Speaker: Mikhail Sodin (Tel Aviv University)Title: A curious Lagrange-Ivanov-Yomdin-type lemmaAbstract: Suppose 𝑓 is an 𝑚-smooth function on the unit ball that is small (for instance, vanishes) on an epsilon-net 𝐸 for a sufficiently small epsilon. Then the maximum of 𝑓 is controlled by the 𝐿1- norm of its 𝑚 − 𝑡ℎ derivative and its uniform norm on 𝐸. This estimate is dimensionless. The proof is not long and uses only undergraduate analysis.The talk is based on an ongoing joint work with Aleksei Kulikov and Fedor Nazarov on multi-dimensional Fourier uniqueness.

Alex Carrasco Martinez (MIT)

As the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience and the PI of the Andersen Lab at CalTech, Prof. Richard Andersen researches visual physiology, specifically translational research to humans in the field of neuroprosthetics, brain-computer interfaces, and cortical repair. The Andersen Lab examines decision-making, stages in motor planning, sensory-guided movements and motion perception.Title: From Thought to Movement: Helping Paralyzed People with Brain-Machine InterfacesAbstract: Tetraplegia, the loss of movement and feeling in all four limbs, can result from spinal cord injuries at the level of the neck. Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) can help people with tetraplegia by allowing them to control assistive devices with their thoughts. A BMI consists of arrays of tiny electrodes that can record the activity of large numbers of cortical neurons and provide electrical stimulation to restore the sense of touch. The Andersen Lab has implanted arrays in a variety of specialized cortical areas rather than just the motor cortex. Using this approach, we can explore the science of how these areas process sensory and motor information and apply that knowledge to developing neural prosthetics. The lab has found that small patches of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), a sensorimotor association cortical area, encodes preconsciously the intended actions of all parts of the body. Among its more sensory and cognitive functions, PPC encodes the awareness of touch, internal speech, and the observation of others. Lastly, Prof. Andersen will show a neural prosthetic application in which bimanual brain control is used in a real environment in which a participant drives a commercial vehicle.

Speaker: David Roberts (University of Minnesota, Morris)Title: Wild Ramification in Hypergeometric MotivesAbstract:The bulk of my talk will be an overview of the current state of knowledge of wild ramification in general hypergeometric motives at a fixed prime $p$. The presentation will be as elementary and visual as possible, using p-adic ordinals of field discriminants of trinomials $x^n - n t x + (n-1) t$ and their underlying Galois theory as a continuing example. It will be revealed that the general situation is very complicated, but exhibits enough patterns that one can still reasonably hope for a universal formula identifying all numerical invariants of wild p-adic ramification in all hypergeometric motives.If one restricts to the case where $\operatorname{ord}_p(t)$ is coprime to $p$ then the situation simplifies considerably. The ramp conjecture of Section 13 of my survey on Hypergeometric Motives with Fernando Rodriguez Villegas predicts conductor exponents. I will conclude with a new refinement of the ramp conjecture that predicts, via Feynman-like diagrams, how the conductor exponents decompose as a sum of slopes. The refinement reveals much more structure than the original ramp conjecture, and I hope will point the way to a proof.

Mastering Change: Lessons from Berklee, iZotope, and The Studio Reflections on how sound, tools, and aesthetics evolve.Mastering Change: Lessons from Berklee, iZotope, and The Studio. Reflections on how sound, tools, and aesthetics evolve - and what remains timeless.What persists across decades of change in music and technology? What truths, pitfalls, and recurring mistakes keep showing up? Drawing on a lifetime at the crossroads of music and technology—as a producer and mastering engineer, an educator at Berklee, and a collaborator with developers and product designers—I’ll share observations about music, perception, and human behavior. Through stories and examples, this talk highlights enduring lessons that can help us navigate and shape the future of our craft.Speaker Bio: Jonathan Wyner is Chief Engineer at M Works Studios in Somerville, MA, Professor of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Past President of the Audio Engineering Society, former Education Director for iZotope and currently an advisor at Suno.He combines a focus on production, engineering and education with experience as a product design consultant. How work includes leveraging technology and product innovations to create engaging experiences to creative and technical users.A producer, engineer, musician and performer, he's mastered and produced thousands of recordings during the last 35 years. Credits include Jean-Claude Risset, James Taylor, David Bowie, Aerosmith, Kiri Te Kanawa, Aimee Mann, London Symphony, Miles Davis, Semisonic, Thelonius Monk, Pink Floyd, Cream, Bruce Springsteen and Nirvana.He has several accolades, including production of the Grammy Nominated soundtrack for PBS special Invention and Alchemy (Deborah Henson-Conant, 2005), the mastering of the first recording of a full length opera (Madame Butterfly 1912, BBC), and the first interactive CD game (Play it By Ear, Rykodisc). In 2012 he authored the text 'Audio Mastering: Essential Practices' published by Hal Leonard/Berklee Press along with undergraduate and graduate courses for Berkleemusic Online.He remembers very clearly, the time before the look ahead limiter/compressor changed the sound of produced musicFree and Open to the PublicRoom 4-237 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 182 Memorial Drive Rear Cambridge, MA 02139https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=4

Get outside and play! Bananagrams, Connect Four, Hopscotch, Scrabble, Corn Hole, and more.Choose from a fun and varied selection of board games and lawn games, all free to borrow during your visit. Plenty of options available for adults, kids, small groups and pairs.Picnics, dogs, and groups are welcome! Just make sure to follow our guidelines.Free and open to all! Please note that this event is weather dependent.Special Play+ events in this series:7/22 - Free ice cream sandwiches while supplies last! 🍦7/29 - Rescheduled8/5 - The theme this week is Board Games!8/19 and 9/2 - Free lemonade while supplies last! 🍋10/14 Pet Rock Painting

Join us for a dynamic event that will gather an audience of investors, founders, students, and academics in conversation about advances in AI models and the implications for training, inference, and robotics.​You'll gain practical insights on overcoming operational hurdles and learn how investors evaluate data moats, compute costs, and go-to-market strategies to cut through the AI hype.A reception in the galleries will follow after the panels.​Panel 1: From Idea to Market: Scaling AI & Robotics Startups Moderator: Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab​Vaikkunth Mugunthan, Founder & CEO, Dynamo AI​Tim Kraska, MIT CSAIL; Co-founder, Einblick Analytics​Alexander Amini, Co-founder & CSO, Liquid AI​Panel 2: Investor Perspective: Funding AI-Native Startups Moderator: Diane Choi, investor, Samsung Next​Tuan Ho, Partner, Xfund​Ali Mahmoud, Principal, Glasswing Ventures​Boaz Fachler, Principal, Link Ventures

Time: 6:00 PMLocation: Cambridge, MA

2025 Mandala @ MITCo-sponsored by MIT Prajnopaya, Buddhist Student Club, Simmons Hall

The Breakfast Series is a regular series from the MIT Women's League. Women in the MIT community are invited to join us to hear from women faculty and administrators explore the role of women in the academy, sharing the pathways their professional lives have taken — the people and events that have influenced their direction. A full plated breakfast will be served, prepared by Chef Patrick Campbell. This event is open the MIT Community only.Bev Boisseau Stohl is a nonfiction writer with published essays in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the MIT Press, Brevity Blog, Watertown Lit Squad Sampler, and other publications. She has interviewed with Current Affairs Magazine, Reddit (AMA), Open Source radio, CounterPunch, Green and RedPodcast, The Boston Globe, and other social media. Chomsky and Me: A Memoir (OR Books, 2023) is the story of her 24 years as Noam Chomsky’s MIT assistant. Bev, Noam, and her dog Roxy have been featured in graphic novels, and animated in Michel Gondry’s 2013 film, Is the Man who is Tall Happy? Chomsky and Me was long-listed for the 2024 Mass Book Awards. Bev has performed stand-up comedy, appeared on TV news shows talking backward, and has dabbled in ukulele, guitar, piano, dulcimer, and woodworking.Space is limited. Please email kbennett@mit.edu to RSVP, and let us know if you have any dietary restrictions.

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.

Speaker: Marina Sirota (University of California, San Francisco)Title: From Data to Knowledge: Integrating Clinical and Molecular Data for Predictive MedicineAbstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains one of the most pressing medical challenges, with limited therapeutic options and heterogeneous disease trajectories complicating diagnosis and treatment. Recent advances in computational biology and artificial intelligence (AI) together with availability of rich molecular and clinical data, offer new opportunities to address these challenges by integrating molecular, clinical, and systems-level insights. In our recent studies, we developed a cell-type-directed, network-correcting approach to identify and prioritize rational drug combinations for AD, enabling targeted modulation of disease-relevant pathways across distinct cellular contexts (Li et al., Cell 2025). Complementarily, by leveraging large-scale electronic medical records (EMRs) integrated with biological knowledge networks, we demonstrated the ability to predict disease onset and progression while uncovering mechanistic insights into AD heterogeneity (Tang et al., Nature Aging 2024). Together, these complementary approaches illustrate the power of combining real-world clinical data, knowledge networks, and systems pharmacology to advance precision medicine for AD. This work highlights a paradigm shift toward AI-enabled, data-driven strategies that bridge molecular discovery and clinical application, ultimately informing novel therapeutic interventions and improving patient care.Biography: Marina is currently a Professor and the Interim Director at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at UCSF. Prior to that she has worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Pfizer where she focused on developing Precision Medicine strategies in drug discovery. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford University. Dr. Sirota’s research experience in translational bioinformatics spans nearly 20 years during which she has co-authored ove r 170 scientific publications. Her research interests lie in developing computational integrative methods and applying these approaches in the context of disease diagnostics and therapeutics with a special focus on women’s health. The Sirota laboratory is funded by NIA, NLM, NIAMS, Pfizer, March of Dimes and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. As a young leader in the field, she has been awarded the AMIA Young Investigator Award in 2017. She leads the UCSF March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at UCSF as well as co-directs ENACT, a center to study precision medicine for endometriosis. Dr. Sirota also is the founding director of the AI4ALL program at UCSF, with the goal of introducing high school girls to applications of AI and machine learning in biomedicine.In person or on Zoom at https://mit.zoom.us/j/93513735220

Professor Soyoung Lee from Yale University at will speak at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.Summary: Why do states and their citizens often fight over barren, seemingly worthless territories while not fighting over territories or issues that can be potentially more valuable? In this seminar, Professor Lee will discuss her book, which proposes a new theory of national interest to answer the puzzle. It argues that issues without clear economic value—such as barren lands—are more likely to be perceived as national interests precisely because they do not benefit any single domestic group. Since who benefits is unclear, politicians have an easier time framing such issues as benefiting the entire nation. This book draws on geospatial analyses of territorial claims, survey experiments, textual analyses of political rhetoric, and archival case studies to provide support for the theory. By showing how economic benefits can frequently become a liability in mobilizing unified support for conflict, this book challenges our conventional understanding of economic value in international relations and contributes to a new understanding of distributive politics and foreign policy. It also systematically unpacks how issue value in international relations is formed and deepens our insight into a core question in international relations: what states fight for and why.

Join us for a lunchtime concert with the MIT Ribotones featuring solo and small group chamber performances of classical music.

​​​​​​Are you looking to advance your GIS skills? This workshop offers a comprehensive review of GIS fundamentals and its practical applications. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of how to utilize spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS Pro to analyze geographic data effectively. Through a step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to model site suitability based on social vulnerability, temperature data, and cooling adaptation infrastructure, providing valuable insights for climate adaptation decision-making. Additionally, the workshop will guide you in refining and enhancing map designs using Adobe Illustrator, equipping you with the skills to produce professional-quality visualizations.Goals:Review GIS Essentials: Gain a solid understanding of GIS fundamentals and its practical applications. Suitability Analysis for Climate Adaptation: Engage in a step-by-step tutorial to model site suitability based on social vulnerability, temperature data, and cooling adaptation infrastructure. Enhance Maps with Adobe Illustrator: Learn how to refine and elevate map designs using Adobe Illustrator for professional-quality results.

The MIT Disabilities ERG is proud to present a series of events for Disability Employment Awareness Month this October. Join us for an informal presentation and discussion with author, advocate, and MIT Staff member Laura Beretsky.Laura successfully challenged her former employer when she was given a negative performance review after having a seizure at work. Her memoir "Seizing Control" explores the challenges of living with a mostly invisible disability and gives hope to anyone who fears their path to fulfillment might be impossible to navigate.Come hear her story and learn about best practices for workplace inclusion.Refreshments provided!Please register to attend either in-person or through Zoom. If attending online, a Zoom link will be provided closer to the event date.Other events in this series10/6 -Making Inclusion and Accessibility Part of All Your Work with Rachel Tanenhaus10/8 -Disabled Artists in Conversation10/3, 10/7, 10/17 -Festival Henge

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: Alexander Mramor (University of Oklahoma)Title: On the long-term behavior of the mean curvature flow in 3-manifoldsAbstract:In this talk I’ll discuss recent joint work with Ao Sun where we consider the fate of the mean curvature flow in closed 3-manifolds. Employing many important recent advances on the mean curvature flow we can show that almost regular flows, as introduced by Bamler and Kleiner, will either go extinct in finite time or converge, possibly with multiplicity, to a minimal surface; by a perturbation argument one can go on to construct piecewise almost regular flows where the limit, if nonempty, must be stable. Using this we can use the flow to construct minimal surfaces in 3-manifolds in a variety of circumstances, mainly novel from the point of view that the arguments are via parabolic methods.