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MIT 150 in review page 22 WEATHER, p. 2 FRI: 74°F | 52°F MIT’s Sunny Oldest and Largest SAT: 71°F | 55°F Newspaper Mostly sunny SUN: 71°F | 58°F Thunder storms Volume 131, Number 27 tech.mit.edu Friday, June 3, 2011 Building the future campus MIT 2030 vision links renovations, new construction By Ethan A. Solomon EDITOR IN CHIEF MIT has begun laying out the future of our campus. By coalesc- ing several of the Institute’s on- going and future JESSICA LIu—THE TECH INSIDE campus devel- Danielle A. Hinton G, PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is hooded by Chancellor W. Eric L. opment projects Grimson PhD ’80 and interim department head Srini Devadas in Rockwell Cage midday Thursday. MIT 2030 under a broad map and planning initia- concept art, tive dubbed “MIT Burns to give Commencement address page 15. 2030,” Institute administrators 1,500 graduate students and 1,000 undergrads collect their degrees and faculty hope to realistically envision where the campus will By Evan Moore doctoral degrees were awarded by those receiving bachelor’s degrees Ursula M. Burns, chairman and be in 20 years. MIT recently sold STAFF REPORTER MIT, according to Registrar Mary and entering the workforce, 17.6 chief executive officer of Xerox Cor- $750 million in 100-year bonds to Callahan. percent will head to the consulting poration, will be giving the com- help finance development proj- Today, at the end of MIT’s 150th The soon-to-be graduates will be industry. A survey administered by mencement address to the Class of ects in the MIT 2030 framework. anniversary celebrations, the In- taking their degrees far and wide. the MIT Career Development Cen- 2011. Burns is currently listed as the MIT 2030 is not, in itself, a stitute holds its 145th commence- Forty-nine percent of bachelor’s ter reported that graduates will be 20th most powerful woman in the strict campus development plan. ment ceremony. MIT will be award- and 78 percent of master’s recipi- working at world-renown compa- world according to Forbes magazine, On the MIT 2030 website (http:// ing degrees to 983 undergraduates ents will be entering the workforce nies and organizations including and she has been a member of the web.mit.edu/mit2030/), MIT calls and 1,471 graduate students. Col- all over the world, with the most Microsoft, Google, Facebook, JP MIT Corporation since 2008. Burns it a “tool for envisioning — and lectively, 1,161 bachelor’s degrees, popular international destinations Morgan, Proctor and Gamble, the inventing — a vibrant future for 1,547 master’s degrees, and 609 being China, Japan, and the U.K. Of U.S. Army, and NASA. Commencement, Page 3 our physical campus and the in- novation district close by.” Effec- tively, MIT has brought together a number of campus renovation, new construction, real-estate Lewin gives development plans, and current Emily, always. projects that relate to academic goals and predicted needs. When Emily Obert, a senior, was According to outgoing Execu- final lecture tive Vice President and Treasurer paralyzed from the chest down, Theresa M. Stone SM ’76, MIT In emotional goodbye, friends worried that the accident 2030 is a “compilation of the best thinking” on how MIT’s physical physics prof. wows 26-100 would dim her famous optimism. campus can meet its academic But nothing could bring Emily vision, incorporating input from By Ana Lyons down. the Academic Council and MIT’s FEATURES EDITOR page 12 senior leadership. With a crown of tousled grey hair on his MIT 2030, Page 15 head, a shroud of rainbow-stripes on his shoulders, and a large plastic fuchsia ring twisting around his left middle finger, legend- ary physics professor Walter H. G. Lewin set 26 admitted from waitlist down his piece of dull yellow chalk for the last Help Desk relocates to E17 time, marking the completion of his final lec- With 65% yield, less need for waitlist admits ture at MIT. Help Desk will soon The move is triggered This was not something new for Lewin. Since have a new home. The by the development of By Michelle E. Szucs 1972, the professor emeritus has stood in front of MIT IS&T Computing Novartis’ new campus CONTRIBUTING EDITOR MIT WAITLIST CAPACITY 1000 crowds of students, in this exact room (26-100), Help Desk is relocating to on Massachusetts Av- AND ACCEPTANCE to deliver decades of lectures in MIT’s Mechan- the first floor of Building enue between Albany and Despite a significant increase ics (8.01), Electricity and Magnetism (8.02), and E17 at 40 Ames St. Help Windsor Streets, which in the number of students given a 739 722 Vibrations and Waves (8.03) courses. Desk’s N42 location will will include IS&T’s N42 spot on this year’s waitlist, fewer Like in many of his famous lectures, Lewin close at 1 p.m. today, and site. undergraduates were admitted People 499 performed a dazzling array of demonstra- weekday walk-in hours Christine Fitzgerald, off the list due to a high admis- 454 tions jammed into 47 minutes — including a from 9:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. manager of strategic com- sions yield — 65 percent of ad- 389 giant pendulum, on which he rode and broke will resume Monday in munications for IS&T, de- mitted students accepted offers a sheet of glass; a demonstration of light dif- E17. Additional customer scribed the new location to enroll. About 1000 applicants fraction via cigarette smoke (which Lewin lit service operations are — across the street from for the Class of 2015 were waitlist- and smoked himself); and the creation of a moving to the sixth and ed, compared to 722 students for 40 20 35 78 65 26 seventh floors of E19. Help desk, Page 3 Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Lewin, Page 18 Waitlist, Page 14 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 LETTERS TO THE IS THE GOP SERIOUS? WANT VAN GOGH? AN ODE TO SECTIONS World & Nation . .2 Why the Republicans’ job creation plan GRADUATES JUST GOOGLE IT. BASKETBALL Opinion . .4 is atrocious. OPINION, p. 4 Important voices from Google’s high-resolution Track the Heat’s Campus Life . .7 across the Institute give MIT150 HIT THE maRK foray into the art world is journey to the NBA Arts . .10 farewell messages. cool, but is it really art? finals. In verse. Fun Pages . .16 OPINION, p. 6 But what lessons can we take away ARTS, p. 10 SPORTS, p. 23 Sports . .23 from it? OPINION, p. 4 2 The Tech Friday, June 3, 2011 Nuclear agency finds Japan D underestimated tsunami danger Fighting spreads in Yemen, TOKYO — Japan underestimated the danger of tsunamis and failed to prepare adequate backup systems at the Fukushi- ma Daiichi nuclear plant, a team of inspectors from an inter- raising fear of civil war national nuclear regulator said Wednesday in a critical report that came as the Japanese prime minister prepared to face a By Nasser Arrabyee The rising chaos has become a diplomatic protocol. “And it’s the WORL no-confidence vote in Parliament. and Robert F. Worth major concern for the White House, worst fighting in Sanaa since the In its preliminary report on the nuclear crisis, which echoed THE NEW YORK TIMES which announced Wednesday that civil war of the 1960s.” N earlier criticisms of Japan’s inadequate safety measures, the John O. Brennan, President Barack Some estimates of the death toll team from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy SANAA, Yemen — Yemen edged Obama’s top counterterrorism ad- in fighting late Tuesday and early Agency also called for stronger regulatory oversight. Steps closer to civil war Wednesday as viser, would be traveling to Saudi Wednesday ranged as high as 41 on should be taken, it said, to ensure that “regulatory indepen- fighting spread to new parts of the Arabia and the United Arab Emir- both sides. All told, at least 120 peo- dence and clarity of roles are preserved in all circumstances.” country and government troops ates this week to discuss “the dete- ple have been killed since the vio- This seemed to repeat a widely held criticism in Japan that waged increasingly bloody street riorating situation in Yemen.” lence began early last week. A brief collusive ties between regulators and industry led to weak over- battles with opposition tribesmen On Wednesday afternoon, tanks cease-fire struck over the weekend ATIO sight and a failure to ensure adequate safety levels at the plant. for control of crucial areas in the and armored vehicles could be collapsed Tuesday, with each side The report’s strongest criticism was aimed at the failure to capital. seen rolling into Sanaa, the capital, blaming the other. build adequate protection against large waves for the plant, The violence has transformed from the south. The streets of Sanaa In recent days, the govern- which sits on Japan’s tsunami-prone northeastern coastline. a largely peaceful uprising into a were largely empty as residents fled ment’s tenuous hold has slipped While the plant was designed to withstand waves of about 19 tribal conflict with no clear end in for the safety of surrounding vil- further outside the capital as feet, the tsunami was as high as 46 feet, the report said. sight. The United States and Ye- lages. Exploding artillery shells and tribal fighters and Islamist mili- —Martin Fackler, The New York Times men’s Arab neighbors like Saudi sporadic machine-gun fire could tants seized a major coastal town Arabia, which have tried and failed be heard across the city.

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