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

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

All kids from newborn age to 3.5 years old are welcome! You can bring siblings as well.It's a chance for kids to have fun while parents can chat, share parenting tips, and socialize.Please register if you plan to attend the group. Contact Maria at mwiegandl@udd.cl if you have any questions.This group is sponsored by the Executive Committees of Westgate and the Graduate Tower at Site 4, and MIT Spouses & Partners Connect, a dedicated network for the significant others of MIT students, postdocs, staff and faculty who have relocated to the Boston area.

Embrace MIT's Values of Belonging and Community! Connect with people you know and those you don't, share ideas, and build meaningful relationships over a cup of coffee and a light snack!

Stop by our Lab Safety Awareness - EHS Table for goodies, games, and giveaways.Lab Safety Awareness Week is to recognize the successes of laboratory health and safety programs and to offer information and ideas about how to keep our faculty, staff, and students safe.

Join Clayton Steup, Director of Special Programs & Recruitment at Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, for an information session on the medical school experience at UPitt. Discover what sets UPitt School of Medicine apart and learn about the key attributes of successful medical school applicants.This event is perfect for MIT undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni who are interested in applying to MD or MD-PhD programs. Take this opportunity to explore UPitt's distinctive offerings and get answers to your questions about their application requirements.

Celebrate Galentine’s/Palentine’s Day with Women & Gender Services (WXGS)! We’ll be crafting tissue paper flowers and making customized chocolates (you’ll melt your choice of chocolate type into a mold and add toppings like M&Ms, sprinkles, or pretzels). We will have gluten-free, vegan, and nut-free options available. Open to all!

Want to get exercise mid-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 lobby with the big mirror, right inside the Collier Memorial entrance to Stata. 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!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.

MIT Free English Class is for international students, sholars, spouses. Twenty seven years ago we created a community to welcome the nations to MIT and assist with language and friendship. Join our Tuesday/Thursday conversation classes around tables inside W11-190.

The next Crafternoon event will celebrate Valentine's Day by creating decorative floating candles. These personalized candles will add a unique touch to your Valentine’s Day celebrations and bring a warm, festive atmosphere to the occasion.An added bonus of this event is the opportunity to connect with fellow spouses and partners from MS&PC. Children are welcome to join as well! The event sponsored by ISchO.If you have any questions, please contact Miyuki Ota: miyukichan8@hotmail.com.

All MIT faculty, students, and staff can visit and borrow from Harvard simply by registering. The MIT Libraries have arranged for on-site registration here on campus to help streamline the process.Come to Hayden Library on one of our registration days on Feb. 13, 19, and 26:1) Bring your MIT ID and government-issued ID2) Log into Borrow Direct via Touchstone. DUO authentication is required; please have your mobile phone set up with DUO.3) Then you can go to the Harvard card office (Smith Center) to get your borrowing card.Smith Campus Center 1350 Massachusetts Ave., 8th floor Phone: 617.496.7827 Mon-Fri: 9am-4pm; Closed Sat, Sun, and university holidaysAlready have Harvard access and need to renew? Bring your Harvard ID (you must still have this) to Hayden Library on one of our registration days and follow steps 1&2 above to reactivate.Can't come to Hayden on one of these dates? You can also apply online and confirm your affiliation via a Zoom appointment. You can then pick up your card at Harvard's Smith Center ID office at your convenience. Learn more about using Harvard's libraries at libraries.mit.edu/harvard.

Want to get exercise mid-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 lobby under the “Belonging + Community” banner. 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 you check 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.

To be the leader of a lab in academic and non-academic settings, you need to be balance being a mentor and a manager. But how and when do you switch between these roles? How do you show that you know both of these skills when you apply for jobs? This workshop will consistent of two parts. First we will describe the different responsibilities of a manager versus a mentor, help you reflect on your strengths in both of these roles, and ways in particular to better understand your own managerial approach. Then, we will wrap up the workshop by identifying when and how you describe these skills when you are on the job market.

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: Sasha Glazman (University of Innsbruck)Title: Six-vertex model in the FKG regimeAbstract:The six-vertex model is in correspondence with graph homomorphisms from $Z^2$ to $Z$. If a face is a saddle, it receives weight $c$, otherwise, it receives weight $a$ or $b$. The distribution is proportional to the product of the weights. When $c \geq a, b$, a positive association (FKG) inequality provides additional tools.We discuss two results: $\bullet$ When $a, b \leq c \leq a+b$, we give a soft, purely probabilistic proof of delocalisation relying on the non-coexistence theorem of Zhang and Sheffield. The same argument also applies to random Lipschitz functions on the triangular lattice. $\bullet$ When $c > a+b$ (localized regime), we show convergence of an interface under Dobrushin boundary conditions to the Brownian bridge.Joint works with Dober, Lammers, Ott.*Note change in time/date/location.

Show appreciation to your classmates with a sweet treat, write personalised cards and messages, and deliver notes on Valentines day. Held at MIT ORC (E40-103) and funded by GSC Funding Board.

Talk Title: Seeing Through Memory SystemsAbstract: How does memory shape our perception of the world around us? While the neural systems supporting high-level visual processing and memory are each relatively well understood, how they interact to give rise to memory-guided visual experience remains a fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience. In this talk, I will present a series of studies investigating how memory influences perception in the human brain and behavior, focusing on the process of naturalistic scene understanding. From a behavioral perspective, I will discuss recent work combining immersive virtual reality, in-headset eye-tracking, and computational modeling to reveal how memory shapes scene perception during active viewing (Mynick et al., 2024 Current Biology). At the neural level, I will introduce a novel model system for studying perceptual-mnemonic interactions at the anterior edge of high-level visual cortex (Steel et al., 2021, Nature Communications), as well as a perplexing bivalent neural code that mediates interactions between the hippocampus and cortex (Steel, Silson, et al., Nature Neuroscience). Together, these studies challenge prevailing theories of memory’s role in high-level visual processing and offer new insights into the neural and cognitive mechanisms underpinning memory-guided perception in real-world contexts.Bio: Caroline is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth Her research group uses cognitive and computational neuroscience approaches to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying memory, perception, and neurodiversity. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar and NIH-Cambridge Fellow, and continued her postdoctoral work at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT with a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows. Caroline's contributions to cognitive neuroscience have been recognized by awards including the Society for Neuroscience’s Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Young Investigator Award, the NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2015), the National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellowship (2016), and the NSF CAREER Award (2022).Webinar Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89002014229?pwd=bzZuZGh6cVhOSjJ6TlNZVHgrRnNaQT09Followed by a reception with food and drink in 3rd floor atrium

Recreational swims provide a fun and engaging way for children and parents to practice new skills, stay active, and enjoy quality time together in the pool with the MIT community.No Z Center (MIT Recreation - Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center) membership is required to participate.A parent or caregiver must accompany children in the water. Per Z Center policy, each adult may supervise up to two children at a time.Children must be at least 6 months old to join. If younger, they must be able to hold their head up comfortably. Registration is here. Only for MIT Spouses and Partners Connect members.

Sid Kankanala (University of Chicago)

TBA | Drew Fudenberg

Boehringer Ingelheim Lecture in Organic Chemistry with Josep Cornella (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kohlenforschung) and Yongda Zhang (Boehringer Ingelheim)Cornella Title: "Bismuth Redox Catalysis"https://www.cornellab.com/aboutjc#bioZhang Title: " Sustainable Strategies for Synthesizing Drug Substances at Boehringer"

Join artist Alie Reilinger, printer at Cambridge-based Albertine Press and owner of Yellow Leg Studios, for an afternoon of crafting to start your weekend off with creativity! Details to come.About Alie ReilingerAlie is a printmaker and mixed-media artist based in Boston, MA. In addition to her own creative practice, she teaches a variety of classes and workshops in the Cambridge and Boston areas.Her liberal arts degree in Biology and Conservation from Vassar College contributes to the sensibility of her artwork - you’ll see a lot of birds and plants! Her work also takes inspiration from her queer identity, folk tales, and historical woodcuts.

Join MIT Science Policy Initiative’s (SPI) spring ‘25 kick-off social (w/ dinner!) to learn about our various initiatives – including multiple trips to DC – and meet others with similar interests. Please share the invite with anyone who you think might be interested. Everyone is welcome, even if this is your first event.

Time: 10:00 AMLocation: Cambridge, MA

The MIT wrestling club holds practices in the du Pont Wrestling Room on weeknights 5:30-7pm. All levels of experience welcome! Whether you're looking to learn how to grapple or just want to get in a good workout, wrestling practice is a good time to learn technique, get in some live goes, and have fun with a great group of people.Current schedule is: structured practice MTRF, open mats W, and technique sessions 9-10:30am on Saturday. For more information, contact wrestling-officers@mit.edu.

Join us for a night of humor, media literacy, and creative deception at our February After Dark. In a twist on "Two Truths and a Lie," three comedians challenge your gullible gauge to spot the one true news story.Take inspiration from historical spirit photography to create your own deceptive imagery. Learn how Victorian photographers faked ghostly images, then try your hand at crafting your own illusions.MIT's Rand Lab will showcase interactive tools to help you spot fake news in real-time.Drinks from Marzae Wine and Philippine snacks from Lola's Pinoy Pastry will be available for purchase.Come for fun, stay for creativity, and leave with a sharper eye for truth in today's media.This event is co-hosted with MIT's Knight Science Journalism Program.