September 26, 2007 (Download PDF)

Volume 52 – Number 3 Wednesday, September 26, 2007 TechTalk S ERVING THE MIT CO mm UNI T Y MIT team finds Mars southern pole mostly water Anne Trafton Scientists also wondered whether the Martian poles News Office held large reserves of water. However, because the Mars atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide with only trace amounts of water, some researchers theorized that the An MIT-led team of planetary scientists has found that polar caps were frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. the southern pole of Mars contains the largest deposit of Zuber’s team identified the composition of the southern frozen water in the inner solar system, outside of Earth. polar cap by calculating its density. Their results show the The new results show that water, not carbon dioxide, density of the polar cap as well as the surrounding smooth is the predominant frozen liquid found in the southern layered deposit region is about 1,220 kilograms per cubic polar region of Mars, said Maria Zuber, MIT professor of meter, which indicates that it is made of mostly water, with geophysics. about 15 percent silicate dust mixed in. Zuber said scientists have suspected that the southern (The density of water ice is 1,000 kilograms per cubic polar cap of Mars is comprised of a thin veneer of carbon meter, and the density of dry ice is 1,600 kilograms per dioxide that rests atop a layer of dust and ice. However, cubic meter.) scientists have also observed a surrounding area much Zuber and her colleagues used topographical and gravi- larger than the polar cap that is dark and smooth, and it tational data gathered by three Mars orbiters to find the was uncertain whether that region was also composed of volume and mass of the ice cap, allowing them to calculate dust or ice—or both. its density. “What we found is that water ice is the dominant con- “It’s a really simple experiment but you have to measure stituent beneath a thin dust veneer,” said Zuber, lead things very precisely,” said Zuber, who is head of MIT’s author of a paper on the work that appeared in the Sept. 21 Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. IMAGE COURTESY / NASA/MOLA SCIENCE TEAM issue of Science. Ever since carved channels were first observed on the This image of Mars’ south polar region shows the ice cap See MARS surface of Mars, scientists have suspected that water once (in white) within the smooth layered deposits that overlie flowed across the surface. the cratered southern highlands. Page 6 MIT hosts conference on ‘Emergent India’ After 12 years at Sarah H. Wright there each month—and of its potential for wider social News Office equality, essential if that growth is to be sustained. “The sun doesn’t shine equally on India: The western MIT, recent Ph.D. half of the country receives more investment than the Thirty experts on energy, education, industry, finance eastern, and that geographical divide needs to be correct- and urban design discussed India’s economic growth, the ed. The biggest bottleneck is education. We have the larg- grad makes history foreseeable difficulties in sustaining and widening it, and est illiterate population in the world, and the private sector the country’s rising national energy needs in “Emergent should join in addressing this as it has other problems,” Anne Trafton India: An Engagement With MIT,” a daylong conference he said. News Office held in Bartos Theater on Sept. 21. Researchers specializing in energy, industry and public Dean of Engineering Subra Suresh, opening the event, health echoed Godrej’s views, with several conjuring a characterized it as an opportunity to reinforce and reinvig- dire imaginary Venn diagram in which poverty, pollution AliciA Jillian Hardy entered MIT in the fall of 1995 as orate the 100-year history tying MIT and India—the first and educational deficits overlap. one of the handful of freshmen who come to the Institute Indian alumnus of MIT graduated in 1907—and to explore “Energy and India: Looking Into the Future,” a panel planning to major in the humanities. future collaborations. moderated by Sanjoy Mitter, professor of electrical engi- Although she loved MIT’s Adi Godrej (S.B., S.M. 1963), chair of the Godrej Group, neering and computer science, set the conceptual Venn writing program, she eventually an influential industrial conglomerate based in Mumbai, overlap in a global context, with India as an urgent but switched her major to mechani- India, served as the morning keynote speaker. He noted hardly isolated case. cal engineering. She stayed in his management studies at MIT helped him modernize “India faces a perfect storm of energy challenges, and the department for 12 years, and systematize the management structures in the Godrej we will need a multiplicity of solutions to solve the prob- and earlier this month she Group, a century-old family business. lem. These are good opportunities for partnerships and became the first black Ameri- According to Godrej, capitalism is working for India, for global collaboration,” said Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida can woman to earn a Ph.D. the world’s fourth-largest economy: Bombay airport runs Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems and from MIT in that field. smoothly thanks to a public-private partnership, and director of the MIT Energy Initiative. She’s now doing a six-month steady service-sector employment, especially in IT, is The elements of India’s perfect storm include the antic- internship at BMW in Munich, expanding the middle class and driving private consump- ipated tripling of its energy demands by 2050; the prob- but she hopes to eventually use tion as well as commercial and residential construction. ability of disruptions in oil transportation and supply; and her degree to develop tech- Godrej pointed to mobile telephony as a symbol of the mounting environmental problems caused by carbon nologies to improve the cleanli- India’s economic growth—7 million cell phones are sold dioxide (among other pollutants), Moniz said. AliciA Hardy ness of power generation, par- Moniz noted that solving the world’s energy problems ticularly in developing nations. is a central concern for MIT: While developing nations “As developed nations, we have a responsibility to help may face India’s perfect storm directly, no nation is developing nations to make sure their power generation is immune from global climate change and impending ener- clean,” she said. gy crises. In March, she will start her new job at GE, where she Gregory Stephanopoulos, Bayer Professor of Chemical will be working on biofuel technology. Hardy’s master’s Engineering, focused on processes to convert biomass thesis focused on improving the efficiency of large-scale to biofuel and urged the audience to consider visionary hydrogen and methane power plants, which could be use- approaches. ful in industrializing nations that now burn a lot of coal, Three issues are central to framing any picture of such as China and India. India’s—and the world’s—future use of biofuels, he said. Hardy says she enjoyed her time at the Institute even There must be sufficient biomass and efficient bio-refin- though she wasn’t sure she wanted to attend MIT in the eries to generate fuel supply; there must be alternative first place. As a high school student in Philadelphia, where means of transporting the fuels, as in pipelines; and there she attended public schools, Hardy won numerous math must be investment in human infrastructure as well as and science awards and was recruited by many colleges. engineering and distribution. “I applied to every possible school I could,” she said. In Charles Cooney, professor of chemistry and biochemi- the end she had 14 offers and couldn’t decide which one PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY cal engineering, praised the MIT Deshpande Center’s to accept. Her older brother, Cordell, encouraged her to Dean of the School of Engineering Subra Suresh gave the welcoming address at the Emergent India conference, held See INDIA See HARDY at Bartos Theatre at the Media Lab on Friday, Sept. 21. Page 6 Page 6 NEWS ARTS ENERGY GENIUS GRANTS MIT MUSEUM EXPANSION WALKING THE TALK MIT alums named MacArthur fellows. Grand opening this weekend. MITEI enlists student help to cut environmental Page 2 Page 7 footprint. Page 8 ENGINEERING SYSTEMS DIVISION DANCING WITH THE STARS Professor Yossi Sheffi named new director. NSF fellow to perform on television. ‘DEEP’ UNDERSTANDING Page 2 Page 7 Preorientation program teaches freshmen about energy, environment. Page 8 PAGE 2 September 26, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Sheffi named MIT alums win MacArthur ‘genius’ awards Sarah H. Wright romuscular forces necessary for precise finger movement director of News Office and constitutes an important step toward the development of a dexterous prosthetic hand that can be controlled by the brain’s neural signals. MIT alumni Saul Griffith (S.M. 2001, Ph.D. 2004) and Another major project Matsuoka is working on involves Engineering Yoky Matsuoka (S.M. 1995, Ph.D. 1998) have been award- the use of virtual environments and visual feedback to dis- ed 2007 MacArthur fellowships, more commonly known tort recovering stroke patients’ perceptions of tasks they as “genius” grants. perform during therapy. Systems Division Griffith, an inventor who received the 2004 Lemel- Prior to receiving advanced degrees from MIT, she son-MIT Student Prize for creating a “desktop printer” received a B.S. from the University of California, Berke- Professor Yossi Sheffi has been appointed director of that makes low-cost eye- ley. From 2001 to 2006, she the Engineering Systems Division, effective Nov. 15, Dean glasses for use in under- was an assistant professor of Engineering Subra Suresh announced this week.

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