Boston Globe reporters Patricia Harris and David Lyon highlight their recent visits to the MIT Museum, List Visual Arts Center, and the Hart Nautical Gallery. “We always feel at least marginally smarter after a day in the galleries at MIT,” they write. “Setting aside high-school anxieties about an upcoming science lab, it turns out that many of the exhibits are engagingly interactive and — dare we say it — even fun.”
Eastern Edge, a food hall bordering the MIT campus, has debuted in Kendall Square, featuring nine local food vendors with roots in the Cambridge community, reports Kara Baskin for The Boston Globe. “It’s built to be a gathering space, and that’s something that we really enjoy at Clover,” says Julia Wrin Piper, CEO of Clover. “At MIT, it’s a privilege to be in a space where every great idea that humankind has ever had has been debated. That’s something that’s very unique to this specific food hall – to be in this hyper-intellectual space and be very grounded by these delicious experiences.”
Boston Magazine reporter Rachel Leah Blumenthal spotlights the opening of Eastern Edge, a new food hall debuting in Kendall Square. The venue, which borders the MIT campus, features a variety of vendors over its 11,000-square-foot space, and accepts TechCash.
The MIT Welcome Center will host a community event to celebrate the Lunar New Year with “calligraphy, face painting, paper-lantern making, and hot cocoa,” reports Annie Sarlin for The Boston Globe. “The event will also include tai chi lessons and a performance from the MIT Lion Dance” team, writes Sarlin.
Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi and Monica Agrawal PhD '23 speak with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about the risks on relying solely on AI for medical information. “What I’m really, really worried about is economically disadvantaged communities,” says Ghassemi. “You might not have access to a health care professional who you can quickly call and say, ‘Hey… Should I listen to this?’”
Surface reporter David Graver highlights “Lighten Up! On Biology and Time,” an MIT Museum exhibit exploring the “connection between living creatures and circadian rhythm through 18 contemporary artworks and experiential environments.” "The ‘Lighten Up!’ exhibition begins with awakening and ends with sleep,” says MIT Museum Director Michael John Gorman. “It is a whole-body experience and rewards those who take the time to linger.”
GBH reporter Renuka Balakrishnan spotlights “True or False,” a game featured in the MIT Museum’s “AI: Mind the Gap” exhibit, which invites visitors to guess the difference between a real and deepfake video. The exhibit “provides tips visitors can use outside the walls of the museum to improve media literacy in real life,” writes Balakrishnan.
MIT’s Hayden Library held an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, reports Dana Gerber for The Boston Globe. “It’s fun and it’s funny, and it often chronicles the totally ridiculous corners of the world, but we also take it super seriously,” says MIT librarian Pheobe Ayers. “I hope people realize that Wikipedia is imperfect. It's always in progress. It’s not finished. But we’re trying really hard to make it good.”
Boston Globe reporter James Sullivan spotlights the annual MIT Mystery Hunt, “a weekend-long gaming tournament” dating back to 1981. “Created as a humble pastime for like-minded problem solvers, the hunt has grown into a multi-layered, internationally renowned competition, spawning dozens of imitators around the globe,” writes Sullivan.
MIT librarian Phoebe Ayers speaks with Boston Globe reporter Rebecca Spiess about the importance of Wikipedia editors in ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the online encyclopedia. “People really want to be right,” says Ayers. “They want their source to be good. Let’s be real: It attracts the pedantic.”
WBUR reporter Maddie Browning spotlights a new exhibit of photographer Brittany Nelson’s work, which will be on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center beginning mid-January. The exhibit “will debut new photographs and a moving-image work filmed at the Green Bank Observatory (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) in West Virginia,” writes Browning.
The MIT Museum is hosting its latest After Dark event on January 8 with a new program called “Making Time,” reports Shira Laucharoen for WBUR. The evening’s activities “will explore what it means to slow down,” writes Laucharoen. “Activities include collaborating with others on a rag rug-making project and practicing yoga and meditation with MIT’s Yes Plus Club.”
Sherwin Greenblatt '62, SM '64 reflects on his two-decade tenure as director of MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), a program that provides support for entrepreneurs in the MIT community, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “VMS differs from many mentoring programs in that entrepreneurs are connected to not just one mentor, but several subject matter experts, depending on their needs,” explains Chesto. “These are also considered long-term commitments, not just several months of counsel and brainstorming.”
New York Times reporter Gina Ryder spotlights how Maria Paskowitz '96, MBA '02 and her neighbors have maintained a longstanding community tradition of transforming their Manhattan neighborhood into an open-air museum of Halloween art. This year Paskowitz has transformed “the exterior of the brownstone where she’s lived for the past decade into a colosseum,” writes Ryder. “She is collaborating with her neighbor, Elizabeth Styron, whose children, aged 9, 13 and 17, will dress as gladiators prepared for combat and a chariot race.”
Visiting artist Jeanette Andrews will present “‘The Attestation: A Performance of Illusions’ a site-specific show and installation about polarized beliefs” at the Kresge Little Theater on October 3 and 4, reports Cate McQuaid for The Boston Globe.