A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms

Touchable Holograms

The Future of Robotics

Cephalopod - Master of Camouflage

9 WAYS TO BUILD A FEMINIST FUTURE

1. Commit To Your Cause: Commit to your ideals. If you can afford to give time, then give time. If you can afford to give money, then give money. You can always do something to make the word a better place for women and girls!
   
2. Help Elect Progressive Women: Congress is still 84 percent male. Just think of how our society of congress were progressive women. Support feminist candidates running for office... or run yourself!
   
3. Speak Out: Speak out against sexism, homophobia, racism, ableism, ageism, sizeism and all the other "isms". Do it loudly and proudly. By speaking up, you help other speak up, too.
   
4. Love Your Body: The pressures to conform to impossible standards for a woman's body is overwhelming. Instead, strive to be healthy, love you body for what it is and love yourself for who you are. Make healthy decisions and encourage other women in your life to do the same.
   
5. Take Action: From attacks on reproductive health care to the fact that women are more likely to lack health insurance, women's health and safety issues need to be at the top of the political agenda. Let your representatives hear loud and clear what you think about these Issues.
   
6. Read, Read, Read, Write: When you read something that inspires you to action, write about it to inspire others. Read the newspaper and write a letter to the editor. Read Internet blogs and post your own comments. Exchange ideas. Raise your voice and raise your pen!
   
7. Be A Good Ally: Educate yourself about all struggles for justice and equality - including ones that may not seem to affect you personally. Find out what you can do to help. None of us are free until we all are free.
   
8. Start A Conversation: The personal is political. Talk with your family, friends and community about the ways sexism, racism, and homophobia affect them personally. Use these personal associations to create political awareness that can lead to activism.
   
9. Support Women-Friendly Businesses: Put your money where you mouth is. When you spend money, ask yourself, "Who is profiting?" Make an effort to find local women-owner and women-friendly businesses and give them your business.

By MIT Tips...

A Turing Machine In the classic style by Mike Davey

A Turing machine is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols contained on a strip of tape. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer. The "Turing" machine was described by Alan Turing in 1937, who called it an "automatic machine".(Wikipedia)

We need a Green Planet!!!

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

Remember when you were a kid?

Roborat Technology: The Brain Machine Interface Program by John K Chapin, Ph.D

Geneious - Bioinformatics Software for Sequence alignment, sequence analysis, BLAST, Mr Bayes, ClustalW

What is Geneious?... is a revolutionary bioinformatics software platform that is both ultra-powerful and easy to use. Scientists, researchers and students are able to search, organize and analyze genomic and protein information via a single desktop program that provides publication ready images to enhance the impact of your research.

Geneious - Bioinformatics Software for Sequence alignment, sequence analysis, BLAST, Mr Bayes, ClustalW

The Kitchen of the Future

SixthSense by Pranav Mistry at MIT Media Lab

SixthSense is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

Five Rules for Effective Meetings

1. Distribute an agenda at least one day in advance; encourage people to add new items to the agenda prior to the meeting.
2. Set time for the meeting; begin and end on time.
3. Stick with the agenda and the targeted functions: (a) make decisions, (b) foster internal changes, (c) exchange ideas and experiences, (d) disseminate information, (e) respond to external changes, and (f) develop teamwork. Allow time for discussion but stay on the topic.
   
4. Invite people to voice their options. Silence does not necessarily mean consent.
5. Record decisions and action assignments, preferably in a way that allows everybody to see them on a big screen. Summarize the action list at the end of the meeting. Review the action list for completion at the next meeting.

By MIT Tips...

Tests: Use Your Fear

Student:

I think I am doing more things right. I go to every class, do the readings and psets, go to office hours, and answer questions in class. but when it comes to studying for a test a end up spending more time telling myself no to be afraid than I do preparing for it. My professors often say they are surprised that I don't do better on exams. How can I change this?

Recent Alum:
Fear and anxiety about tests are natural an actually a sign that you care about what you are doing. They only became a problem if you can no longer use the excitement to prepare for the exam, and instead, the anxiety drives you to distraction.

Some tricks that I use to channel my anxiety include:

• Taking a break to clear my mind while practicing deep breathing. Sometimes the mental anxiety can turn physical. It is important to calm your body and your mind. Doing this during the test is equally important.
• When my mind races along about other topics or concerns while I am trying to focus, I use a personal notepad to jot down those random thoughts. By writing your thoughts down, you can get them out of your head, you'll have the note to remind you to think about them later, and you'll be able to concentrate on the material you are studying.

You said that your exam grades are not reflection how well you know the information. It is fantastic to have a complete mental understanding of the material, but tests are also about showing that understanding in a limited time frame. Sometimes that I have done many times and have found to be very useful is practicing time-limited test problems before the exam. If you know that you will have to answer 6 problem on the test in an hour, for example, then you only have 10 minutes per question. Before the exam, practice-solving 6 problems in an hour, or practice solving 1 problem in 10 minutes or less.

By MIT Tips...

To much study? Is there such a thing?

Student:
I don't do well on exam even though I spend long hours studying, at the library or in my room. I can do the psets and I think I understand the material, but I have trouble focusing on what's in front of me. Mi ideal is to just learn for learning's sake, but I know that in order to get better exam grades I have to become more systematic and get through things faster.

I don't really have extracurricular (I am doing a thesis). Maybe I should do a UROP or something to force myself to focus?

Recent Alum:
It is wonderful to hear that you enjoy learning, and know how how to work until you understand the concepts in your classes, not just to get through the psets . But I think you are right that you have to much time to study. If you feel your time is unlimited, there is not much pressure to make good use of it.

It may be helpful to make a schedule and set short-term goals. Even if you don't have something else to do at 3 pm, for instance, make a mental note (or write it down, for extra emphasis) that you will finish the Physics psets between 1 and 3 pm. This will give you a challenge that may help you focus and use your time productively. If you thing that an extracurricular activity may help you better schedule your time, you can try that too. Most of our varsity athlete are also excellent students because they have to use their time at peak efficiency.

By MIT Tips...

Where and When to Study?

The obvious answer is "wherever and whenever you can". The more accurate answer is "where and when you can be most productive". Consider the following...

Seven criteria for a good place to study:

• Available whenever you need it: not a lounge or classroom subject to frequent use by others
• Free for interruptions and distractions. Probably not in your room, unless you have a single and can keep the door closed. Try instead any libraries; classrooms not in use; a study room - if the atmosphere allows you to concentrate
• Has all the materials you need. Check before you leaving home to make sure you have the right notebooks, textbooks, handouts, paper, pencils, etc. An extra tip back and forth is study time lost
  
• Has a large enough desk or table. If you can spread out everything you need, you won't waste time moving things around
• Has a comfortable chair. Comfortable enough to let you sit for an hour without getting stiff or fidgety; not so comfortable that you'll nod off!
• Has enough light. Straining to see the pages or screen burns through your energy more quickly
• Has a comfortable temperature. Like your chair, warm enough (or cool enough, depending on the season) no to distract you; not so warm that you'll nod off, again
  

By MIT Tips...

How to prepare for and take Math tests

1. Starts studying early
2. Go to review sessions
3. Be on time
4. Get a good night's sleeps
5. Stay calm
6. Learn the theorems and formulas that will be important
7. Write down everything you might forget during the test
8. Use mnemonic dives (tricks and acronyms to remember things)
9. Thinks on words, no equations
10. Take deep breaths
11. Start with what you know
12. Make reasonable assumptions or guesses
13. Don't get bogged down with algebra
14. Make sure the grader knows what to grade
15. Try to recall identities

By MIT Tips...

How to Study Math

Here are quick tips on doing Math problems sets:

1. Read the problem set when you first get it
2. Don't try it to do the entire problem set in one night
3. Take breaks while you work
4. Don't spend to much time on a single problem
5. Remember previous Math classes (specially trig)
6. Use your textbook (if it's useful)
7. Ask for help from: Professor, TA, classmates, upperclass student, etc.
8. Try logic game
9. Make your own visual aids
10. Be ready for things you haven't seen before
11. Avoid the Internet whenever you can

By MIT Tips...

Terrific Animation!!!!

Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.