Events Calendar

Imagine different worlds in Cosmograph: Speculative Fictions for the New Space Age, an exhibition that brings art and science together to examine possible futures where outer space is both a frontier for human exploration and a new territory for exploitation and development by private enterprise.We are living at the dawn of a New Space Age. What will the future hold? Will space elevators bring humanity's space junk to turn it into useful material here on Earth? Will asteroid mining be the next frontier in prospecting? Will the promise of geo-engineering turn into a nightmare of unintended consequences?Explore these possibilities and more in our new exhibition that blurs the lines between fact and fantasy, and art and science.

MIT is not a place so much as it is a unique collection of exceptional people.What is essential at MIT is asking questions others may not ask, trying the unexpected in pursuit of a greater solution, and embracing distinctive skills and combinations of talents. Whether encompassing global issues, ventures into space, or efforts to improve our daily lives, stories told in this exhibit showcase the process of discovery that sits at the heart of MIT.Delve into the experimental culture and collaborative spirit of the MIT community in this dynamic and interactive exploration of groundbreaking projects and ongoing innovation."MIT’s greatest invention may be itself—an unusual concentration of unusual talent, forever reinventing itself on a mission to make a better world." — President L. Rafael ReifLocated in the Brit J. (1961) and Alex (1949) d'Arbeloff GallerySupported by the Biogen Foundation

How can code be used as a creative tool by artists and designers?This question motivates the work of the Future Sketches group at the MIT Media Lab. Led by artist and educator Zach Lieberman, the group aims to help us “see” code by using it to make artistically controlled, computer-generated visuals.Explore some of the latest research from the group that uses typography and digital tools to create interactive, creative, and immersive work.Located in our Martin J. (1959) and Eleanor C. Gruber Gallery.

Experience the captivating work of Arthur Ganson, where his perceptions of the world are choreographed into the subtle movements and gestures of his artistic machines."These machines are daydreams condensed into physical form, computer programs manifesting in three-dimensional space." - Arthur GansonArthur Ganson's medium is a feeling or idea inspired by the world he perceives around him – from the delicate fluttering of paper to the sheer scale of the universe. Combining engineering genius with whimsical choreography, he creates machines to encode those ideas into the physical world. But he invites everyone to draw their own conclusions on the meaning behind the subtle gestures of the machines.Currently on display are a select group of Arthur Ganson's works from our MIT Museum Collection. We expect to exhibit his work in large numbers in the future.

How can you investigate something you cannot see?The challenge of understanding the unknown motivates scientists today, just as it has inspired curious people for centuries.Using material from the Allen Forbes Collection, this exhibit traces the scientific process of observing, measuring, and describing that turned whales from monsters into mammals.Using prints from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, Monsters of the Deep examines how European knowledge about the creatures of the sea was informed by new information from sailors, scholars, and beachcombers, and how that knowledge transformed what people understood about the natural world.Want a closer look at what we have on view? You can explore digitized versions of exhibition objects here.On view through January 2026.

Hiroshi Ishii and the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab have pioneered new ways for people to interact with computers, with the invention of the “tangible user interface.”It began with a vision of "Tangible Bits," where users can manipulate ordinary physical objects to access digital information. It evolved into a bolder vision of "Radical Atoms," where materials can change form and reconfigure themselves just as pixels can on a screen. This experimental exhibit of three iconic works — SandScape, inFORM, and TRANSFORM — is part of the MIT Museum's ongoing efforts to collect the physical machines as well as preserve the user experience of, in Ishii's words, making atoms dance.Learn more about the exhibits here, or watch the YouTube video of Hiroshi Ishii's talk at the MIT Museum below.This is an ongoing exhibition in our MIT Collects exhibition.

Janet Echelman's Remembering the Future widens our perspective in time, giving sculptural form to the history of the Earth's climate from the last ice age to the present moment, and then branching out to visualize multiple potential futures.Constructed from colored twines and ropes that are braided, knotted and hand-spliced to create a three-dimensional form, the immersive artwork greets you with its grand scale presiding over the MIT Museum lobby.This large-scale installation by 2022-2024 MIT Distinguished Visiting Artist Janet Echelman, was developed during her residency at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). Architect, engineer and MIT Associate Professor Caitlin Mueller collaborated on the development of the piece.The title, Remembering the Future was inspired by the writings commonly attributed to Søren Kierkegaard: "The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have."As the culmination of three years of dedicated research and collaboration, this site-specific installation explores Earth's climate timeline, translating historical records and possible futures into sculptural form.Echelman's climate research for this project was guided by Professor Raffaele Ferrari and the MIT Lorenz Center, creators of En-ROADS simulator which uses current climate data and modeling to visualize the impact of environmental policies and actions on energy systems.Learn more about Janet Echelman and the MIT Museum x CAST Collaboration.Learn more about the exhibition at the MIT Museum.

On view October 1 -- December 11, 2025This exhibition draws on archival materials from the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC) to explore a century of cultural heritage preservation in Aleppo, Syria. It takes as its point of departure the work of Kamil al-Ghazzi (1853–1933), the pioneering Aleppine historian whose influential three-volume chronicle, Nahr al-Dhahab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab (The River of Gold in the History of Aleppo), was published between 1924 and 1926.Ink, Stone, and Silver Light presents three modes of documentation—manuscript, built form, and photography—through which Aleppo’s urban memory has been recorded and preserved. Featuring figures such as Michel Écochard and Yasser Tabbaa alongside al-Ghazzi, the exhibition traces overlapping efforts to capture the spirit of a city shaped by commerce, craft, and coexistence. At a time when Syria again confronts upheaval and displacement, these archival fragments offer models for preserving the past while envisioning futures rooted in dignity, knowledge, and place.

Doing “All the Things”: Leveraging Data, Collaboration, and Evidence-based Design to Transform Gateway CoursesDr. Denise Galarza Sepúlveda, Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI) at the Center for Research and Teaching Dr. Heather Rypkema, Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) and Associate Director of FCI, University of Michigan Dr. Alicia Romero, Lecturer III, Department of Statistics, University of MichiganDescriptionGateway courses play a crucial role at most institutions. They can be students’ only exposure to a discipline, or a make-or-break experience that can alter their chosen career paths. For faculty and instructional teams, teaching these courses can feel like having to do “all the things.” There is the crush of content as they prepare students to succeed in different downstream courses, challenges in integrating active learning and authentic assessments, heavy logistical demands, and structural and resource constraints. Given these issues, the task of redesigning these large gateway courses can feel unmanageable or even impossible for faculty. The University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI) was established to provide faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise needed to create transformative learning experiences for all students. FCI’s theory of change is that the complexity of teaching and learning in gateway courses requires a multifaceted and sustainable approach, one that helps faculty move away from feeling they have to do “all that things.” In this talk, we will share FCI’s redesign model, which is grounded in equity-focused teaching principles and leverages evidence-based pedagogy, learning analytics, assessment, and the deep collaboration of cross-role course design teams. We will also describe FCI’s course reports, which utilize institutional data to provide an overview of student identities, academic trajectories, and grade outcomes to provide insights about students and to help inform a course’s design priorities and projects. Lastly, we will explore a series of redesign examples from an array of FCI-partnering courses, including Physics, Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Statistics.All are welcome. Register via ZoomAbout the SpeakersDr. Denise Galarza Sepúlveda is the Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), which provides faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise needed to create transformative learning experiences in large gateway courses. Dr. Galarza Sepúlveda establishes the program's strategic priorities, leads partnership recruitment efforts, and manages a talented team of consultants dedicated to redesigning gateway courses. She also contributes strategic direction to the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching as part of its Senior Leadership Team. Before joining CRLT, she served as director of the community-based learning office in the Division of Undergraduate Education at UM’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.Dr. Heather Rypkema is Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan, as well as an Associate Director with the Foundational Course Initiative (FCI). She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and held faculty positions in Chemistry and Climate Science before transitioning to her current role at the interface of teaching and data analytics in 2018. She supports course and curricular design efforts through data collection, analysis, and triangulation of databases that include institutional, LMS, instructional technology, and survey data.Dr. Alicia Romero is a lecturer in the statistics department at the University of Michigan. She completed her Ph.D. at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Alicia was a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at Ithaca College in New York. Her interests are in Statistical Education focusing on the use of technology to enhance teaching and the learning process.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Gloria Choi, PhD, Picower Institute, MITDate: Thursday, October 23, 2025Time: 4:00pmLocation: 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium (in-person only)Reception to followTalk Title: Neuroimmune Interactions Shaping Social BehaviorBio: Gloria Choi is the Mark Hyman, Jr. Career Development Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and an investigator at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Her research examines how the immune system interacts with the brain and how these interactions influence neurodevelopment, behavior, and mood. Choi received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD from Caltech, where she trained with David Anderson. She conducted her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Richard Axel at Columbia University.

Anna Bykhovskaya (Duke University)

Omer Tamuz California Institute of Technology (joint with Fedor Sandomirskiy, Po Hyun Sung, and Ben Wincelberg)

A series of talks on OR-related topics. For more information see: https://orc.mit.edu/seminars-events/

Speaker: Leonid Gorodetskii (MIT)Title: Katz's proof of the Riemann hypothesis for hypersurfacesAbstract:In this talk, we will discuss Katz’s proof of the Riemann Hypothesis for hypersurfaces in projective space. Building on techniques developed last time, we will see how the persistence of purity theorem reduces the problem to explicit cases --- the Fermat and Gabber hypersurfaces --- and we will complete the verification using Gauss sums.Reference: Katz, A Note on Riemann Hypothesis for Curves and Hypersurfaces Over Finite Fields, Sections 5-8.

Speaker: Mohammed Abouzaid (Stanford University)Title: Some questions in bordism arising from Floer theoryAbstract: Many constructions in Floer theory can be formulated in terms of variants of the notion of a Flow category introduced by Cohen, Jones, and Segal. There are notions of left and right modules over such categories, which lift to the setting of spectra (or more generally modules over an appropriate ring spectrum) the notions of Floer homology and cohomology that are familiar for the ordinary case. In the presence of a group action, this results in a pairing, over manifold bordism, which in the simplest case is a pairing between equivariant free and derived (or homotopical) bordism. Knowing some properties of this pairing may be helpful for applications.

Thursday, October 23rd at 5pm Lewis Music Library, MIT Light reception to followAbout the SpeakerDescribed as "sleek, new," "hyper-fluent" and “a composer that rocks” by the New York Times, Pascal Le Boeuf is a GRAMMY-award winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer whose works range from improvised music to hybridizing notation-based chamber music with production-based technology.Recent compositions include “Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?” commissioned by Akropolis Reed Quintet with drummer Christian Euman; “Imprints” for Alarm Will Sound; “Playground” commissioned by Orchestra of St. Lukes; “Triple Concerto” for violin, percussion duo and orchestra featuring Barbora Kolářová and Arx Duo; “I Am Not A Number” commissioned by New World Symphony; and “Out of the Gate” commissioned and premiered by Nu Deco Ensemble.Recent commercial recordings and videos include collaborations with Akropolis Reed Quintet & Christian Euman, Tasha Warren & Dave Eggar, Friction Quartet, JACK Quartet, Hub New Music, Todd Reynolds, Sara Caswell, Jessica Meyer, Nick Photinos, Four/Ten Media, Bec Plexus featuring Ian Chang (of Son Lux), Dayna Stephens, Linda May Han Oh, Justin Brown, and the Le Boeuf Brothers Quintet (co-led by Remy Le Boeuf) praised by the New Yorker for "clearing their own path, mixing the solid swing of the jazz tradition with hip-hop, indie rock, and the complex techniques of classical modernism".As a keyboardist, Pascal has played as support for D’Angelo’s Black Messiah tour and Clean Bandit’s Rather Be tour with Australian pop artist Meg Mac. He actively performs with Le Boeuf Brothers, Jessie Montgomery’s Everything Band, vocalist/technologist Jamie Lidell, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, jazz vocalist Allan Harris, and his piano trio "Pascal's Triangle".Pascal’s most recent awards include 2025 GRAMMY for “Best Instrumental Composition”, a 2024 Barlow Commission, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2020 Copland House Residency Award, and various Independent Music Awards in “Jazz”, “Eclectic”, “Electronica” and “Music Video” categories. Pascal has received commissions and grants from NEA, New World Symphony, Nu Deco Ensemble, the Barlow Endowment, the Lake George Music Festival, Lincoln Center Stage, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and ASCAP.Pascal is an Assistant Professor of Music at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he teaches music composition. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music and Technology at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He is a Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University.Pascal lives in the Boston area with his wife, composer Molly Herron and their two kids.About the Music Forum SeriesThe MIT Music & Theater Arts Music Forum is a series of public presentations by music scholars from inside and outside of MIT. Hosted in the Lewis Music Library and presented in partnership with MIT Libraries, the MTA Music Forum Series gives the MIT Community an opportunity to engage with leading voices in every field of music scholarship. Past presenters include John Harbison, Julia Wolfe, Terry Riley, Don Byron, and others.

The MIT List Visual Arts Center will host a performative lecture with Goldin+Senneby in celebration of the opening of Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up.Swallow Image is a conversation about images of illness and the revision of reality by drug companies.At the beginning of the new millennium, Jakob Senneby squinted at a grayscale image of his brain while a doctor traced a series of white blobs on the screen. His doctor told him that these figures, captured by an MRI scan, were “white spots”: signs of damage to the nervous system that are associated with multiple sclerosis. In the following years, Senneby—one half of the artist duo Goldin+Senneby—cycled through experimental and largely ineffectual treatments, tracking the progress of the disease with each scan, with each crop of “attacks” launched by his immune system. As he lost faith in the drugs, Senneby learned that the white spots have proven to be a source of immense, hidden value: a booming economy is based on visualizing, counting, and measuring the spots in the development of pharmaceuticals. The drugs have become more and more successful in treating the white spots in the image, but not in addressing the onset of permanent disability—the most critical consequence of the disease. Nevertheless, the value of the market for treatments has reached nearly $30 billion per year.For Swallow Image, Goldin+Senneby will give a presentation on the evolution of “sick images”—depictions of illness that obscure the accounts of patients—and the lucrative market for MS drugs. The event picks up on Triple Canopy’s publication of two related works by Goldin+Senneby: "Spot Price," a blockchain-based artwork that links scans of Senneby’s diseased brain to the value of the drugs targeting such images; and “Regions of Interest,” an essay on living as a medical specimen and source of profit for drug companies.Following the program, please join us for the opening reception of the fall exhibitions, Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up, American Artist: To Acorn, and List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes.

Silent Meditation in the Chapel on Thursdays 6-8pm, open to everyone in the MIT Community. Some sessions include Guided Meditation at 6:30pm.

Get an inside look at what recruiters from Formlabs look for in candidate portfolios. Learn which projects to highlight, how to make your work stand out, and tips for building a strong portfolio.This session is especially helpful if you're preparing for the MechE Career Expo on Friday, November 7. You'll also hear about MIT resources to support your portfolio development.We’re looking for a few volunteers to submit their portfolios for a live anonymized review by Formlabs recruiters. The recruiters will talk through their feedback on the portfolio during the session. This is a great opportunity to get real-time feedback and better understand how employers evaluate portfolios.Interested in volunteering your portfolio? Email it to Tavi Sookhoo (tsookhoo@mit.edu). We'll anonymize it and send it back for your approval before the session.This CAPD event is open to MIT undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and recent alumni.Registration is required for this event. Please register here.