A new semester by Chris M. '12

Since everyone’s doing it, I don’t want to miss out on telling you all what classes I’m taking this term! I’ve got a varied and hefty schedule this term so lets get to it. (classes are arranged chronologically)

8.02-Physics II-Electricity and Magnetism
I’m not actually taking this class as a student, I’m a TA! BWAHAHAHA!! It’s a nice job, I explain physics, grade a few papers, and in exchange I get to say I helped teach a class at MIT on my resume. Not bad. Plus it’s my favorite professor’s last semester at MIT, so I’m happy to get to work with him teaching his class.

6.01-Intro to EECS
EECS, for those of you who didn’t stare at the floor during prom, is “Electrical Engineering and Computer Science”, and 6.01 is a quick and dirty introduction to the fundamentals of circuit building and programming. I’ve got a background in programming, but they use Python whereas I learned on Java. (for all you coders out there, let me go ahead and say Python>Java is TRUE) I love python, it’s so easy to read and it makes a lot of sense. All in all, I love this class so far.

2.002-Mechanics and Materials II
The sequel to the critically acclaimed “Mechanics and Materials I”, this class focuses on how materials behave when you load them to failure. Or in laymen’s terms, I get to break stuff in lab =). It’s fascinating to learn why bridges collapse and airplane roofs tear off, and being able to predict how and when things will fail based on the materials their made out of is a cool party trick (at least at the parties I go to)

14.02-Macroeconomics
Nothing like macrophotography, macroeconomics is the study of markets as a whole. It’s a pretty good time to be interested in GDP and what not with all the talk about China and the recession. MIT has one of the best econ departments in the country, so I’m a lucky guy to get to listen to my professors talk about how it all works and what exactly is going on.

21M.460- Sabar Drumming
Do any of you guys remember Todd? My Sabar drum from long ago? (http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/sabar_drums_rwanda_and_the_cia.shtml/)
Well we’re going to be reunited at long last! I’m taking a class dedicated solely to my favorite part of Intro to World Music: playing the Sabar drums. I’m super excited for this.

21W.789-Mobile web application development
The winner of “wrong category” award, this writing class (what?) is a project based mobile application development. It’s the perfect compliment to the Obj-C I picked up over IAP as the goal is to design and implement an application for mobile devices. I’ve got so many ideas on sticky notes I can’t wait to bring to life!

Rock Climbing-Top Ropes
MIT has some pretty great options for PE credits, including skiing, hiking, SCUBA diving, and rock climbing. The only one that fit my schedule this time was Rock Climbing, but I’m still really excited about getting to go out and do something I love and have it count for credit!

In addition to those classes, I’m also participating in a UROP designing and testing an Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope to look for high temperature superconductors and I’m the recently elected “publicity czar” of the greatest club on earth (http://miters.mit.edu/). Actually Cam and I are both in MITERS, so expect to get blogger double teamed with all the cool stuff that goes on thereabouts.

Anything else? OH! I’m going to Germany for a weekend to give a talk on entrepreneurship and effective teaching methods for intelligent students, and (back) to Stanford to do some more work on stuff (these trips are practically back to back, which should make for an interesting week.) I’ve also picked up running as a habit with the goal of running in the Boston Marathon next year!

WHEW! It’s a crazy crazy life here at MIT, but boy do I love every minute of it (good thing, I spend a lot of minutes here!)