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Vote Today! MIT The eather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, cold, 47°F (8°C) Tonight: Cloudy, chilly, 35°F (2°C) ewspaper Tomorrow: Cloudy, windy 57°F (l4°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 121, umber 57 Cambridge, 02139 Tuesday, November 6,2001 OpenCourseWare Program Begins Web-based Pilot By Vincent Chen Internet while giving some choice to STAFF REPORTER faculty members. The OpenCourseWare initiative, The pilot classe will also a 10-year, $100 million project to address any usability issues. "We'd make materials from nearly 2,000 like to figure out an integrated inter- classes available online, recently face .,. so people outside the MIT moved into a pilot phase that will environment will be able to easily make a limited number of classes navigate to the MIT web site and available on the Internet. find the materials they are looking The OpenCourseWare (OCW) for," Koller said. Transition Project Team, headed by Laura F. Koller, a multimedia pro- Departments selected for diversity ducer for the Center for Advanced Fifteen departments expressed Educational Services, and Kyung an interest in being included in the Han, a consultant, began working test program, said Professor Steven with a few pilot departments in R. Lerman '72, chair of the faculty October, including the Department and chair of the OCW Interim Man- of Biology (Course VII) and the agement Board. A few departments TECH FILE PHOTO Department of Linguistics and Phi- were selected, based on whether The Sloan School of Management is expected to leave its current home in the Alfred P. Sloan Building losophy (Course XIV). The transi- they "gave us a diversity of faculty, at 50 Memorial Drive by 2005. tion project will run until March diversity in web savvy, [and] a 2002. diversity in teaching styles," Ler- The goal of the preliminary man said. Sloan School to Build Headquarters phase is to determine how OCW Other factors taken into account will work, what improvements need included whether or not the depart- to be made to the original plans, and ment had resources in place to help Vest Announces Location for $250 Million Construction Project which site layout will work best. faculty develop web content. The By Helana Kadyszewski stone of Management Science construction of a facility which will "We have to start to develop a goal was to include some depart- STAFF REPORTER (Course XV), as well as the new provide much-needed student and good understanding of the processes ments that have preexisting MIT President Charles M. Vest face of MIT's east campus. Current faculty community space. Prelimi- that will be required for ultimately resources, such as Course VII, and recently announced the approval of plans call for the erection of three nary plans are already under way for producing OCW web sites for all some that do not, such as Course a location for the $250 million con- new buildings on the site. dining, study and lounge areas, a the courses at MIT," Koller said. XIV. OCW will select groupings of struction of new, more centralized "We're aiming for a world class few classrooms, meeting rooms, and The te t program is designed to up to ten classes from each depart- headquarters for the MIT Sloan facility, to match our world class help determine the best method for School of Management and the MIT department," said Richard Sloan, Page 16 transferring course material to the OCW, Page 14 School of Humanities, Arts, and Schmalensee '65, dean of the Sloan Social Sciences. School. Sloan officials began initial plan- The site was selected with the ning on the new facility early in the guidance of Ruble Yudell Architects summer of 1997. Currently, more & Planners, and Sasaki Associates. lAP Robotics Contest New to Course II than 1,100 graduate and undergradu- Construction will require the reloca- By Jing-Helen Tang build remote-eontrolled, soccer-playing machines for ate students at Sloan are housed in 9 tion of the Dibner Institute for the STAFF REPORTER an IAP contest. The program focu es not on advanced buildings on the eastern end of History of Science and Technology Freshmen who don't want to play with Legos in mechanical engineering kills, but rather on providing MIT's campus, near Kendall Square. and the Bumdy Library, which are MIT' Autonomous Robot Design Competition tudent with a good understanding of the engineering "Weare delighted to be moving both currently housed at 38 Memor- (6.270) and who would be overwhelmed by the process. forward and to finally have our ial Drive. Mobile Autonomous Sy terns Laboratory (6.186) The contest is intended to be "somewhat simple site," said Lucinda Hill, director of have a new way to play but at the same time demonstrate basic manufactur- Sloan Capital Projects. Growing Sloan needs expansion DeatulV'/J with robots this Indepen- ing processes," aid Raymond L. Speth '03, a mem- The $250 million project, which .L' ~ I {j dent Activities Period. ber of the development team for DME. Three new buildings proposed is now in the early design stage, will The Discover Mechani- Much like Mechanical Engineering Tool (2.670), The new site, adjacent to the cur- be completed in two phases. The cal Engineering (DME) program is holding a "Soccer- where students build a model Stirling engine to learn rent Sloan headquarters at 50 first phase will cost an estimated Bot " competition, where students will design and machine tools, "students will be given full kit of tool Memorial Drive, will be the corner- $125 million, and will entail the and step by step instructions" at the start of the program, said Mary K. Thompson 02, the creator and director ofDME. At the end of the program, students get to tryout their robots in a remote-controlled soccer tournament. The contest is similar to 2.007 where Course II stu- dents de ign and build remote controlled machines for a much more challenging contest. Stu- dents who enjoy DME would most likely thrive in the high- ly-competitive 2.007. DME more than a conte t TECH FILE PHOTO Compared to other lAP Prospective mechanical engineering students will soon be building robotics contests such as 6.270 soccer playing robots that are not unlike the robots of 2.007, shown above. Robot, Page 18 Bence Olveczky Comics OPINIO and Tod Machover Vivek Rao discusses the Yankees World & Nation 2 discus Resurrec- and how much they leave to be Opinion 4 tion, Machover's desired. Events Calendar 8 newe t opera. Arts 9 Page 13 Page 6 Page 5 Page 2 RLD & NATION S. Defense Secretary Calls THE .tilSHfNGTO,V POST Transportation ecretary orman Y Mineta announced ye terday r ilitary Ties with India that United Airlines faced substantial fine and would have to retrain all of its baggage creener at Chicago's 0 'Hare International Airport By Vernon Loeb than four locations, mostly in north- Rescue helicopters ent from two after a man carrying several weapons got past a security checkpoint. THE WASHiNGTO POST ern Afghanistan, with more troops locations also had to tum around in Subash Bahadar Gurung, 27, was arrested unday in Chicago on NEW DELHI, INDIA to come oon, he said. the storm. charges that the night before he tried to bring knives, chemical spray Defen e ecretary Donald H. to whether troop are on the "You never know what's going to and a stun gun onto an airplane. creeners at an airport security Rumsfeld called today for cIo er ground in southern Afghani tan, happen," Rumsfeld said. "We're checkpoint confiscated two knives he had on him, but they did not military ties with India and thanked Rum feld aid: "We've had people sending in re cue helicopters and notice other weapons that were discovered by airline employee at the enior Indian official for help in the in the south. They've gone in and then they have to turn becau e of gate. Argenbright ecurity Inc. suspended eight screeners and a war on terrorism saying that come out, and I can't answer the weather. At one point there was a upervisor pending the outcome of an investigation. increa ed U. troops designating que tion at any given moment." report that [downed crew members] 'I consider the 0 'Hare case a failure of dramatic dimensions," targets on the ground in Afghanistan In the interview, Rum feld dis- were going to tart walking seven Mineta said at a news conference in Chicago yesterday. He said it have greatly enhanced the effective- closed that the Pentagon ha lost miles to a landing site, but of course underscored the need for the federal government to "take direct con- ne s of air strikes. two Predator reconnaissance drone they had four people that were trol of the security system." Speaking to reporter at the end over Afghanistan due to icing prob- injured. It turned out they did not Currently, airport screeners are contract employees of the airlines. of a five-country trip after meeting lems. "They were not shot down," have to walk very far and it also After the Sept. II hijackings, the government promised to swiftly with Indian Defense Minister he said. turned out that there were no reform airport security. The House and enate have each pas ed bills George Fernandez, Rumsfeld also Rumsfeld al 0 provided extensive Taliban forces who found them that would reassign control of the security system to the federal gov- expressed optimi m that the war new detail about a helicopter rescue while they were there." ernment. But they are locked in a contentious debate over whether the against fghani tan's ruling Taliban mission in southern Afghanistan on The crew was ultimately picked screeners themselves should be federal worker or work for private militia and audi extremi t Osama Friday, saying that a helicopter crew up by a companion helicopter that firms.