March 12, 2008 (Download PDF)

Volume 52, Number 19 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 TechTalk S ERVING THE MIT CO mm UNI T Y MIT boosts aid for students Increases number of undergraduates who can attend tuition-free More MIT students will have their tuition and fees completely covered next year under a series of financial aid enhancements that the Institute unveiled March 7. Under the new plan, families earning IMAGE / ELLENZWEIG ARCHITECTURE | PLANNING less than $75,000 a year will have all tuition covered. For parents with total annual David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research groundbreaking income below $75,000 and typical assets, MIT will ensure that all tuition charges are An artist’s rendering of the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, which will be constructed at the corner covered with an MIT scholarship, federal of Main and Ames streets. Groundbreaking on the research institution was held on March 7, for more on the event see page 8. and state grants and/or outside scholarship funds. Nearly 30 percent of MIT students fall into this tuition-free category. For families earning less than $75,000 a year, MIT will eliminate the student loan Marine bacteria’s mealtime dash is a swimming success expectation. MIT will no longer expect Denise Brehm take up nutrients before they students from families with total annual Civil and Environmental Engineering undergo chemical changes. A income below $75,000 and typical assets to paper published in the March 10 take out loans to cover expenses beyond online edition of the Proceedings tuition. Under this provision, for example, Goldfish in an aquarium are of the National Academy of Sci- students in this income group who par- able to dash after food flakes at ences describes the research. ticipate in MIT’s paid Undergraduate mealtime, reaching them before “Our experiments have shown Research Opportunities Program (UROP) they sink or are eaten by other that marine bacteria are able to each semester would be able to graduate fish. Researchers at MIT recently home in very rapidly on short- debt-free. proved that marine bacteria, the lived nutrient patches in the For families earning less than $100,000, smallest creatures in the ocean, ocean,” said Roman Stocker, the MIT will eliminate home equity in deter- behave in a similar fashion at Doherty Assistant Professor of mining need. On average, this will reduce mealtime, using their swimming Ocean Utilization and lead author parental contributions by $1,600. For fami- skills to reach tiny food patches on the paper. “This suggests that lies who rent rather than own a home, MIT that appear randomly in the ocean P. haloplanktis’ performance is will provide a comparable reduction in the blue. finely tuned to the oceanic nutri- expected parental contribution. The behavior of bacteria at ent landscape. If you are a bacte- MIT will reduce student work-study these small scales could have rium, the ocean looks like a desert requirements for all financial aid recipi- global implications, possibly even to you, where food mostly comes ents. During the past decade, MIT has impacting the oceans’ health dur- in small patches that are rare and steadily lowered the amount it expects stu- ing climate change. ephemeral. When you encounter dents to provide through term-time work. Scientists in the Department one, you want to use it rapidly.” MIT will take a further step in this direc- of Civil and Environmental Engi- Co-authors on the paper are tion by reducing the work-study expecta- neering demonstrated for the first postdoctoral associate Justin Sey- tion for all financial aid recipients by an time in lab experiments that the mour, graduate student Dana Hunt additional 10 percent. 2-micron-long, rod-shaped marine and Associate Professor Martin The Institute has a long tradition of bacterium P. haloplanktis is able to Polz, all of MIT, and Assistant Pro- opening its doors to talented students from locate and exploit nutrient patches fessor Azadeh Samadani of Bran- a full range of economic backgrounds. For extremely rapidly, thanks to its deis University. more than four decades, MIT has made keen swimming abilities. The researchers were able to its undergraduate financial aid decisions Food sources for these micro- prove the behavior of P. haloplank- by following a three-part financial aid phi- organisms come as dissolved tis by recreating a microcosm of losophy. nutrients and often appear as the bacteria’s ocean environment “First, we are need-blind in admissions, localized patches that, if not eaten, using new technology called meaning that we admit all undergraduates are rapidly dissipated by physical microfluidics. Microfluidics con- on the basis of academic merit alone, with- processes like diffusion. Foraging, sists of patterns of minute chan- out considering their ability to pay,” said then, becomes a race against time nels engraved in a clear rubbery Dean for Undergraduate Education Daniel for a bacterium. A rapid response PHOTO / MICAELA PILOTTO See MEALTIME See TUITION gives it a strong advantage over Roman Stocker, the Doherty Assistant Professor of Ocean competitors and may allow it to Page 3 Utilization, holds microfluidics devices. Page 3 NEWS RESEARCH/EDUCATION PEOPLE GET OUT THE VOTE ‘ON A ROLL’ INTERVIEW WITH THE DEAN: SURESH Alternative voting system that allows voters to rank MIT researchers discover a way to sort out cells, School of Engineering Dean Subra Suresh talks by preference is getting noticed by MTV. which could lead to inexpensive testing for diseases. about engineering’s future, both at MIT and globally. Page 2 Page 6 Page 4-5 DIGITALK: WHERE IT’S AT MACVICAR DAY 2008 GOOD ‘KNIGHT’ Making computer repairs, GeoWeb and what to do Alumnus and Nobel winner Carl Wieman leads Symposium sees bright future for science with your old cell phones. annual celebration. journalism. Page 7 Page 7 Page 6 PAGE 2 March 12, 2008 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Voting for more than just either-or David Chandler have access to the Internet can then cast their votes, pro- other candidate”—four first-place votes out of 16—but “he News Office viding an instant tally. was very polarizing and was ranked near last on most of There’s even an ultrasimple version that works through the other ballots,” Hill explains. So in a traditional vote, the cell phones using basic text messaging. The system is so vast majority of the voters would have been very unhappy Traditional voting systems allow people to make only simple that hundreds of people have been using it for deci- with the outcome. a single choice—a limitation many voters find frustrating, sions as simple and immediate as where to go for dinner or Instead, with the Selectricity preferen- particularly when there is a crowded field of candidates, when to hold a meeting. tial voting system—which allows the as there was early in the current presidential nominating But the system is also sophisticated results to be scored using any of a cycle. enough to handle real elections, at least on variety of different known mathemat- But it doesn’t have to be that way. a small scale. In February, a beta version ical systems for selecting winners— Alternative voting systems, which allow people to rank of the new, improved software was used the first-place winner using most of the their preferences in order instead of simply picking one, by a national student organization to methods had only two first-place votes, have been known for centuries, but have been devilishly elect its first board of directors—and but was in the top three or four on almost difficult to implement and often result in a very slow tally- the way that election turned out was every ballot. ing of results. One example is the system used in the Iowa a dramatic confirmation of the value of “It ended up being a real caucuses, in which supporters of candidates who fail to the new system. example of the power of pref- reach a certain threshold in the first round can then move Each of 16 campus chapters of the group erential elections,” leaving a on to their second choices, and so on, until a clear winner Students for Free Culture got an equal vote majority of voters satisfied, Hill emerges. to select five members of its governing says. A new computer software system developed by MIT board from among a slate of 13 candi- Selectricity users can pick which selec- researchers promises to make such ranking systems just dates. But, as it turned out, the result tion method to use when they set up a as easy as traditional voting—and to give results that leave would have been very different had they ballot, but once votes are cast the web more people satisfied. The system is about to get its first used a traditional voting system. site also allows users the option of mass-market trial with the cable music network MTV. Hill, now a research fellow at MIT’s new analyzing the results using several Benjamin Mako Hill, while he was a graduate student in Center for Future Civic Media, says “the alternative methods, so that the out- the MIT Media Lab’s Computing Culture group, created a first-place winner in plurality didn’t even IMAGE / SELECTRICITY comes can be compared. system called Selectricity, which has been online as a free make it into the top five” using the more MTV is planning to use Selectricity to service since last fall and is about to unveil an upgraded sophisticated preferential voting system, in which each allow viewers to vote for their preferences among a selec- version with more options.

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