Today was all about groups- we were introduced to our study groups with whom we will spend the next 3 months working every night into the small hours together...we played various team games to see how we worked together, which was observed by one of us and we saw the benefits (or not) of team working as opposed to working individually..and how teams make decisions and come to agreement (or then again, they might not)...
It was also a day of learning the history of MIT...totally fascinating- we learnt that MIT was set up in 1861 with its aim to bring together science with commerce. Staff always had to raise half their salary from business. It has always had a history of cross-collaboration of disciplines, so its largest schools are technology, architecture and engineering....there's a great research centre between Harvard Medical and MIT Engineering for instance. Then there's Media Lab, where media art and technology meet, loads of biotechnology, nanotechnology, astronomy, visual art.. and the list goes on. I realised that this cross-fertilisation has always been so important to me and what took me to the University of Sussex too, way back in 1992.
At MIT numbers rule - all students are numbers, buildings are numbers, all courses are referred to by their numbers e.g 15.312.
The main Dome building at MIT is where many "hacks" take place...students play pranks and try not to get caught by MIT Police. They managed to, incredibly enough, get a police car up on the top of the Dome (no idea how!), complete with half-eaten donuts and a cup of lukewarm coffee inside!! Some students started to think about what our hack could be for this year..not sure we could ever top that one...
We visited the beautiful Stata Building designed by Frank Gehry for Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy that was more than triple over budget...
There's even the descendent of the apple tree here, where Newton discovered gravity!
Getting an education at MIT is likened to having a drink of water from a fire hose...
(overwhelming, that's what I feel, and truly inspirational...!)
No comments:
Post a Comment