Students

MIT sophomore Maryann Gong has been named the NCAA Division III Women's Track Athlete of the Year. According to The Boston Globe, “Gong is the fifth Engineer to win the award.”

Steven Rosenbaum highlights PhD student Abe Davis’ TED talk in a piece for Forbes. Rosenbaum writes that Davis “has co-created the world’s most improbable audio instrument.”

Kirk Carapezza of WGBH reports on the MIT Admissions video that depicts what it would be like if MIT could deliver admissions decisions with drones. “We do know that waiting for admissions decisions can be stressful for students and we wanted to lighten the mood a bit,” says Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions. 

Eric Randall writes for Boston Magazine about the video created by the MIT Admissions Office to announce that admissions decisions will be available this weekend. The video shows “Dean of Admissions Stu Schmill releasing an army of drones that carry letters all over the world (and solar system) to bring good news to the future MIT class of 2019.”

Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear writes about MIT’s tradition of announcing admissions decisions on “Pi Day,” noting that this year’s date has added significance. “Because Pi Day falls on 3/14/15, it matches up with the first four numbers that follow the decimal point — 3.1415,” explains Annear. 

CBS News reports on the video created by the MIT Admissions Office illustrating what it would be like to deliver acceptance letters to applicants by drone. The video simulates “the experience of small drones flying over landmarks like the Grand Canyon to the Taj Mahal to bring the good news to applicants.”

Nidhi Subbaraman of BetaBoston writes about the MIT Admissions video that imagines what it would be like if MIT could deliver admissions decisions via drones. The video features a “montage of various fictitious paths the robotic messengers take around the world, dropping off their cargo."

Nidhi Subbaraman reports for BetaBoston on MakeMIT, “a hardware hackathon that challenges students to produce practical applications for cutting-edge industrial tools.” A group of undergraduates started the event in an effort to provide students with an opportunity to build new products. 

Darren Sabedra of San Jose Mercury News writes about incoming freshman Riley Quinn, who plans to double major in math and business and play football at MIT. Quinn, who was born without a left hand and forearm, wrote in his college essay that he leveraged what “others may call a physical disability as my driving force and motivation to excel at everything I do."

In a piece for Scientific American, Amanda Baker writes about the MIT Science Olympiad Invitational Tournament, which brought together more than 60 teams of high school students from 14 states. The event was organized by a group of MIT undergraduates dedicated to improving the experience of science competitions for high school students. 

Junior Madison Douglas speaks with Boston Globe reporter Marvin Pave about the many activities she is involved in at MIT, including researching volcanic activity in Spain, playing flute in the orchestra and serving as the women’s sabre squad leader. “I really enjoy everything I do, but at the same time I have to be disciplined and maintain a balance,” says Douglas. 

WBUR’s Zeninjor Enwemeka speaks with MIT junior David Sukhin about the Snow Day Calculator, a tool he created in middle school to predict school closures. Sukhin still updates the calculator, “adding new features that I think would be a cool thing to explore and a benefit to users.”

Kyle Vanhemert writes for Wired about a talk by graduate student Greg Borenstein on the future of camera technology. “The gist of Borenstein’s talk: Cheap cameras are getting better and better, and researchers are finding more and more to do with them,” writes Vanhemert. 

Forbes has released its annual “30 Under 30” section, which highlights game changers under the age of 30 from a wide variety of disciplines. This year’s list features a number of MIT students, alumni and research staff, as well as Professor Nikhil Agarwal. 

CSAIL PhD students Elena Glassman, Neha Narula and Jean Yang write for Wired about their recent Reddit Ask Me Anything session and gender disparities in STEM. “By raising awareness and generating discussion, we hope to help women and other minorities feel more supported pursuing careers in STEM,” write Glassman, Narula and Yang.