Russell Tedrake, EECS assistant professor and member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is one of five young faculty members from across the United States chosen for the 2008 Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship Program. This program was created in 2005 to honor first-, second- and third-year university professors who demonstrate exceptional talent for unique research and thinking, showing leadership in computer science and related fields.
President Emeritus Charles M. Vest was named a member of the American Philosophical Society in its Arts, Professions, Leaders in Public and Private Affairs category on April 26.
Department of Economics Associate Professor David Autor has been awarded the 2008 Sherwin Rosen Prize by the Society of Labor Economics, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the field of labor economics.
Gabriel Chan, a junior in the Department of Earth, Atmosphic and Planetary Sciences; Jeff McAulay, a graduate student in Engineering Systems Division; and Ming Leong, a junior in mechanical engineering, have been named student fellows in the Sustainable Energy Fellowship program. The year-long fellowship, being held at Duke University this year, is designed to be a unique educational and research experience for students to address the global need for the use of energy reduction designs supplemented by renewable energy technologies.
The MIT chapter of Chi Epsilon welcomed seven new members into its fold April 29 with a dinner at the Faculty Club and a talk by Professor Dee Ann Sanders, the first woman to hold the honor society's elected position of national council vice president. Sanders spoke of changes in the engineering field since she was an undergraduate. She recalled often being the only woman student in her classes and said that engineering courses were taught in a building with no women's restrooms. All the new MIT members for 2008 are women. They are seniors Katherine Jarrell, Tamara Sheldon and Alia Whitney-Johnson and juniors Lauren Biscombe, Alexandra Konings, Allison St. Vincent and Patricia Tcaciuc.
A team comprised of juniors Aliya Popatia, Dawood Rouben, Suhni Chung, Shani Cho, and Esther Chung won first place in the first annual Undergraduate Design and Build Competition, organized by Professor Jan Wampler of the Department of Architecture. Contestants were given the theme of "Sky and Land: the space between," focusing on the ways architecture mediates the transition between the ground and the air. Each design had to address the practical elements of actually being built, incorporating MIT's philosophy of uniting mind and hand. The winning team's design will be built on the platform in front of Building 9 between the end of exams and Commencement.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 14, 2008 (download PDF).
