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

Speaker: Monty McGovern (University of Washington)Title: Pattern avoidance and singularity of K-orbit closuresAbstract: Kazhdan-Lusztig-Vogan polynomials provide fairly complete information about the singularities of K-orbit closures in flag varieties; but in view of their complexity, it is often convenient to have weaker information available in a more explicit form. The combinatorial notion of pattern avoidance provides a tool for doing this. I will characterize smoothness and rational smoothness of K-orbit closures via pattern avoidance in all classical cases. The conditions exhibit many similarities to but also intriguing differences from their counterparts for Schubert varieties.

Time: 7:00 PMLocation: Worcester, MA

Join us for a zine making workshop Wednesday, October 22 at 5pm in the Nexus in Hayden Library (14S-130). Explore and find inspiration from zines in the MIT Libraries' collection and then make your own. Supplies provided. Free registration.This event is part of the Libraries' Science Storytelling through Book Arts series. Other events in the series include a panel discussion with book artists and an open house featuring new acquistions and other materials from Distinctive Collections and Rotch Library.

On Wednesday nights you are invited to come to The Table for peaceful Christian worship in the Chapel at 5:15 pm and dinner in the Main Dining Room of W11 at around 6:30 pm.We worship with beautiful songs, open conversation about the Scriptures, prayers and a simple sharing of communion around the altar. Then we enjoy dinner together and good company together. Whether you come every week or just drop by once in a while, there is a caring community for you at the Table.You are truly welcome to come as you are: undergrad, grad, or post-doc; sure of your faith or wondering what it is all about; gay, straight, bi, trans, questioning. Please join us for no-pressure worship and fellowship.Hosted by the Lutheran Epsicopal Ministry @ MIT. For more information, or to verify gathering times during holiday and vacation periods, please contact chaplains Andrew Heisen (heisen@mit.edu) and Kevin Vetiac (kvet246@mit.edu).Please note that we will not meet during the week of Thanksgiving nor between Christmas and New Year's Day. Please see our website (le-ministry.mit.edu) for updates on meeting times and locations as well as additional details.

Making What Matters introduces Tony Fadell — inventor, entrepreneur, investor, and author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making — as MAD's inaugural Designer in Residence. Fadell, known for his creation of the iPod, iPhone, and Nest, will discuss how design decisions shape technology, daily life, and the futures we imagine.This event is presented in partnership with the MIT Media Lab and is part of series of public events featuring Tony Fadell at MIT, such as MAD Reads, a discussion open to the public on Fadell's book.SPEAKERTony Fadell Engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and investorAnthony “Tony” Fadell is an active investor and entrepreneur with a 30+ year history of founding companies and designing products that profoundly improve people’s lives. He founded Nest Labs, Inc. in 2010 and served as its Chief Executive Officer until 2016. Known as the “father of the iPod,” he joined Apple Computer Inc. in 2001 and, as the SVP of Apple’s iPod division, led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone.Fadell has filed more than 300 patents for his work and was named one of Time's “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2014. In May 2016, Time named the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPod and the iPhone three of the “50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” Fadell graduated with a BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1991.

Come join the MIT Women’s Chorale as we experience the joy of making music together! New singers from throughout the MIT community are welcome on Wednesdays evenings, beginning on September 10, from 7 to 9 pm in Building 4 as we practice for our December concert.The Chorale, a concert choir focused on music for treble voice, is led by our talented music director, Nhung Truong, who makes each rehearsal a pleasure.We ask that prospective singers contact us at mitwc@mit.edu to register with us and be placed on an e mail list to receive necessary information. Further details are available on our website.https://web.mit.edu/womensleague/womenschorale/

Time: 1:00 PMLocation: Cambridge, MA

Writing Together Online offers the structured writing time to help you stay focused and productive during the busy fall months. 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. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. 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.Please register for any number of sessions:Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9:00–10:30am (EST) Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00–9:30am and 9:30-11:00am (EST)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. MIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a gift-card raffle.

Join us on Thursday, October 23 to learn about SDM’s graduate certificate in systems and product development! Our one-year program features an integrated core class teaching systems engineering, system architecture, and project management. The program is designed to let you keep working while you study.In this session, program staff will answer your questions about the curriculum and application process. Our engineering and management certificate teaches you systems principles to handle problems in any organization.

Writing Together Online offers the structured writing time to help you stay focused and productive during the busy fall months. 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. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. 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.Please register for any number of sessions:Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9:00–10:30am (EST) Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00–9:30am and 9:30-11:00am (EST)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. MIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a gift-card raffle.

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: 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.