Now, to be fair, I still can't answer that question entirely. Most MIT students don't leave campus much. There are so many awesome people to meet and activities to try (and so much work to do) at MIT that I haven't spent a whole lot of time in Boston. That's actually point number 1: This isn't a very important question to answer, because MIT is the community you will spend most of your time in, and it is plenty friendly.

As for Boston though, it might help to share a few anecdotes to give you a picture of what the city is like. And, in the comments please let us know if you have other anecdotes to add.

Anecdote 1: My family came to visit me about a year ago. My mom was always striking up conversations with people on the subway! She would talk to them about their children or where they were going or how to get where she was going, all the time. Most people in Boston would not initiate a conversation with a stranger, but they will talk to you if you initiate the conversation.

Anecdote 2: I left my purse on a city bus a few months ago. When I called my phone (which was in the purse) the woman who had found the purse answered, we met, and I got my things back. A similar incident happened a couple of months later; my wallet fell out of my pocket as I was crossing a street, and the man who found it looked me up so that he could return it. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe this says something about the residents of Boston.

Anecdote 3: One of my friends who lives in an apartment in a bit of a shady area (not near MIT) was mugged a few months ago, and was badly beaten up.

Anecdote 4: About a month ago, on a cold rainy night, a city employee made me get off of the subway because I had a bicycle. Never mind that I had already paid, never mind that it was miserable out, never mind that people with strollers and large packages are allowed on - rules are rules. The guy was also a complete jerk to me. I had to sit around for an hour until 7pm, when I was allowed back on (the reason the rule exists is so that during 'rush hour' the subway doesn't get overcrowded). On the brighter side, once the jerk went off duty his coworker let me back in for free since I had already paid once.

Anecdote 5: Yesterday, my boyfriend and I rented a Zipcar. We were way out in Weymouth when the car broke down. The woman whose driveway we ended up in invited us in for tea while we waited for a tow truck to come!

Anecdote 6: One day last year I stumbled upon a giant outdoor dance party, put on by the city to increase community spirit. It was nighttime, and colorful lights lit a crowd of hundred of people, dancing in the street outside of City Hall.

These certainly don't sum up the whole city, but they can give you an idea of what to expect. Boston is a city, and it can be a little dangerous. On average people are a bit more direct here, which I think is what my librarian had actually picked up on. When they mean "no," they are more likely to just say "no" than "sorry, I would, but... ." In my experience though, most of the people I've interacted with are decent people who are perfectly willing to help a stranger out. Some will even dance with strangers in the street. Really, I think that you get a similar mix of people here as anywhere else: some friendly, some not, some nice to you if you're nice to them first.

What have other people's experiences been, coming to Boston for the first time? How are people different here? What other questions are admitted students thinking about? (And by the way, congrats if you got in! Come hang out with us for CPW!)

Today. I. Joined. Quidditch.

The awesomeness is still sinking in. This afternoon was the first warm, sunny, beautiful day we've had here for a while. I bike year-round, but today was the first time since fall that I went on a bike ride for fun, instead of just to get to class. After exploring the Minuteman trail (including a statue of Uncle Sam; did you know that the original Uncle Sam was born near Boston?) I headed to MIT's campus to take some pictures of MIT"s newest sport. I started out as an observer, but soon got caught up in the magic and was flying (er, running) around a soccer field on a broom.

Today's practice was mostly about getting used to moving on the broom and handling the ball with just one hand (since the other holds on to the broom). We used a volleyball as our quaffle. We haven't practiced with them yet, but we have dodgeballs for bludgers. We also have a cross country running who has volunteered to dress in gold and play the snitch. The snitch is allowed to run around the entire campus, instead of staying on (or even in sight of!) the playing field. If you check online, you can find some pretty funny videos of existing Quidditch teams and their snitches. Some of the snitches will do flips and cartwheels to taunt the players as they run past.

One thing that surprised me about practice was the wide range of students who came. Out of 11 students present, I think we represented 10 different dorms/Independent Living Groups. It was great to meet people from all over campus with a common interest.

Another surprising thing about practice today was the spectators. Given that the sport is brand-new, I expected the stands to be empty. There were some people at MIT (I think there was a swimming tournament?) who noticed us practicing and stopped to watch and cheer. I gave them my camera and it is thanks to them that you have the three action photos!

To MIT students: We have practices weekly, on Sunday afternoons. Sometime this month we will scrimmage Harvard. Several other schools are interested in playing us as well. Email quidditch-execs at mit dot edu to get on the list for more info! We would love more players and/or more fans :)

To pre-frosh: We will have a CPW event! I am pretty sure it will involve us playing a demo game, and you will likely have a chance to play as well!

Today. Was. Awesome.

Yesterday in 11.125, we talked a little bit about trees. As you know, they grow from seeds, much like this one.

Photo courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net

And of course if you wait a few years they get quite large...

Photo courtesy of sherhorosko.wordpress.com

So, the question we were asked in class is, where does that huge increase in mass come from?

I want to hear your answers and reasoning in the comments... just think about it; no Wikipedia!

I also want your input on something else for 11.125. I need to sit in on some class at MIT as an impartial observer and take notes on how the teacher interacts with the students. Please look through MIT's course catalog and let me know what classes interest you (and what you are wondering about them). I will choose one to check out and report back on it later!

This year, MIT's Women's Soccer team won their conference, NEWMAC! NEWMAC is a conference including Babson, Clark, Smith, Wellesley, Wheaton, Mount Holyoke, WPI, and of course MIT. After winning their conference, the MIT team went to the NCAA Championship tournament for the first time in program history. They were knocked out of the tournament by Rowan University. This week, I met with two players from this year's Championship team to find out more about playing a varsity sport at MIT.

Liz is a senior, majoring in Mechanical Engineering (course 2) and Math (course 18). She's been playing soccer since she was 8, and specializing as a striker since high school. Her profile on the MIT Intercollegiate Athletics site has a long list of achievements.

Meghan is a freshman, and she is considering majoring in Aerospace Engineering (course 16) or Mechanical Engineering (course 2). She's been playing soccer since she was 4 (!) and is one of two goalies on MIT's team. Her profile on MIT's site also lists plenty of achievements, including leading her high school team to two state championships.

Looking at their lists of accomplishments in soccer, you can tell that these women are not only extremely talented, but also dedicated to their sport. Sports players are among the first students to arrive in the fall and practice twice per day before the school year starts. Even after school starts, they practice for two hours every day and travel to games on the weekends. As a reminder, this is MIT. Many students struggle to find time to sleep without playing a varsity sport.

But, Liz and Meghan insist, excelling at sports is possible for busy MIT students. Playing a sport helps them to develop their time-management skills and gives them a strong focus. Meghan told me that having such a full schedule during soccer season actually helps her to get more work done than she would otherwise. Besides this, the team supports each other. For instance, before the last freshman physics exam, two of the upperclassmen put together an informal review session for the freshmen on the team.

Liz '10 and Meghan '13

Working together so closely as a team and as MIT students has made this group very close. Team members will often eat dinner together, and most players stick with the team all four years. When I asked Liz and Meghan what their favorite memories from this season were, they told me about winning the NEWMAC Conference -- but first they told me about the 'goal dance' one of the freshmen on the team did after scoring her first goal.

The soccer team holds open tryouts for MIT students, and they also recruit high school students. The recruiting process is largely about showing high school students that MIT can be a great athletic experience as well as an academic one; athletes still go through the normal admission process.

I hope that this post has been useful to some high school athletes out there. Let me know what other questions you have about soccer or other athletics at MIT; I'll do my best to find answers.

P.S. I'm not really sure why I'm writing in pink -- Liz and Meghan asked me to do it because "it's a soccer bonding thing."

P.P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

Lately, life seems to be going my way.

Case in point number 1: As I was returning to Boston recently, we flew through a cloud-bank and I was able to take the crazy picture above. Now, I know that it was really a trick having to do with optics and the water droplets in the cloud and the angle of the sun and whatnot. Nonetheless, what are the odds?

Case in point number 2: I was running late for class on Thursday. I parked my bike, quickly locked it, and jogged toward the South door of the building. Then I saw my professor heading for the same door! He was farther away than I was, and hadn't seen me yet. If I kept going, I would beat him to class but he would see me walking in just before him (and obviously late.) So I circled to the North side of the building and made it to the room before he did, undetected. If I had been 10 seconds later, if he'd looked up, or if there hadn't been another entrance, all would have been lost.

Case in point number 3: It's the week before Thanksgiving, and my roses are still blooming.

Also, I live in a castle (see the stone behind the rose)

Case in point number 4: This is where it starts to get really good. I'm hoping the MIT students who didn't listen to me at first have returned to work by this point. In this shaky economy, I know many people who haven't found work. I even have one friend whose summer internship just canceled on him because they're in financial trouble. Despite this... I landed a definite job with a company I am CRAZY about! Stroud Consulting is a relatively new Operations and Management Consulting company. Basically, they hire out their problem-solving skills to a lot of huge companies who want to be more efficient or productive. They go in with big goals, get told that it's impossible, and then produce the results they promised. Sounds like a good challenge :) The people are great, the job will change with each new client, and I am really excited to start! I just have to finish this thesis...

The Official Employment Contract

Case in point number 5: My classes lately have been all about how people learn. So we basically do activities and play games all hour to see how good they are at teaching us material. Here's my team playing with Legos and pulleys:

Yun '12 and Ken '11 building a pulley structure

Yun '12 and Ken '11 demonstrate our pulley structure in action (video)

We also get to play with higher-tech sorts of games. While other people are working on Mastering Physics tutorials, I’m playing Waker. Waker was developed at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT game lab this past summer to showcase some elements of physics. All of GAMBIT’s games have educational objectives. A quick perusal of the games on their website shows coverage of everything from neurotransmitters to political oppression. Waker was a fun way to spend my Saturday morning. If you try it out, or any other games on the site, let me know what you think!

Isn't it a beautiful game? Now, no firsting on this post unless you beat Waker first!

So, I decided to take pictures of part of someone else's life at MIT: 6.131 Lab.

6.131 Lab, or Power Electronics is one of those classes that reminds students why they came to MIT in the first place. At this time of year in many other classes, students are cramming as much into their heads as possible for midterms. At this time of the year in 6.131, students have just finished working late nights to create a system that lets them drive a go-cart. Now they're working on controlling fluorescent lights.

Breadboard by Noah S. '10

Why, you might ask, does a fluorescent light need to be controlled? You have likely seen a demonstration of how easy it is to wire up an incandescent bulb; you basically just connect it to a battery. In these more traditional bulbs, the filament is a resistive unit, so the more voltage you put across it, the more current will flow through, and the brighter it will shine. The filament is made out of metal (these days, usually Tungsten), so even though there is some resistance there, it is not very high.

In a fluorescent light, instead of a wire filament, there is a tube filled with low-pressure mercury vapor. When the light is turned off, this gas provides a very high resistance. Even though mercury is metal just like Tungsten is, it's spread out as a gas. For electric current to flow through the bulb, it needs to be able to jump from one atom of metal to the next, all the way to the end of the bulb.

Signal Generator in Power Electronics Lab at MIT

So that's the first difference: to get the light going in the first place, you need to provide a HUGE voltage. So why aren't fluorescent bulbs just like incandescents with bigger batteries? Well, as soon as you have started the flow of electrons through the tube, the vapor ionizes! This means that its resistance drops very suddenly. If you continued to use the same amount of voltage you used to start the lamp to run it, it would explode!

Noah S. '10 -- Hard at work. See the giant green donut-thing with red wire? That's a huge inductor.

And then the final kicker: The V-I characteristics, or relationships between voltage and current, for the lamp, are really weird. Even if you put a high amount of voltage in to start the lamp, then bring it down to the perfect level, it is a very fragile system. If some tiny little variable changes, like the temperature, it could become unstable, the current could run away, and it would still break! *For 6.131 Professor Leeb's explanation of why this happens, see note at the end.

The answer to all of our problems!

So, the answer, clearly, is to use the circuity represented above. All clear? Just in case it's not, let's explain...

So, the goal is to provide a big initial voltage, then turn it down and set up some sort of self-policing system.
Most of the things in the picture above are just made to generate a huge square wave (40 Volts). There's a part where you can adjust the Duty Cycle, or what part of the time the square wave is high or low. The other really important parts are right next to the part labeled 'Fluorescent Lamp.' They are 'L' and 'C.' The huge square wave comes in through L (an inductor) and then chooses whether to go through the C (capacitor) or lamp. If the lamp is off, it goes through the C, since there's so much resistance in the lamp. If the lamp is on, it goes through the lamp and mostly avoids the capacitor.

When the lamp is off, the inductor and capacitor form a resonant circuit. If the frequency of the square wave going in is right, the voltage in the capacitor voltage builds up until it is high enough that the lamp starts. Once the lamp starts, the inductor helps to keep the amount of current in the lamp steady.

Other cool things about the lab are winding the big inductors yourself, doing all your own soldering, and working with chips that are getting hot enough that they need huge heat sinks (the big black metal things in the photo below.) Let me know if you have any questions about 6.131 or lab classes in general. And thanks to Noah S. '10 for showing me his circuitry and giving me a refresher course on building a lamp ballast :)

Totem board, Noah S. '10

*I'm going to quote Professor Leeb himself here, because he explains it so clearly.

In the lit fluorescent lamp, "an increase in terminal voltage corresponds to a decrease in terminal current, and vice-versa. This happens because, roughly, as the current decreases in the tube, the number of charged carriers in the tube also decreases, decreasing the conductivity of the plasma column in the tube. So a higher voltage is needed to maintain the lower current! Increasing the current on the other hand, increases the conductivity of the plasma. A lower voltage is required in this case to sustain the higher current.

With these properties, "imagine a slight, inevitable disturbance that momentarily increases the current in the bulb. This disturbance could be a slight change in exterior temperature, for example. The voltage across the tube remains fixed, but now we are "off" the equilibrium curve, with a larger number of charge carriers in the tube compared to before the disturbance. Off the equilibrium curve, this voltage will push yet more current into the bulb, further increasing the conductivity. If the voltage remains unchanged, the bulb enters a "runaway" condition, where the current increases until something breaks."

So far, I've met a *ton* of companies. I can tell, thanks to previous internships and projects, that there are some that I am not a match for, some which would be alright, and only one (so far) that I would love. I think my interview with them went well, but they're also incredibly selective.

I'm beginning to be a little more polished in interviews, now that I've experienced enough of them to have an idea of what's coming. Some companies will rephrase their questions, but in the end they want to know the same things: who you are as a person, and how that will fit in with the company. (It's actually pretty similar to college admissions, once you get past the surface differences.) One thing that has been paying off for me is the time I spent in UPOP (MIT's Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program) two years ago. They do an outstanding job teaching MIT students how to interact effectively with companies. My title comes from a motivating example they gave us at the beginning of their program. A company representative at a career fair came to MIT and reported that the students lacked social graces. A student had actually come up to them and asked, "Do you have jobs? Can I have one?"

Speaking of uncomfortable situations: I was waiting for an interview lately, just before 9:00 am. (That's not the uncomfortable part; I like mornings.) There were over a dozen other students waiting with me to interview with various companies. A recruiter stuck her head into our waiting room and called a name. There was no response. "Strike one!" she announced, and left. Ouch. You know, I looked at the clock when she came in. It was 8:59 and 30 seconds. So in my book, the student was not yet late. And if they had been on an MIT schedule, with classes and meetings tending to start at 5 minutes after the hour, the student would still have over 5 minutes to arrive. I guess my high school band teacher had it right after all, "If you're early, you're on time; if you're on time you're late; if you're late you're left. "

As high school seniors work on their applications to MIT, they should make sure to submit materials in a timely fashion. You should also take the appropriate tests and let MIT know how you scored. But the main focus of your attention should be on showing the Admissions Office who you are as a person. I get emails regularly from applicants who are nervous about the other aspects. They want to know my SAT score and my fr iends' SAT scores and my mom's SAT score. But that's not the point! Don't let yourself get too wrapped up in having the right numbers. Just in case anyone has missed it thus far, I'll bold it. Tell MIT what motivates and excites you. They want to admit real people, not academic robots MIT wants to admit people who, besides being intelligent, will contribute to our amazing community. It's one of those things I like about MIT.

Good luck, applicants! And wish me luck, as another type of applicant!

I graduated in June, but I'm not gone yet! Due to a great program in Course 6 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) at MIT, I am able to stay on to complete a Master's Degree. The M.Eng program in Course 6 is something students can apply for in their junior year. They then start to integrate graduate-level courses with their regular courseload. This puts them in position to finish all of the requirements for the Master's degree as well as the Bachelor's in only 5 years. (If the two degrees were completed sequentially, they would generally take a total of 6 years.) Besides the time-savings, I am excited about this program because it offers a way to cap off a lot of theoretical learning with one big project that requires actual application of the ideas. I also happen to have absolutely *amazing* advisers. We're working understanding how humans produce speech -- more on that in a later post.

Number 2: Learning to Teach

I've joined the Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) this fall. It's basically a crash-course series of classes on education in theory and practice. The theory side covers issues such as, 'Should we be developing students' creative thinking skills or giving them practical lessons and vocational training?' The practice side teaches us the nitty gritty of discipline, lesson planning, and how to get students' attention. STEP also includes classroom observation, and eventually teaching in nearby schools!

Number 3: Randomites

Though I'm living in an apartment now, I still take time to go back to Random Hall. One must-experience event at Random is their fall rush, designed to introduce freshmen to their unique culture. I attended a great new event this year, led by ch3cooh '11. There were three parts to the event: building MIT out of candy, rolling it up into katamari, and eating it! Here are some pictures of the process shot by Zev '08, M.Eng '09:

Step 1: Building MIT out of candy.
The big peanutbuttery gob with the Hershey's kisses on it is labeled 'Stata'. Nearby are graham cracker representations of the two parallel buildings of East Campus and the Green building (the tallest building in Cambridge!) You can see the blue jello version of the Charles River flowing through the center. I'm not sure whose idea the snow-capped mountains or volcano were... I haven't seen them around campus.

Step 2: Rolling it up into katamari.
We started with a small glob of chocolate and marshmallow mixture, and rolled our katamari around the board while listening to remixes of the song (the song can be heard on this Youtube video.

Step 3: Eating it!
This was harder for some people than for others...

My family came into town on Wednesday for graduation. Classes were over, and the most stressful thing I had to deal with was cleaning my room. It was pretty relaxing. I didn't even have to rush around Boston saying goodbye to people and places that I've known, because I'm staying for another year to finish my Master's degree (through the MEng/VI-A programs).

Since I am going to around for another year, I saw the graduation ceremony as more of a check-point than a finish line. I also think that attending MIT has had a side-effect of keeping me from getting too excited about ceremonies in general. After four years of urgent deadlines (Test! Lab of Doom! 4 PSETS! 2 Tests!), I seem to have adjusted some internal excit-o-meter. So in the days leading up to graduation I was glad, but not super-excited.

The big day came. Every senior gets four tickets to give to friends or family for graduation, and I was using my four for my family. This meant that my boyfriend (who is class of '08) couldn't come see me graduate in person. I did the next best thing to bringing him, and brought Roary instead.

Photo Credit: Tiffany Tseng

Roary is the stuffed tiger that my boyfriend gave me on our first Valentine's Day together. I attached him to my mortarboard using a strip of cloth and a couple of alligator clips. I used the alligator clips because they were the first thing to come to hand, but after I was finished I realized that it was also a nice nod to Course 6. Tiffany '09 took the picture above for me. The first picture in this post and the rest to follow are courtesy of the Tech photographers (who have more similar pics here.)

All the graduates-to-be congregated in the Johnson Athletic Center and sorted out who they would walk next to. Then we processed to Killian Court where our friends and families waited for us.

Photo Credit: David Templeton

Once we were actually all together walking towards Killian, it started to sink in that we were really graduating and I started getting excited about it. As we passed some of the buildings, I saw a sign hanging from a window and half a dozen people leaning out and waving at us. The sign said, "Congratulations Course 1 Grads!" and the people waving seemed to be their professors.

Photo Credit: William Yee

The ceremony itself was nice. There were a lot of people graduating though, and I eventually found myself looking around for other decorated mortarboards. I didn't have my camera on me, but I've pulled some pictures from The Tech of interesting ones. I think the aero-astro majors had the highest percentage of grads with decorated caps.

Photo Credit: William Yee

Some people wore stoles with the colors of their country or region.

Photo Credit: William Yee

A friend of mine actually substituted the cap out entirely for a black cowboy hat (he attached the tassel to the brim.)
I'm not sure about the significance of this next one...

Photo Credit: Eric Schmiedl

Brains...

Photo Credit: David Templeton

And a crab.

Photo Credit: William Yee

We heard speeches by the Governor of Massachusetts and MIT's President. After the speech by our Class President, we got to turn our "Brass Rats" (class rings) in the opposite direction. Before graduating, we wear the rings so that we can see an image of the Boston skyline when we look at them. This is supposed to remind us that we'll get through MIT eventually and go out into the world. Once we've graduated, we wear the rings so that we see an image of the MIT skyline. This is so that we can look back on the good times we had at MIT.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Ramirez

Part way through the ceremony, some people broke out half a dozen beach balls and started them bouncing around the student section. The reappeared later, presumably when people were bored.

Photo Credit: William Yee

Eventually it was my turn to walk. I was slightly worried about walking with the tiger on my head (since it had a high center of mass) but all went well. President Hockfield even complimented me on it as she shook my hand!

After the ceremony, I met up with my family and we went to a couple of receptions for graduating students, complete with delicious food.

And that's it. I'm graduated. Weird.

My main activities for the past two weeks have been working during the day, working at night, and squeezing in doctor’s appointments wherever they fit. Helpful tip: don’t get sick while at MIT.

So when my friend Roxana '09 suggested biking to see the Battle of Lexington, I was THRILLED!

We woke at 3:30 on Patriot's Day Morning and rode off into a quiet, misty land. Massachusetts Avenue, so often clogged with cars, was transformed. It belonged to just we cyclists, and we soared over the pavement, thrilled to use muscles which had begun to rust in place...

We arrived at Lexington just before 6 am, and a huge crowd had already gathered. There were three tiers of people: those standing in front, those perching on ladders/ladder constructions, and those in the trees.

Niki '09 and I grabbed a bench. She stood on the bench and I stood on the bench's back, using her shoulder to steady myself. We traded off for the better vantage point a couple of times.

The Redcoats and the Patriots met and exchanged harsh words. Both sides postured a bit. A shot was fired, and battle broke out.

When it was all over, women and children tended the fallen.

The British marched off, to loud boos from the present-day audience.

And then we fraternized with the enemy.

This guy turned out to be an MIT alum. He also told us about the first time he was part of the reenactment, in 2001. He had never watched the reenactment before being in it, and didn't know the guys planing patriots. So, he was really unsure how the battle would unfold, if he could trust them not to really stab him, etc. He also told us an amusing story about how he was scared out of course 12 and into course 22.

We grabbed some hot sustenance from a Dunkin' Donuts and biked back to Boston as the sun rose.

And we all lived happily ever after (at least, until the next set of deadlines arrives).

This break I'm going to get to know my new camera better! I've started using it already around Cambridge. Can you identify all the locations? (Eternal Fame and Glory to whoever sends me the complete list first.)

I'm working on designing something that makes Interlocking Stabilized Soil Bricks. Basically, it's a machine that applies some sort of pressure to some mixture of dirt and concrete. It has to be able to make a strong brick using pressure instead of heat. Also, the bricks should have a shape that lets them interlock, so that they don't need mortar to hold together.

And of course the machine should be fast and cheap and easy to use and produce strong, perfect bricks.

My group is throwing around all sorts of ideas to apply pressure right now; screws, levers, pulleys, impacts, vibration, the soul-crushing weight of all the work at MIT ... But what we could use are facts.

Do you know how Zambian/Malawian/Ghanaian dirt compares to dirt commonly found in, say... Massachusetts? Or what sort of building materials are just laying around in these countries? What sort of skills people have? Have you used one of the existing machines, like in the picture? How was it? What sort of buildings do local people usually build (round? square? tall?)?

Did you play with mud as a child? I'll take any leads...

I included this picture in a previous blog. I was tired of working, and it reminded me of the good times at MIT. Well, in Honduras, but related to MIT.

Going to Honduras was a sort of Grand Finale to a class I took in the Fall of 2007 about Development. It's also known as D-Lab I. Right now, I have the chance to take D-Lab II. This class focuses less on the big picture of Development and more on Design; every group of four students chooses one project and follow it through over the course of a semester.

I'm not sure if I have the time for D-Lab this semester or not... I might take it even if I don't, because these projects are pretty awesome. We have 15 to choose from, but here are my favorite 6:

1) Turning Plastic Bags into Rope and Netting -- The world uses a trillion plastic bags every year, and many of them end of dotting the countrysides. There are so many hanging around in South Africa that people joke that they are the National Flower. What people could use more of is netting, to catch fish with and to put over beds to keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes off. Can we use plastic bags to do this?

2) A Bicycle Trailer -- A previous D-Lab student created a bicycle ambulance for use in rural areas. Can we modify this design so that the ambulances can also be used to carry vegetables to market or bricks to a building site?

3) Bamboo Matchsticks -- Bamboo plants grow quickly and their roots stabilize the soil. If we created the right machine, people in rural villages could mass-produce matchsticks. It would provide income for them, and also prevent the deforestation that currently occurs because of matchstick-making.

4) Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block Maker -- Making bricks takes a lot of heat energy, which usually means burning a lot of fossil fuels. We can trade pressure for heat. We can also change the shape of bricks; if they are made to interlock, we won't need mortar. This could revolutionize construction in the developing world.

5) Liquid Chlorine Dispenser -- Deliver the correct amount of chlorine to personal containers as people get their water from a community source. This purifies the water right before the people drink it, so you don't have to worry about re-contamination in transit. There's already a device that does this, but it's much too expensive.

6) Charcoal Briquette Press -- Take bits of charcoal (created from sugar cane or corn cobs or any number of things by a process D-Lab already loves using). Form them into lots of little square briquettes. Make it fast and easy.

Of course, these are just my favorites... the other 9 are pretty awesome as well. Some of them involve using cell phones as a tool, or Braille, or solar heating. This is the definitely the class to take if you want to invent something people really want.

So, what do you think? Should I try to squeeze the class into my schedule? If I do, what project should I work on? Any suggestions for cool projects for future D-Lab classes?

My Good Sir,

Have you ever ridden on an airplane? During the Holiday Season? Without your Super-Sparkly-Platinum member's benefits? Incognito, so that your employees don't know that they need to behave around you? Might I make a small suggestion? DO. Then go back to your interviews and repeat, "We need to take excellent care of our customer," and MEAN it this time.

I could tell you a story about a traveler who arrived at the wrong airport after a trip four times longer than the one purchased. Or they could. To paraphrase: "We'll arrive in time for your delayed connection." "Though you sprinted through the airport and made the connection, we decided to give your seat away... Oops, I miscounted, you could have been on that one." "You definitely have a seat on the next flight." "The next flight has been canceled. Since before you spoke with the last agent. There is no hope for you." "Oh, you can standby on another airline. Let me transfer that ticket." "What? They say we haven't transferred the ticket? Well, that's because we aren't allowed to. No, it's not possible. I don't care if they say it needs to be done. I don't care if the other employee told you she did it. You have issues with communication." "Huh. Yeah, sometimes transferring tickets gets messed up when they do it at the airport. Let me put you on a flight to another city." "We're leaving at 8. 9. 9:40. 10. 10:30. 10:50. 11:30. We'll get you out sometime, we swear. Unless the pilots' hours roll over before they get here. Then they need to rest."

Have you noticed that this ALWAYS happens? At least seen it in the movies? Random guess: This will happen to masses of people next year, too.

I'm sick of airlines who tell me I am not communicating correctly when they won't share gate information with the the next terminal. When each employee I speak to contradicts the previous one.

I'm sick of being offered a limited-offer discounted hotel room when this whole mess is your fault. (And don't blame the weather. You chose your hub. An idiot could have told you it has lousy weather EVERY year exactly when everyone wants to get home.)

I'm sick of limited blanket and cot supplies and nearly nonexistent power outlets.

I'm walking home next year.

Yours sincerely,

Kimberly F. Dietz

Except it was originally going to be longer and angrier. And delivered by a hit man. A hit man who smelling like rotting fish, adding that extra epsilon of unpleasantness to the situation. But of course I calmed down eventually, and I do realize the futility of this approach. So I started trying to think constructively.

Ideas For Improved Holiday Travel On Airlines

• I was delayed for several hours because the crew assigned to my plane was stranded elsewhere, and there was no one to fly it, though it sat at the gate gathering ice. I see that your retired pilots' club has over 900 dues-paying members. While many of them have surely let their pilots' licenses lapse, I can't believe they all have, if only because some must have retired recently. Hire them on again for the holidays! Pay them handsomely to be "on call" at busy airports.
  
• Or just teach your customers to fly while they're sitting there bored for hours on end, year after year. (Kidding.)
  
• You know how you have those little oxygen masks that pop down from the ceiling in case of an emergency? And have maybe been used once? Something less life-threatening but faaaar more common than losing cabin pressure is having a flight delayed indefinitely. Even in the rare event that the airline is giving out blankets, many people don't dare go seek them out, lest they miss their flight if/when it comes. I suggest adapting the existing technology to this situation. Imagine the commercial featuring the announcement!
  

  It begins with a shot of passengers sitting at the gate. "In the event of a change in boarding time, the comfort compartment above your seat will open automatically." Ceiling panels slide back and blankets, pillows, snacks and games pop down on the ends of bungee cords, bouncing around as they dangle just above the passengers' heads. "Assist others in need of assistance before getting too comfortable yourself." Cut to a shot of a parent carefully helping a kid open the plastic wrap on their new coloring book, then grabbing a pillow, blanket, and novel from the dangling cords, snuggling into their seat, and reading. "Name of Airline: Handling Every Emergency."

  
  
• Keep your Arrival and Departure monitors up to date, for obvious reasons.
  
• Make the process by which you update those monitors more transparent. Today a fellow passenger said to me, "You know, I've always wondered about what goes on in the little room [where someone must be predicting when the flight might leave]."
  
• Use all those idle people waiting to board planes. For instance: let them update a (probably separate) board with information they know about delays and their reasons, weather in various areas of the country, etc. Give them a small percentage off of their next flight ticket if they contribute, with a promised punishment if the information they contribute turns out to be incorrect. I'd enroll in this program immediately.
  
• Organize the inter-airline tug-of-war competition between terminals. Or a poetry jam. Or a chess tournament.
  
• Make SURE your employees are competent. Don't tolerate employees who goof off with each other while long lines wait, who give incorrect information, who don't know how to transfer tickets.
  
• Open lines of communication with other airlines. Arrange to share gate information. Arrange to trade off, covering for each other in areas where one has stronger coverage than the other. Remember Miracle on 34th Street ? Everyone loved Macy's after they started keeping track of their competitors' toys too and sending them to whatever store had what the customer really wanted. Emulate them.
  
• ...
  

Of course, this sort of suggestion list is also quite likely to go unnoticed. Then, I had one final idea.

So, last week a Facebook friend asked me to up-rate his suggestion on Change.org's Ideas For Change In America Site. The idea is that every throws in their ideas, then they consider each other's and vote on them, and the top 10 are given to the Obama team on Inauguration Day.

We could do something like this. If everyone else who had a bad travel experience puts in their ideas and also comments on which others they think are good, I'll type up a few of them and forward them to airline CEOs (or whoever the correct contact person is.) And they likely still won't listen. But here's to trying with a spirit of Audacious Hope.

p.s. To those of you still out there: Good Luck!!

And eventually looking much more reasonable, like this:

I stress eventually .

I think that if anyone understands how I feel about being stuck in an Athena cluster generating graphs all night, it is this disgruntled bull. Although the 22 other students in the cluster with me may have some idea as well.

...On an almost completely unrelated note, I recently learned a great mnemonic for the stock market types: Bulls attack by thrusting their horns up in the air and bears attack by swiping down. So a bull market is one in which the market is moving up and a bear market is one in which it's moving down!

But back to the bull in the picture. He isn't just any bull; he's from Honduras. And so he brings back some amazing memories of the trip I got to take last January with D-Lab. There have already be several blogs about how awesome D-Lab is. This one's a nice overview. I'm too sleepy to add much to them at this point, but maybe later I can tell you more about Honduras (There were all sorts of adventures, some of which involved crocodiles!). For now I'll just allow myself one more picture (of our rope pump!) and get back to work.

:) Remembering Honduras makes me happy... so does company. Let me know if you're out there working too!

Another of these no-air type of situations happened recently, when through a series of ridiculous events, I was deprived of my laptop for over 3 weeks. How ridiculous were these events? ALL OF THE FOLLOWING happened at roughly the same time:

1) My power cord broke. Okay, that's annoying, but I can borrow a friend's when I need to charge up.
2) Someone spilled water on my laptop. Yikes! Better leave it off for a couple of weeks to let it dry out.
3) The company which was supposed to mail my replacement charger got a Brazillion* requests for replacement chargers, so they didn't fill my order right away.
4) Once the charger arrived at my dorm, the deskworker forgot to send out the usual email informing me of its arrival, so it took a week to figure out that it had finally come.

But, I have a charger now, and I turned my computer back on for the first time in weeks yesterday, and luckily it seems to be working fine. I am Totally Ecstatic about having all the files I need for my classes once again. And there was great rejoicing.

Besides a laptop, I also have mail. I happen to be on all sorts of mailing lists for no apparent reason (for instance, arab-announce), so my inbox usually has a pretty good cross section of current events at MIT. Therefore, I give you the email equivalent of the ipod challenge!** I went into gmail and did a blank search, bringing up the 10 most recent emails I've received,

The first one is about a lunchtime meeting for the Presidents/Treasurers/Important People in student groups on campus, where they will discuss how to apply for funds from the Student Activities Office. Getting funding isn't actually too hard, which is part of the reason MIT has about a Brazillion (actually 454) unique student groups.

The second one claims that I am someone who has shopped for Consumer Electronics on Amazon and offers me deals on TVs, hard drives and iPods... what did I buy? I don't know, but I guess it's believable that I would have done that.

The third asks me to help APO out with this year's UMOC competition, which you'll probably hear about soon from Snively.

#4 is about a free A cappella concert. Sweeet! A cappella at MIT is really fun to go to; my favorite group is The Chorallaries.

#5 seems really awesome. When I went to class this morning I saw the bins out that it mentions. Basically, there's a used athletic shoes recycling drive, and Nike's going to turn everyone's old sneakers into playing fields and athletic equipment. The drive is co-sponsored by The WGR, DAPER, and The Department of Facilities.

Email number 6 is exciting as well: Professor Terman of Course VI is visiting my dorm tonight to share some pizza and insight into his classes (6.004 and 6.111), majoring in EECS, and life.

#7 is about UMOC again, this time about putting up posters to advertise instead of about manning the booth.

I have the 8th one because I created a German Snapfish account when I was there for a MISTI internship in the Summer of 2007. (Bonus points if you can read it!) It was useful for sharing photos then, but I can't take advantage of any of their offers now because they won't send mail from Germany to the US. Even though I also have a US account. I should probably get around to getting rid of that account someday...

#9 is about the "epic Rock Band battle!" that is happening today.

And #10 is a gchat. Huh. I didn't realize until just now that when Gmail previews the contents of a saved chat, it prints the lines in reverse chronological order (i.e. I actually said " :) " before Kevin said "thanks".) More specifically, #10 is a gchat from this morning with my boyfriend, who's far away in Chicago at the moment. Aww, a happy ending!

(And just in time for me to run off to my 1pm class.)

*Brazillion is my new favorite big number, because of the following joke:
Two friends, Alex from MIT and Sam from Harvard, are having breakfast and reading Google News. Suddenly, Alex says, "Sam, this is terrible! Twenty Brazilian men died in a skydiving accident yesterday!" Sam begins to sob. "It's not that bad," Alex says. "Sam, what's wrong? I know it's unfortunate, but they knew they were taking a risk by skydiving." Sam stops sobbing long enough to ask, "How many is a Brazilian?"

(PS. Yes, this was originally a blonde joke, not an MIT/Harvard joke.)

**Generally along the lines of, "Put your favorite music player on shuffle and record the first 10 songs that come up, no lying!"

Part of my application to be an admissions blogger read,

Once, years ago, there was a Great Night of Toolage: a long, long night of grueling problem sets due the next day. Time and time again, a younger version of myself began to nod off over her equations, only to be jolted back awake by the heavy beat of Birdhouse in Your Soul, blasting out of her boyfriend's speakers. This video makes about as much sense as anything else did at that hour of that night and is the Officially Recognized Commemorative Video of The Great Night Of Toolage, cementing its place in history. As long as there is MIT, there will be epic bouts of working. As long as there are epic bouts of working, this video will be to be the most important piece of art around. (After all, our work is never over.)

But it should be over. I've learned my lesson. Over time, with work, I learned to plan ahead and work without distraction. I became a "mature senior." It's just that last weekend, I slipped. I dressed up and went to see W in a theater with my boyfriend and we had Thai food afterwards. And now I'm doomed. Once, I wouldn't have blinked about staying up all night and finishing this huge pset. But I'm out of practice. I don't know if I have the same endless energy I did when I was a freshman, which let me run for days on adrenaline.

Nonetheless, if I go out, I go out fighting. I went to Star and bought provisions: 4.2 pounds of Goldfish crachers, 2 liters of Diet Coke, 3 lb of Cinnamon Applesauce, green sugar sprinkles, cinnamon red-hots, cake mix and frosting, micowave soup, dark chocolate in large quantities, fruit cocktail, pineapple slices, and bananas. It should be enough sugar, caffeine, and general things to chew on to keep me going for a good long while. I even closed my eyes as I took the escalator down from Star, and as I walked along the streets back, conserving my energy. (I opened them to check for cars at the crossings.) I know where to find plenty of They Might Be Giants.

Here we go...

Millennia later, we don't seem to have changed all that much. I've noticed that my personal yen to travel is particularly strong after a long school year of studying. Luckily, MIT understands that its students occasionally want to get out and see the world. In the last year and a half, MIT has helped me go abroad THREE times. That's ridiculous! Just last summer I was in China. Look, here's proof! :

Just Wednesday night, I was in 34-401 (A room at MIT where a lot of EECS events take place) talking to young'uns about what an awesome opportunity they have in VI-A. You'll have to take my word on being there; I had no camera. Since I didn't see /you/ there, here's a quick recap, sprinkled with pictures from last summer.

Professor Markus Zahn talked about the logistics of the program. VI-A (Pronounced "six A", not "via") is a program in course 6 (MIT's name for its EECS department) lets students work at companies and use that work as material for a Master's thesis. The companies can be right here in Cambridge, MA, somewhere else in the US, or international. Course 6 students go through an interview process in the fall of their junior. The companies rank them, the students rank the companies, and voilà! Matches.

From The Penguin and The Dragon

Students spend summer after their Junior year working for the company, getting a feel for the program and thinking about a possible Master's project. Then they go back to MIT for their senior year and take more classes. They work for the company again the summer and fall after their senior year, on a project that they plan to write a thesis on. They spend the spring semester after their senior year writing the thesis. And they can graduate with real work experience and a Master's degree.

(Me and Kat '09 at a Company Picnic)

I think the last part of the presentation was the most inspiring. (Although the food which followed was quite welcome as well!) A dozen students who have been through part or all of the VI-A program already talked about their experiences. Kat '09 and I talked about going to China this summer and working for Microsoft Research Asia. Kat talked a little about her project, "a prototype for new tangible user devices." She couldn't say too much though, because of copyright issues. For my part, I was working in the Speech Group on Text-To-Speech. Basically, trying to make the computer talk to you believably. Your version of Windows almost certainly comes with a voice that can read text to you. But, you can almost certainly tell that it's a computer reading to you, and not a human. Research is still going on in lots of places about how to make the computers sound more human, and MSRA is one of them.

Microsoft Research gave its (hundreds of!) interns a great environment. The working hours were very much up to you, people were always giving open talks about their research, and sometimes we'd go out for food, KTV, or games together. And of course, being in Beijing, there was plenty for Kat and I to explore in our free time.

Other students talked about their experiences, and they all had glowing things to say about the program. For some students, the real work experience gave new meaning to the classes they were taking. For other, the long-term relationship with their bosses was the most important thing. Many students emphasized how they were able to do deeper projects than a typical internship because of the amount of time they planned to spend with the company. Several also mentioned having a beer with the CEO or CTO of their company as an example of the great company atmospheres they were part of.

One piece of praise for the program stood out from the rest. It came from someone who had interned at Google this past summer. He said, "You know how sometimes at MIT you feel really dumb, because everyone's so smart? At Google, I felt retarded!

My guess is that most people don't go into an internship hoping to feel stupid. What do you guys think? What do/would you look for in an internship? Your Project? The Work Environment? Lots and lots of Cash?

Xavier and I know each other because I'm his Mommy, and now we're Brothers too. Which might sound confusing, if you didn't know about APO. APO, or Alpha Phi Omega, is a co-ed service fraternity on campus (Jessie '07 has mentioned it before in her blog). Last spring I was the Membership Vice President, or more colloquially, the Mommy. As Mommy, I was in charge of recruiting new pledges and helping them go through the process of becoming Brothers in the fraternity. Xavier was one of my pledges, and he was really involved last semester during his pledge term, doing service and participating in meetings and social gatherings. So now he's been elevated to Brotherhood, and I can be both his Mommy and his Brother.

Most people join APO because they're interested in doing community service. And indeed, this is a fine reason to join. There are all sorts of projects, and if they aren't enough for you or right for you, it's easy to start your own. Some past projects that I can think of off the top of my head: pruning trees along the Charles River, building an amphitheater at a Boy Scout Camp, sending books to prisoners, performing a variety show at a nursing home, working with the National Braille Press, running the Ugliest Man on Campus charity competition, running a Book Exchange for students at the beginning of the semester, ... A large part of the requirements to join, and to continue as a brother, are to participate in and run service projects.

But there's more to APO than just Service. APO is based around 3 values: Leadership, Friendship, and Service. The Leadership part is fairly obvious, since people serve as Officers each semester, and people need to be leaders to lead service projects well. And the Service is central to the organization. But sometimes we forget about the third one. We might be too busy to go to APO study breaks, or hang out with each other. But even if that's true sometimes, APO is still a community, and we're reminded of it in unexpected ways, like another brother giving us a random roll between classes :)

Just another great group at MIT...

Hello! I'm Kim. Well, I guess I'm Kimd when it comes to admissions blogging, since there's another Kim. As you can see in my bio, I'm a senior at MIT this year. I'm taking a lot of awesome classes. One of them is 6.131: Power Electronics. It's a lab class about the art of creating electrical devices which use power efficiently. Power Electronics is, for better or for worse, about as time consuming as it is awesome, so I've spent most of the last week staring at this,

From mitblog

except that it got more and more complicated as time went on. Eventually I had a power amplifier that I could use to play music from my laptop through a lab speaker! Now that I've finished the lab and shown it to a TA, I have a day's break where I won't go into lab -- how exciting!

I've also been working on assignments for my other classes: 6.336, 6.012, 6.021 and 17.810 ... more about them later. Luckily I've found some people to work with on some of the classes. Late nights always seem less painful when there's someone to share a chocolate chip and banana blueberry yogurt concoction with :)

But, the night wears on and I have miles (well, a paper) to go before I sleep. Ttfn!