It's finally warming up in Boston, and the joggers are out and about. Some of them are no doubt preparing for the Boston marathon, which takes place every year on Patriots Day (the third Monday in April, and a holiday in New England). The marathon is like an annual celebration of spring here in New England, and many MIT students participate. For good measure, the day after the marathon is a student holiday at MIT.
As reported in the New York Times today, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany have found that running can make you high. Apparently it has to do with increased concentration of chemicals called endorphins in the brain. In light of this discovery, it finally becomes clear why anyone would subject themselves to 26 miles of torture: the marathon is the running man's Woodstock!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
MIT website
The MIT webpage changes every day. And not just at random, like Youtube or Wikipedia. No, someone actually creates a new picture everyday that highlights MIT's research. And the picture has to have the letters M I T spelled out in some creative way. Like today, it's in the shadow of a polar bear!
I am not kidding: go check it out. And keep checking it out, because I guarantee you it will change every day! And each day, a new hidden MIT message will jump out at you. I have to find out how they do it: they must have some AI software or something that finds the cleverest way to put those letters in there ...
By the way, today's website is about massimpact, a conference on how to design cities within a sustainable environment. It's organized by MIT's Architecture School, which I was surprised to learn is one of the best grad schools for Architecture in the US.
I am not kidding: go check it out. And keep checking it out, because I guarantee you it will change every day! And each day, a new hidden MIT message will jump out at you. I have to find out how they do it: they must have some AI software or something that finds the cleverest way to put those letters in there ...
By the way, today's website is about massimpact, a conference on how to design cities within a sustainable environment. It's organized by MIT's Architecture School, which I was surprised to learn is one of the best grad schools for Architecture in the US.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Who blogs about MIT?
I did some searching on Google to see who else was writing about MIT. Checking out the competition, you know! Here's what I found:
MIT blog: An MIT Masters student in Electrical Engineering who writes once every few months.
MIT admissions blogs: A semi-official set of blogs from the MIT admissions office, written by office staff and a set of MIT students.
MIT Sloan Technology and Innovation: An MBA student writing about MIT's business school.
A-List: By an MIT instructor, about `literacy, media and videogames.'
Thoughts on business, engineering and higher education: An MIT alumna, who's now a professor of Industrial Engineering.
From the Desk of Stinkpot: An MIT PhD student in Computational and Systems biology, who puts lots of pictures on his blog.
That's it! Given that there are over 10,000 students at MIT, I was expecting to find a 100 or more active blogs. I guess MIT students have better things to do ;-)
MIT is a unique place in many ways: there's stuff happening here that doesn't happen anywhere else. Where else do the buildings have numbers instead of names, or the campus tour guides talk of a history of assembling police-car replicas on top of buildings? I aim to capture this MITness in this blog. From the point of view of a grad student, in particular.
P.S. If you come across interesting blogs by students about the MIT experience, do let me know and I'll add them to this list.
MIT blog: An MIT Masters student in Electrical Engineering who writes once every few months.
MIT admissions blogs: A semi-official set of blogs from the MIT admissions office, written by office staff and a set of MIT students.
MIT Sloan Technology and Innovation: An MBA student writing about MIT's business school.
A-List: By an MIT instructor, about `literacy, media and videogames.'
Thoughts on business, engineering and higher education: An MIT alumna, who's now a professor of Industrial Engineering.
From the Desk of Stinkpot: An MIT PhD student in Computational and Systems biology, who puts lots of pictures on his blog.
That's it! Given that there are over 10,000 students at MIT, I was expecting to find a 100 or more active blogs. I guess MIT students have better things to do ;-)
MIT is a unique place in many ways: there's stuff happening here that doesn't happen anywhere else. Where else do the buildings have numbers instead of names, or the campus tour guides talk of a history of assembling police-car replicas on top of buildings? I aim to capture this MITness in this blog. From the point of view of a grad student, in particular.
P.S. If you come across interesting blogs by students about the MIT experience, do let me know and I'll add them to this list.
Hello World
Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm a PhD student at MIT, and I plan to write about what it's like being a PhD student at MIT! I think it's a lot of fun, though at times it can be very challenging. I've been a student here a while, so I've seen the good and the bad. I'll let you decide though.
That's all for now!
That's all for now!
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