Today we walked all over MIT's campus. MIT stands for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is the university that Abbie graduated from in 2007. Jonathan is currently finishing his Master's degree there.
First we saw Killian Court, where MIT's graduation ceremony is held, and the Great Dome, which is the site of many hacks. The word "hack" is the MIT term for a prank that doesn't hurt anyone or anything. For example, when the first Lord of the Rings movie was released in 2001, students put up a large version of the Ring around the dome (picture).
We then stopped by an Athena Cluster, which is the MIT name for a room of computers that any MIT student can use to do their homework. They use the name "Athena" because Athena was a Greek goddess who was thought to be very wise, and MIT students also want to be wise!
Our next stop was the basement of the Hayden Library, which holds almost every scientific journal that has ever been written. They have original copies of journals that go back to the late 1800s!
We then walked outside to the Green Building, which is the tallest building in Cambridge, and which houses many small departments at MIT. Abbie told me a story about how there once was wind blowing so fast under the bottom of the Green Building that the revolving doors were spinning around and around and no one could get out of the building! The fire department had to come and let people out of the second floor windows. After that day, MIT had a giant statue built in front of the building so that the wind couldn't go through there any more. They call the statue "the Sail." I could feel the wind blowing really hard when we were standing near the Sail, and I was very glad that Abbie held me tight so that I didn't get blown away! Boston is a very windy city.
Next we saw the Stata Center, which is the building that houses the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department. The Stata Center was designed by a famous architect, Frank Gehry. Parts of the roof are used to collect rain water, which is then recycled into the plumbing system for the building.
Finally, I went to Computational Photography class with Jonathan. At MIT, all of the classes are labelled with numbers, and this class was 6.815. The 6 stands for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, and the 815 is the class number. We learned in class about how photo editing programs work. I didn't understand very much of what the professor said, but Jonathan showed me some of the projects they did for class!
I had so much fun looking around at MIT today. Science and engineering are so much fun!
Sincerely,
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