Special events and guest speakers

Prof. John Ochsendorf speaks with Boston.com reporter Allison Pohle about MIT’s Moving Day celebrations. Ocsendorf notes that the celebrations are a “once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate MIT and bring it to the larger community.”

MIT’s parade this Saturday "promises to be quite the sight" declares an article by Steve Annear in The Boston Globe. Annear explains that the parade across the Charles River “is part of the school’s ‘Moving Day at MIT’ extravaganza” to celebrate the school’s move from Boston to Cambridge 100 years ago, and touts the return of MIT alumnus Oliver Smoot to serve as grand marshal.

Boston Globe reporter David Weininger writes about “Persona,” a new opera by Prof. Jay Scheib and Prof. Keeril Makan, based on a 1966 Ingmar Bergman film. The opera is staged as if the action is being filmed, which allows viewers to be “more involved with what’s happening than I think they’re expecting,” explains Makan. 

Under the Dome: MIT’s Open House was featured in The Boston Globe’s top picks for activities to do this weekend. The Globe notes that "the 100-year-old campus opens its doors to any and all who want to see some science. Whether you’re thrilled by 3-D printing or down for some DNA repair, this is prime access.”

As part of the centennial celebration of MIT’s move from Boston to Cambridge, the Institute is hosting a campus-wide open house on Saturday, April 23^rd, the AP reports. The open house will feature more than 350 activities, including “robotic demonstrations, science exhibits, laboratory tours and talks by professors.”

In an article for The Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler highlights MIT’s open house on Saturday April 23^rd as part of his top picks for Boston-area classical music events. Eichler writes that, “researchers from the MIT Media Lab — incubator of operatic robots, city symphonies, and many other arts-related projects — will offer demos of their current research.”

On April 23^rd, MIT will host an open house featuring 380 activities across campus, The Tech reports. Michael Berry ‘10, program coordinator for MIT 2016, explains that the open house offers visitors a chance to explore the “important and fun work done on MIT’s campus and how it impacts the world.”

A team of MIT researchers has been selected as the winner of the Koch Institute research-grant pitch competition for their work on developing a diagnostic platform for early-stage leukemia, reports Amanda Hoover for Boston.com.  Hoover explains that the diagnostic method would “single out individual cells during blood tests, highlighting those affected by leukemia.”

Alumna Michelle Lee, director of the USPTO, speaks with Radio Boston’s Anthony Brooks during a trip to Boston to speak at MIT about patents and innovation. Lee noted her commitment to encouraging more females to pursue STEM fields because “you never know who’s going to start that next company that’s going to revolutionize the world.” 

Boston Globe reporter Curt Woodward writes about Attorney General Maura Healey’s remarks at MIT about the importance of consumer privacy. “We are witnessing in our own backyard the growth of an exciting, forward-looking industry fueled by consumer data,” Healey said. “But its full potential cannot be achieved if consumers are not protected and respected.”

During a forum at MIT, Attorney General Maura Healey spoke about the need for protections for online consumers, reports Zeninjor Enwemeka for WBUR. “We just need to make sure that big data isn’t being used to give certain consumers an unfair deal based on who they are, where they are or what they do online,” Healey said. 

At a recent seminar at MIT, alumnus J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, managing culinary director for SeriousEats.com, demonstrated how to sear a piece of steak, writes Peggy Hernandez for The Boston Globe. “Lopez-Alt’s ‘Searing and Roasting’ presentation last week was part of a symposium complementing MIT’s ‘Kitchen Chemistry’ course,” explains Hernandez. 

Reuters reporter Dustin Volz writes that during an MIT event, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced that the U.S. will begin sending digital trade experts to foreign markets. Pritzker also “discussed the Privacy Shield and other issues facing the transatlantic digital economy with Andrus Ansip, vice president of the European Commission's digital single market.”

Christian Science Monitor reporter Jack Detsch writes about the “Cambridge 2 Cambridge” hackathon, which brought together students from MIT and Cambridge University to hack websites and discover built-in vulnerabilities. “It’s not a law of nature that machines are insecure,” says CSAIL’s Howard Shrobe. This hackathon “is the first step of piquing curiosity to fix it.”

Curt Nickisch reports for WBUR on the remarks Robert Hannigan, director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, made at MIT on encryption and privacy. CSAIL’s Daniel Weitzner says that he feels that the fact that both Hannigan and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter spoke out against mandatory backdoors, is “a really significant shift in the debate.”