November 3, 2004 Techtalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY
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Volume 49 – Number 8 Wednesday – November 3, 2004 TechTalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY NEWS THE BLOG REPORT Airplane talks to airplane The Lilliputian-sized blogs and e- mails are hobbling the giant established Lauren Clark engineering and computer science at MIT. provided the avionics test platform for the media, according to three journalists School of Engineering “The pilot essentially treats the UAV as MIT guidance system and the planes used who spoke at the Communications a wingman,” said Valenti, comparing the to demonstrate it. Forum event on “New Roles for Old UAV to a companion pilot in a fighter-plane The new guidance system is designed Media?” Will skilled reporters become Aeronautics researchers at MIT have squadron. for volatile combat situations. For mere fact-checkers of blog rumors? developed an aircraft guidance system that Tom Schouwenaars, a Ph.D. candi- instance, a pilot might be commanded to Page 3 allows a pilot in one plane to guide a sepa- date in aeronautics and astronautics, gather images of an enemy site located in rate, pilotless airplane by speaking com- and Valenti are principal researchers on unknown territory. Rather than putting BALANCING ACT mands in English. the guidance system, which is part of the himself in danger, the pilot could assign a capstone demonstration of the Software nearby UAV to the task. The UAV moves Stratton Lecture panelists compared In a flight test, the pilotless vehicle, called a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), Enabled Control (SEC) program. Profes- toward the enemy site, avoiding known the nation’s need for security with sors Eric Feron and Jonathan How of the threats (no-fly zones) and the unexpected individuals’ right to privacy. MIT provost responded to sudden changes in plan and avoided unexpected threats en route to its Department of Aeronautics and Astronau- (radar emanating from a missile site), all turned Tufts president, Larry Bacow, tics (aero/astro) are among the principal the while communicating its actions to moderated. destination, in real time. “The system allows the pilot to inter- investigators on the SEC program. the pilot in the other aircraft, which fol- Page 3 face with the UAV at a high level—not just The SEC program is a five-year, inter- lows behind at a higher altitude and a safe ‘turn right, turn left’ but ‘fly to this region university effort sponsored by the Defense distance. The technology also could have Advanced Research Projects Agency MANAGING THE SOX and perform this task,’” said Mario Valenti, See AIRPLANE For Dean Richard Schmalensee of a flight controls engineer for Boeing who (DARPA) through the Air Force Research Page 5 the Sloan School, being a fan means is on leave to pursue a Ph.D. in electrical Laboratory. As industry partner, Boeing business. He wrote an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal praising the Red Sox team’s management. Page 4 Trick-or-treaters give out candy RESEARCH COLUMBIA GROUP TAKES OFF to encourage community donations A mutidisciplinary collection of researchers looks at safety systems in Sarah H. Wright the Columbia Space Shuttle to see what News Office can be gleaned. Page 2 Red Sox regalia outran the classic witch DOWN TO THE GENES ensemble at this year’s annual Halloween Novartis and the Broad Institute of kickoff event for the Community Giving MIT and Harvard have announced a campaign, held at various campus loca- joint project to decipher the genetic tions on Friday, Oct. 29. causes of type 2 diabetes, which To celebrate the campaign launch, 14 afflicts more than 170 million people costumed volunteers and Tim the Beaver worldwide. The team plans to make the handed out candy and information about findings freely available to scientists MIT’s charitable giving program to early internationally. morning commuters to MIT. Page 5 Karen Fosher, Human Resources administrator at the Picower Center for Learning and Memory, described herself A SMALL FISH TALE as a “diehard Red Sox fan” whose costume The pufferfish genome has quite a bit was simply, “World Champion,” meaning, to say to scientists about the evolution Red Sox shirt and cap. Fosher greeted of fish and mammals. commuters at the Main Street entrance to Page 5 Building E19. Patti Pisani, financial assistant in Facili- ties, wore a Red Sox sweatshirt to honor ARTS the World Series winners as she offered candy in front of 77 Massachusetts Ave. FRAGMENT COMES TO LIFE Pisani “usually dresses up as an MIT Professor Jay Scheib turns a athlete, but this year I’m going with the Chevkhov fragment into a multimedia excitement of the Red Sox,” she said. PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY play that premieres here before heading See HALLOWEEN Grim Reaper Meg Westlund of the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives hands out to New York. candy and a reminder about the Community Giving campaign at 77 Massachusetts Ave. Page 7 Page 5 FEATURED STORY MIT fans get assist in Red Sox World Series Sasha Brown Sororites and Living Groups (FSILGs), ence and quite a few arguments about and provided $200 to each FSILG for pizza baseball,” Giles wrote in his blog about Denise Brehm and snacks to encourage those students the neuroscience conference. “The Bos- News Office to watch the games together from home ton Red Sox have made it to the World rather than joining the crowds in Ken- Series and, since Boston is arguably more Square. the science capital of the United States, Boston went a little baseball crazy last And of course, faculty and staff pur- many speakers here in San Diego took week and the MIT community went right sued their own means of baseball mad- time out to give the city a nod. along with it as New England rooted the ness, some even in the national or “Susumu Tonegawa, an eminent Red Sox on to the team’s first World international limelight. Nobel laureate immunologist-turned-neuroscientist from Series victory in 86 years. Late-night Susumu Tonegawa was quoted by report- the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- games took a toll on people’s energy, but er Jim Giles in his web log on Nature. ogy in Boston, has more right to do so enthusiasm never waned for baseball’s com as having discussed baseball dur- than most. He was invited to pitch the long-suffering fans. ing the Society of Neuroscience Confer- first ball of a game for the Red Sox this Many students watched the series ence in San Diego Oct. 24. Dean Richard May. He clearly enjoyed taunting fellow together as the Sox swept four games to Schmalensee of the Sloan School pub- speaker Eric Kandel; Boston beat New HELLO KITTY TURNS 30 WITH beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World lished an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal York, Kandel’s team, to reach the World GRACE—NO VISIBLE SIGNS Series Oct. 23-27. Groups gathered in Nov. 2 outlining the management deci- Series. It’s nice to see two Nobel laure- OF AGING AND NO LOSS IN front of a large-screen TV in Lobdell Din- sions that led the Sox to victory (see ates bring the world’s biggest scientific ing Hall eating pizza provided by the Stu- story on page 4). EARNING POTENTIAL. dent Life Programs. David Rogers, assis- “At the end of the first full day, we’ve See SOX Page 3 tant dean and director of Fraternities, been exposed to plenty of top-notch sci- Page 4 PAGE 2 November 3, 2004 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Brain and cognitive sciences Columbia Group dives into safety project on the rise on Vassar issues in aeronautics Students returned to MIT this fall to discover that yet M. Vest said, “The facilities reflect the benefits of a special another major addition to the campus is taking shape. Fol- partnership: the extraordinary urban design sensibilities and other systems lowing the opening of the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Cen- of the lead designer, Indian architect Charles Correa, who ter, Simmons Hall, and most recently the Frank Gehry- has created limestone and glass forms of immense power designed Stata Center, the new facilities for the brain and and elegance, and the extensive experience of Goody Nancy DuVergne Smith cognitive sciences are rising on Vassar Street. Framing Clancy and Associates in designing academic buildings Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development and exterior cladding are close to completion, and the and laboratories noted for their effectiveness and efficien- complex is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2005. cy. Their combined efforts will constitute one of the finest This project, with a floor area of 411,000 square feet, facilities in the world measured on any dimension.” The Columbia Group, a multidisciplinary collection will house three major entities: the McGovern Institute The combination of this project with the Stata Center of faculty, research staff, and graduate students based for Brain Research, the Picower Center for Learning and across the street and the remaking of Vassar Street itself in the Engineering Systems Division, began meeting Memory, and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sci- with new trees, lighting, bicycle lanes, and paving creates in 2003 to dive into safety culture questions surround- ences at MIT. a new vitality in what had, for decades, been a grim and ing the Columbia Space Shuttle accident. The site, facing Vassar Street and Stata on one side, run-down area of Cambridge. One year later, the emerging intellectual products and stretching across the GBMM railroad tracks to face include a best paper award from the System Safety Main Street and Technology Square on the other, posed Architect: Goody, Clancy & Associates and Charles Society, a book chapter, and an Engineering Systems fundamental problems: how to meet both a set of excep- Correa Associates Architects Division (ESD) symposium paper, which has become tional urban design challenges and the complex program MEP Engineers: BR+A Consulting Engineers, Inc.