Snowy Birthday Party by Cydnie T. '12
the #IAParty2011 is just beginning
Friday January 7th marked the beginning of MIT’s 150th birthday celebration. Alumni and community from all over are making trips to Cambridge to see and remember all the great things that have come out of our beloved MIT in the past century and a half.
There are a ton of activities lined up for the next few months. The committee has been working for months now to gather all the history and artifacts they can muster to make sure that everything about the last 150 years is represented.
I got the chance to go to the opening of the special exhibit at the MIT Museum. They have ten themes that display every aspect of life here. I was shocked at how many inventions and creations came out of the research that both students and professors are doing.
These were the themes and objects they have in the exhibit:
- Academic MIT
- 2.70/2.007 MIT’s Most Famous Class
Formula SAE Racecar
Independent Activities Period
Lantern Slides from MIT’s Faculty
Physical Sciences Study Committee
Scratch
UROP - Analog/Digital MIT
- Computer Time-Sharing
Differential Analyzer
GNU Manifesto
Google App Inventor
HP-35 Calculator
“Man-Computer Symbiosis”
MIT Project Athena
Slide Rules
Spacewar!
Theseus Maze
TX-0 Computer
Whirlwind Computer - Artistic MIT
- Analog Music Synthesizer
Bavicchi’s Festival Symphony
Calder’s La Grande Voile
Centerbeam
Copeland’s Canticle of Freedom
Digital Holography
Goldring’s Decent
Harbison’s Flight Into Egypt
Janney’s Soundstair
Kepes’ Flame Orchard
Leacock’s November Actions
LeWitt’s Bars of Color Within Squares
MIT Architectural Student Drawings
MIT Glass Lab
Parker’s Plasma Sculpture
Piene’s Fleurs du Mal
The Computer Generation
White’s Capitol Reef
Woodbury’s The Blue Wave - Bionic MIT
- Artificial “Skin”
Boston Arm
H.M.’s Brain
“Minsky Arm”
PowerFoot One Prosthetic Foot
Prescription Eyeglasses Lens Fabricator
Stair-Climbing Wheelchair
Strain Gage Denture Tenderometer - MIT’s Boston
- Boston Chinatown Master Plan
Boston Wind Tunnel Studies
Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Plan
Charles River as Research Lab
Ellen S. Richards’ Research Notes
Perceptual Form of the City
Weather Radar Research
William O. Crosby’s Geology Studies - Broadcasting MIT
- Cambridge Campus Dedication
Compton Lecture Series
MIT Press’ Most Influential Works
MIT Science Reporter
MIT World’s Fair Albums
MIT’s Mid-Century Convocation
OpenCourseWare
Stereo Views of “Boston Tech”
WMBR 88.1 Radio Station - Entrepreneurial MIT
- American Research Development Corp.
Arthur D. Little’s “Silk Purse”
MIT $100K Competition
MIT Sloan Fellows
MIT Spinoffs
MIT’s First Patent Policy
One Laptop Per Child
Perfect Cup of Coffee Research
SR-4 Strain Gage
Technicolor Film Camera - Pioneering MIT
- Adaptive Optics
Apollo GNC System Simulator
Athelstan Spilhaus’s Bathythermograph
Atomichron Atomic Clock
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Chomsky’s Elements of Linguistic Structure
Civil Engineering Surveying Classes
Despradelle’s Beacon of Progress
Discovery of tRNA’s Structure
Edgerton’s High-Speed Motion Pictures
Feynman Diagrams
Francis Bitter’s First Electromagnet
Hydrothermal Vent Samples
MIT Neurosciences Research Program
MIT Spectroscopy Laboratory
MIT’s Accomplished Graduates
MIT’s Distinguished Faculty
MIT’s First Wind Tunnel
Monsanto House of the Future
Norbert Wiener Meets Albert Einstein
Numerically Controlled Milling Machine
Pioneering Maser/Laser Technologies
R/V Atlantis
Ray and Maria Stata Center
RLE Brainwave Correlator Computer
Sea Squirt
Van de Graaff Generators
Visible Language Worshop
Voyager Plasma Science Experiment
Whitehead Human Genome Project - Problem-Solving MIT
- Cancer Research
Carlisle Solar House
Cavity Magnetron
CityCar Electric Vehicle
Copenhagen Wheel
Expert Testimony
Fluid Bed Catalytic Cracking
Mark 14 Gunsight
MIT Nuclear Research reactor
Nuclear Medicine
Presidential Science Advisors
Project SAGE
Protein Folding
SS M.I.T. Victory Christening Bottle
Virus Battery - Uniquely MIT
- Baker House Piano Drop
Dirk Struik Indictment Papers
Grateful Dead at MIT
Hacking – The Smoot
IHTFP
MIT Class of 2011 Brass Rat
Richard C. Maclaurin’s Death Mask
Sharpies Photo Mural
Status of Women Faculty in Science
(P.S. I got this list from the map of the exhibit… There is also a ton more info about the exhibit here)
When I left the museum, it was SNOOOWWWIIINNNNGGG!
Now I know that this whole snow phenomenon is not as exciting to anyone who grew up around it. But for me, coming from the deep south, this is a unique occurrence.
So unique, in fact, that it happened again the next week! We were graced with 18-24 inches of glorious, fluffy snow bunnies!
The best part about it is, the #IAParty2011 is just beginning!
(why not?) First!
Sigh…thanks for listing down some of the many tangible reasons I want to be there, come fall. (Mind you, I wouldn’t be able to articulate them coherently outside the EC’s house – it was the one of the few times I wasn’t babbling like a complete idiot about everything MIT
)
Hi, I’m Reed Barnes. I really want to go to MIT for college. I know it’s a little strange to be thinking about college in 7th grade, but hey, what can I say, I REALLY want to go to MIT. I wanted to know how I could talk to an MIT faculty member, by email or something similar(P.O. Box? Hologram? Magic spell?). If someone could give me an email, P.O box, etc. and send it to [email protected], I’d be incredibly grateful. As I said, I REALLY want to go here. MIT seems like an incredibly cool place, and it’s been my dream since I heard about. It’s why I go to school.(That, and my parents make me. And my friends. The point is, please give me a method of contact!)
Oh, and, er, sorry for not commenting on the actual blog entry, it was just the most recent, and I thought that that way, more people would see my comment, and I’d have a better chance of getting a response. I know people aren’t SUPER likely to respond to a post from a 7th grader.
Happy Belated Birthday MIT
Wow look at how much has changed over the last 150 years.. and how many positive contributions your students and staff have contributed to society and the world.