Volume 51 – Number 29 Wednesday, June 6, 2007 TechTalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY MIT readies for Commencement day President Emeritus Vest, new head of National Academy of Engineering, will speak

MIT President Emeritus Charles M. aspect of the Institute and to a six-year term as presi- trustees. Vest will deliver the principal address at its life. At the same time, he dent of the National Acade- As president of MIT from 1990 through MIT’s 141st Commencement exercises, to achieved national and inter- my of Engineering, effective 2004, Vest placed special emphasis on be held Friday, June 8, at 10 a.m. in Killian national recognition for his July 1. enhancing undergraduate education, Court. thoughtful insights into the Vest earned his B.S. exploring new organizational forms to During the ceremony, 2,135 undergrad- crucial issues facing higher degree in mechanical engi- meet emerging directions in research and uate and graduate students are scheduled education and research in neering from West Virginia education, building a stronger internation- to receive 1,083 bachelor’s degrees, 1,015 the United States and in University in 1963 and his al dimension into education and research master’s degrees, 279 doctorates and 10 our globalizing world. As he M.S. and Ph.D. degrees programs, developing stronger relations engineer’s degrees. anticipates the next chapter from the University of with industry and enhancing racial and In making the announcement, MIT of his career in Washington, Michigan in 1964 and 1967, cultural diversity at the Institute. President Susan Hockfield said, “I am very it is the perfect moment for respectively. He is the recip- Vest has also worked to bring issues pleased that Chuck Vest has agreed to give him to share with our gradu- ient of 10 honorary doctoral concerning education and research to the 2007 Commencement address at MIT. ates his reflections on the degrees and is a life mem- During his 14 years as MIT’s president, role of MIT in the world.” ber of the MIT Corpora- See COMMENCEMENT he quietly put his stamp on almost every In April, Vest was elected Charles M. Vest tion, the Institute’s board of Page 12 Model for tracking Green ribbons signify flu progression may responsibility pledge Stephanie Schorow reduce death toll News Office Correspondent Engineer survived 1968 pandemic Wearing a little green ribbon during the Anne Trafton 2007 Commencement ceremonies may not News Office change the world. But, say MIT organizers of “The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility,” the effort Nearly 40 years ago, MIT Professor might change a few minds. And that might Richard Larson spent a week sick in bed start students thinking in new directions. with the worst illness he’d ever had—the Something like that happened to Chris- particularly virulent strain of flu that swept topher J. Sequeira, a graduate student in the globe in 1968. “That was the sick- the Department of Aeronautics and Astro- est I’d ever nautics and the Technology and Policy been,” Larson Program, who is coordinating the pledge recalled. “I effort. really thought As a member of the MIT Student Pug- that was the wash organization—which encourages end.” It took students to understand how their work him two or impacts society—Sequeira learned about three months the graduation pledge in a lecture last fall to recover fully from a professor who led the pledge in the 1980s. from the ill- PHOTO / MARK MORELLI ness. “Maybe it’s time to do it again,” thought Known as the Hong Kong Savings bank See RIBBON flu, the virus From left, Jim Doughty, environmental health and safety coordinator for the School Page 8 Richard Larson killed 750,000 of Science, chemistry graduate student Ryan Altman and materials science and en- people world- gineering graduate student Elsa Olivetti are among those spearheading a laboratory wide, the second worst influenza pandem- education campaign that promises significant savings and a chance to improve MIT’s ic the world has seen since the infamous energy and carbon footprint. See story on page 3. 1918-1919 epidemic of so-called Spanish flu. Now, many experts fear the world is on the brink of another deadly flu pandemic. And Larson wants to be sure that people are ready to deal with it. Women’s Technology Program To that end, he and his colleagues have developed a mathematical model to track graduates members of first class the progression of a flu outbreak, and their results show that the death toll of an epi- Erin Michael Salius It was only five short years ago, in the demic could be greatly reduced by taking School of Engineering summer of 2002, that they initially arrived steps such as minimizing social contacts on campus to participate in the inaugural and practicing good hygiene, such as fre- session of WTP, a four-week academic quent handwashing. When seniors Alisha Schor, Emily and residential experience where pre-col- The report, “Simple Models of Influ- Slutsky and Kyung Jin Chang step to the lege female students explore engineering enza Progression within a Heterogeneous stage to accept their S.B. degrees at the through hands-on classes, labs, and team- Population,” was published in the May- 141st Commencement ceremony on June based projects. At the time, having just June issue of Operations Research, which 8, they will be among six seniors mak- finished their junior year in high school, ing history as the first members of MIT’s PHOTO / CHRIS SEQUEIRA See WTP See INFLUENZA Women’s Technology Program (WTP) to Grad student Chris Sequeira is coordinat- Page 10 graduate from the Institute. Page 11 ing MIT students’ pledge of responsibility. NEWS RESEARCH ENERGY

MIDNIGHT SUN NOISE SOLUTION WINDING UP Solar power will help the Great Dome light up at Neuronal chit-chat may produce the brain’s best Student team finds energy potential atop Eastgate night again. thinking. tower. Page 2 Page 5 Page 3

ENERGY TECH DEM BONES ELECTRIC AVENUE Tech Day speakers, events focus on energy, Research on bone leads to materials that ‘fail Undergrads and grads take a sports car from gas to sustainability. gracefully.’ electric power. Page 2 Page 7 Page 7 PAGE 2 June 6, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Solar power helps rekindle Great Dome lighting tradition

A new lighting scheme will turn the iconic Great Dome of Building 10 into a “nighttime beacon.” Using the same amount of electricity needed to run two hair dryers, a total of 12 new fixtures will illuminate the dome, the Roman numerals that spell out 1916 (the year the building opened) and the lime- stone façade of Building 10. MIT President Susan Hockfield will flip the switch on the new lighting at a June 9 ceremony at 10:30 p.m. The event, which comes at the conclusion of a full day of Tech Day activities that will bring 3,300 alumni and alumnae to the campus, will take place in Killian Court. All members of the MIT community are invited to attend the lighting ceremony. The new lighting system incorporates energy-saving light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures made possible through the gener- osity of an anonymous donor. The efficient new system will replace now-defunct fix- tures and tree-mounted lights. The donor has also provided funding for a new 40-kilowatt photovoltaic array that will connect to MIT’s electrical grid and provide 10 times more power than the dome lighting will use, according to the chief engineer on the project. The purchase of this solar panel array has also received support from a grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. “Our stated goal for this project was to achieve an energy-neutral balance,” said Ronald J. Adams, senior electrical engineer PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY in the Department of Facilities. “Thanks to the donor and the grant, we have achieved The Great Dome of Building 10 will once again be lit at night, thanks to an anonymous donor’s gift of a high-efficiency lighting scheme and that. In fact, we have far exceeded our goal.” a state grant for a new solar array. Tech Day focuses on improving Cambridge First Day honors five The 15th annual Cambridge First Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves, today’s energy sources and tools Day celebration at MIT will honor five Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy local organizations that are working to and Cambridge Historic Commission Nancy DuVergne Smith dence, nuclear options, China’s energy preserve and bring vitality to Cambridge Executive Director Charles M. Sullivan MIT Alumni Association options and the biomass movement. Deut- history. will join Hockfield in the program. ch is author of “Making Technology Work: MIT President Susan Hockfield will The event begins at 11:30 a.m. in Morss Applications in Energy and the Environ- present Cambridge First Day Awards on Hall at Walker Memorial and will be fol- Energy—particularly the opportunity ment” and served as an advisor to Presi- June 12 to the Cambridge African Ameri- lowed by an informal buffet luncheon. for near-term efficiencies and sustainable dents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. can Heritage Alliance; the Cambridge His- Jointly planned and hosted by MIT change—takes center stage at Tech Day Deutch co-authored “The Future of torical Society; the magazine Growing up and the city since 1997, Cambridge First 2007, to be held in Kresge Auditorium on Nuclear Power,” one of the Institute’s in North Cambridge; the Longfellow Com- Day focuses on a different theme each Saturday, June 9. Tech Day is the intel- major energy reports, with MITEI Direc- munity School Oral History Project; and year. The celebration has honored doz- lectual highlight of Tech Reunions 2007, tor Ernest J. Moniz, the Cecil and Ida the Longfellow National Historic Site and ens of Cambridge businesses, organiza- which is expected to draw more than 3,200 Green Professor of Physics. The report Friends of the Longfellow House. tions and individuals representing many alums and guests to dinners, tours and documented the changes required in gov- In addition to the awards, each hon- different sectors of the community over performances on campus June 7-10. ernment policy and industry practices that oree will receive $1,000 to support their the last 15 years for their lasting contri- Faculty speakers will explore politi- would enable nuclear power to play a sig- continued work and a bound City Council butions to the collective quality of life in cal contexts as well as improvements in nificant role in reducing carbon emissions resolution. Cambridge. current resources and building construc- and providing energy resources. tion. These research thrusts are part of Improvement in the built environment the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), which is the subject of John Fernandez ’85, asso- AWARDS AND HONORS draws on the resources of more than 50 ciate professor in the Department of Archi- Annual plant departments, labs tecture’s building technology group. Fer- The Department of Aeronautics and and centers to help nandez will explore the ecology of contem- sale follows Astronautics announced the following develop sustainable porary construction. His effort involves awards on June 1. energy resources identifying the consumption profile and Vickie Kerrebrock Award—to a stu- Tech Day on to power the world. resource requirements of existing build- Commencement dent, staff or faculty member in recogni- At Tech Day, ings and formulating design strategies for tion of his or her contribution to Course June 9 is the political science reuse and recycling of building materials The MIT 16 spirit of community: professor Nazli and components. He is actively working Community Ser- —The 2006-2007 student officers of intellectual Choucri will with the construction industry and the vice Fund will the MIT Student Section of the American describe the politi- design profession to establish common host its annual Institute of Aeronautics and Astronau- cal, economic and ground for construction ecology partner- highlight of Tech fundraising sale tics: Ashley Cousineau 2007, Darrell Cain strategic contexts ships. This work is described in his recent of the plants 2008, Rachel Ellman 2007, Ruijie He 2007, of diverse energy book, “Material Architecture: Emergent displayed on Valentina Lugo 2007, Ryan McLinko 2009, Reunions 2007 challenges and the Materials for Innovative Buildings and the Commence- Carolyn O’Brien 2009, Viviana Serra 2007, international coor- Ecological Construction.” ment podium Pranay Sinha 2009, Kathleen Voelbel 2007 dination necessary Participants at the reunion celebration, and surrounding —H. Lauren Gallant, aero-astro admin- to secure sufficient energy for the future. who come from as far away as Brazil and stage on Friday, istrative officer John M. Deutch ’61, Institute Profes- Japan, are signed up for more than 139 June 8 at 3:30 p.m. in Killian Court. Pro- The Spirit of XVI Award—For excep- sor in the Department of Chemistry, will reunion events on and off campus. All ceeds from the sales of the plants, which tional efforts and achievements that have examine issues related to improving the alums and members of the campus com- are made available through the generos- furthered the mission and enhanced the use of fossil fuel and nuclear energy as munity are invited to the Pierce Boathouse ity of the Office of Conference Services quality of life in the aero-astro depart- renewable energy sources are developed. Sunday morning beginning at 7:30 a.m. to and Special Events, support service to the ment: Deutch’s recent work has explored nation- cheer on competing class rowers, from the local community by MIT staff and student —Beth Marois, student services coor- al security consequences of U.S. oil depen- classes of 1952 to 2002. volunteers. dinator

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The cost to MIT would be nine cents per kWh com- News Office Correspondent pared with 15 cents per kWh from a utility company. A turbine installed on Eastgate would have a payback time of 11 years, the group calculated. and challenges Four students who spent the spring semester deter- “It has high value proportional to its size and the poten- mining whether MIT should install rooftop wind turbines tial for good cost savings,” said Dan Wesolowski, a materi- Ruth Walker uncovered both good news and not-so-good news. als science and engineering graduate student who served News Office Correspondent The group was blown away by MIT students’ over- as a teaching assistant and helped develop the course. whelming support of wind power on campus. The problem Nevertheless, it would take a wind turbine one year to off- is that even an MIT-owned 29-story apartment building— set the amount of greenhouse gases than MIT produces in six minutes. There were, not surprisingly, some surprises along the best option for locating a wind turbine—does not get a whole lot of wind. Still, Team Wind recommended placing The students measured wind speeds at seven campus the road to graduation for the dozen and a half students locations before settling on Eastgate tower, which houses Tech Talk profiled as “hometown heroes” when they a 12-foot diameter wind turbine on the building to help make a dent in MIT’s electric bill, offset carbon dioxide graduate students and their families in 203 apartments entered as freshmen in 2003. at the east end of campus. The building is close to the Jose Medrano of Pico Rivera, Calif., is one who found emissions and serve as an educational resource for future projects related to energy and wind. Charles River, generally considered a good option for wind himself in a whole new field. power density. A site needs class 3 wind power density, As an incoming freshman, he had indicated an inter- First-year students Richard Bates, Samantha Fox, KT McCusker and Katie Pesce were among a dozen MIT stu- translating to mean wind speeds of around 12 mph, to be est in chemical engineering. “But biology had the most economically attractive. MIT’s campus is largely class 1. impact. That completely blew me away. I was so fasci- dents in a class—offered for the first time last semester— that investigated ways to help MIT and the City of Cam- The new class, “Energy, Environment and Society,” nated I ended up majoring in it.” focused on solving real-world problems. Jeffrey I. Stein- Particularly meaningful for him was getting to study bridge reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. On May 11, Team Wind, as the four called themselves, feld, professor of chemistry and director of the Labora- cutting-edge biological research techniques with the tory for Energy and Environment (LFEE) education pro- very professors who had developed them. presented their results assessing the economic, technical, aesthetic and policy issues connected with installing small gram; Jefferson W. Tester, the H.P. Meissner Professor of One thing that stood out to him was how the nature Chemical Engineering; and Amanda Graham, manager of of the academic work evolved over time. The introduc- and micro-sized wind turbines on MIT buildings to capture wind energy. In the audience were MIT and Cambridge the LFEE education program, designed and led the class, tory courses, he suggested, were more like high school aided by three graduate student teaching assistants. courses. “But as you progressed, it was less book work decision-makers who could help implement the proposed projects. “We feel strongly that having students develop projects and more thinking. It was less about ‘What is the right leading to real-world products rather than more abstract answer?’ and more about ‘How did you get that answer?’ Nowhere near the scale of commercial turbines with 100-meter-wide blades, the Skystream 3.7 made by Ari- outcomes provides a very different learning experience,” It was more like being a scientist,” he said. Graham said. “The students meet the people who care Biology was where Joseph Goldbeck, of Boiceville, zona-based Southwest Windpower has compact 12-foot rotors. about the material they generate, and there’s a sudden N.Y., started out. “But by the end of freshman year I’d shift in their investment and motivation that we hope will decided that brains were a lot more interesting,” he said. The Skystream system has an installed cost of around $7,900, although it has never been installed on a building deepen their experience and commitment and extend So his major is in the Department of Brain and Cognitive their learning.” Sciences. before, and would be eligible for around $2,700 in rebates through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. It The d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education sup- One theme that pops up in conversations with these ported the development of this class. seniors is how demanding they found their work to be, would provide 2,600 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annu- and not just during the tough first year. Goldbeck said he kept asking himself, “There’s more?” He concluded that his time at MIT has been “hard but fun.” David Rush, of Boise, Idaho, came in with a plan to major in electrical engineering, and he stuck with it—“a challenge, but satisfying in the end.” His biggest surprise was being honored, with his lab partner, for the best undergraduate lab of the year in electrical engineering and computer science. “My part- ner is a really, really smart guy, and he kept saying, ‘It’s too simple,’” Rush said. So the two made their project more complicated—and took the top honor. The project was a juggling simulator. Rush came to MIT as a juggler but had no idea that juggling would be such an important part of his time here. “I never thought I’d start the MIT Juggling Club, but I did”—halfway through freshman year. Anna Massie, of Louisville, Colo., came to MIT plan- ning to major in aeronautics and astronautics, and she has done so. But she’s refined her career goal in light of changed realities. At one point she thought she might have a go as an astronaut. But now she declares herself more geared toward small satellite developments. “It’s going to take a long time to get humans back into space,” she said. MIT “can definitely be a very tough place,” Massie said, especially for those who don’t take enough breaks from their work. She’s observed her peers and noted that some people “just don’t change,” bearing up well under the strain of all the work, “while others head out looking so bogged down,” despite being very bright and knowl- edgeable. PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY Moneer Helu, of Birmingham, Ala., who majored in Fourth-year Ph.D. student in materials science Dan Wesolowski, left, discusses wind direction and velocity on a rooftop with mechanical engineering, had two big surprises at MIT. mechanical engineering sophomore Richard Bates. They and other students put equipment on a number of roofs around She explained in an e-mail, “The first surprise was that the Institute for a month to determine the viability of using wind turbines to generate power. MIT’s co-generation plant is I was up to the extreme challenge that is MIT…. I’ve visible behind them. quite literally had an extremely thrilling time here.” The other surprise was finding that MIT maintains a noncom- petitive atmosphere. As she arrived at the Institute, she wrote, “everyone assured me that I’d find myself work- Closing fume hoods could save $1 million ing with others and that I’d always be able to find help among my classmates. I quickly dismissed these state- Deborah Halber comprehensive analysis of fume hood use in MIT chemis- ments…but in reality that is what occurs, and that is one News Office Correspondent try laboratories, MIT stands to save up to $1 million annu- of the best things about MIT.” ally in energy costs. Kevin Krsulich, of Rockville Centre, N.Y., majored in physics with a minor in math. He wrote in an e-mail, A device that sucks up noxious fumes also devours Lab rat “I don’t know about surprise, but I would certainly say almost $1.4 billion worth of potential energy savings each During his senior year at MIT, Steven T. Amanti spent something that I would not have foreseen in my fresh- year. days and nights in the chemistry building. man year was that I became a father in the summer fol- Fume hoods, widely used by high-tech industries, hos- That would not be unusual for a chemistry student. lowing my sophomore year. My son, Charles, will be 2 pitals and universities, help But Amanti was a mechanical engineering major working this July.” keep workers from breathing under Leon R. Glicksman, professor of building technol- Emily Gullotti of Stonington, Conn., arrived on cam- harmful chemical vapors but ogy and mechanical engineering. Amanti prowled MIT’s pus four years ago swearing to herself that she would can use a lot of energy. A single Building 18 because he was investigating a case of inad- not follow in the footsteps of her father, John Gullotti fume hood running 24 hours a vertent energy abuse. (S.B. 1978). But then she took a course in metallurgy day uses as much energy as a Amanti has moved on, but his senior thesis, “Potential and loved it. “It’s in your blood!” he told her. And so single-family home. Energy Savings on the MIT Campus,” is still very much like him, she’s getting a degree in materials science and The possible energy sav- on the minds of MIT students, staff and administrators. engineering. ings for the more than 750,000 His data led to an ongoing effort to cut electricity use For Gullotti, one of the surprises at MIT was that hoods across the United through increased awareness of campus-wide use of fume for the first time she found herself in an environment States is $1.39 billion annually, hoods. where, as she put it, “everyone is like me.” When she according to Lawrence Berke- Fume hoods line the walls of more than a dozen labs in goes out to dinner with friends, she likes not being the ley National Laboratory in only one at the table who can easily figure out how to California. See FUME HOODS split the check. Leon Glicksman According to a student’s Page 9 PAGE 4 June 6, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk S-Lab stimulates sustainability at MIT Sloan D’Arbeloff, Alumni fund innovative courses Teresa Hill them an opportunity to make real change resources in a framework of existing poli- Laboratory for Energy and the Environment happen…in environmental restoration, cies and business models. The simula- More than $1.1 million has been award- economic development and social equity.” tions enable them to see how changes in ed to 22 faculty groups developing new Eight Sloan faculty co-taught the course, any set of factors might affect sustainabil- subjects, thanks to the d’Arbeloff Fund for Insights and energy from several engi- using case material, internship experience ity and profitability. “Students engaged Excellence in Education and the Alumni neering disciplines, architecture, urban and integrated analytic tools and frame- in deep learning,” observed Slaughter, as Funds from the Classes of 1951, 1955, 1972 planning, management, public policy and works to identify business opportunities they “worked with the organizations to and 1999. Both funds are administered by the humanities inspired the 60 students presented by the real-world challenges of identify the nature of sustainability and the Office of Faculty Support. enrolled in Sloan’s innovative new Labora- sustainable energy, the impacts of global- developed new systematic approaches to Dean for Curriculum and Faculty Sup- tory for Sustainable Business (S-Lab) this ization on social structures and the widen- help each organization reach its sustain- port Diana Henderson said, “These awards year. Teams collaborating with 14 clients ing gap between the world’s “haves” and ability objectives.” reflect a broad and profound commitment to craft business approaches to environ- “have-nots.” Primed with this innovative learning, to educational innovation among many of mental and social issues showcased their The experimental offering drew stu- the wisdom of eight faculty members, our faculty.” final projects in the lobby of Building E52 dents from several MIT departments, extensive case study and theoretical read- The d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in on the afternoon of May 16. including advanced undergraduates and ing, and the practices reported by guest Education supports projects designed to Coordinator Sarah Slaughter, an expert master’s and doctoral candidates, and stu- speakers, students worked in teams to enhance and potentially transform the aca- in sustainable infrastructure and construc- dents from other area universities. The ini- develop solutions to real-world sustain- demic experience of MIT’s undergraduate tion, said that S-Lab “was a life-changing tiative represents a new wave of concern ability challenges presented by participat- students. The new d’Arbeloff award recipi- experience for many of the students, giving over environmental and social responsibil- ing groups. These included large estab- ents include: ity at business schools in the United States lished firms, such as Disney Imagineers, and abroad, many of which now have Intel and Nike. Start-up and small firm Building a Constructive Culture course requirements in those areas. The participants were GoLoco, a social net- Biological Engineering: Professor Drew Sloan subject focused on sustainable busi- work facilitating ride sharing; Mibanco, a Endy, Instructor Natalie Kuldell, Principal ness planning in recognition of the key Latin American microcredit group; Good Research Engineer Randy Rettberg; Politi- role climate change is playing in both pub- Energies, a fund investing in renewables; cal Science: Professor Ken Oye—This lic and private sector policy and practice. Greenfuel Technologies, a biofuels firm; project-based introduction to biological According to Richard Locke, the Alvin the Spark Group, an investor in schools engineering design will motivate students J. Siteman Professor of Entrepreneurship and microfinance in Chennai (formerly to master discipline-specific knowledge in and professor of political science, the S- Madras), India; and Merida, a maker of context and solve a personally compelling Lab approach is unique in that it syner- natural fiber floor coverings. design challenge. gizes multiple disciplines. “Up until now NGOs and government groups includ- we have considered aspects of sustainabil- ed the World Bank; the Universidad Fran- When Engineering Gets Big: Building ity—climate, energy, water, food, poverty cisco Marroquin program in microfinance; Faster Highways Inside Cities and and social development—in isolation,” he Health Care Without Harm, an organiza- Computers says. “S-Lab is developing an integrated tion for improving the environmental qual- Materials Science and Engineering: framework to consider the system-wide ity of buildings; and Friends of Petit-Anse, Professor L.C. Kimerling, Rachael Kem- dynamics of human society, along with a Haitian group empowering the poorest per; Microphotonics Center: Sajan Saini; tools and methodologies for measuring of the poor. The Sloan School and the MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering: and monitoring sustainability efforts and Energy Initiative’s Campus Energy Task Professors Herbert Einstein and Andrew their applications.” Force also worked with S-Lab students on Whittle—This subject introduces students Acting as entrepreneurs, students PHOTO COURTESY / MIT SLOAN to the complexities of Big Engineering: used interactive computer-based simula- See S-LAB large-scale ventures that integrate multiple Margo Corral tions to invest in firms using renewable Page 8 science-engineering disciplines, interact- ing over an extended production timeline. Music and the Supernatural: Witches, Magi and Ghosts Music and Theater Arts: Professor Ellen Harris and Lecturer Charles Shadle; Anthropology: Professor James Howe— The new subject focuses on the relation- ship between music and the supernatural as reflected in key musical works of the Western tradition from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Through the generous support of the Classes of 1951, 1955, 1972 and 1999, the Alumni Class Funds provide resources to MIT faculty for innovative educational proj- ects, particularly to enhance undergradu- ate education. This year’s awards include: Art Work-Out: Visual Arts in the Gym

PHOTO / STUART DARSCH PHOTO COURTESY / MIT SLOAN PHOTO / L. BARRY HETHERINGTON Architecture: Professor Wendy Jacob, Lecturer Andrea Frank—This project will Pascal Marmier Simon Johnson Nhan Ghiang assist in the development of a new Visual Arts Program introductory studio subject that will use MIT’s sports arenas (gyms, pools and playing fields) as sites for artis- MLK scholar sheds light on chemical energy flow tic production. The New Third World Challenge Deborah Halber “In our field, metastable states of mol- Architecture: Research Associate Rein- News Office Correspondent ecules possess excess electronic energy hard Goethert—Goethert will re-center but cannot dispose of that energy because the course “The New Practitioner” to iden- the transition to the ground state is opti- tify proactive strategies for approaching Elucidating the dynamics of molecules cally forbidden,” Virgo said. The molecule the problem of Third World urban growth, that are both long-lasting and elusive is is like a reactive bundle of energy that has combining presentations of experts with a the goal of Wilton Virgo, recently named a no way of getting to the ground state. workshop in a Third World country. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar. “The energy in the molecule can’t be “Metastability” is molecules’ ability to lost spontaneously via fluorescence, but it Mapping Controversies persist for a long time in one chemical can be used to drive chemical reactions Program in Science, Technology, state. when the excited molecule collides with and Society: Professor Vincent Antonin Virgo’s research focuses on gas mol- a normal molecule in its ground energy Lepinay—The goal of “Mapping Contro- ecules in long-lived, highly reactive states state. The metastable molecule can give its versies” is to teach undergraduate stu- called metastable triplet states. “The mol- energy to other molecules via collisions, dents how to account for and map techno- ecules I study are intriguing because they causing chemical reactions to take place,” scientific controversies. act as chemical protagonists in reactions Virgo said. initiated either by ultraviolet light or by Despite their key role in chemical reac- Reviving World Literatures molecular collisions. I want to illuminate tions, these molecules can easily elude Literature: Professors Mary Fuller, the process of chemical energy flow in the detection. “My research involves invent- Alisa Braithwaite, Sarah Brouillette—The molecule in order to understand the driv- ing new, sophisticated techniques using goal of the project is to enhance literary ing force behind chemical reactions,” he lasers, molecular beams and detection of study for MIT students by emphasizing said. the metastables on metal surfaces,” he cross-cultural understanding. “Our research investigates how meta- said. stable molecules are involved in both Virgo arrived at MIT in January 2006 The Fisher Files Podcast intramolecular and intermolecular energy as a postdoctoral associate in the labora- Professor Peter Fisher, Physics—Fish- flow,” he said. “This is a major goal of the tory of Robert W. Field, the Haslam and er’s project would produce 12 weekly pro- chemical dynamics field.” Dewey Professor of Chemistry. grams devoted to time management, orga- In nature, molecules want to be in their Virgo earned his undergraduate degree nization and life skills, oriented to those in most stable, lowest energy state, called the in chemistry at Princeton University. He an academic environment. ground state. Usually, excited molecules worked as a professional associate at PHOTO COURTESY / WILTON VIRGO can give up their energy by emitting light Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2001 More information can be found at the in the form of fluorescence and making a and received his Ph.D. degree from Ari- Wilton Virgo was recently named a Martin Office of Faculty Support web site: web. transition to the ground state. zona State University in 2005. Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar. mit.edu/facultysupport/programs.html. MIT Tech Talk RESEARCH June 6, 2007 PAGE 5 DNA-damage test could aid drug development

Eric Bender are handy for this because such cells normally lose their this are what the department was intended to do,” says Whitehead Institute nucleus during the last stage of red cell formation, and Griffith, senior author of a paper on the work published DNA-damaged precursors generate red blood cells con- online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci- taining an easily detected “micronucleus” consisting of ence the week of May 14. In the daunting marathon that leads to successful fragments of nuclear DNA. Unlike the current procedure, “This is an example of taking fundamental lab science drugs, promising drug candidates must pass toxicity tests which injects the compound into a live mouse, the new and doing something useful with it,” says Lodish, whose before entering clinical trials. Researchers from MIT and assay is a cell-culture system that could allow hundreds lab has extensively studied the process by which red the Whitehead Institute have developed a cell culture or thousands of tests to be performed from the bone mar- blood cells are generated. Shuga first worked with post- test for assessing a compound’s genetic toxicity that may row of a single mouse, and potentially from human bone doctoral researcher Jing Zhang in the Lodish lab to adapt prove dramatically cheaper than existing animal tests. marrow. techniques from an established cell-culture system based This assay would allow genetic toxicity to be examined Joe Shuga, the graduate student in chemical engineer- on mouse fetal liver cells to create a new system based on far earlier in the drug development process, making it ing who developed the assay, is in the unusual position adult red cell precursors from mouse bone marrow. Shuga much more efficient. of being a graduate student in three labs, those of Profes- patiently optimized the system, which allows the precur- Like the current FDA-approved test, the new test sors Linda Griffith, Harvey Lodish (a Whitehead mem- sor cells to proliferate and differentiate in the normal way, looks for DNA damage in red blood cells formed in the ber) and Leona Samson. “We’re all faculty in the biological dividing four or five times before losing their nucleus and bone marrow of mice. The precursors to red blood cells engineering department, and collaborative projects like becoming immature red blood cells. Shuga then studied the way these developing cells reacted to three toxic DNA-damaging agents whose effects had been studied by Samson’s lab and found the results correlated well with results from the existing test. Additionally, he experimented with mutant mice created by Samson’s lab that are deficient in certain DNA-repair systems. The bone marrow cells derived from these mice, and the cells cultured from that bone marrow, proved more sensitive to the toxic agents than were the cultured cells from normal mice, further con- firming the results. With the new assay, “instead of testing one chemical and one dose in one animal, you’ll be able to take one animal, get the bone marrow out and test a thousand dif- ferent conditions,” says Samson, the American Cancer Society Research Professor. “You’ll be able to look in more detail at different doses given at different times in the cell differentiation process.” “This is a much cheaper assay that’s at least as predic- tive as previous assays,” emphasizes Griffith, “and drug developers can afford to use it a lot earlier in the drug development process.” It also could help to avoid issues with animal testing. “The European Union is trying to minimize animal test- ing,” Shuga points out. “A ban on animal testing of cos- metic products goes into effect in 2009.” Next steps in the research, which may be carried out by industry partners, will be to test the assay in rats and other organisms, and with a wide variety of other toxic chemicals. “This research is the first stage in a new type of clin- ical drug toxicity test,” says Lodish. “And although we haven’t done it, you may be able to extend the technique

PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY to humans. Humans are the gold standard in that one From left to right, Professors Linda Griffith and Leona Samson with Harvey Lodish of the Whitehead Institute and graduate See DNA student Joe Shuga. Page 8 Brain uses both neural ‘teacher’ and ‘tailor’ in learning While most people need peace and oped a working theory that combined the the same thing with different words,” the tinkerer just randomly changes the quiet to cram for a test, the brain itself may concepts of a redundant neural network Rokni explained. “Our theory holds that words, while the teacher continually cor- need noise to learn, a recent MIT study and that of a “noisy” brain. the learning brain has the equivalent of rects the text to make it have the right suggests. In experiments with monkeys, “A good analogy to redundant circuitry, a ‘teacher’ and a ‘tinkerer’—a learning meaning. The teacher only cares about the researchers found that neural activities which accomplishes the same behavior signal and noise in the learning process, the meaning and not the precise word- in the brain gradually change, even when by different wiring configurations, would respectively. ing. When the teacher and tinkerer work nothing new is being learned. Challenging be a piece of text, in which you can say “In producing a specific piece of text, together, the text keeps changing but the the monkeys to adjust their task triggered meaning remains the same. For example, systematic changes in their neural activi- the tinkerer may change the sentence, ties on top of this background “noise.” ‘John is married,’ to ‘John is single,’ and The researchers said their findings sug- the teacher may correct it to ‘John is not gest a new theory of how the brain learns. single.’ “What surprised us most was that the “In the same way, learning in the brain neural representation of movement seems has two components—error-correction to change even when behavior doesn’t and noise—so that even though the neu- seem to change at all,” said Sebastian ral representation keeps changing, the Seung, professor of physics and computa- behavior remains fixed. We think the tin- tional neuroscience and a Howard Hughes kerer, that is the noise, is not merely a nui- Medical Institute investigator. “This was sance to the teacher but is actually help- a surprising degree of instability in the ing the teacher explore new possibilities it brain’s representation of the world.” wouldn’t have considered otherwise.” Seung and Institute Professor Emilio To test this idea, Rokni constructed a Bizzi led the study, which was published mathematical model of a redundant corti- in the May 24 issue of the journal Neuron. cal network that controls movement and Lead author on the study was Uri Rokni, a used it to simulate the learning experiment postdoctoral fellow in Seung’s laboratory. with the monkeys. In this model, learning In earlier work, Bizzi and colleagues of the connections between neurons was measured neural activities in the motor assumed to be a considerably noisy pro- cortex while monkeys manipulated a cess. “When we ran the simulation long handle to move a cursor to targets on a enough, the performance became good, screen. In control experiments, the mon- but the neural representation kept chang- keys had to move the cursor to targets in ing, very similar to the experiments,” the same way they had been trained. In Rokni said. learning experiments, the monkeys had to According to Rokni, the concepts of adapt their movements to compensate for redundant networks and “noisy learning” novel forces applied to the handle. have important implications for neurobiol- The scientists found that even when ogy. “I don’t think this concept of redun- the monkeys were performing the familiar dancy—that the brain can say the same control task, their neural activities gradual- thing in different ways—has really been ly changed over the course of the session. fully appreciated until now,” he said. To explore the significance of these “More practically, people who are con- background changes, Rokni analyzed structing devices that translate brain sig- the data from the learning component nals to operate such external devices as of Bizzi’s experiments. He found he neural prostheses will have to take such could distinguish learning-related neural constantly changing neural representa- changes from the background changes tions into account,” said Rokni. that occurred during the control experi- —Courtesy Howard Hughes ments. From this analysis, Rokni devel- Medical Institute PAGE 6 June 6, 2007 RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk Systems model shows sustained policy incentives, carbon taxes will widen alternative vehicle use Nancy Stauffer road, people won’t consider buying one. “The challenge is not just introducing an AF vehicle,” MIT Energy Initiative The researchers’ conclusions are not all gloomy. If said postdoctoral associate Jeroen Struben of the Sloan policy incentives are kept in place long enough, adoption School of Management, who has been examining the will reach a level at which the market will begin to grow mechanisms behind such market transitions. “Consumer Imagine a vehicle that runs on hydrogen or biofuels on its own. But “long enough” may be a surprisingly long acceptance, the fueling infrastructure and manufacturing and offers the same features, performance and price as time. capability all have to evolve at the same time.” today’s gasoline vehicle. Could it capture half the market? Given today’s environmental pressures and energy Thus, consumer exposure to AF vehicles is just one Not likely, concludes a new MIT analysis of the challenges security concerns, we need to move away from fossil-fuel- feedback loop that can affect adoption. Similarly, fuel sup- behind introducing alternative-fuel vehicles to the market- powered vehicles. But repeated attempts to introduce pliers won’t build AF stations until they’re certain of future place—not even if it’s three times more fuel-efficient. other technologies during the past century have nearly all demand; but until the fuel is widely available, consumers One of the barriers is this Catch-22: Until a high num- failed. Dethroning the gasoline-consuming internal com- won’t buy the vehicles. And manufacturers won’t be able ber of alternative fuel (AF) vehicles are already on the bustion engine (ICE) has proved difficult. to make AF vehicles cheaper and better until their produc- tion volume is high; but high-volume production won’t happen until such improvements are in place to attract buyers. Then, of course, there’s the status quo to be over- come—the well-established and highly attractive gasoline- ICE vehicle and the fueling infrastructure, energy supply chain and other industries that support it. Understanding market behavior To analyze the behavior of this system over time, Stru- ben and Professor John D. Sterman of the Sloan School have developed a system dynamics model that simulates how markets for AF vehicles may (or may not) grow. The model can track the fate of various vehicle platforms, including conventional and advanced ICE, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and biofuels. Deci- sions made by consumers, fuel suppliers and auto manu- facturers change the market, consumer opinion, vehicle attributes and other factors, which then feed back to alter the decisions people make tomorrow. Finally, the model accounts for the peculiarities of human behavior. “Our model doesn’t assume that every- body is a perfectly rational economic agent,” said Ster- man. “Instead, we try to model how people actually make decisions such as which cars to buy and when and where to drive them. Emotion and social status matter, along with the economics.” Thus, people’s buying decisions may not reflect the actual features of an AF vehicle but rather what they have heard or read about it. Drivers who are worried about locating fuel for their AF vehicles may fill their tanks early—a behavior that reduces the vehicles’ effective range and may cause unanticipated side effects such as crowding at filling stations. Analyses to date show that a key factor slowing AF- PHOTO / MARK MORELLI See VEHICLE Jeroen Struben, left, and John D. Sterman, of MIT Sloan, stand with an alternative vehicle in the MIT Museum. Page 8 MLK materials CRE redefines housing affordability Ruth Walker scientist developed News Office Correspondent

Brookline—town of chic boutiques—an “affordable” solder’s ‘holy grail’ community? Deborah Halber Yes, it is, relatively speaking. That’s according to new News Office Correspondent data presented by Henry Pollakowski, principal research associate for MIT’s Center for Real Estate, and his col- leagues at the Third Annual Housing Affordability Con- Ainissa G. Ramirez is passionate about shattering the ference in Kresge Little Theatre on May 22. stereotype of scientists as serious and dull. Ramirez wants Pollakowski, along with Jeff Zabel of Tufts University, to show kids what she knows firsthand: Science can be introduced a new index of housing affordability weight- fun. ed to reflect a community’s proximity to jobs, the qual- Ramirez, who has recently been named an MIT Martin ity of its schools and its proportion of publicly accessible Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor, created the successful open spaces. and engaging Science Saturdays lecture series at Yale Uni- “This is not the way it’s usually done,” Pollakowski versity for school children. Ramirez, an associate profes- acknowledged. sor of mechanical engineering The basic concept is that a house out in the far sub- at Yale, also hosts the campus- urbs may be less expensive but will probably require based show, which introduces its owner to make a long daily commute, given that middle-school-age children jobs remain concentrated in the central cities—such as to scientists—explaining who Boston. So the affordability of the remote location is they are, and how and why they offset in part by commuting costs. And if poor schools study what they study. hold down a town’s housing prices, that affordability will According to Ramirez, a be offset by either private school fees or lower earnings materials scientist who has over a lifetime by the homeowner’s children. developed novel materials for Houses in Brookline may not be inexpensive, but microelectromechanical sys- once there, residents have access to good schools and tems (MEMS) by exploring employment opportunities. Brookline also offers good how materials thinner than a access to open spaces, which is the researchers’ proxy human hair behave mechani- for good environmental quality. cally. “Science is for everyone On a map produced by Pollakowski, Brookline is col- Ainissa Ramirez ored dark teal green—indicating that more than 30 per- and those who do it come in all GRAPHIC COURTESY / MIT CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE colors, shapes and sizes. I am committed to getting the cent of its housing units are affordable to those earning word out so that more New Haven children can benefit 80 percent of the median income. On Pollakowski’s map, Brookline is colored dark teal from this program,” she said. The scientists participating “We are well on our way to completing an index for all green—indicating that more than 30 percent of its hous- in the program are of various backgrounds, ages and dis- of New England,” Pollakowski told his audience. ing units are affordable to those earning 80 percent of the ciplines, and they speak on topics such as “Why Birds Are The research team, which is headed by Lynn Fish- median income. Dinosaurs” and “What Frogs Are Telling Us.” er, assistant professor of urban studies and planning, Ramirez, who received a Ph.D. degree in materials used rates of passage of the 10th-grade MCAS exam science and engineering from Stanford University, research- as the metric for determining good schools. Because tributed by the Warren Group, one of the sponsors of the es the development of thin film NiTi shape memory alloys good schools correlate strongly with low crime rates, research. “This is a lot of work, which is probably why it for MEMS systems. MEMS, which integrates mechanical the school ratings were a useful indicator for safe neigh- hasn’t been done before,” Pollakowski said. elements, sensors, actuators and electronics on a silicon borhoods, even for households without children. He described a plan for an online user interface The researchers’ methodology involves starting with See RAMIREZ U.S. census data on available housing stock and drawing See HOUSING housing values from assessor’s parcel report data con- Page 11 Page 8 MIT Tech Talk RESEARCH June 6, 2007 PAGE 7 MIT researchers probe bone’s tiny building blocks Team’s results could lead to new composites that mimic bone’s capacity to ‘fail gracefully’

Deborah Halber lead to changes in bone structure, the News Office Correspondent researchers’ discovery of the nonuniformi- ty of bone’s mechanical properties at very small length scales could lead to improved In work that could lead to more effec- diagnoses of diseases. For example, if spe- tive diagnoses and treatments of bone dis- cific nanoscale patterns of stiffness within eases using only a pinhead-sized sample of bone structure are tied to disease or aging, a patient’s bone, MIT researchers report a these could potentially be identified earlier first-of-its-kind analysis of the mechanical or provide more conclusive evidence of a properties of bone. disorder. The work, reported in the May 21 The researchers also formulated a com- advance online edition of Nature Materi- puter model to study the effects of their als, sheds new light on how bone absorbs experimental results on larger-scale bio- energy. mechanical properties. For example, using The researchers’ up-close-and-per- the model they found that the nonuniform sonal look at bone probes its fundamen- stiffness patterns were advantageous to tal building block—a corkscrew-shaped bone’s ability to absorb energy. protein called collagen embedded with “We tend to think that if a material is tiny nanoparticles of mineral—at the level nonuniform, it is not as tough,” Suresh of tens of nanometers, or billionths of a said. “This work shows otherwise. Our meter. A human hair, by comparison, is thesis is that nature, by making bones 80,000 nanometers in diameter. GRAPHIC / BERYL SIMON “If you want to investigate the origins of See BONES MIT researchers created this nanoscale map of the stiffness of bone. the strength and toughness of a material, Page 10 you probe it at smaller and smaller length scales,” said co-author Subra Suresh, Ford Professor of Engineering, with appoint- ments in materials science and engineer- ing, biological engineering, mechanical engineering and the Harvard-MIT Divi- sion of Health Sciences and Technology. “The methodologies used in this research can be employed to assess the quality of bone with extremely high precision by providing new and detailed structural and mechanical information on the nature of its fundamental constituents.” The insights gained from the work could also lead to the creation of new, tougher materials, he said. The study was led by Christine Ortiz, associate professor of materials science and engineering. “The structure, quality and integrity of bone change dramatically with age and disease, hence understand- ing the origins of the mechanical proper- ties of this major load-bearing, structural tissue in our body is extremely important from a medical standpoint,” Ortiz said. Using a table-top instrument called a molecular force probe, which uses an extremely small probe tip to poke out a tiny fragment of bone, Ortiz and col- leagues mapped the stiffness of bovine shin bone into complex, colorful, two- dimensional contour maps similar to those used by geographers. The team found that the mechanical properties of bone vary greatly within a PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY single region only two micrometers (mil- lionths of a meter) wide. Because a vari- Research scientist Ming Dao, MIT affiliate Kuangshin Tai, Professor Christine Ortiz and Professor Subra Suresh, with equipment they used ety of disorders tied to disease or aging to study bone regrowth. Students take Porsche to Electric Avenue Nancy Stauffer Laboratory is senior Emmanuel Sin, who was awarded MIT Energy Initiative the Peter Griffith Prize for an “outstanding experimen- tal project and thesis” by the Department of Mechanical Engineering in May. For the past six months a team of MIT students has Sin’s main collaborators on the project are sophomore spent hundreds of hours—many late at night—converting Ryan King of mechanical engineering; freshman Jeremy a sleek Porsche 914 into an electric vehicle. Their goal? To Kuempel; graduate student Gerardo Jose la O’, who initiat- demonstrate the viability of advanced electric vehicle tech- ed the project; and graduate student David Danielson, who nology and to help clarify what research and development obtained funding for supplies and tools from Maniv Ener- has yet to be done. gy Capital. Both la O’ and Danielson are in the Depart- The Porsche was donated by Professor Yang Shao- ment of Materials Science and Engineering. Horn of mechanical engineering, who with her husband, To make the conversion, the students replaced the orig- Quinn Horn, bought it on eBay and made it available to inal engine with an electric motor, 12 of the batteries, the students interested in converting it to an electric-powered battery-management system, various relays and a control- vehicle. In addition to providing an unusual opportuni- ler that makes all the components work together. Things ty for hands-on learning, the project will ultimately yield haven’t always gone smoothly. “There’s been a lot of adapt- information valuable to Shao-Horn’s research on advanced ing things that don’t work as they’re designed,” said King. batteries. Specifically, she and her team in the Electro- “We had to come up with some creative solutions.” chemical Energy Laboratory will be able to measure the In the next few weeks they hope to put the Porsche conditions that batteries encounter inside an operating through its paces. For example, they’ll determine its accel- vehicle. eration and top speed and will see how far it will go on a “In the laboratory we work on materials to make bat- single charge. teries safer, last longer and have higher energy,” she said. According to their best estimates, the car should pro- “But we are also interested in gaining a good perspective duce 50 to 60 horsepower, have a top speed of 70 to 100 on the system view. What’s involved in building an electric miles per hour, and travel 100 miles or more on a single vehicle, and what’s required of the batteries?” charge. Plugging it into a wall socket should fully recharge The student project took off a year ago when Valence the batteries in four to five hours. Technology, Inc., agreed to donate 18 high-tech recharge- able batteries valued at $2,030 each, plus a battery-man- agement system. While today’s electric cars generally Mechanical engineering graduate student Craig Wild- operate on conventional lead-acid batteries, Valence pro- man, background, mechanical engineering sophomore vided its enabling lithium phosphate rechargeable batter- Ryan King, center, and freshman Jeremy Kuenpel work ies, which are lighter, last longer, charge faster, have a on remodeling a Porsche in Sloan Automotive Lab. They longer lifetime and don’t pose a safety risk. are installing the motor controller into the rear trunk com- Leading the assembly team in the Sloan Automotive partment of the vehicle. PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY PAGE 8 June 6, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Summons wins Humboldt Award Roger E. Summons, a professor in the cooperation with colleagues in Germany. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and The idea is to promote international scien- Planetary Sciences, will receive a Hum- tific cooperation. boldt Research Award from the Alexander Summons’ research interests include von Humboldt-Stifung Foundation in Ger- the biogeochemistry of geologically sig- many. The award is conferred “in recogni- nificant microbes, microbially dominated tion of lifetime achievements in research.” ecosystems, and organic and isotopic indi- Awardees are invited to carry out cators of climate change, biotic evolution research projects of their own choice in and mass extinction.

CMI students celebrate exchange program

More than 400 students have partici- dents knew ahead of time what courses pated in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange they would get credit for and how those PHOTO COURTESY / MIT SLOAN PHOTO COURTESY / MIT SLOAN (CMI), which began in 2000. The fit into their degree.” exchange is now firmly established as CMI’s second key accomplishment Rebecca Henderson Ali Basmaa an integral part of MIT undergraduate was the increased collaboration between programs, now administered by MIT faculties. “Exchange students at both Study Abroad. universities have been able to show that Professor Edward Crawley, execu- there are other ways to teach and learn. S-LAB tive director of CMI and professor of The outcome has been positive; teach- Continued from Page 4 Eastman Kodak Leaders for Manufactur- aeronautics and astronautics, reflected ing and learning styles have been exam- ing Professor of Management. on the exchange and its achievements ined and improved,” Crawley said. campus-level problems. A new small company creating natural since its inception. The cultural influence of CMI Students were eager to explain their fiber floor coverings, Merida challenged “The exchange was the first of its exchange students has also been key processes and results. Department of an S-Lab team to develop a business strat- kind for either institution,” Crawley to the program’s success, Crawley Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) egy that would enable managers to oper- explained. “It was an exchange of not stressed. graduate student Sharleen Leurig worked ate sustainably in this competitive field. only students, but also of programs. As on a project for Intel, which is not usu- Advised by Locke, Team Merida included the first designed exchange, CMI stu- -- Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka ally pegged as an environmental company, two Sloan fellows—Pascal Marmier, a law- but, like a growing number of influential yer from Switzerland, and Zairo Cheibub, firms, is giving serious thought to its envi- an academic from Brazil; Nhan Ghiang ronmental footprint. S-Lab enabled Leurig of the systems design and management to “add business concepts to the DUSP graduate program; and physician Basmaa emphasis on regulatory, scientific and Ali, a graduate student at Sloan. Part of RIBBON resource aspects of environmental man- the challenge was to develop a definition agement.” Her team, advised by Slaughter, of sustainability for the company to use in Continued from Page 1 May 16, MIT pledge-takers were honored developed a set of sustainability indicators gauging its effectiveness. in a ceremony and received certificates for Intel’s construction and materials divi- According to Slaughter, “The commit- Sequeira, 24, who is graduating in Febru- and wallet cards. About 50 of them—a mix sion. Other team members included Sloan ment and enthusiasm of the faculty and ary 2008. of graduates and undergraduates from a graduate students Sylvia Dizon, Elizabeth students was invigorating, engaging an The Graduation Pledge of Social variety of disciplines—will walk across Prior and Stephen Rockwell. ever-widening community for sustainabil- and Environmental Responsibility was the stage on Commencement on June 8 Disney Imagineers are interested in ity.” In addition to Locke, Henderson and launched in spring of 1987 at Humboldt wearing green ribbons. Organizers hope making the energy use of the firm’s theme Slaughter, S-Lab faculty included Simon State in Arcata, Calif., by students then to express to students that they can make parks more sustainable. The S-Lab team Johnson, professor of entrepreneurship concerned about the nuclear arms race. positive impacts in the world by first being compared various alternative energy and chief economist of the International The pledge itself is simple: “I pledge to mindful of their actions. options with the needs of the company Monetary Fund; Nelson Repenning, asso- explore and take into account the social The pledge now addresses nanotech- and determined that, like many very large ciate professor of management; Anjali and environmental consequences of any nology, biotechnology, climate change firms, Disney’s greatest contribution at Sastry, assistant professor of management job I consider and will try to improve and other issues. The goal is to emphasize present would lie in the purchase of car- science; senior lecturer Jeff Shames; and these aspects of any organization for that “science and technology are driven by bon offsets. At the same time, alternative John Sterman, the Jay W. Forrester Pro- which I work.” Students recite the pledge human values and affect human values,” energy demonstration projects at the parks fessor of Management and director of and wear a green ribbon at graduation Sequeira said, adding, “The nuclear issue and other initiatives, in, for example, trash the MIT System Dynamics Group. The ceremonies. hasn’t gone away.” reduction and disposal, could raise public teaching assistants were management The concept soon spread to other His work for Pugwash and the pledge awareness among thousands of visitors. student Margo Corral and technology schools, including MIT. In 1988, the Coali- has changed Sequeira’s own mindset and Sloan student Lina Montesalve used her policy student Pragnya Alekal, both look- tion to Humanize MIT implemented the challenged him to look at aeronautics in team’s colorful poster filled with familiar ing forward to receiving the S.M. in June. pledge in collaboration with the newly new ways, going beyond building a bet- Disney characters to demonstrate how the “It was exciting,” said Sterman. “We’re formed Graduation Pledge Alliance, ter airplane to aviation fuel efficiency, sus- team reached this conclusion. The team looking forward to offering S-Lab again Sequeira said. Pledges were also taken at tainable design and the impact of air travel was advised by Rebecca Henderson, the next year.” MIT in the early 2000s. on people and the environment. The new Sequeira wanted to revive the con- mindset “has opened up my job prospects cept. The 2007 effort was implemented a lot,” he said. by a coalition of MIT groups, including He hopes to set the groundwork for Pugwash, Muslim Students Association, other students to organize a larger pledge Laboratory for Energy and the Environ- effort in 2008. HOUSING ment, Technology and Culture Forum, MIT’s pledge effort web site is at sus- Continued from Page 6 use. and Students for Global Sustainability. On tainability.mit.edu/Pledge. “Density has been getting lower and being developed in conjunction with lower. We found only four communities the Department of Urban Studies and where that was not the pattern,” Polla- Planning: “What we’re aiming for is for kowski said. VEHICLE somebody to be able to go online, tap Between 1998 and 2004, nearly 40,000 in the number of people in their house- new single-family houses were built in Continued from Page 6 cient coordination across decision-makers, hold and their income and out will pop a the metro area outside Boston proper. eventually enough AF vehicles will be on map, which will tell you how many units The median lot size was 0.86 acres—and vehicle adoption is the long lifetime of the road that all the decision-makers will exist in the metropolitan area that will the average was somewhere between 1.1 today’s vehicles. People buy cars infre- buy in and the AF market can become self- be affordable to you…. This is very excit- and 1.2 acres. quently, so it will be a long time before sustaining. ing.” “That’s nearly 50,000 acres—about a given consumer is exposed to enough The researchers are not ready to make Not so exciting, from the perspective the size of the city of Boston,” Pollakows- AF vehicles to feel comfortable buying policy recommendations, but their analy- of those hoping for greater housing den- ki said. “This gives an indication of the one. Even an AF vehicle that’s as attrac- ses provide initial insights. They clearly sity in the suburbs, were the statistics way land is being tied up in ways that are tive (objectively) as a gasoline-ICE vehicle illustrate the effectiveness of carbon emis- presented on suburban residential land not likely to change.” won’t catch on without strong and lasting sion taxes, but they also produce some promotion campaigns. more-unexpected findings. For example, Concern about finding fuel also slows given the importance of vehicle lifetime, adoption. In a simulation representing Cali- providing incentives to scrap current fornia, entrepreneurs opened AF stations vehicles may be more effective than direct in urban areas but not in less-populated efforts to get more AF vehicles on the DNA rural areas where demand is initially lower. road. Likewise, providing subsidies for Continued from Page 5 vivo mouse,” notes Shuga. “That premise Urban AF drivers must then avoid the rural building AF stations will help, but giving will be tested in coming years as new sys- areas, reducing the appeal of AF vehicles bonuses for building and especially keep- wants an assay that directly predicts toxic- tems become available.” and slowing their sales everywhere. ing them in remote areas may be critical. ity in humans, not animals, and you could Shuga has additional affiliations with Another counterintuitive result: Tri- Most important, for markets to reach obtain human bone marrow that’s left over the Whitehead Institute and MIT’s Cen- pling the fuel efficiency of the AF vehicle the tipping point, policy incentives may from medical procedures.” ter for Environmental Health Sciences should attract more buyers. But since have to be kept in place for many decades, “If you could change the micronucleus (CEHS); Samson is director of CEHS and drivers then need much less fuel, energy even through periods of declining fuel assay to have a human cell readout, that has an appointment in MIT’s Department suppliers build fewer AF stations, lowering prices. Withdrawing the policies too soon would be pretty amazing,” says Samson. of Biology; Lodish also has an appoint- the appeal of these efficient cars. The net will result in yet another failed attempt to Down the road, she suggests, such a test ment in biology; and Griffith has appoint- result? Sales may actually decline. shift the market away from gasoline-pow- might offer a new way to examine how dif- ments in biology and in the Department of ered ICE vehicles. ferent individuals respond to chemothera- Mechanical Engineering. Self-sustaining markets This research was supported by the peutic agents. This work was funded by the Cam- Despite such findings, Sterman sees Project on Innovation in Markets and “The presumption is that, for some bio- bridge-MIT Institute, Amgen, the National reason for optimism: There are tipping Organizations at the MIT Sloan School logical processes, in vitro human models Institutes of Health and the National Sci- points. With policy incentives that push of Management, the National Renewable could be closer to in vivo human than in ence Foundation. the new technology forward and suffi- Energy Laboratory and Shell Hydrogen. MIT Tech Talk NEWS June 6, 2007 PAGE 9

PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY Wheels within wheels

A team of students in Course 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes) built the MIT members of the team are senior Elysa Wan, junior Albert Hernandez, senior Mark Revolution bicycle, designed to help developmentally disabled children learn to Cote, senior Jorge Renjifo-Mundo and Lou Goldish, senior business developer in the ride a bike. Above right, senior mechanical engineering majors Michal Ruchels- Office of the Provost. ‘For three years at MIT the academic rigors made it hard to see man, on bike, and Andrew Harlan, pushing, demonstrate how the bike works. light at the end of the tunnel. This is a great way to end…it was an incredible experi- As the rider pedals, an instructor walks behind holding the rear handlebars po- ence working with these students,’ said Ruchelsman. ‘I never thought I’d be able to sitioned behind the seat. Both sets of handlebars are linked mechanically. see the satisfaction of my work, and the impact I can have on other people’s lives, Above, left, senior Helen Tsai works on the bicycle. Members of the ‘Bluesteel’ team, after just four years. Some people don’t see that in a lifetime. It made all the sleepless which designed the bike, received a $5,000 award in the IDEAS Competition. Other nights worthwhile.’

FUME HOODS Prof sees vibrant life for Continued from Page 3 which also included Doughty; Amanda Graham, LFEE education manager; Steven Building 18. There are 156 hoods on the M. Lanou, deputy director of environmen- environmental studies upper five floors alone. Almost all chem- tal sustainability for the Environmental istry experiments take place in the hoods, Programs Office; Peter L. Cooper, manag- Professor David H. Marks, the first was formed in the early 1990s and has met which are packed with gyrating test tubes, er of sustainability engineering and utility director of the Laboratory for Energy monthly since then. beakers filled with multicolored liquids planning for the Department of Facilities; and the Environment (LFEE), is step- The Institute brought in about $5 mil- and other chemistry equipment. Sliding Richard J. Wilk, administrative officer for ping down as co-director in July to pur- lion over eight years from the Kann Ras- glass door sashes open and close to pro- the Department of Chemistry; and Pamela sue duties in the Department of Civil and mussen Foundation, which was used to vide access to the workspace. Greenley of the EHS Office. Environmental Engineering and the Engi- support the Chlorine Study, the Energy What Amanti found was that on aver- Olivetti, chemistry department rep- neering Systems Division and continue to Futures project, and the group that initi- age, 67 hoods were left open resentatives and an outside work on projects at the LFEE, formed in ated the Alliance for Global Sustainability. at night and 88 were open contractor did their own cal- 2001. He spoke recently with Teresa Hill, In 1997, a grant from Ford made it possi- during the daytime. Of the culations. They found there of LFEE, on his experiences and his vision ble to set up the Center for Environmental open hoods, only five were are 1,200 hoods on campus, for sustainability studies at MIT. Initiatives. in use at night and 48 were around half of which have Q: Does support for research also stim- in use during the day. In variable air volume. Judicious ulate educational initiatives? fact, 45 percent of the entire use of these hoods could A: Through the initial Program in electrical load in the build- result in a savings of up to $1 Environmental Engineering Education ing was due to fume hood million a year. and Research, begun in the early 1990s, fans, including ones left open Chemistry graduate stu- we worked hard to bring environmental when not in use. dent Ryan Altman said that awareness into the education of not only The hoods are attached prior to the public education future environmental professionals but to a building-wide ventila- campaign, fume hood ener- also all MIT students. Environmental lit- tion system that sucks away gy use “wasn’t something eracy is important in every field. Also in chemical fumes. When a sash Timothy Swager we even thought about. It 1997, the Martin Family Foundation estab- is closed, a valve attached to wasn’t a consideration.” Now lished a doctoral fellowship program that the hood decreases the flow of air to the Altman, an EHS lab representative on supports around 25 one-semester fellow- hood. When enough sashes are shut, the the research team of Stephen L. Buch- ships. Between 1997 and 2006, the Wal- fan assigned to those hoods also slows wald, the Camille Dreyfus Professor of lenberg Foundation brought a wonderful down into a more energy-efficient mode. Chemistry, is conscientious about his group of Swedish postdocs to LFEE, to the “If the unused hoods were closed, own use of the equipment. He tries to benefit of everyone involved. the consumption of electricity, steam ensure that his entire lab is aware of the Q: What has been the level of invest- and chilled water would be decreased by effort, through e-mails, signs and word ment in these activities? approximately 17 percent and save the of mouth. A: Between 1992 and the present, we’ve Institute $350,000 a year in utility costs,” “The biggest challenge is to get it to raised $60 to $70 million in support of this Amanti wrote in his 2006 thesis. be on people’s minds to shut their hoods work, all from private, industrial and foun- when they go home at night, so we are PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY dation sources. With those funds we’ve Habit-forming supported faculty and student research, trying to bombard them with the mes- David H. Marks Amanti’s research came to the atten- sage from all different venues,” Doughty workshops and larger-scale meetings, tion of Timothy M. Swager, chemistry communications—the entire array of said. He is collecting data on current fume Q: What now supports sustainability department head, who shared the report activities required for a vibrant academic hood energy use to show how it is chang- studies at MIT? at a department retreat. He also brought sector. ing over time. A: With the evolution of the MIT Ener- it to the attention of Jim Doughty, envi- Q: Is interdisciplinary study of large- Altman said that when he tells labmates gy Initiative, energy studies are really tak- ronmental health and safety coordinator scale systems, such as the environment, a about the problem, people are concerned. ing off. We are now working to combine for the School of Science. With the help tough sell in an atmosphere emphasizing “When I tell them the statistics and facts, the less-energy-specific environmental of Facilities, the Environment, Health and highly specialized and focused research? they’re surprised and shocked. They’re projects with other activities to create a Safety (EHS) Office, and the Laboratory A: The objective of interdisciplinary willing to do something to help. It’s just a new, closely related organization for sus- for Energy and the Environment (LFEE), studies is to encourage the best possible matter of instilling good habits to replace tainability studies at MIT. Doughty prepared a presentation, made research at the personal, disciplinary level the bad ones,” he said. Q: Can you give us some background in November 2006, to raise awareness of of each investigator while fitting that work Improving energy efficiency through on efforts to establish a focus on cross- energy use tied to fume hoods. into the context of wider concerns that will fume hood use is one of the many campus disciplinary environmental studies at the Graduate student Elsa Olivetti of mate- be, of necessity, interdisciplinary. Not an opportunities being explored by the MIT Institute level? rials science and engineering, one of the easy trick, but I think we’ve done it suc- Energy Initiative’s Campus Energy Task A: Environmental studies have been coordinators of student energy initiatives Force to reduce MIT’s energy and carbon really coming together since the mid- See LFEE on campus, was a member of the team, footprint. 1990s. The MIT Environmental Council Page 10 PAGE 10 June 6, 2007 RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk INFLUENZA Continued from Page 1 erogeneous population with different lev- vidual and collective behaviors in response lot of political debate and foot-dragging,” els of flu susceptibility and social contact. to the flu can greatly influence the number he said. “If people do take it seriously, came out June 4. They then used the model to compare dif- infected. the number of deaths could be greatly “We can’t reduce to zero the chance ferent scenarios: one where people main- The researchers also found a striking reduced. A key is to start taking aggres- that any of us will get the next bad flu. But tained their social interactions as the flu difference in death toll depending on how sive steps well before the flu is at your there is compelling evidence that we can spread, and others where they did not. early in the epidemic social distancing doorstep.” reduce the chances of our loved ones and Their results showed that reducing measures went into effect. For example, Larson became interested in modeling ourselves getting the flu by a significant the social contacts of people who normal- in a hypothetical population of 100,000 influenza after reading a book about the factor,” said Larson, the Mitsui Professor ly have the most interactions could dra- susceptible individuals, 12,000 fewer 1918 outbreak, which killed between 50 of Engineering Systems and of civil and matically slow early growth of the disease. people were infected if social distancing and 100 million people around the world. environmental engineering. Most of the disease is spread by a minor- steps were taken on day 30 of an outbreak He had never heard much about the epi- The H5N1 strain of flu, also known as ity of the population—the people with the instead of day 33. But intervention on the demic, which in the United States claimed avian flu, has infected birds throughout most daily human contacts. Focusing on first day is best. more victims than World War I. Asia and Europe, with a few known cases these individuals and reducing their daily This finding is consistent with historical “Reading the history of it, I became among humans. So far, the disease has not contacts can change an exponentially research reported in April by two research fascinated,” he said. “The wonderful thing mutated to a form where it can jump easily exploding disease into one that dies out teams, one led by the National Institute about being in OR (operations research) is between humans, but if that happens, the over time. of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and you can go into any problem you think is disease could spread around the world in A key feature of the model deals with one from the United Kingdom, that dem- important and relevant and really contrib- days or weeks. “R0,” a popular parameter of most other onstrated that those communities in 1918 ute to it.” Larson’s research team decided to models, which is defined as the average that took aggressive social distancing Larson said he hopes that other opera- model the progress of such an epidemic, number of new infections caused by a actions early usually suffered less from tions researchers will take up influenza taking a unique approach. Unlike most recently infected person in a population the Spanish Flu than those who waited and research and develop more detailed existing models, theirs takes into account of susceptible individuals. An R0 greater debated. models. people’s different levels of social activity than 1.0 leads to exponential increase in The findings strongly suggest that “Any mathematical model of the disease and susceptibility to the flu. the number of cases. influenza emergency plans should include is bound to be incorrect,” Larson wrote in One of the report’s key findings is that However, because R0 is an average over measures to reduce social contact, such the Operations Research paper. “But we “social distancing”—reducing the frequen- the entire population, it does not reflect as encouraging people to work from home are not seeking multidecimal accuracy but cy and intensity of person-to-person con- that fact that only a fraction of the popula- and avoid large gatherings, Larson said. rather insights on how to limit the spread tact—could be an effective way to limit the tion is responsible for the majority of new This is especially important because it gen- of the disease. We firmly believe that fresh spread of the disease. infections. Averages can be misleading— erally takes at least six months from the eyes from the OR community can play a Influenza is normally spread by per- for example, when a billionaire enters any time of an outbreak to develop an effec- significant role in this quest.” son-to-person contact, so people who have establishment, on average everyone there tive vaccine. Those who must continue to Other members of the MIT research more contact with others have a higher instantly becomes at least a millionaire. work, such as doctors and other health team include undergraduate Kelley Bailey; risk of catching the disease and then The researchers believe that splitting care workers, should be the first to receive Stan Finkelstein, senior research scientist spreading it. However, most existing influ- R0 into components, one for each level of any available avian flu vaccine that might in the Engineering Systems Division; Kari- enza models assume that all individuals activity or propensity to become infected, be developed, he said. ma Robert Nigmatulina, graduate student within a population have the same degree provides better policy guidance. In Lar- Larson says that large institutions in the Operations Research Center; Robert of social contact. They also assume that son’s model, every population component like MIT, as well as state and local gov- Rubin, faculty member at the Harvard-MIT social behavior does not change over the is assigned different values for R0, depend- ernments, should have emergency plans Division of Health Sciences and Technol- course of the epidemic. ing on factors such as that component’s ready to put into action as soon as the first ogy; and Katsunobu Sasanuma, a graduate Such models “didn’t do justice to the frequency of human contact and suscep- case of human-to-human H5N1 influenza student in the Engineering Systems Divi- complexity of the problem,” Larson says. tibility to infection if exposed to the flu. is reported. sion and the Operations Research Center. He and his team developed a dynamic Each of these factors can be at least par- “We need to be aggressive. We need to The research was funded in part by an mathematical model that assumes a het- tially controlled, suggesting that our indi- be assertive. Don’t dilly-dally, don’t have a IBM Faculty Research Award. BONES LFEE Continued from Page 7 randomly distributed or periodi- Continued from Page 9 Initiative. The group is exploring institu- callycally s spaced.paced. “There“There maymay bebe waysways tional options that map best onto MIT’s nonuniformnonuniform a att e extremelyxtremely s smallmall toto dispersedisperse particlesparticles nonuniformlynonuniformly cessfully, for example, in our studies of strengths and objectives. We’re doing ter- lengthlength scalesscales overover thethe coursecourse ofof thatthat maymay leadlead toto improvedimproved materialmaterial air quality issues in Mexico City; electric- rific things here—people need to know. millionsmillions ofof yearsyears ofof evolution,evolution, toughness,”toughness,” SureshSuresh said.said. ity futures for Shandong Province, China; A longer version of this article appeared hashas d designedesigned b boneone t too b bee a ableble t too Ortiz and Suresh’s colleagues sustainable building designs for China; in the LFEE newsletter, Energy and Envi- absorbabsorb muchmuch moremore energyenergy thanthan onon t thehe w workork a arere K Kuangshinuangshin T Tai,ai, and wells-to-wheels analyses of alternative ronment. a u uniformniform m materialaterial w withith t thehe s sameame a r recentecent M MITIT P Ph.D.h.D. g graduate;raduate; vehicle technologies and fuels. properties.” researchresearch scientistscientist MingMing DaoDao ofof thethe Q: What’s your vision for sustainability “I“I w wasas s surprisedurprised t thathat w wee Department of Materials Science research and education at MIT? observedobserved ssuchuch bbeautifuleautiful aandnd ccom-om- and Engineering; and Ahmet Pal- A: MIT’s new focus on energy has plexplex p patterns,”atterns,” O Ortizrtiz s said.aid. “ “CellsCells azoglu of the University of Cali- given legitimacy to the idea of sustainable sensesense aandnd rrespondespond ttoo sstressestresses iinn fornia at Davis. systems. Twenty years from now I expect theirtheir environment.environment. SinceSince differentdifferent Ortiz is currently looking at to see, first, a very high level of environ- locallocal mechanicalmechanical propertiesproperties inin bonebone stem-cell-based, tissue-engi- mental literacy among MIT graduates as changechange thethe magnitudemagnitude ofof stressesstresses neered bone in collaboration they go forth to work in the world’s indus- aroundaround thethe cell,cell, thethe cells’cells’ behaviorbehavior with Dan Gazit at the Hebrew tries, governments and universities. Sec- cancan bbee aalteredltered iinn rresponse,esponse, ttherebyhereby University of Jerusalem to see ond, MIT will be producing a much larger affectingaffecting tthehe hhealthealth ooff tthehe ttissue.”issue.” how similar it is to native bone. core of professionals in areas directly bear- InIn a addition,ddition, t thehe t team’seam’s r resultsesults She is also applying the new ing on sustainability—now it’s about 5 per- couldcould leadlead toto n newew w waysays o off p pro-ro- analysis and related imaging cent of our graduates. Third, and following ducingducing improvedimproved structuralstructural and simulation techniques to from the first two, the products of MIT compositescomposites thatthat mimicmimic nature’snature’s different types of mineralized bio- research and education will exert a much cleverclever designdesign thatthat allowsallows bonesbones logical materials such as armored greater influence on sustainability-related toto r resistesist s suddenudden f fractures;ractures; t too scales from ancient fish and sea- national and international policy and in the “fail“fail g gracefully,”racefully,” a ass S Sureshuresh p putut shells. training of future generations. it.it. FForor example,example, certaincertain kindskinds ofof This work was supported by Right now, Professor Maria Zuber, a newnew classclass ofof materialsmaterials calledcalled the Whitaker Foundation, the U.S. head of the Department of Earth, Atmo- nanocomposites are com- Army Research Office, the MIT spheric and Planetary Sciences, is chair- posed of a polymer or Institute for Soldier Nanotechnolo- ing a committee thinking about a sustain- PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY metallic matrix filled gies and the National Institutes of ability presence at MIT that will form a with nanoscale particles Health. necessary complement to the MIT Energy Maria Zuber CLASSIFIED ADS

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PHOTO COURTESY / WTP PHOTO COURTESY / WTP Christina Gillis, right, was a WTP student in mechanical engineering in summer 2006. Incoming freshman Kristen Whaley, left, and Andrea Wang work on their final WTP projects. WTP Continued from Page 1 gram strives to promote among the students who par- acquired from the program’s staff, Schor says the best ticipate. When WTP was proposed in 2001 by then-senior part of WTP was the camaraderie that developed among these young women had trouble imagining themselves Doug Ricket (M.Eng. 2002), its goal was to encourage the participants themselves. “It was a great experience as students at MIT—let alone graduating with bachelor’s high school-age women to envision themselves in careers to work with people with the same academic desires degrees from the School of Engineering. that are typically dominated by men. and abilities as me, and to feed off of each other. Every For Slutsky, the worry was that she wouldn’t be capa- Discouraged by the “low number of female students group member was equally capable of generating new ble of tackling the notoriously rigorous freshman curricu- and instructors” in the electrical engineering and com- and creative solutions to problems and had the motiva- lum or adjusting to a new “environment of intense intel- puter science department at MIT, Ricket started WTP. tion to do so, which was different than my high school lectual expectations.” Fortunately, though, before she had He hired a team of MIT women, including graduate and experience.” even decided which universities to apply to, “WTP made undergraduate students, to help combat the erroneous No doubt this enthusiasm for teamwork will serve her attending MIT a realistic option” for her by providing an but prevalent assumption many adolescent girls hold that well in Tarragona, Spain, where she has taken a job with early glimpse of what it’s really like to be a student at the they won’t succeed as engineers. The students served not the Dow Chemical Corporation that starts in the fall—just Institute. only as instructors and residential tutors for the electrical after she spends one more summer in WTP, this time as a “WTP was my first experience within a challeng- engineering, computer science and math classes that were residential tutor for the program’s new mechanical engi- ing, college setting,” she said when asked how the pro- offered that first summer but also as role models for teen- neering track. gram helped prepare her for the success she ultimately agers who might be wondering whether or not they would Although Slutsky will not be joining her WTP classmate achieved as a nuclear science and engineering major. “The fit in at the Institute. Schor on staff (she’ll be busy preparing to attend George- reward came from meeting the challenges placed before As Schor attests with a smile, the plan worked for her: town University’s master’s program in health physics), she me. Throughout the month, I faced frustrations and inse- “WTP gave me comfort in accepting my admission here, clearly believes in the benefits of the program: “I would curities so far beyond what I faced in high school. At the because my main hesitation was that people would be ‘too recommend WTP to any woman who wants to spend a conclusion of the month, I was able to feel like I pushed nerdy,’ but the residential tutors I had were all great and month evaluating her personal and intellectual comfort my boundaries, that I took myself outside of my intellec- mostly normal!” In fact, she confesses that it was a WTP zones, and then challenging herself against high-reaching tual, as well as social, comfort zones and was made the instructor who inspired her to major in mechanical engi- goals and aspirations that she had previously dismissed as stronger, the more confident, for it.” neering as an undergraduate: “She told me that you get to unattainable. WTP is a woman’s opportunity to develop, That feeling of personal empowerment that comes from build things in all of your MechE classes.” fine-tune and cultivate an invaluable confidence in herself.” exceeding one’s own expectations is exactly what the pro- But over and above the insider knowledge she To find out more about WTP, please go to wtp.mit.edu. International advisory group will assess, support MIT projects Ford-MIT Alliance is renewed The Ford-MIT Alliance has been renewed for a MIT has established a new Interna- “Since the early 1990s, our society has third five-year term ($15 million total) beginning tional Advisory Committee (IAC) to assess come to realize the critical importance of January 2008. The alliance reports to Chancel- and support MIT’s international activities, international engagement to long-term Provost L. Rafael Reif announced. competitiveness and global security. The lor Phillip L. Clay, with Professor John Heywood, The IAC will help to ensure that MIT’s establishment of the IAC reflects the fact faculty director, Simon Pitts, alliance director for growing international activities “continue that MIT itself, over the same period, has Ford, and Elaine Savage, MIT’s executive direc- to advance our core missions of teaching, become in many critical respects a global tor, managing a research portfolio of more than research and service,” Reif wrote in an university,” said Associate Provost Philip 20 projects including active safety, energy, pow- e-mail to the MIT faculty. S. Khoury, one of the co-chairs of the new ertrain and other areas. The alliance interacts Reif charged the committee with committee. with a visiting executive committee three times designing a strategy to target countries Also co-chairing the committee is annually. and regions where MIT should focus its Claude R. Canizares, vice president for Phillip L. Clay international efforts and identifying cross- research and associate provost. Com- cutting topics and themes. The IAC will mittee members are Professors Suzanne also advise Reif and President Susan Hock- Berger (School of Humanities, Arts, and field on how to ensure that all international Social Sciences), Diane E. Davis (School initiatives and partnerships proposed by of Architecture and Planning), Steven RAMIREZ the MIT faculty serve the Institute’s core D. Eppinger (MIT Sloan), Daniel Roos mission. (School of Engineering), Robert J. Silbey Continued from Page 6 bond directly to glass and ceramics. “If we are to remain a leader in edu- (School of Science), George C. Verghese MIT’s Technology Review, when nam- cation and research in a globalizing (School of Engineering) and Victor W. Zue substrate, enables the development of ing Ramirez one of the world’s 100 Top world, we must maintain a pipeline to the (School of Engineering). “smart” products in which the computa- Young Innovators (TR100) in 2003, called world’s best students, wherever they may Ex officio members are Chancellor tional ability of microelectronics is aug- her discovery a “holy grail” of metallurgy: reside. We must increase opportunities Phillip L. Clay, Dean for Undergraduate mented with microsensors and microac- a universal solder that can bond metals to for our students to have diverse interna- Education Daniel E. Hastings, Vice Presi- tuators. ceramics, glass, diamonds and particularly tional educational experiences. We must dent for Resource Development Jeffrey L. Before joining the faculty at Yale in the oxide materials used in semiconductor engage actively in the world’s most excit- Newton and incoming Chair of the Faculty 2003, Ramirez worked as a member of fabrication. Researchers have been seek- ing research fields, wherever they may be Bish Sanyal. the technical staff at Bell Labs’ Lucent ing this kind of compound because exist- found,” Reif wrote. “It is increasingly clear The committee will report regularly Technologies in Murray Hill, N.J., for ing solders have failed in electronic and that to accomplish all of this will require to Hockfield, Reif and the Faculty Policy four years. At Bell Labs, she developed optical devices. a more clearly articulated international Committee, and will report from time to an advanced solder, now being commer- “I’ve brought excitement to unsexy strategy.” time to the MIT faculty on its progress. cialized by Adhera Technologies, that can materials like solder,” Ramirez said. PAGE 12 June 6, 2007 COMMENCEMENT MIT Tech Talk

PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY Gary Cunha of Facilities tightens cables that hold up the sail, which protects faculty from the sun and rain at Commencement. COMMENCEMENT Continued from Page 1 uates. Other Commencement speakers will include Eric Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and the MIT Sloan broader public attention and to strengthen national policy Weese, president of the Graduate Student Council, and School of Management. on science, engineering and education. He chaired the Susan J. Shin, president of the Class of 2007. Admission for ticketed guests begins at 7:30 a.m. Grad- President’s Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the The Rev. Johanna Kiefner, MIT Lutheran chaplain, will uates will robe and assemble on the first floor of Johnson Space Station and serves on the President’s Committee of deliver the invocation. Athletic Center beginning at 7:30 a.m. Between 8 a.m. and Advisors on Science and Technology. He chaired the U.S. Hockfield will also present the following degrees: bach- the beginning of the academic procession, families and Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of Sci- elor of science, bachelor of science/master of science, guests may enjoy a live view of the graduates robing and ence Programs at the DOE, was vice chair of the Council bachelor of science/master of engineering and advanced assembling via television feed to Killian Court. on Competitiveness for eight years and is a past chair of degrees in the School of Science, the Woods Hole Oceano- Following the exercises, a reception will be held for the Association of American Universities. graphic Institution and the Whitaker College of Health graduates and their guests on the West Campus Plaza. Sciences and Technology. Commencement speakers Provost L. Rafael Reif will award advanced degrees in Time and venue Hockfield will deliver the traditional charge to the grad- the Schools of Architecture and Planning; Engineering; A special hooding ceremony for Ph.D. and Sc.D. recipi- ents will take place on Thursday, June 7, at 11 a.m. in Rockwell Cage. Admission for guests begins at 10 a.m.; tickets are not required. Chancellor Phillip L. Clay will preside. Commencement exercises require complex and pre- cise planning and the comings and goings of guests must be free of obstruction or interference. In accordance with this policy, Killian Court will only be accessible to members of the graduating class, fac- ulty, stage assembly and ticket-holders. Access to Johnson Athetics Center will also be limited. In both Killian Court and Johnson, visitors will be required to pass through security checkpoints. For more specific details, please see the Statement by the Chancellor’s Committee on Protocol for Demonstra- tions at Commencement and Other Academic Exercises. Questions regarding locations for demonstrations may be directed to Gayle Gallagher, executive officer for Com- mencement, at [email protected]. For those unable to get into Killian Court, a live online webcast of the Commencement exercises will be available on and after June 8. Parking For guests attending the Commencement exercises on Friday, complimentary parking will be available in the Albany Street Garage on Albany Street. Members of the MIT community who normally park in the Albany Street Garage should review the campus changes that are in effect during Commencement time. Paid parking will also be available in the Marriott Hotel Parking Garage (entrance at the corner of Ames Street and Broadway) and the Technology Square Parking Garage (entrance on Broadway) on Thursday and Friday. In the event the Commencement exercises in Killian Court are canceled due to severe weather conditions, PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY the speeches will be held in Rockwell Cage for the stage assembly and graduates only. Guests may view the Spring forward speeches on closed-circuit television in viewing locations throughout the campus. Rhododendrons bloomed near the President’s Courtyard, welcoming the Institute community to Commencement. Complete Commencement information is available at web.mit.edu/commencement/2007/.