Both houses of Congress have now passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and President Trump is expected to sign it into law soon. MIT officials have closely tracked the bill, and its likely impacts on Institute students, faculty and staff, since it was first proposed last month — and have engaged with elected representatives to ensure that these representatives understand how the legislation will affect higher education and research in the United States.

#taxes #taxbill #legislation #highered #MIT

“Arguments vested in emotion carry a lot more weight. That may be a necessary component of building policy for the public.” —Janelle Knox-Hayes of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

#climatechange #climatepolicy #actonclimate #oneplanet #MIT

Oceans makeup 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet we know very little about them. MIT students aim to deepen our understanding by developing artificial intelligence for use on autonomous marine vehicles. Their software is put to the ultimate test while running missions in the Charles River.

Learn more: http://mitsha.re/LuDL30hftJQ
Video: John Freidah/MIT Mechanical Engineering

#ocean #marinelife #exploration #AI #MIT

In MIT Mechanical Engineering course #009mit, MIT students launch products that help users harness their superpowers.

#onlyatMIT #innovation #superpowers #MIT #highered #STEM

Each year the MIT Women's League designs and decorates three large holiday wreaths to hang above the main entrance to the Institute. Since the 1930s, League members have come together at the beginning of December to make the large evergreen wreaths.

Video: Melanie Gonick/MIT

#holiday #wreath #wreathmaking #holidayseason #MIT

What makes the arts such a vital part of MIT? More than half of all MIT undergraduates enroll in arts classes each year, on a campus that features more than 3,500 noted works of contemporary art and landmark buildings designed by legendary architects like Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei.

Learn more: https://arts.mit.edu/

Video: Trillium Studios and Arts at MIT
Music: Adam Schwartz '10

#arts #art #performingarts #architecture #culture #MIT

"As rigorous scientifically and academically as MIT is, it can be such a laid-back place. I’ve always felt included, if I wanted to be." —Ryan Kohn, grad student in MIT Department of Biology

Researchers have now used a recently developed interpretive technique, which had been applied in other areas, to analyze neural networks trained to do machine translation and speech recognition.

#neuralnetworks #neuralnets #AI #machinelearning #MIT

“Baseball was a way for me to both relax and think about math and data.” —MIT senior and Marshall Scholar Olivia Zhao

#data #economics #publicpolicy #students #MIT