Heather Manning material originated in Tech Talk. MIT Tech Talk NEWS September 20, 2006 PAGE 3 Japan expert plans talk for MISTI Week but Just Right: The Gold- been bulking up in prepara- Samuels writes. Samuels to discuss ilocks Challenge in East Asia” tion for new bouts,” Samuels In cozying up to its neighbors, however, at noon on Sept. 22 in Room writes. Japan has so far been seriously hampered East Asia ‘challenge’ E51-095. The talk is a featured That bulking up began by its imperial history. For example, Samu- event of MISTI Week, which after the collapse of the Sovi- els writes, “A mutually acceptable Pacific Kathryn M. O’Neill celebrates MIT International et Union and was spurred War narrative between Japan and its neigh- News Office Correspondent Science and Technology Initia- by four factors, Samuels bors has been impossible. Japan’s unwill- tives (MISTI). asserts: “1) a rising China, 2) ingness or inability to confront its history Samuels, who directs a miscreant regime in North squarely is undoubtedly the largest single The power and influence of the United the MISTI Japan program, Korea, 3) the possibility of constraint on its diplomacy.” States may be felt all over the world, but recently outlined Japan’s stra- abandonment by the United And Japan doesn’t just make its neigh- Japan is already preparing for the decline tegic thinking in an essay States, and 4) the relative bors nervous. “Any overt sign of Japanese of its major military ally. that appears in the autumn decline of the Japanese econ- ambitions for great-power status and for a “Although the United States will 2006 issue of The Washing- Richard J. Samuels omy.” fully autonomous security posture is bound undoubtedly remain the world’s pre-emi- ton Quarterly. The essay is More recently, Japan has to stimulate balancing behavior by Japan’s nent military power for decades more and derived from his upcoming book, “Secur- been repositioning itself with an eye toward neighbors and undoubtedly opposition possibly longer, Tokyo already sees U.S. ing Japan.” the relative decline of the United States and from the United States as well,” he writes. diplomatic vigor, moral authority and eco- Samuels describes the evolution of the increasing might of China. Samuels concludes that Japan will there- nomic allure waning,” according to Richard Japan’s strategy from the immediate post- “The extent to which China displaces fore hedge its bets going forward — “Japan J. Samuels, MIT’s Ford International Pro- war period to the present, outlining the the United States as a target for investment will be neither too close to China nor too fessor of Political Science and director of reemergence first of Japan’s economic and as a market for goods and services will far from the United States. We await the the Center for International Studies. strength and more recently of its military determine whether the China threat gives appearance of Japan’s Goldilocks, the Samuels will talk on “Amassing Power capability. “Japan may still be punching way to a China opportunity and, possibly, to pragmatic leader who will get security just That Is Not Too Hard and Not Too Soft, below its weight in world affairs, but it has progress toward a regional economic bloc,” right,” he writes. Nominations open Hockfield for Doherty chair Nominations are now open for the urges math Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utiliza- tion. Endowed by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, the two- panel to year chair opens the way for promising, non-tenured professors to undertake marine-related research. Any aspect of invest in K-12 marine use and/or management may be addressed, whether social, political, envi- Deborah Halber ronmental, economic or technical. News Office Correspondent Those appointed to the chair will receive $25,000 per year for two years, beginning July 1, 2007. MIT President Susan Hockfield told All non-tenured MIT faculty members a national panel last Thursday that the from any department are eligible. Depart- future of the economy is at stake if the ment heads may submit one nomination United States doesn’t beef up the number per year. The deadline for nominations is of college students majoring in math and Oct. 31, and the new Doherty Professor better prepare high school graduates for will be announced in early 2007. college-level classes. Hockfield addressed the National Math- Anyone wishing to be nominated should PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY contact his or her department head for pro- ematics Advisory Panel created in April by cedures and selection criteria. For more President Hockfield welcomes students to the new lounge near Lobby 10. President Bush to advise the president and information, contact Kathy de Zengotita, the secretary of education “on the best use Room E38-300, x3-9305, [email protected]. of scientifically based research to advance the teaching and learning of mathematics.” New student lounge dedicated “It could not be more clear that we are now in an era where technical and scien- Sasha Brown “It is a gift that will leave a lasting tific literacy are as critical as language lit- News Office impression on the MIT community,” eracy,” she said. “Technology increasingly BUILDING Hockfield said, acknowledging the drives today’s economy, which simply Continued from Page 1 Class of 2005 and its generosity. With musicians providing an appro- A small controversy arose last year priate lounge-music soundtrack, stu- when some students expressed con- of key cancer pathways,” Hockfield wrote. dents, faculty and staff lingered last Fri- cern over the floor-to-ceiling mural of Located just to the east of the current ❞ day afternoon to celebrate the opening a U.S. one-dollar bill that once covered Technology increasingly MIT Sloan headquarters at 50 Memorial of the new community lounge, located the outside of the cashier’s office. Drive, the School of Management’s new off the Infinite Corridor near Lobby 10. The student-created mural was drives today’s economy. home will extend from Memorial Drive to The space was formerly occupied by painted during the Vietnam War when Main Street. the cashier’s office. students were offered the opportunity Susan Hockfield The Sloan project, designed by Moore President Susan Hockfield and to change dull points on the hallways. MIT president Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners in Chancellor Phillip Clay each spoke Although there were other murals, the association with Bruner Cott/Architects, briefly during the Sept. 15 dedication dollar bill was the most visible to the requires the skills based on mathematics.” will support “new curricular directions ceremony. whole community. Hockfield pointed out that only 6 per- that emphasize collaboration and team- Hockfield praised the lounge’s loca- Over the years, it became a senti- cent of U.S. undergraduates are likely to work, and will serve as an incubator for tion, describing it as “at the very heart mental part of the campus as well as pursue careers in engineering, compared innovative teaching and research,” Hock- of the MIT campus,” and encouraged the scene of the first “hack” on Presi- with more than 40 percent in China. “We field wrote. students to use the lounge as a meeting dent Hockfield when hackers replaced need to fix the K-12 pipeline that feeds The new Media Lab building, designed place and to share ideas. George Washington’s face on the mural higher education, and we need to support by Pritzker Prize winner Fumihiko Maki, “The quantity of great ideas that with Hockfield’s. investments in students. Other countries in association with Leers Weinzapfel Asso- come out of here is directly proportion- In order to preserve the integrity of have already figured this out and are build- ciates, will be adjacent and connected to al to how often we run into each other,” the memory, an etching of the dollar ing up their human capital. the existing Wiesner Building. The com- Hockfield said. bill remains in one of the panels of glass “To succeed in the workplace and to plex will bring together the lab, the School The space is meant to be an between the Infinite Corridor and the participate as citizens in society, high of Architecture and Planning—including impromptu social gathering space. lounge. There is also a detailed history school graduates need the ability to think the Design Lab, the Center for Advanced Green couches form a figure eight so of the dollar bill and its part in MIT’s analytically and solve problems creatively,” Visual Studies and the Visual Arts Pro- that people can face one another; sun- history. she said. “Science and math education are gram—and MIT’s Program in Comparative light streams through giant windows In his short talk, Chancellor Clay prerequisites for innovation.” Media Studies. overlooking Killian Court. More win- linked the dollar bill mural to the Class Hockfield gave examples of MIT initia- Continuing projects include the Vassar dows on the back wall provide a view of of 2005’s gift, stating: “The original spir- tives that help secondary school educa- Street West project, designed by Carol R. the Infinite Corridor. it of student participation in shaping tors, including OpenCourseWare, which Johnson Associates, landscape architects; The idea for the lounge started ger- spaces was not lost in this generation.” now has more than 36,000 people review- ing its content daily, and MIT iLabs, which new and newly renovated space, designed minating in late 2004 when a committee The community lounge is now open allows students to conduct real laboratory by Payette Associates, for the Depart- formed to look at the cashier’s space for use 24 hours a day. experiments remotely from any Internet ments of Physics and Materials Science noted that there “should be something Other campus changes include the to support the community,” said Phillip revamped reading room in the Stu- browser. She also encouraged the panel to and Engineering and for the Institute’s consider computer-based simulations and Spectroscopy Laboratory; consolidation of Walsh, director of the campus activities dent Center, which now features 6,000 complex. square feet of space for students to other tools as supplements to the class- the research laboratories of the pioneering “We wanted a lounge that was very gather, work independently or study room environment. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences bright and open and had a view of the collaboratively. The new study space The 17-member panel met Sept. 13-14 and Technology; as well as laboratories for river and Killian Court,” Walsh said. opened on Sept. 1. at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric The Class of 2005 made the lounge its Also new this year is the full-menu Speakers included mathematics teachers, and Planetary Sciences, in facilities reno- senior class gift. There is a plaque to Dunkin’ Donuts on the first floor of the members of the National Science Founda- vated to designs by Imai Keller Moore. the left of the lounge entrance thanking Student Center, which opened in late tion and textbook publishers. Hockfield To read the complete text of President the class for its generosity. August. gave opening remarks at the beginning of Hockfield’s announcement, please go to the second day, which featured comments web.mit.edu/campus/. from participants and the public. PAGE 4 September 20, 2006 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Epilepsy breakthrough on horizon MIT developing device to detect seizures Anne Trafton News Office

Researchers at MIT are developing a device that could detect and prevent epi- leptic seizures before they become debili- tating. Epilepsy affects about 50 million people worldwide, and while anticonvulsant medications can reduce the frequency of seizures, the drugs are ineffective for as many as one in three patients. The new treatment builds on an existing treatment for epilepsy, the Cyberon- ics Inc. vagus nerve stimulator (VNS), which is often used in patients who do not respond to drugs. A defibrillator typically implanted under the patient’s collar bone stimulates the left vagus nerve about PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY every five minutes, which has been shown Graduate student Sung Joong Kim, left, and research scientist Thomas J. McKrell inspect the test section of the nanofluid critical heat flux to help reduce the frequency and severity facility. Lab work on nanofluids holds promise for improving nuclear power generation. of seizures in many patients. The MIT researchers and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Cen- ter (BIDMC) seek to improve the treatment by combining it with a detector that measures brain activity to predict when a Innovative projects aim to boost seizure is about to occur. The new device would sense the oncoming seizure and then activate the VNS, in principle halting the seizure before it becomes manifest. safety, efficiency of nuclear power “Our contribution is the software that decides when to turn the stimulator on,” Deborah Halber —one pickup-truck full of uranium fuel can pellets in an operating reactor and examin- said John Guttag, MIT’s Dugald C. Jack- News Office Correspondent supply enough electricity to run a city for ing the results to ensure the safety and son Professor in the Department of Elec- a year—Hejzlar and Mujid S. Kazimi, the performance of the new fuel. trical Engineering and Computer Science. TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Engineer- Spiked water Guttag developed the system along with With U.S. electricity demand projected ing, professor of mechanical engineering Ali Shoeb, a graduate student in the Har- to increase by nearly 50 percent over the and director of the Center for Advanced Water is used in many nuclear reactors vard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and next 25 years, the Bush administration and Nuclear Energy Systems, wanted to make to help generate electricity and to ensure Technology. others see nuclear power as an increas- the fuel go even further. safe operation. Now Jacopo Buongiorno, “Our colleague Dr. Steven Schachter, ingly attractive energy option. Uranium fuel typically is formed into assistant professor of nuclear science and professor of neurology at Harvard Medi- Nuclear power has the potential to help cylindrical ceramic pellets about a half- engineering, has come up with a way to cal School and epileptologist at BIDMC, make the United States less dependent on inch in diameter. The pellets look like a change water’s thermal properties. This suggested hooking our detector up to the foreign fuel and to cut the carbon diox- smooth, black version of food pellets for change may contribute to plants’ safety VNS,” he said. MIT and BIDMC research- ide emissions that contribute to global small animals. while boosting their power density, or the ers plan to test the new device in epilepsy warming. In a three-year project completed amount of energy they can pump out. patients this fall. If it seems effective, more Pilot models of next-generation nuclear recently for the U.S. Department of Ener- In these reactors, energy released from comprehensive trials will be launched. plants are being built around the world, gy, Hejzlar and Kazimi teamed up with fission of the fuel’s atoms is harnessed as but such plants are not likely to produce Westinghouse and other companies to heat in water, which creates steam that A look at brain patterns consumer electricity in the United States look at how to make a fuel for one kind drives turbines and produces electricity. The detector works by measuring for 20 years or more, said Pavel Hejzlar, of reactor, the pressurized water reactor In both PWRs and their close cousin, the brain activity with electrodes placed on a principal research scientist in MIT’s (PWR), 30 percent more efficient while boiling water reactor (BWR), that steam is the patient’s scalp. In its current form, Department of Nuclear Science and Engi- maintaining or improving safety margins. turned back into water and reused. Water the patient wears something resembling neering. They changed the shape of the fuel also is used as a coolant in the reaction a bathing cap, in which electrodes are In the meantime, MIT researchers are from solid cylinders to hollow tubes. This process and in safety systems. embedded. In order to adapt the detector working on several innovations that could added surface area that allows water to The efficiency of PWRs and BWRs to work with the VNS, researchers con- make existing plants more efficient and flow inside and outside the pellets, increas- is limited to around 33 percent, because nected wires from the cap to a laptop com- safer to run. These include a new fuel and ing heat transfer. water can be heated to only a certain tem- puter or microprocessor that activates the a way to boost the cooling capability of The new fuel turned out even better perature and only a certain amount of implanted defibrillator. ordinary water. than Hejzlar dared hope. It proved to be heat can be taken out of water. If that limit Guttag said he believes the technology easy to manufacture and capable of boost- were pushed higher, more heat could be could be refined so the electrodes could New fuel ing the power output of PWR plants by 50 extracted, and the plant would generate be worn inside of a headband or baseball In a nuclear power plant, the fission of percent. uranium atoms provides heat to produce The next step is to commercialize the See NUCLEAR See EPILEPSY steam for generating electricity. While fuel concept, which will include testing a nuclear plants are already energy intensive limited number of rods filled with the new Page 7 Page 6 NANOTUBES Continued from Page 1 gons. One of the many challenges of working with the infinitesimally small tubes is tion problems and lend the nanotubes new that they tend to stick to each other. properties for a host of potential applica- Attaching a molecule to the sidewall of tions as detectors, sensors or components the tube serves a double purpose: It stops in novel optoelectronics. nanotubes from sticking, and it allows Marzari and Lee use the fundamen- researchers to control and change the tal laws of quantum mechanics to simu- tubes’ electronic properties. Still, most late material properties that are difficult such molecules also destroy the tubes’ or impossible to measure, such as molten conductance because they make the tube lava in the Earth’s core or atomic motion structurally more similar to a diamond, in a fast chemical reaction. Then they run which is an insulator. IMAGE COURTESY / MARZARI LAB these simulations and use the results to Lee and Marzari used Lee’s algorithm MIT researchers have discovered that certain molecules can attach themselves to metallic optimize and engineer novel materials. to identify a class of “molecular handles” carbon nanotubes without interfering with the nanotubes’ ability to conduct electricity. At left, With the help of a powerful algorithm (carbenes and nitrenes) that stop this from the high-conductance state has two molecular orbitals, shown in green. At right is the poor- created by Lee and published last year happening. “We now have a way to attach conductance state. Some molecules even allow the nanotubes to switch between states. in Physical Review Letters, the theorists molecules that allows us to manipulate the focused on solving some of the problems nanotubes without losing their conduc- of working with carbon nanotubes. tance,” Marzari said. the tube. This process—one bond formed, ered,” Marzari said. Like fuzzy balls and Velcro, the hexagon Carbenes and nitrenes work by break- one bond lost—restores the perfect num- This work is supported by the MIT of carbon that makes up a nanotube has ing a molecular bond on the nanotube’s ber of bonds each carbon atom had in the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and a predilection for clinging to other hexa- wall while creating their own new bond to original tube and “conductance is recov- the National Science Foundation. MIT Tech Talk RESEARCH September 20, 2006 PAGE 5 Knotty problem puzzles protein researchers

Anne Trafton The same knot is found in ubiquitin News Office hydrolase in humans and in yeast, support- ing the theory that there is a connection between the knot and the protein’s func- MIT researchers are trying to unravel tion. This also seems to suggest that the why some proteins are tied up in knots. knot has been “highly preserved through- An MIT team has discovered the most out evolution,” Virnau said. complicated knot ever seen in a protein, Until now, scientists have not paid much and they believe it may be linked to the attention to knots in proteins, but the MIT protein’s function as a rescue agent for researchers hope their work will ignite fur- proteins marked for destruction. ther interest in the subject. “We just hope “In proteins, the three-dimensional this will become a part of the routine crys- structure is very important to the function, tallographers and NMR spectroscopists do and this is just one example,” said Peter when they solve a structure,” Mirny said. Virnau, a postdoctoral fellow in physics Virnau is working on a computer pro- and an author of a paper on the work that gram and a web server, soon to be publicly appears in the Sept. 15 issue of the Public available, that can analyze the structure of Library of Science, Computational Biology. any protein to see if it has knots, which he Knots are rare in proteins—less than 1 believes could be helpful to researchers in percent of all proteins have any knots, and structural genomics. (Structural genomics most are fairly simple. The researchers aims to determine the structure of all pro- analyzed 32,853 proteins, using a compu- teins produced by a given organism.) tational technique never before applied to Since their initial screening, the proteins at this scale. researchers have discovered five-crossing Of those that had knots, all were knots in two other proteins—a brain pro- enzymes. Most had a simple three-cross- tein, whose overexpression and mutations ing, or trefoil knot, a few had four cross- are linked with cancer and Parkinson’s dis- ings, and the most complicated, a five- ease, and a protein involved in the HIV crossing knot, was initially found in only replication cycle. one protein—ubiquitin hydrolase. They have also found examples of pro- That complex knot may hold some teins that are closely related and struc- protective value for ubiquitin hydrolase, turally similar except for the presence or whose function is to rescue other proteins absence of a knot. Two versions of the from being destroyed—a dangerous job. enzyme transcarbamylase, from humans When a protein in a cell needs to be IMAGES COURTESY / PETER VIRNAU and certain bacteria, catalyze different destroyed, it gets labeled with another pro- reactions, depending on whether or not tein called ubiquitin. “It’s a death mark for MIT researchers recently found that human ubiquitin hydrolase, shown here, has the most there is a knot. The researchers speculate the protein,” said Leonid Mirny, an author complicated knot ever observed in a protein. The simplified diagram, inset, shows the knot that somewhere along the evolutionary of the paper and an associate professor in in the protein, which crosses itself five times. line, the sequence that allowed a protein to the MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sci- form the knot was added or deleted. ences and Technology. uitin hydrolase intervenes and removes Mirny said. The researchers hypothesize The third author on the paper is Meh- Once the “death mark” is applied, pro- the ubiquitin, the protein is saved. that proteins with complex knots can’t be ran Kardar, an MIT physics professor. teins are shuttled to a cell structure called The complicated knot found in ubiqui- pulled into the proteasome as easily, and the The research was funded by the Nation- a proteasome, which pulls the protein in tin hydrolase may prevent it from getting knots may make it harder for the protein to al Science Foundation and the German and chops it into pieces. However, if ubiq- sucked into the proteasome as it works, unfold, which is necessary for degradation. Research Foundation. Tiny gas turbine on a chip promises to best the battery

Nancy Stauffer Laboratory for Energy and the Environment

MIT researchers are putting a tiny gas- turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter. The resulting device could run 10 times longer than a battery of the same weight—powering laptops, cell phones, radios and other electronic devices. It could also dramatically lighten the load for people who can’t connect to a power grid, including soldiers who now must carry many pounds of batteries for a three-day mission—all at a reasonable price. PHOTO / ALAN EPSTEIN Researchers say that in the long term, One of the components of MIT’s micro gas- mass-production could bring the per-unit turbine engine. cost of power from microengines close to that for power from today’s large gas-turbine power plants. to have it done by the end of this year. Making things tiny is all the rage. The Predicting how quickly they can move field—called microelectromechanical sys- ahead is itself a bit of a challenge. If the tems, or MEMS—grew out of the comput- bonding process is done well, each micro- er industry’s stunning success in develop- engine is a monolithic piece of silicon, ing and using micro technologies. “Forty atomically perfect and inseparable. As years ago, a computer filled up a whole a result, even a tiny mistake in a single building,” said Professor Alan Epstein of PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY component will necessitate starting from the Department of Aeronautics and Astro- scratch. And if one component needs nautics. “Now we all have microcomputers Professor Alan Epstein and his team have been using computer-chip fabrication techniques changing—say, the compressor should be on our desks and inside our thermostats to make a gas-turbine engine that fits in the palm of his hand. a micron smaller—the microfabrication and our watches.” team will have to rethink the entire design While others are making miniature Their microengine is made of six sili- Inside a tiny combustion chamber, fuel process. devices ranging from biological sensors to con wafers, piled up like pancakes and and air quickly mix and burn at the melt- For all the difficulties, Epstein said chemical processors, Epstein and a team bonded together. Each wafer is a single ing point of steel. Turbine blades, made of the project is “an astonishing amount of of 20 faculty, staff and students are look- crystal with its atoms perfectly aligned, so low-defect, high-strength microfabricated fun”—and says MIT is the ideal place for ing to make power—personal power. “Big it is extremely strong. To achieve the nec- materials, spin at 20,000 revolutions per it. “Within 300 feet of my office, I could gas-turbine engines can power a city, but essary components, the wafers are indi- second—100 times faster than those in find the world’s experts on each of the a little one could ‘power’ a person,” said vidually prepared using an advanced etch- jet engines. A mini-generator produces 10 technologies needed to make the complete Epstein, whose colleagues are spread ing process to eat away selected material. watts of power. A little compressor raises system,” he said. among MIT’s Gas Turbine Laboratory, When the wafers are piled up, the surfaces the pressure of air in preparation for com- In addition, the project provides an Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and the spaces in between produce the bustion. And cooling (always a challenge excellent opportunity for teaching. “No and Laboratory for Electromagnetic and needed features and functions. in hot microdevices) appears manageable matter what your specialty is—combus- Electronic Systems. Making microengines one at a time by sending the compression air around tion or bearings or microfabrication—it’s How can one make a tiny fuel-burning would be prohibitively expensive, so the the outside of the combustor. equally hard,” he said. “As an education- engine? An engine needs a compressor, a researchers again followed the lead of “So all the parts work…. We’re now try- al tool, it’s enormously useful because combustion chamber, a spinning turbine computer-chip makers. They make 60 to ing to get them all to work on the same the students realize that their success is and so on. Making millimeter-scale ver- 100 components on a large wafer that they day on the same lab bench,” Epstein said. dependent upon other people’s success. sions of those components from welded then (very carefully) cut apart into single Ultimately, of course, hot gases from the They can’t make their part easier by mak- and riveted pieces of metal isn’t feasible. units. combustion chamber need to turn the tur- ing somebody else’s part harder, because So, like computer-chip makers, the MIT The MIT team has now used this pro- bine blades, which must then power the then as a team we don’t succeed.” researchers turned to etched silicon cess to make all the components needed generator, and so on. “That turns out to be This research was funded by the U.S. wafers. for their engine, and each part works. a hard thing to do,” he said. Their goal is Army Research Laboratory. PAGE 6 September 20, 2006 RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk EPILEPSY Continued from Page 4 cap, making the device less obvious to observers. Each epilepsy patient has different brain activity patterns, so the detector is programmed to measure an individual’s patterns to determine what the precursors to a seizure look like for each patient. “It’s quite tricky to try to detect very early signs of seizures because there are abnormal electrical signals that don’t evolve into seizures,” Guttag said. “If we can learn what the right profile is for an individual, we can build a seizure onset detector that works really well for that person.” Ideally, when the device senses an impending seizure, it sends a magnetic signal to the implanted stimulator, which in turn activates the left vagus nerve. The vagus nerve sends electrical signals up to the brain as well as down toward the viscera, controlling heart rate, gastroin- testinal peristalsis, sweating and keeping the larynx open for breathing. The mechanism by which VNS prevents seizures is not known, but the technique has been FDA approved to treat epilepsy for about 10 years. About 32,000 epilepsy patients already have VNS implants, according to Guttag. Some of them are able to use a handheld magnet to activate the VNS on demand, but many cannot. If the new detection device is success- ful, it would allow many more patients to use the VNS on demand. The device could also be adapted to provide warnings PHOTO / STEVE ROSENTHAL for patients who don’t need or want VNS implants. Once the device alerts the patient that a seizure is imminent, This photo of Eastwood, a housing project on Roosevelt Island in New York City, is part of a current exhibit at the Wolk that person could take steps to minimize injury, such as Gallery. The development, designed by Sert, Jackson & Associates, was built in 1974. sitting down or moving away from potentially dangerous objects, such as a hot stove. “If you could just give someone a little bit of warning they’re about to have a seizure, it could be hugely valu- able,” Guttag said. “The seizures themselves aren’t usually Urban housing showcased damaging to the brain in the long term. It’s mostly about the collateral damage.” The Wolk Gallery (Room 7-338) opens its 2006-07 sea- low- and moderate-income families. The UDC built 33,000 Although the seizure detector could have a huge impact son with an exhibition of past and current housing pro- units of housing and three new communities that are still on epilepsy patients, there are plenty of other potential grams for people of limited income. “Policy and Design for in existence today. applications for technology that analyzes electrical activity Housing: Lessons of the Urban Development Corporation, The MIT exhibition showcases the UDC’s legacy and in individual brains, Guttag said. Depression, schizophre- 1968-1975” documents one of the most innovative and effec- its effectiveness, exploring selected projects that demon- nia and attention deficit disorder are just a few of the con- tive housing programs ever developed in the United States. strate housing set in various contexts—urban and subur- ditions that could be studied. An opening reception will be held today from 5:30 to ban, high- and low-density—and built according to various A paper describing the seizure-detection technology 7:30 p.m. social and design guidelines—mixed income; high-rise was published in the August 2004 issue of Epilepsy & Launched by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, the New York and low-rise. UDC structures also employed various build- Behavior. State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) was given ing materials and technologies. This work was funded by the Center for Integration of both broad political powers and financial resources to ful- The show runs through Dec. 22 and is open weekdays Medicine and Innovative Technology, the U.S. Army and fill its mandate—improving the physical environment for from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. MIT’s Project Oxygen. ENERGY MIT experts explore life ‘beyond carbon’ Continued from Page 1 Anne Trafton News Office jects and begin designing possible core subjects from the undergraduate core to graduate level. If all nations burned gasoline for trans- The MIT Energy Management Task portation at the same rate as the United Force will provide a venue to connect the States, world gasoline consumption would research and educational activities of fac- rise nearly 10-fold, with a corresponding ulty, students and staff to MIT’s own phys- hike in the concentration of greenhouse ical plant. An External Advisory Commit- gases. tee of industry, academia and government That’s just one reason why it is imper- leaders will provide guidance, advice and ative that nations work to create a more direction to the leadership of MITEI and sustainable transportation system, says to the vice president for research, Hock- John Heywood, director of MIT’s Sloan field wrote. The heads of both task forces Automotive Lab and the Sun Jae Professor John Heywood John Deutch Ernest Moniz will serve on the Energy Council. of Mechanical Engineering. The ERC released its report (web.mit. “As the countries in the developing have to do all of these to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be regulat- edu/erc/docs/erc-report-060502.pdf) in world rapidly motorize, the increasing energy consumption and greenhouse gas ed in some fashion, it is not surprising that May 2006. The report, which culminated global demand for fuel will pose one of emissions.” governments and power providers in the almost a year of effort by 16 faculty mem- the biggest challenges to controlling the New technologies could further reduce U.S. and elsewhere are increasingly con- bers from all five MIT schools, called for concentration of greenhouse gases in the fuel consumption. Heywood estimates that sidering building a substantial number of an energy-focused laboratory or center atmosphere,” Heywood writes in “Fueling within five years, new technologies such additional nuclear power plants,” Deutch with its own research space to be estab- Our Transportation Future,” an article he as gasoline hybrids, turbocharged gasoline and Moniz write in their Scientific Ameri- lished within five years, and an indepen- wrote for the September issue of Scientific engines and low-emissions diesel could can article, titled “The Nuclear Option.” dent steering organization to carry out American. produce market-competitive vehicles. Deutch and Moniz suggest that a gov- MIT’s new energy initiatives. Heywood is one of three MIT profes- Hydrogen fuel cell technology will take ernment-imposed “carbon tax” could raise In developing its recommendations, the sors who tackle energy in the magazine’s longer to reach consumers. the cost of generating electricity from coal ERC solicited input from faculty members, September issue, whose cover proclaims Other alternative fuels, including bio- or natural gas, making nuclear energy students and staff, as well as from alumni the theme “Energy’s Future: Beyond Car- mass-based fuels such as ethanol and more attractive to power companies. and key industry leaders. An Industrial bon.” biodiesel, are already being produced but They also propose that the federal gov- Liaison Program Industry Energy Work- While Heywood’s article focuses on have not made much of an impact in the ernment establish consolidated interim shop in December 2005 provided informa- improving transportation efficiency, United States yet. storage as part of the nation’s nuclear tion on how MIT can best work with indus- MIT Professors John Deutch and Ernest Heywood suggests that new regulatory waste management strategy. try on energy-related topics. Moniz explore the possibilities of expand- and tax policies will be needed: raising Threats of nuclear proliferation could “The need for new global supplies of ing nuclear power to reduce emissions of fuel-efficiency requirements, charging a be countered by establishing relation- affordable, sustainable energy is perhaps greenhouse gases. fee to consumers who purchase high-fuel- ships in which countries such as the the single greatest challenge of the 21st All three professors are members of consumption cars and offering rebates to United States, Russia and France would century,” the report stated. MIT’s Energy Research Council, which those who buy efficient models could all lease nuclear fuel to countries that want to “Increasing tension between supply issued a report in May exploring how MIT help achieve a more sustainable transpor- develop nuclear power plants. The United and demand is exacerbated by rapidly can help solve the global energy crisis. tation system. States would then reclaim the spent fuel escalating energy use in developing coun- Improving transportation efficiency Another promising way to cut carbon and dispose of it, eliminating the risk that tries, security issues facing current energy will be a critical part of any energy strat- emissions is to rely more heavily on nucle- countries could secretly develop weapons systems and global climate change. These egy, says Heywood, because transporta- ar power, according to Moniz and Deutch. programs under the guise of generating converging factors create an unprece- tion accounts for 25 percent of worldwide Moniz, co-director of MIT’s Labora- nuclear power. dented scenario requiring a multifaceted greenhouse gas emissions. In his piece, tory for Energy and the Environment and Although the challenge is great, Deutch approach to increasingly urgent energy Heywood outlines four options for improv- Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, and Moniz believe success is attainable. issues.” ing transportation sustainability: “We could co-chairs MIT’s Energy Research Coun- Since 2000, more than 20,000 megawatts For more information on the MIT improve or change vehicle technology; we cil. Deutch, also a member of the energy of nuclear capacity have come online. Energy Initiative, please go to: web.mit. could change how we use our vehicles; council, is an Institute Professor at MIT. The Scientific American issue on ener- edu/newsoffice/2006/energy-initiative. we could reduce the size of our vehicles; “With growing worries about global gy can be found at www.sciam.com/issue. html. we could use different fuels. We will likely warming and the associated likelihood that cfm. MIT Tech Talk NEWS September 20, 2006 PAGE 7 ‘Making Comics’ author decodes cartoons Stephanie Schorow With an engineer’s precision, McCloud News Office Correspondent — armed with the inevitable PowerPoint presentation—dissected these choices: moment, frame, image and flow, plus the In a dissection worthy of a science lab, words selected to go with the drawings. comic book artist Scott McCloud analyzed New technologies—like multimedia the dynamics of action frames and word CD-ROMS, 3-D modeling and Flash soft- balloons, showing the conventions of com- ware—and the Internet are changing the ics to be as complex as those of any art relationship between artist and reader, form. McCloud said. Traditionally, “space equals “Comics are a slightly artificial medium. time” as the eye moves from one panel to They take a lot of participation on the part the next. of the reader to come alive,” McCloud told “The early comics owed a lot to vaude- a packed audience at the Bartos Audito- ville,” with their sense of creating a front rium on Thursday, Sept. 15, in an appear- row seat at a stage, he noted. Scrolling ance sponsored by MIT’s Program in Com- and hypertext change this convention, as parative Media Studies. McCloud demonstrated with examples of Yet comics can open new windows into online Web comics. our world, he said. Yet, as McCloud’s slides of Egyptian “It’s our birthright to create new worlds ILLUSTRATION / SCOTT McCLOUD wall paintings and Mayan glyphs showed, for us to step into, and a lot of what’s the art of comics is thousands of years old. happening — and about to happen — in A cartoon by Scott McCloud, above, serves as an online logo for his current speaking He looks ahead to a time when virtual real- the 21st century is creating new worlds. tour/family road trip, called the ‘Making Comics’ 50-State Tour. ity and iPod screens may change the medi- Because, damn it, one is not enough.’’ um again. “I wonder if the idea of really McCloud is both a practitioner and a He has just published a how-to guide, by the literate graphic-novel movement small canvases and really big middle men pundit. As author of “Understanding Com- “Making Comics,” and has launched a and comics coming in from Europe and an is not the way we want to go in the long ics,” (1993) and “Reinventing Comics” yearlong, nationwide tour with wife Ivy and influx of Japanese comics, manga, and this run,” he said. (2000), McCloud “has transformed the daughters Sky and Winter. explosion of Web comics.” He stressed, however, the need to adapt way many of us look at comic books as “I was brought up on how to draw com- When “teaching how to make comics to change. Some of his early Web comic a medium,” said MIT media studies pro- ics the Marvel way,” said McCloud, who in 2006, you have to come up with prin- inventions indicated “I was not really adapt- fessor Henry Jenkins. McCloud produced grew up in Lexington, Mass. However, ciples that apply to all these different types ing to the environment I was on. It was as his own series, Zot!, from 1984 to 1991 for “comics have been going through a lot of comics. The most constructive way to if I had created a flying squirrel capable of Eclipse and has worked for major comics of mutations lately. The traditional comic think of creating comics (is) as a series of jumping from tree to tree on a planet cov- companies such as DC. strips and comic books have been joined choices.” ered with molten lava.” Student design exhibit highlights creative process

Sasha Brown the finished design model. Most of the News Office models feature the designer’s process, the series of steps each followed to arrive at the final product, Wampler said. With models that include a homeless The exhibit features the process shelter created from a used billboard and Wampler calls “a building up of design.” a children’s AIDS center in Zambia, the Wampler said he wants to move away from MIT Undergraduate Architectural Design the idea that design is “a flash of brilliance Program’s exhibit, “Process of Designing,” in the middle of the night.” now on display in the Wiesner Gallery in For many of the students whose work the Student Center, showcases how archi- is featured, the projects were about more tects can explore social issues through than design. Wampler tries to expose the their designs. students to more international work. In “We want to get them thinking socially that vein, one student created a quick-build and politically as well as architecturally,” shelter for victims of the 2005 earthquake said Professor Jan Wampler, director of in Pakistan. the Undergraduate Architectural Design Before the student could design the Program. shelter, she had to study the region and its The first of its kind, the exhibit offi- problems. She had to research feasibility cially opened Sept. 8 with a packed reception in Wiesner and speeches from and how it might work. Wampler as well as Professor Les Norford For Wampler, this is the direction in of the Department of Architecture and J. which he hopes to see the program move. Kim Vandiver, dean for undergraduate In his foreword to the exhibit, he mentions research. “We wanted to give some life to that he wants MIT’s undergraduate archi- the student center,” said Wampler, who tecture students to be known as creators, was pleased with the turnout at the recep- collaborators, translators, craftspeople, tion. “We had a very good opening.” designers and communicators. The exhibit was created by Wampler “Our students, who are the best and along with Rebecca Luther, a lecturer in brightest in the world, need to have oppor- architecture; Chris Dewart, a technical tunities to explore ideas that are truly creative,” Wampler said. PHOTO / JAN WAMPLER instructor in architecture; and architecture student Victoria Lee. The “Process of Designing” exhibit will Graduate student W. Victoria Lee’s design for a North End rooftop house is among the More than 20 students contributed be on display at least through the middle architectural models on display in the Wiesner Gallery of the Student Center. The tall center work from their 2005-2006 courses for of October in Wiesner Gallery in the MIT tower belongs to another model on exhibit, built by senior Harini Rajaraman. the exhibit, which shows more than just Student Center. PROJECTS NUCLEAR of the big stainless steel pot containing it, Continued from Page 2 costs specifically associated with develop- Continued from Page 4 ing and designing computer hardware and which sits in a cavity of cooling water. If go beyond that and use parametrics to go software components and platforms. The more energy at a lower cost. the excess heat is not removed, the molten beneath the surface to the underlying rea- costs associated with systems engineer- This may soon be possible, thanks to fuel could breach the pot. sons why a certain aircraft costs what it ing are more difficult to estimate because Buongiorno. Nanoparticles in the water that cools does to develop,” said Ricardo Valerdi, a the discipline deals with multiple factors in His laboratory works on nanofluids — the outer surface of the vessel raise the researcher at MIT’s Lean Aerospace Initia- the big picture, such as system design and base fluids such as water interspersed with amount of heat that can be drawn away tive, who developed the new model. customer needs. tiny particles of oxides and metals only bil- from the core, making the plant less sus- Validated with assistance and historical COSYSMO helps companies estimate lionths of a meter in diameter. Buongior- ceptible to the negative repercussions of a data from seven major aerospace compa- “person-months” specifically associated no’s nano-spiked water, transparent but possible meltdown. nies, COSYSMO can be adapted to sys- with a systems-engineering effort and somewhat murky, can remove up to two The key issue to be resolved before tems-engineering programs in many dif- costs—such as how many people it will times more heat than ordinary water, mak- nanofluids can be used in nuclear plants, ferent industries. take to develop a command and control ing it an ideal substance for nuclear plants. Buongiorno said, is the stability of the “The inputs to the COSYSMO model system in an aircraft and meet all the cus- The nanoparticles “change some key nanoparticles, which could agglomerate are generic, they are not domain specific, tomer requirements. properties of the way water behaves when and settle quickly if appropriate chemical so it could be used in estimating effort According to Valerdi, the failure to ade- it boils,” Buongiorno said, improving its and thermal conditions are not carefully associated with waste management sys- quately plan and fund systems-engineer- heat transfer capabilities. maintained. tems or building new highway tunnels in ing efforts appears to have contributed to The spiked water could provide an This work is funded by the Idaho Boston,” said Valerdi. a number of cost overruns and schedule extra measure of protection in the event National Laboratory, the nuclear energy Computer hardware and software cost- slips, especially in the development of of a nuclear meltdown. In a meltdown, vendor AREVA and the MIT Nuclear Reac- estimation tools help companies estimate complex aerospace systems. molten nuclear fuel sinks to the bottom tor Laboratory. PAGE 8 September 20, 2006 ARTS MIT Tech Talk Sloan MarketLab ponies up ideas for Lauren’s Polo Sasha Brown News Office

Last semester, four MIT Sloan students found a way to bring some of Polo Ralph Lauren’s many Internet shop- pers back to the high-end designer’s retail store: They devised an interactive kiosk that remembers consumers and addresses them personally. “It is a new kind of customer experience,” said Petra Gospodnetic, a Sloan student and one of four M.B.A. can- didates who worked for Ralph Lauren during their spring semester as part of MarketLab, a program run by the Sloan Marketing Club. MarketLab students work in teams on marketing-related consulting projects for partner companies. The students gain experience and sponsorship money or academic credit. This was the first year that Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL) retailers, a luxury line of clothing, fragrance and more, signed on to be part of the MarketLab. Jeffrey Steinberg (M.B.A. 1991) is the vice president of database marketing and the chief privacy officer for the label. “It is great that Sloan alumni come back to work with Sloan students. It was a very encouraging environment,” said Daya Fields, another member of the PRL team. “It says a lot about the Sloan program.” The team of four, which also included Sloan students Marshall Einhorn and Priya Gandhi, was tasked with find- ing a way to use interactive kiosk-stations featuring touch screens and computer technology to draw more customers to the store. The MIT Sloan team was asked to focus on the development of a transactional kiosk that would increase customer loyalty, provide a source of entertainment for customers and increase sales. PHOTO / CHRISTINE SOUTHWORTH The team traveled to a number of sites, including New MIT music professor Evan Ziporyn’s new composition, ‘Sulvasutra,’ was commissioned by cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s York, Chicago, Rhode Island and Boston. They looked at ensemble to premiere in Carnegie Hall last weekend. Polo Ralph Lauren stores, but they also looked at the way different kinds of stores used kiosk technology. “We watched people at kiosks in stores that sell gro- ceries, discount items, luxury cars, home décor, office supplies, electronics and more,” said Fields. “We gathered MIT prof, alum premiere works a lot of information by visiting sites.” They looked at the size of the kiosks, their locations in Lynn Heinemann works combining Balinese gamelan with Western the store, their capabilities, even the way they blended in Office of the Arts instruments and electronics. He founded the MIT- with the surrounding motif. After extensive research, the based Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993 and continues to team summarized its findings and presented its recom- direct the ensemble, which toured Bali in 2005. mendations to senior management at PRL in New York. The Silk Road Ensemble, cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s mul- Adler, one of Ziporyn’s first students at MIT, was Their suggestions included a wide range of ideas, includ- ticultural music ensemble, performed new works by active in Galak Tika as one of its three original mem- ing the use of “virtual clothing models” (VCM) that the two MIT-affiliated composers in New York’s Carnegie bers. Since graduating with joint degrees in math and customer can build at the kiosk. The VCMs would simu- Hall on Sept. 16 and 17. The pieces were world pre- music, Adler has become an accomplished composer late each customer’s body shape so he or she can “virtu- mieres for MIT composers Evan Ziporyn and Christo- and a foremost performer of new and traditional music ally” see how selected clothing styles would look. pher Adler. for the khaen, a free-reed mouth organ from Laos and “It cuts out a lot of the try-on time,” explained Gos- Ziporyn, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Profes- northeast Thailand. podnetic. Additional suggestions included using the kiosk sor of Music, was one of three established composers “His talent and passion for music were absolutely to highlight the fall line during the summer, when only commissioned by Carnegie Hall to write new works evident even then,” Ziporyn said of his former student, summer clothes are in the store. To build brand loyalty, for Silk Road, whose members play various string and now an associate professor at the University of San the team suggested a point system that would allow cus- percussion instruments indigenous to cultures around Diego. “I now consider him a friend and colleague.” tomers to earn shopping points every time they purchase the world. Ziporyn’s Silk Road composition, “Sulvasutra,” was from the Ralph Lauren family of brands. Customers could Adler (S.B. 1994) was one of two emerging com- written specifically for two master musicians, Indian use the kiosks to check their points. posers commissioned to write for the weekend fes- tabla player Sandeep Das and Chinese pipa virtuoso Overall, the PRL senior management was very encour- tival, “Tradition and Innovation,” held in Carnegie’s Wu Man, and a string quartet. Ziporyn based his work aging, said Fields and Gospodnetic. In fact, the PRL brand Zankel Hall. on an ancient Sanskrit treatise giving the mathemati- has incorporated many of their suggestions into a kiosk in The concerts were a culmination of a two-part cal rules for the proper construction of sacred Vedic one of its retail locations. workshop in which Ziporyn and Adler joined Ma, Silk altars. Road Ensemble members and musicians from Azer- “I was asked to pick an ancient story and I chose baijan, China, India and Iran to explore musical tradi- one about math and engineering,” says Ziporyn, who tions and innovation through the study of existing and learned that “without the proper proportions, the tem- newly commissioned works. ples cannot be considered sacred and, more to point, Launched by the internationally acclaimed cellist won’t do the job.” Ma in 1998, the Silk Road Project seeks to revital- Currently on sabbatical, he will premiere his bass ize the musical and other artistic cultures along the clarinet concerto, “Big Grenadilla,” with the American ancient trading route between China and the Mediter- Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall on Oct. 13. ranean. Adler’s composition, “Music for a Royal Palace,” Ziporyn, who has been involved with Balinese pays homage to Thailand’s Bang Pa-In Palace, an opu- gamelan since taking a Fulbright Fellowship in Indo- lent 19th-century juxtaposition of Thai, Chinese and nesia in 1987, is internationally recognized for his Western architectural styles.

NEWS YOU CAN USE AWARDS & HONORS Student life grants Mujid Kazimi, director of the MIT Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, will be honored at The Graduate Students Office is seeking proposals the inaugural gala of the American Task Force on Pales- for Graduate Student Life Grants. Grants will be award- tine. The Oct. 11 gala in Washington, D.C., will recognize ed for creative ideas for enhancing the graduate student the accomplishments of leading Palestinian Americans in experience. The deadline for proposals is 5 p.m. on Oct. government, commerce and industry, and scholarship. 13. More information is available at web.mit.edu/gso/ community/grants.html. Erich P. Ippen, the Elihu Thomson Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor of physics, has Travel Vendor Fair been awarded the Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment by the Optical Society of America. Ippen The Eighth Annual Travel Vendor Fair will be held PHOTO / PATRICK McGARVEY on Tuesday, Sept. 26, in Lobby 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. received the award, the highest conferred by the society Individuals who travel on MIT business or are respon- for overall distinction in optics, for laying the foundations Sloan MarketLab students Daya Fields (left) and Petra sible for making travel arrangements will find this event of ultrafast science and engineering and providing vision Gospodnetic spent last semester on a volunteer marketing informative. and sustained leadership to the optics community. project for the luxury brand Polo Ralph Lauren.