Want to get exercise at the start of the day but don’t want to go outside? Join the tunnel walk for a 30-minute walk led by a volunteer through MIT’s famous tunnel system. This walk may include stairs/inclines. Wear comfortable shoes. Free.Location details: Meet in the atrium by the staircase. Location photo below.Tunnel Walk Leaders will have a white flag they will raise at the meeting spot for you to find them.Prize Drawing: Attend a walk and scan a QR code from the walk leaders to be entered into a drawing for a getfit 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. [As of Feb 12, this calendar is defaulting to the year 1899. Click "today" to be brought to the current week.]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.

Writing Together Online offers structured time to help you spring into writing and stay focused this semester. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. Join our daily 90-minute writing sessions and become part of a community of scholars who connect online, set realistic goals, and write together in the spirit of accountability and camaraderie. The program is open to all MIT students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and affiliates who are working on papers, proposals, thesis/dissertation chapters, application materials, and other writing projects. For more information and to register, go to this link or check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with colleagues and friends.Register for Spring 2025 Writing Challenge 1Choose those sessions that you want to attend during Challenge 1: February 10th through March 21stMondays 9:00–10:30amTuesdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amWednesdays 9:00–10:30amThursdays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amFridays 8–9:30am and 9:30–11amMIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a raffle of three $25 Amazon gift cards. The raffle will take place on Friday, March 21st. The more you participate, the more times you will be entered into the raffle of prizes.For more information and to register, check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with peers and friends.The funding support for this program comes from the Office of Graduate Education

Special Seminar with Sven DorkenwaldDate: Monday, March 3, 2025Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 amLocation: McGovern Seminar Room (46-3189)Talk title: Reconstruction and analysis of synaptic wiring diagrams of the fruit fly brain and mouse cortexTalk abstract: Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analyzing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been scaled to chunks of mammalian brains and entire invertebrate brains. First, I will present our reconstruction of the first neuronal wiring diagram of a whole adult fruit fly brain, containing >50 million chemical synapses between 139,255 neurons, as well as the technological progress leading up to the creation of this resource. I will discuss how the connectome can be used to study synaptic pathways from the brain’s input to output neurons. Second, I will present progress toward cortical connectomes and how a densely reconstructed circuit between pyramidal neurons provides insight into rules governing circuit assembly.Bio: Sven Dorkenwald is a Shanahan Research Fellow at the Allen Institute and the University of Washington, and a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google Research. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics in 2014 and a Masters degree in Computer Engineering in 2017 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. While in Heidelberg, he worked on automated image analysis in connectomics with Jörgen Kornfeld in the department of Winfried Denk at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. Sven received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2023, where he worked with Sebastian Seung and Mala Murthy. During his PhD, he developed approaches for the reconstruction and analysis of neuronal circuits from Electron Microscopy images and spearheaded the FlyWire consortium effort that produced the first synapse-resolution connectome of an adult Drosophila brain. Sven joined Google Researcher part-time in 2020, where he is developing self-supervised machine-learning approaches for efficient annotation and encoding of cell reconstructions. Sven joined the Allen Institute and the University of Washington in 2023.

Hidden within MIT’s Distinctive Collections, many architectural elements from the earliest days of the Institute’s architecture program still survive as part of the Rotch Art Collection. Among the artworks that conservators salvaged was a set of striking windows of gypsum and stained-glass, dating to the late 18th- to 19th c. Ottoman Empire. This exhibition illuminates the life of these historic windows, tracing their refracted histories from Egypt to MIT, their ongoing conservation, and the cutting-edge research they still prompt.The Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130) is open Monday through Thursday, 10am - 4pm, excluding Institute holidays.

Weng lab I "Biochemical Characterization of the DUF3328 Protein in the Biosynthesis of Cyclic Peptide Cyclochlorotine"

Join us for "Celebrating Unteaching" where MIT Press authors where MIT Press authors of Racism Untaught, Lisa E. Mercer and Terresa Moses, will share their expertise in a hands-on workshop & conversation moderated by MIT Associate Professor Catherine D'Ignazio.Attendees will learn more about the Racism Untaught framework and practice unteaching with the book's accompanying Toolkit.Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design (MIT Press) emerged from the need to foster learning environments that examine racialized design. Anti-racist design interventions can be difficult. Well-intentioned conversations can fuel tensions, activate racialized trauma, and lead to misunderstandings. In Racism Untaught, Mercer and Moses, two veteran educators, provide a step-by-step guide to anti-racist interventions that benefits all participants. Through dozens of successful workshops across the country, Mercer and Moses provide a framework for unlearning racialized design practices while fostering equity, justice, and community building.About the presentersTerresa Moses is creative director of Blackbird Revolt, director of design justice and associate professor of graphic design at the University of Minnesota, and owner of Black Garnet Books. She created Project Naptural, co-created Racism Untaught and Hatch & Flock, and serves on the board of Black Liberation Lab.Lisa Elzey Mercer's (she/her/hers) interests include developing and executing design interventions focused on ethics and anti-oppressive design frameworks. She developed Operation Compass, co-created Racism Untaught and Hatch and Flock, and is focused on developing a situated sense of ethics in design as a Ph.D. Student in Design at the University of Edinburgh.Catherine D'Ignazio is an Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning and Director of the Data + Feminism Lab at MIT. A scholar, artist/designer and hacker mama who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy and civic engagement, D'Ignazio has published two bookes with MIT Press and has won multiple awards for her art and design work.This event is presented in collaboration with MIT Press, Racism Untaught, and Arts at MIT as part of Artfinity: A celebration of creativity and community at MIT.