For Massachusetts Space Week... Be a planetary explorer!Join EAPS Professor Post-Tenure Richard Binzel as your guide for a tour of our Solar System, from the Sun to Pluto, precisely scaled to the length of MIT’s Infinite Corridor!Please register for tickets for one of the following times — Space is limited!Friday, April 25 — 11:00 a.m.Friday, April 25 — 3:00 p.m.Saturday, April 26 — 9:00 a.m.Saturday, April 26 — 12:30 p.m.Saturday, April 26 — 3:00 p.m.Sunday, April 27 — 11:00 a.m.Sunday, April 27 — 12:30 p.m.Learn more and follow the tour with the Infinite Solar System Online Guide — mobile phone and tablet-friendly! Starting point of the tour is the third floor lobby of MIT’s Building 7.Can’t join us for a guided tour? No problem! You can take a self-guided tour anytime during MIT visiting hours.Questions about the tours? Contact Allison DrovairosWhat is Massachusetts Space Week, organized by the Space Consortium?Massachusetts Space Week is an annual, week-long celebration that seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the broader community and to foster a shared enthusiasm for space science, through engaging events such as a Space Film Festival, a Space Career Fair, and more than 80 space events statewide.Launched in 2017, The Space Consortium is an MA-based 501(c)(3) non-profit led by academics and researchers working in space-related fields which organizes a series of space education & outreach initiatives, including Massachusetts Space Week and The Space Consortium (SC) Space Days, to help democratize space knowledge and connect MA-based space experts and enthusiasts with each other and with the public. Supported by the Massachusetts Space Grant, Massachusetts Space Week and The SC Space Days stand as testaments to grassroots collaboration & community effort among space experts across the state, aiming to make space science accessible to all.

Speaker: Richard Samworth (Unviersity of Cambridge)Abstract: In the context of linear regression, we construct a data-driven convex loss function with respect to which empirical risk minimisation yields optimal asymptotic variance in the downstream estimation of the regression coefficients. Our semiparametric approach targets the best decreasing approximation of the derivative of the log-density of the noise distribution. At the population level, this fitting process is a nonparametric extension of score matching, corresponding to a log-concave projection of the noise distribution with respect to the Fisher divergence. The procedure is computationally efficient, and we prove that our procedure attains the minimal asymptotic covariance among all convex M-estimators. As an example of a non-log-concave setting, for Cauchy errors, the optimal convex loss function is Huber-like, and our procedure yields an asymptotic efficiency greater than 0.87 relative to the oracle maximum likelihood estimator of the regression coefficients that uses knowledge of this error distribution; in this sense, we obtain robustness without sacrificing much efficiency.Biography: Richard Samworth obtained his PhD in Statistics from the University of Cambridge in 2004, and has remained in Cambridge since, becoming a full professor in 2013 and the Professor of Statistical Science in 2017. His main research interests are in high-dimensional and nonparametric statistics; he has developed methods and theory for shape-constrained inference, missing data, subgroup selection, data perturbation techniques (subsampling, the bootstrap, random projections, knockoffs), changepoint estimation and independence testing, amongst others. Richard currently holds a European Research Council Advanced Grant. He received the COPSS Presidents’ Award in 2018, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 and served as co-editor of the Annals of Statistics (2019-2021).

The first 100 days of any job is a critical time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Learn from the Hiring Manager’s perspective how to prioritize between gaining job knowledge, developing a peer network, and exceeding expectations in execution. Review and improve examples of real starting assignments and 100-day plans to inform your own.

The International Fair (iFair) is the flagship annual event of the International Students Association (ISA), held every spring at MIT. Celebrating global diversity, iFair brings together over 50 international and cultural clubs to share the richness of their traditions, heritage, and creativity. From vibrant booths offering food, art, and interactive experiences to live performances including music, dance, martial arts, and a colorful fashion show, iFair transforms campus into a cultural mosaic. With thousands of attendees each year, iFair is a celebration of community, identity, and the many cultures that call MIT home.

A 50 minute, (usually) student-led tour of MIT D-Lab, D-Lab prototypes, and our workshop! Hear about the 23-year history of D-Lab, our founding director Amy Smith, our 12+ MIT classes, research groups, humanitarian innovation program and more! Not free at tour time? Stop by anytime to look around or email d-lab-tours@mit.edu.

Have some fun(nel) on a tunnel or sun(nel) walk! Join us for a 30-minute volunteer-led walk either through MIT’s famous tunnel system or around Killian Court. As the weather gets warmer, walk leaders may choose to take the group outside. Is the weather warm and you missed the start? Find the group on Killian Court and join in!Sun(nel) Walk Leaders will identify themselves by holding a white flag at the meeting location.Location details: Meet in the atrium by the staircase. [See image below]Prize Drawing: Attend a walk and scan a QR code from the walk leaders to be entered into a drawing for a getfit canvas boat tote bag at the end of the getfit challenge. The more walks you attend, the more entries you get. Winner will be drawn and notified at the end of April. Winner does not need to be a getfit participant.Disclaimer: Tunnel walks are led by volunteers. In the rare occasion when a volunteer isn’t able to make it, we will do our best to notify participants. In the event we are unable to notify participants and a walk leader does not show up, we encourage you to walk as much as you feel comfortable doing so. We recommend checking this calendar just before you head out.Getfit is a 12-week fitness challenge for the entire MIT community. These tunnel walks are open to the entire MIT community and you do not need to be a current getfit participant to join.