MARK WEST: Heavy Light - Finding Biomimetic Construction

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:02:54 GMT

Feb 9, 2012
Concrete has been formed in rigid molds since its invention in Ancient Rome. Very recently however, the possibility of a new architectural and structural language has emerged based on the use of flexible fabric formworks that are shaped by an internal response to the weight and pressure of wet concrete. This way of building results in works of great simplicity, economy, and beauty. This lecture will present many examples of this approach to construction and design, and explore the methods of discovery used at the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST), in Winnipeg, Canada.

Mark West
University of Manitoba
Mark West is the Founding Director of the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.) at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Architecture (Winnipeg MB), where he is a Professor in the Faculty Architecture (with a cross appointment in the Faculty of Engineering). He is the inventor of numerous fabric-formed concrete techniques for architectural, and structural applications.

He has worked as an architectural educator for thirty years in Canada and the U.S., dedicating his research to expanding the possibilities of design and construction by combining the disciplines of architecture, engineering, sculpture, and drawing. His first education was as a builder, followed by a B.Arch. from the Cooper Union in New York, NY, (1980) and a post-professional M.Arch. from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada (1996). His work has received wide recognition through publications, awards, lectures and exhibitions in North America, Asia, and Europe.

An interview with Phil Freelon about "REACH"

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:30:09 GMT

An interview with Phil Freelon about his firm's exhibit "REACH," showing in the Wolk Gallery from Feb. 15 to June 8, 2012

Serious Energy, Serious Innovation - Kevin Surace - MIT Club of Northern California

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:08:22 GMT

How Inc Magazine's 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year built a clean energy company
Hear CEO Kevin Surace describe how he injected his entrepreneurial clean tech vision to create the most innovative company ever to hit the building materials industry.

How did Serious Energy bring a high-tech “walk through walls” mentality to the building materials industry in order to challenge technological barriers that have gone unquestioned in the building industry for decades?

How does Serious Energy achieve high-performing, energy-efficient building materials?

Kevin will describe the vision and technology that led Serious Energy to successfully retrofit all 6514 windows on the Empire State Building as well as ship over 2 million energy efficient drywall panels and do 70,000 building projects over the last seven years.

Cheap, Efficient Solar

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Harry Atwater, the founder of a new startup called Alta Devices, outlines his plans to make solar affordable.

MechE Building 35 Lab

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:19:36 GMT

A video tour of the Building 35 Lab, which is used for manufacturing in MechE coursework and research.

Rebuilding Haiti

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/29/2010 4:00 PM 34"101Paul Farmer, Founder, Partners in HealthDescription: Difficult as it is to look beyond the acute misery of Haiti's current crisis, Paul Farmer proposes that aid agencies and others concerned with rebuilding focus on the nation's "old, chronic problems." There's no shortage of recovery ideas, he says, but these will go nowhere if they do not also advance the long"neglected, basic rights of Haitians. Farmer describes efforts to respond to Haiti's disastrous earthquake of January 2010, which killed hundreds of thousands, left 1.3 million homeless and much of the capital in ruins. Today, nearly a year later, the generous pledges of international aid have yet to materialize, says Farmer, and the peril has expanded to include a cholera outbreak. This picture is all the bleaker for the deaths of many of Farmer's collaborators. The earthquake destroyed invaluable "human infrastructure", says Farmer, including all the nursing students at Haiti's one public nursing school. Farmer has been working in Haiti for more than a decade, attempting to address not just malnutrition, HIV and tuberculosis, but larger issues such as Haitians' lack of access to clean water, public education and healthcare. He would like to see international aid groups and foreign powers involved with Haiti recognize these issues in a meaningful way. Farmer's long"standing strategy has been to engage Haiti's public sector, or what remains after years of military and U.S. proxy rule, in the fight for these rights. He says, "There is always a role for the promotion of basic rightsThe question is how to do this in the field, not just win an argument in seminar." The earthquake has profoundly deepened Haiti's need for essential public institutions. The 1,000"plus tent cities housing more than a million people in Port au Prince are swelling, not diminishing, because people cannot find potable water anywhere else, and most have no idea where their next meal will come from. Yet there is a push to expel people from their tents and tarps, says Farmer, as if that will somehow speed construction of more permanent residences. Many plans are afoot for such housing, he says -- but few that take into account the desires of Haitians, who should have agency in shaping their own future. Rebuilding Haiti, Farmer believes, means "rebuilding aid machinery which is very broken, and often a damaging thing." He is forging new alliances among Haitians and other aid partners, including Cubans and evangelical groups from the U.S., around water projects, and a new hospital that will be "big, green and public." Says Farmer, "We must make common cause with those seeking to provide basic rights." About the Speaker(s): Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international charity organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He is medical director of a charity hospital, the Clinique Bon Sauveur, in rural Haiti and he is also the UN Deputy Special Envoy to for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton. Farmer has written extensively about health and human rights, and about the role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases. He is the author of Pathologies of Power (University of California Press, 2003); Infections and Inequalities (University of California Press, 1998); The Uses of Haiti (Common Courage Press, 1994); and AIDS and Accusation (University of California Press, 1992). In addition, he is co"editor of Women, Poverty, and AIDS, (Common Courage Press, 1996) and of The Global Impact of Drug"Resistant Tuberculosis (Harvard Medical School and Open Society Institute, 1999). Farmer is the recipient of the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association's Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, and the Heinz Humanitarian Award. In 1993, he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in recognition of his work. Farmer is the subject of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House, 2003). Farmer received his Bachelor's degree from Duke University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Program in Science, Technology and Society

Leveraging Science, Developing Innovation: The MIT Center for Real Estate

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:00:43 GMT

The MIT Center for Real Estate celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Re-Engineering Buildings: Innovations in Building Technology

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

10/01/2010 11:00 AM e14"633Tony Ciochetti, Chairman, MIT Center for Real Estate; John Ochsendorf, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture; Alex (Sandy) Pentland, PhD '82, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, and Director of Human Dynamics Research, MIT Media Lab; Sarah Slaughter, 82, SM'87, PhD 91, Associate Director for Buildings & Infrastructure, MIT Energy InitiativeDescription: The built environment consumes a very large share of the nation's energy, and so offers rich opportunities for reducing our overall carbon footprint. MIT researchers share innovations that could soon radically alter the energy profile, as well as form and function, of buildings. Their work may prove invaluable to those in the real estate or construction industries seeking not just efficiency, but a good investment. Pumping gas into a car, we can get a good sense of its energy costs, says John Ochsendorf. But when it comes to buildings, which are huge capital investments, "we have practically no literacy" around energy performance. Now we are entering a "new frontier," says Ochsendorf, as pressure builds to achieve substantial, swift reductions in energy consumption. He is helping to develop new metrics for measuring the amount of energy a building uses over its entire lifespan, from construction through many years of occupancy. Ochsendorf maps the material and energy flow involved in producing a can of Coke, from the extraction of minerals for aluminum smelting, to the French beets used in its sugar syrup, and suggests that this level of detail should be available for our buildings as well. This means "lifecycle assessment with rigorous benchmarking of building performance," down to the CO2 emissions per square foot. Ochsendorf is working with concrete and cement manufacturers to help them achieve steep reductions quickly, and to design buildings that use local waste material such as clay, and operate with zero net energy use. The value of buildings derives from their capacity to "protect and enhance the health, safety and well"being of occupants and communities," says Sarah Slaughter. There are measurable benefits, too: Acoustically quiet classrooms improve student retention, and reinforced buildings can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. Slaughter is interested in using "low impact development" for healthy, resilient buildings. She takes a "system of systems" approach, examining first the interaction of systems within a building. Could use of rainwater capture, for instance, decrease the need for non"potable water, or could "daylight harvesting" permit the downsizing of artificial lighting? Slaughter next considers the building's connections to the larger environment, including its neighborhood and region. She sees a "value"added chain" that ultimately includes municipalities and state and federal agencies. By targeting the right links in the chain, one can achieve both performance enhancement and cost efficiencies. This leads to "clearly demonstrable bottom"line benefits -- less than a year payback for some upgrades" as well as improved buildings that "allow people to complete their organizational missions more effectively." Alex (Sandy) Pentland hopes to make buildings more productive and efficient, but focuses on people rather than structures. He has devised methods for mapping human activities, following cellphone and other wireless signals. For example, Pentland can track face to face meetings taking place in an organization, and troubleshoot areas of low"productivity. He describes changing the time for coffee breaks in a Bank of America call center, and saving that business $15 million. He has detailed how "tribes" of people move about in cities, and can make astonishingly accurate predictions about where and when these groups go to eat and the kinds of things they buy. Real estate developers could look at transportation patterns, for instance, and build stores in places convenient to a target group. These tools are powerful enough to reveal socioeconomic patterns, such as crime rates, disease and even life expectancy among different groups. Data mapping, believes Pentland, will prove increasingly useful to many institutions, although it presents some perils around privacy issues. About the Speaker(s): Tony Ciochetti leads the Center for Real Estate's mission to improve the global built environment through industry relevant research and to promote more informed professional practice. Prior to his appointment at MIT, Ciochetti was the Director of the Center for Real Estate Development and a Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Ciochetti is also a visiting Professor in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University in England. His teaching areas of expertise include Commercial Real Estate Development and Real Estate Finance. He has created or taught courses in these areas at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, the University of Wisconsin"Madison, Indiana University, and the University of North Carolina"Chapel Hill. Ciochetti's research interests lie in two broad areas: commercial mortgage credit risk and the role of real estate within pension plan portfolios. His work has appeared in leading scholarly journals, including Real Estate Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, among others. Ciochetti is currently the President of the Real Estate Research Institute, where he is also an academic fellow, and serves on the Board of Directors of Real Estate Economics. Ciochetti received his B.A. in Finance from the University of Oregon, and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin"Madison. Host(s): School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Center for Real Estate

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Why Chemomechanical Design of Materials is Critical to Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

03/30/2010 4:00 PM 3"270Krystyn Van Vliet, Ph.D. '02, Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and EngineeringDescription: Our conversations on sustainable transportation typically begin with a review of vehicle efficiencies, and end with the characteristics of fuel, energy sources, and life cycle. In a remarkably novel approach to sustainable transportation, Krystyn Van Vliet discusses how other things matter too" namely the materials we build our bridges from, the infrastructure of the road, and of course, the tires we drive on. They are all parts of the sustainable equation. For the U.S. to achieve the reductions in C02 consistent with the 2050 Kyoto protocols, a substantial portion of that must be made by reducing the CO2 from the construction of highways and bridges. Vliet tell us that traditionally, materials used to build transportation infrastructures are high volume ones that are critical for their performance, but also for human life" they are grossly overdesigned in case of failure. Once the materials are proven and accepted" there is a long road to changing them" not unlike the road of the FDA approving a new drug. Van Vliet adds: " Since the materials are used in such large volumes why has there been relatively so little innovation in them? The main reason is that the materials are inexpensive. Because of their low cost, cost is not a strong driving factor." But, she says, "New approaches over the past few years allow us to innovate at the level of the nanoscale and provide high impact change". Beginning with rubber" which is used not only in tires" but also in seals, train bearings, and many other transportation components" Van Vliet demonstrates how the tools of nanoscience can be applied to discover rubber's macroscopic properties and map its polymer" particle matrix . Visual Information based on mechanical imaging of rubber at the nanoscale level reveals entirely new understanding. This understanding, in turn, can be used to fine tune the mechanical properties of rubber; for example, to produce it with different fillers, change the thickness of the materials, and its glass transition temperature points. Patents harnessing these innovations are underway. The case of cement is even more compelling, and like the rubber in tires, there has not been, until recently a lot of innovation around this material. Van Vliet describes it as the "utility of modeling such an old, dirty and not very interesting materials with a lot of atomistic power to make an interesting difference." The "DNA" of this material, reveled through nanotechnology, is suggesting entirely new ways of thinking about it. Cement is made up of three simple materials" calcium oxide, silica, and water. They mix to create what scientists call a gel. The pre"production process of calcination, and producing calcium oxide is the source of C02 emissions some sources estimate that as much as one ton of cement produces one ton of C02 emissions. Global emissions the from calcium oxide accelerate as India and China rapidly expand their infrastructure with concrete buildings and roadways. In both lab tests and simulations, Van Vliet and her colleagues have shown that it is possible to use less cement-- by achieving higher efficiency, and to mix the cement composition with other compounds. And, a "pie in sky" concept which could happen, is to infuse the cement with titanium dioxide, which would break down and scrub the air of gasoline emissions, and return a healthier, cleaner air. Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

Transportation in Contemporary Society: A Complex Systems Approach

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/09/2010 4:00 PM 3"270Joseph Sussman, J R East Professor of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDescription: In the nineteen fifties and sixties, students of transportation focused on building infrastructure and applied lessons from the physical sciences to designing mobility. Mobility was facilely linked to the engines of economic growth and expanding GDP. In time, that perspective was replaced by a focus on transportation systems and networks. There was a newfound emphasis on environmental impacts, land use, and intermodal freight. There was also a growing concern on unpriced externalities. Today, Joseph Sussman explains, with many of those problems still unsolved, transportation has entered a new phase-- a period of immense complexity or CLIOS, which stands for complex, large scale, interconnected, open and sociotechical is an acronym that is becoming the mantra of transportation engineers. While it is not as far"reaching as "chaos" to a physicist, it is an approach with far"reaching consequences for the transportation field. To participate in "Complexity 101" engineers must take account of stochastic systems, difficulties relating cause and effect, and non"linear behaviors. They must also recognize complex feedback loops between macro and micro issues; time scale anomalies, and evaluative complexity brought by new stakeholders. Sussman observes, " Even if we could wish away behavioral complexity, it would not mean that we know what we should do." He says that transportation engineering must now embrace management, the social sciences and planning and he warns us eschew narrow representations of complex systems because they are implicitly easier to solve. Sussman walks us through the new tools of math and advanced technology which have evolved with with CLIOS. In earlier times engineers could not respond with full information, disaggregate demand analysis, or real time operational data. He cites the need to apply these to find new solutions and designs--particularly ones that incorporate flexibility, reliability, and sustainability. Sussman terms these the "bilities". Taking flexibility as an example, he notes that some transportation providers, and particularly the airlines, are creating tailored and customized services for users. Sussman poses whether the concept of flexibility could be extended to highway travel and " pay as you go". Likewise, in automobile design, we are moving away from crash worthiness to a concept of crash avoidance. At a more macro level, Sussman says that we can now solve problems of a scale that seemed unthinkable 5 or 10 years, i.e., problems that were seen to be beyond our computational scope. Sussman observes a growing connection between economics and transportation. "We are moving toward a period where new technology and mathematical solutions allow us to better recognize and value previously un"priced externalities". Increasingly, he views transportation as a regionally scaled enterprise that can be managed at the scale of the metropolitan regional level. That aligns us, he says, with economists who have long talked about metro based regions as the economic engine of society. He also says there is a need for a large national vision on the scale of the one that created the national highway infrastructure. Sussman endorses the view that the American people yearn for a big vision and are tired of cycles of crisis and doom. Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

The Future of Government"Citizen Engagement

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

03/01/2010 4:45 PM Wong AuditoriumJerry Mechling, Lecturer in Public Policy, Kennedy School; Nick Grossman, Director of Civic Works, The Open Planning Project; Laurel Ruma, Editor, O'Reilly Media; John Wonderlich, Policy Director, Sunlight Fndtn; Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Director, Center for Future Civic Media; Research ScientistDescription: As the U.S. moves toward universal broadband access, look for increased government openness, new opportunities for civic engagement, and some dangers along the way, say these panelists. While Chris Csikszentmihalyi acknowledges the civic potential of broadband, he does not believe it will be a simple matter for geographic communities to aggregate information and make collective decisions. The amount of data is growing, he says, but "even sophisticated people's understanding is not growing." He cites online crime mapping, which posts reports from police departments, but avoids white collar crime. "Are you offering information or facile statistics that look like red lining...?" He applauds online citizen journalism, but worries that legal protections applied to traditional media are not being extended to digital journalists. "We could have national broadband and things could go south quickly in terms of what kind of speech we can have." "Government needs to play catch up," says Laurel Ruma, when it comes to utilizing digital technology. It's time to move away from the "social web," where we "vote on silly things on Facebook," to a civic web. This means that "digital natives who work until 7 p.m. and don't have time to get to public meetings... go online" to watch and comment on streamed videos of government meetings. This kind of technology can make citizen actions more effective, and government programs more cost"efficient. She believes open government applications should be available not just on computers and smart phones, which many people cannot afford, but in less expensive, freely available forms, such as information displays at city bus stops. "A rush of new information" flows from open government directives, says John Wonderlich, which "has a broad systemic effect through society." New public data empowers all of "us to be better researchers, lobbyists, and journalists." Information that used to come with a price tag is now free. But since we are at an early stage in open and participatory government "where best practices are unclear," Wonderlich foresees a balancing act between laws dictating government's responsibilities, and guidelines to encourage certain behaviors. He also believes that public perceptions about government transparency may be based on false or outdated assumptions; data posted online may be inaccurate, so we "need to grow better cultural expectations." Nick Grossman finds it exciting that "government services are potentially a gatewayto civic engagement." It's not "just about politics and government, but about the city and how we use it," he says. He likes being able to deploy his smart phone for real"time information on public transportation, and to provide feedback to operators, so he's "now having a conversation with those people." One risk of a rapid expansion of open government via broadband, believes Grossman, is that government will "try to do too much," building tools and providing services itself that might better come from the private sector. The flip side, he adds, is moving "too incrementally" and running the risk of spending too much money "in something that doesn't work well enough." About the Speaker(s): Jerry Mechling focuses on the impacts of information and digital technologies on individual, organizational, and societal issues. He consults on these and other topics with public and private organizations locally and internationally. Most recently he was author of Eight Imperatives for Leaders in a Networked World and is presently finishing Leadership for a Cross"Boundary World. A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and four"time winner of the Federal 100 Award, he was formerly a Fellow of the Institute of Politics, served as an aide to the Mayor and Assistant Administrator of the New York City Environmental Protection Administration, and served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the City of Boston. He received his B.A. in physical sciences from Harvard College and his M.P.A. and Ph.D. in economics and public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for Future Civic Media

Rebuilding Haiti

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

02/23/2010 4:00 PM Bartos theaterCherie Moit Abbanat, Lecture, Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Department of Architecture, MIT; Michel DeGraff, Associate Professor of Linguistics, MIT; Erica James, Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT; Dale Joachim, Visiting Scientist, MIT Media LabDescription: In the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake, four panelists with strong personal and professional ties to Haiti share their insights about the different paths to rebuilding and reconstructing the country. Erica James begins with a view of Haiti's history of "ins_curit_", a term used to describe "cycles of political violence, crime, and economic deterioration that have accompanied periods of political and economic upheaval, foreign occupation, dictatorship, and continued environment decline." She believes the transition from emergency to reconstruction must deal with the challenges of repeated cycles of psychosocial trauma. Her concern is that international organizations, in attempting to alleviate the suffering of earthquake survivors, will give rise to practices that undermine the effectiveness of their interventions and create even more victims and victimization-unintended, and unwanted, consequences of their help. For James, the issues of population management-the regulation and distribution of resources, identity, and accountability-are important considerations in reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. Cheri Miot Abbanat taps into her American and Haitian networks to find out what survivors need and want immediately to help rebuild their lives and their country. While governments and NGOs bring in traditional support-technology, medicine, food, housing-Abbanat suggests first "seeing it with Haitian eyes." She asks that aid organizations respect what is already in place in Haiti: homegrown knowledge, the language, what already works. Although fragile, existing support systems could be bolstered by international aid organizations instead of being replaced by them. Dale Joachim recognizes that "technology doesn't solve everything, but it solves a lot of things." His vision for rebuilding Haiti focuses on energy, the environment, and communications. By addressing Haiti's serious energy imbalance and by "bootstrapping" the public health, education, and rural enterprise systems with a robust communication infrastructure, the path to reversing the breakdown of the environment-in particular, Haiti's massive deforestation-will lead to far greater long"term recovery for the country overall. Using a series of overheads comparing several different countries of similar sizes and densities, he shows how the imbalance in Haiti's energy input/output has a pervasive impact on the Haitian infrastructure. Resolving the energy problem will help resolve issues of education, deforestation, and public health concurrently. Michel DeGraff uses language and linguistics "as a lens on [Haiti's] history." Without recognizing and resolving the complicated socio political stratifications created by language and economics, Haiti will be "rebuilt for the 5% who have always been well off," leaving the other 90%-those who speak Creole-no better off than they were before. DeGraff asserts that Haiti still suffers under brutal class and race inequities brought about, in part, by the power held by those who speak French over those who speak Creole. He believes that by changing the school system, which has been used to maintain these inequities, and by using Creole as the language of all Haitians, the system of language apartheid would be minimized and allow more Haitians access to economic power. A Q&A session follows. Host(s): School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Center for International Studies

Sustainable Accessibility: A Grand Challenge for the World and for MIT

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

02/09/2010 4:00 PM 3"270John Sterman, PhD '82, Forrester Professor of Management and Engineering Systems, and; Director, System Dynamics Group, MIT Description: Transportation systems, as we know them today, will simply not sustain the worlds' growing population. Imagine a projected population of nine billion individuals. If this future population had mobility patterns like drivers in the United States, there would be a staggering 7.6 billion motor vehicles, using 440 million barrels of oil and producing 62 billion tons of CO2 per year. John Sterman says it is self"evident that our current transportation model simply will not scale. But, since the gross world product (GWP) is growing at 3.2% annually, and doubles every twenty years, our current model of development is an overture for environmental disaster. It is clear to Sterman that we need to think differently about the problem. People need access to goods, services, people, and opportunities. This access is what traditional forms of transportation provide. We also need to see transportation in its complexity, and expect that our planning efforts will have totally unintended, unexpected "rebound" effects. Sterman provides two examples of these rebound effects. The first examines the relationship between reducing traffic congestion and mass transit. Traditionally, the solution to traffic congestion has been one of supply and demand, and new roads are built to accommodate the increase in vehicle traffic. But, notes Sterman, augmenting road capacity just does not work: When new capacity is added, new vehicle trips, or longer ones, are encouraged. These trips quickly fill up the new road capacity, which produces a spiral of more severe traffic congestion. Meanwhile, some portion of these new auto trips come at the expense of public transit, which, upon losing riders, then reacts by either cutting service, or increasing fares. This downward spiral of public transit has a feedback loop which increases the attractiveness of driving. Sterman observes that planning is chaotic if we don't pay attention to these feedback loops and really think through what it is people want to achieve. A different, but equally complex set of feedback loops, has been the undoing of the alternative fuels industry. Over a thirty"year horizon, three countries, namely Brazil, New Zealand, and Argentina each developed a national policy and provided incentives to reduce their dependence on foreign oil. Unfortunately, none of their fuel programs grew large enough to achieve sufficient scale economies. Sterman characterizes these new starts as "sizzle and fizzle". He cautions us from repeating their mistakes as a current initiative gets underway to develop a hydrogen vehicle and fueling network in California. Having volume and scale will help us go down the learning curve, and we also need to bring many groups into the problem solving" these include vehicle manufacturers, fuel retailers, suppliers, and consumers. But, technology alone will not solve the problem. Sterman says we should prepare for the counter"intuitive lessons of transportation, and recognize that we will achieve better results if we make driving less attractive. Host(s): School of Engineering, Transportation@MIT

IAP Session - Building Websites for Mobile Devices

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:12:44 GMT

OSF 2009: Update on New Institute: James May

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:08:14 GMT

Liberty by Design

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Alan Davidson returns to the questions of the impact of public policy on the way technology is evolving in the Internet space.

The State of Drupal

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Dries Buytaert relates a synopsis of his life with Drupal from its inception while a "typical geek" undergraduate in Antwerp in 1999 to the upcoming release of Drupal 7.

Challenges in Nation Building

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT

09/29/2009 2:30 PM 10"250President José Ramos"Horta, President, East Timor, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize LaureateDescription: At times humorous and defiant, JoséRamos"Horta describes nurturing the 21st century's first sovereign state through its formative years. The journey of East Timor from brutal Indonesian rule to fragile self"governance has involved Ramos"Horta in conflict and debate from the halls of the U.N. to the smallest villages of this tiny Southeast Asian island. He describes the scene in 2002, after two years of UN"supervised transition, when Indonesia handed off a nation it had governed by force for decades: "A human calamity -- close to 200 thousand people lost their lives." Another 200 thousand were forcibly displaced into West Timor. As it departed "in anger and frustration," Indonesia's military orchestrated the destruction of the nation's cities, roads, schools and clinics. "The economy was at a standstill," says Ramos"Horta. "We received barely a sketch of a state, a skeleton." The challenge of rebuilding East Timor is all the more daunting given "the psychological"emotional trauma of 24 years of violence." There are bitter disputes involving how to conduct a national process of reconciliation. Western ambassadors recently called on Ramos"Horta, "representatives of two countries most notoriousfor providing weapons and the red carpet treatment to the dictatorship of Indonesia." They advocated establishing an international tribunal to pursue crimes against humanity during Indonesian rule. Says Ramos"Horta, "Had I been in a bad mood, I would have said, 'Excuse me, the two of you are lecturing me on human rights and justice?'" Despite warnings from the U.N. that "lack of justice encourages impunity," he believes East Timor must travel its own path toward reconciliation. If East Timor set up such a tribunal, "Who would it start with -- Indonesia or the U.S., which provided weapons to Suharto, or Australia, or all of them at once?" He states, "If you pursue justice at any cost without being sensitive to the challenges and complexities on the ground, you undermine the incipient nation, democracy and justice." Today, when Ramos"Horta travels in the countryside, people don't want to discuss security and unity. Recounts Ramos"Horta, "They joke with me: 'Mr. President, we really like your road to peace, but we prefer a road to our village.'" He's now focused on providing his people with such essentials as clean water and electricity, and shoring up the nation's fragile social and economic institutions. "Let's put all the past behind us. Look after the victims, the wounded, in their minds, bodies and souls, build a country that is deserving of so much sacrifice. Chasing the ghosts of the past leads us nowhere," says Ramos"Horta. About the Speaker(s): José Manuel Ramos"Horta took office as the second President of East Timor (since independence from Indonesia) on May 20, 2007. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese Bishop Ximenes Belo for "sustained efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people. " As a founder and former member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), Ramos"Horta served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999). After East Timor achieved independence in 2002, Ramos"Horta was appointed as the country's first Foreign Minister. He served in this position until his resignation on June 25, 2006, amidst political turmoil. In July 2006, he was officially sworn in as the second Prime Minister of East Timor. On February 11, 2008, Ramos"Horta was injured when he was shot during an assassination attempt. Ramos"Horta studied Public International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law (1983) and at Antioch University where he completed an M.A. in Peace Studies (1984). He was trained in Human Rights Law at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg (1983). He attended Post"Graduate courses in American foreign policy at Columbia University(1983). He is a Senior Associate Member of the University of Oxford's St Antony's College (1987). Host(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship

Luminescent Solar Concentrators Explained

Tue, 19 May 2009 04:00:00 GMT

05/19/2009 6:00 PM MuseumMarc Baldo, Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceDescription: Researchers are well along in designing a highly efficient, inexpensive solar cell, but the big barrier to the dissemination of solar power in society remains the problem of installation, says Marc Baldo. As an engineer, Baldo expresses confidence that "we're going to mow down" the problem of producing a great solar cell and making it cheap. His own lab has developed a unique approach that's found enthusiastic support from the federal government and others. Unlike conventional solar cells that use a single material such as silicon to perform both functions of absorbing light and converting it into electricity, Baldo's cell "separates the functions and optimizes both." His solar concentrator utilizes inexpensive material like glass or plastic onto which a thin film of dye has been painted. Sunlight strikes this surface, and the dye, which can be "tuned" or colored to trap specific wavelengths of light, emits light back to solar cells along the edge of the plate. There are enormous advantages derived from this design: The glass or plastic (considerably cheaper than silicon) catches diffuse light, so there's no need to track the sun, and it concentrates the sunlight much more efficiently than conventional solar cells. But solar concentrators alone don't signal the start of a new solar age. Baldo addresses the considerable uncertainty around the broad deployment of solar power. Installation costs for single homes appear formidably high, perhaps 2/3rd the cost of the entire system. Colossal solar fields that might replace fossil fuel burning plants must ship their energy across vast distances, losing electricity along the way. And right now the national power grid isn't set up to handle the fluctuations in energy that large"scale intermittent energy sources such as solar or wind present. Clouds are a "big pain" for grid operators, says Baldo. He believes the best start for solar will be in commercial and industrial installations such as the rooftops of factories, supermarkets or warehouses, sites where there's no loss moving power around, and where managers are already seeking ways to save on lighting and refrigeration, including smart electronics. His cost"effective concentrators could find their way to such installations in several years. In addition to solar concentrators, Baldo is researching biological models for making solar cells more efficient: He just received a $19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study exciton circuitry in plants -- how plants capture light in packets of energy and direct the energy to where it's needed. Says Baldo, "This exciton is the last, great unexplored territory in solar cells." About the Speaker(s): Marc A. Baldo is a principal investigator in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE. His research interests include molecular electronics, electrical and exciton transport in organic materials, energy transfer, metal"organic contacts, heterogeneous integration of biological materials, and novel organic transistors. Baldo received his B. Eng. (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Sydney in 1995 with first class honors and university medal, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In 2002 he joined MIT as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. Host(s): Office of the Provost, MIT Museum

Values"Based Leadership

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

03/03/2009 12:00 PM Wong AuditoriumRobert McDonald, COO, Procter & GambleDescription: A West Point start, army career, and a disciplined approach to distilling key life experiences has guided Robert McDonald through his 20 years at Procter & Gamble. McDonald recommends a deliberate system of self"examination that results in an articulation of beliefs, which he sees as essential to strong leadership. McDonald describes an ongoing process of "getting in touch with my culture, experiences, education, family" to discover his values, which he writes down, and revises over time. He believes that "people in an organization like to work for a leader who's predictable," and whose expectations they understand. Some of McDonald's key beliefs, drawn from such early experiences as the Boy Scouts, and the military academy, continue to hold true to this day. He feels that "leading a life driven by purpose leads to a more meaningful and rewarding life than meandering without direction." This has meshed nicely, he says, with P&G's statement of purpose: to improve the lives of the world's consumers. Says McDonald, "I think my purpose in life is to help other people." Some other key beliefs: "Everybody wants to succeed, and success is contagious." Nobody wants to fail, and a good leader puts people in the right jobs, doing work they are good at. This also means that leaders "take responsibility for things even when they're beyond our control," when plans go awry or collapse. McDonald also believes that "organizations have to renew themselves," which means leaders must provide development opportunities, and recognize that success comes not just from being strong but being adaptable, prepared for change. The final belief he offers is that a true test of a leader's character "isn't what happens in an organization when you're there, but when you're not there." Good leaders build sufficient capability around them, so the organization "can withstand your leaving." Charismatic is fine, but "we don't like heroic leaders." For those searching for purpose, McDonald recommends this practical written exercise: list organizations to which you belong, and their dominant values; note lessons learned from your family, memorable life and educational experiences; then turn this into a set of beliefs. About the Speaker(s): Robert A. McDonald oversees all global operations and corporate functions of Procter & Gamble's $76.5"billion business, which maintains on"the"ground operations in more than 80 countries. In 1975, McDonald graduated from West Point with a ranking of 13 out of 875 students and a B.S. in Engineering. He then served as a Captain in the U.S. Army for 5 years, primarily in the 82nd Airborne Division. While still serving in the Army, McDonald received an M.B.A. from the University of Utah in 1978. He graduated with honors from Beta Gamma Sigma. McDonald joined Procter & Gamble in 1980 in the U.S. marketing division. He transferred to Toronto in 1989 to lead P&G's Canadian Laundry business, and then to the Philippines in 1991 as General Manager. In 1995 he became Vice President and General Manager, Laundry & Cleaning Products"Asia, and relocated to Japan. After several other promotions, he was appointed Vice Chairman, Global Operations, in 2004, returning to the U.S. after 14 years abroad. McDonald assumed his current role as Chief Operating Officer in July 2007. In 2007, McDonald received the inaugural Leadership Excellence Award from the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Business Review. The award recognizes top executives of U.S."based companies who consistently exemplify a commitment to personal integrity, business success and fellow employees. McDonald serves on the Xerox Board of Directors and is Chairman of the Board for GS1, an international supply chain standards organization. He is also a member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations(ACTPN). Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Energy Efficiency Technologies Panel

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:19:09 GMT

Highlights of technologies and approaches to to building energy efficiency featuring: John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and Engineering Systems Director, System Dynamics Group Nicholas Gayeski, Building Technology Program Walt Henry, Department of Facilities Harvey Michaels, Department of Urban Studies & Planning and MITEI This discussion took place on January 14th, 2009 as part of Energy Futures Week.

Stephen Selkowitz: Zero Energy Buildings - Potentials and Realities

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:51:42 GMT

This seminar was given on November 18, 2008 as part of the MITEI Seminar Series. Abstract: To address growing concerns about energy supply, carbon emissions, and the workplace, buildings are increasingly asked to meet higher and potentially more complex levels of performance e.g. net zero energy, sustainable and green, healthy and comfortable workplaces, grid-friendly, etc. Are these goals achievable or illusory? To what degree can they be achieved today in practice; and what innovation (technology, process, financial) is needed to fully reach these aggressive performance levels in the future? About the Speaker: Stephen Selkowitz is Department Head, Building Technologies Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he manages 70 technical staff in a building science R&D program encompassing Windows and Daylighting Systems, Lighting Systems Research, Simulation Research, Commercial Building Performance, Demand Response Research and High Tech Buildings. The MITEI Seminar Series is proudly sponsored by CERA.

Stephen Selkowitz - Zero Energy Buildings: Potentials and Realities

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:28:07 GMT

MUSIC Session 04

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:33:18 GMT

MUSIC Session 4

Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities for Business and Society

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT

09/19/2008 9:00 AM KresgeDavid Schmittlein, John C Head III, Dean, MIT Sloan School of Managment; Richard M. Locke, PhD '89, Alvin J. Siteman Professor of Entrepreneurship and Political Science; John Sterman, PhD '82, Forrester Professor of Management and Engineering Systems, and; Director, System Dynamics Group, MIT ; Vladimir Bulovic, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ; Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, BT AmericasDescription: If "organizations are the way that ideas change the world," as MIT Sloan Dean Dave Schmittlein puts it, then look to institutions like MIT, which has wrapped its arms around the issues of energy and climate change, to help make sustainability real and attainable. The Dean describes some showcase work launched at MIT, including a long"lasting battery for electric cars, and MIT's own green campus efforts. For MIT Sloan, explains Richard Locke, sustainability is not an "in vogue concept" that is about environment or climate change. Rather, it is "an incredible opportunity for new business, and for existing enterprise to reinvent their practices." He invites panelists and audience at Convocation sessions to engage in dialog about moving beyond theory to meet the challenges of sustainability. Forget the notion that the climate challenge is primarily a technical one, and can be solved with the help of 21st century know"how, says John Sterman. A more useful response would combine the distributed leadership of a civil rights movement with the technological daring of a Manhattan project. There are huge obstacles to overcome: According to Sterman, while a vast majority of people have heard of global warming, believe it poses a threat and believe in reducing greenhouse emissions, a majority also oppose any changes that would "put the true costs of energy in front of you at the pump and in your electric bill." There's widespread belief that we can "wait and see" whether climate change is really that bad. Sterman is working on providing policy makers and the public with interactive models that demonstrate just how immediate the climate threat is and how a slack response will only make things worse. He wants people to perceive that they must reduce greenhouse gases dramatically, but he also wants to destroy the myth that doing so will "kill the economy." Sterman says "addressing this issue will pay dividends-that if we can cut the use of fossil fuels, it puts money in our pockets." Vladimir Bulovic wants to make the climate issue personal and immediate: the arboreal forests of the world produce 2/3rds of the planet's oxygen, and due to warming (and the diseases that accompany it), trees are dying off. This image of our world choking on its own waste is motivating MIT scientists to find alternatives to polluting energy sources. He cites in particular efforts to harness the sun's energy, including improving silicon technology, engineering photons to make electricity, and advancing ways of concentrating and storing solar power. British telecom BT has managed to reduce its carbon footprint by 58% since 1996. Imagine what would happen if other global corporations followed suit, queries Kevin Moss. He challenges his commercial peers to scour their business processes to reduce real estate and transportation usage, improve energy efficiency (e.g., by raising operating temperatures at data centers), and to purchase renewable energy. BT's next goal: an 80% reduction of carbon emissions, and to secure 25% of its energy needs by wind energy by 2016. About the Speaker(s): John D. Sterman's research includes systems thinking and organizational learning, computer simulation of corporate strategy, and the theory of nonlinear dynamics. He is the author of many scholarly and popular articles on the challenges and opportunities facing organizations today, including the book Modeling for Organizational Learning, and the award"winning textbook Business Dynamics. Sterman's research centers on improving managerial decision making in complex systems. He has pioneered the development of "management flight simulators" of corporate and economic systems. Sterman has twice been awarded the Jay W. Forrester Prize for the best published work in system dynamics. He won a 2005 IBM Faculty Award, and the 2001 Accenture Award for the best paper of the year published in the California Management Review (with Nelson Repenning). He has five times won awards for teaching excellence from the students of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and was named one of the Sloan School's "Outstanding Faculty" by the 2001 Business Week Guide to the Best Business Schools. Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

Building 20: Retired in 1998

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:34:53 GMT

MIT's Building 20 was called "The Magical Incubator" for its use to create some historical inventions at MIT, such as RADAR.

Mark Baldo discusses MIT's solar concentrator

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:46:59 GMT

Imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of. MIT engineers report a new approach to harnessing the sun's energy that could allow just that. Full story

Video/MIT News Office

2.97 Egg Drop during IAP 2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:15:19 GMT

The default Flash version of the video downloads fast, but is low quality. Download the QuickTime (.mov) file for best quality.

2.97 "Design-a-palooza" was offered for the first time during IAP 2008. The class encouraged students to develop their own design processes through several design challenges.

The first challenge asked students to design a device which would protect an egg dropped 21 stories from the top of MIT's Green Building. The device also needed to drop as quickly as possible without compromising the egg.

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2.97 Students: Katherine Choi, Matt Ciborowski, David Foster, Andi Gelb, Tylor Hess, Eugene Jang, Petek Saracoglu, Xindi Song, Alex St. Claire, Joshua Velasquez, Nathan Wang 2.97

Teaching Staff: Taylor Roan, Maria Yang, Jasmin Baek, Linda Liu

Still Photographer: Helen Tsai
Videographer: Joshua Velasquez

High-definition footage used in this video is available upon request at no charge for non-profit or educational use.

Produced by Joshua Velasquez for MIT Mechanical Engineering
Copyright MMVIII

Rebuilding the City of New Orleans: Working Across Sectors to Achieve a Common Goal

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:00:00 GMT

01/30/2008 11:30 AM 32"123John Fernandez, '85, Associate Professor, Department of ArchitectureDescription: It took John Fernandez more than a year just to begin to understand the political players and competing interests in New Orleans, and so it is no surprise to him that coming up with a common goal for rebuilding the city, much less a "resource efficient one," proves elusive. Nevertheless, Fernandez and other MIT researchers aspire to make post"Katrina New Orleans a successful case study of a city "becoming green," perhaps serving as a model for other urban centers, particularly those facing climate change challenges. Fernandez became deeply involved in New Orleans' struggle when he was invited to examine the city's public housing units, most of which had been condemned without inspection. He discovered that the vast majority were either habitable or recoverable. The "decided lack of a civic voice" forced the city's poorest to abandon their homes, often for FEMA trailers. Now, New Orleans Office of Recovery Management seems to be moving in a more progressive direction, according to Fernandez, looking to rebuild the city in a way that balances the needs of different stake"holders and applies real science to urban design. Fernandez and his colleagues have developed a software tool to help city policy"makers make informed decisions about approaches to rebuilding. The researchers use material flow analysis, measuring inputs and outputs of material and energy, durability of housing stock, cost data on building types, energy use rates, waste generation rates. They also apply data on population and employment, housing needs and growth priorities. With this tool, New Orleans urban planners can model an entire green city, or target specific neighborhoods. Modeling like this can provide incentives for designers, engineers and home builders to focus on innovations in such areas as water recovery, onsite energy production and home resilience. Fernandez describes a house that rises when water lifts it during dramatic flooding. Ultimately, Fernandez hopes to "increase urban resource efficiency" in New Orleans and beyond. His tools attempt to make this possible by first precisely verifying how different kinds of buildings reduce carbon emissions, energy use, and construction materials, among other things. While making new, green buildings will have a critical impact on our use of energy, Fernandez notes that the biggest opportunity lies in improving energy use in existing buildings. City governments, as well as academics, must rise to the challenge "in addressing barriers to a green, urban future." About the Speaker(s): John E. Fernandez has been a member of the faculty since 1999, teaching in the design studio and numerous technology courses. His research has focused on the materials and physical elements and components of the assemblies and systems of buildings. A culminating publication of his research of the past several years is the newly published book, Material Architecture: emergent materials for innovative buildings and ecological construction (2005, Architectural Press: Oxford). Fernandez began his architectural career in New York City where he was a senior designer in the firms of Kohn Pedersen Fox and Polshek and Partners. He is a principal of Lampietti"Fernandez Architects with his wife, Malvina Lampietti. He is a graduate of MIT (BSAD '85) and Princeton University (March '89). Host(s): Office of the President, MIT Energy Initiative

Hack on Building 10

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:38:26 GMT

Mit Police Car on the Dome of Building 10

Innovation Through Design Thinking

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 05:00:00 GMT

03/16/2006 12:00 PM WongTimothy Brown, CEO, IDEODescription: Not so long ago, Tim Brown recounts, designers belonged to a "priesthood." Given an assignment, a designer would disappear into a back room, "bring the result out under a black sheet and present it to the client." Brown and his colleagues at IDEO, the company that brought us the first Apple Macintosh mouse, couldn't have traveled farther from this notion. At IDEO, a "design thinker" must not only be intensely collaborative, but "empathic, as well as have a craft to making things real in the world." Since design flavors virtually all of our experiences, from products to services to spaces, a design thinker must explore a "landscape of innovation" that has to do with people, their needs, technology and business. Brown dips into three central "buckets" in the process of creating a new design: inspiration, ideation and implementation. Design thinkers must set out like anthropologists or psychologists, investigating how people experience the world emotionally and cognitively. While designing a new hospital, IDEO staff stretched out on a gurney to see what the emergency room experience felt like. "You see 20 minutes of ceiling tiles," says Brown, and realize the "most important thing is telling people what's going on." In a completely different venue, IDEO visited a NASCAR pit crew to come up with a more effective design for operating theaters. After inspiration comes "building to think:" often a hundred prototypes created quickly, both to test the design and to create stakeholders in the process. Says Brown, "So many good ideas fail to make it out to market because they couldn't navigate through the system." IDEO counts on storytelling to develop and express its ideas, and to buy key players into the concept. Finally, IDEO relies on constantly refreshing its sources of inspiration by bringing in bold thinkers to campus, and increasingly, focusing on socially oriented design problems. About the Speaker(s): Tim Brown has led strategic client relationships with such companies as DaimlerChrysler, Microsoft, Motorola, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and Steelcase. He serves on the Board of Trustees for both the California College of the Arts and ZeroOne: the Art and Technology Network. Most recently, he joined the Advisory Council of Acumen Fund, a not-for-profit global venture fund focused on improving the lives of the poor. Brown has received numerous design awards, and his designs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Axis Gallery in Tokyo, and the Design Museum in London. Brown joined IDEO in 1987 after earning his M.A. in design from the Royal College of Art in London. He managed IDEO's San Francisco office from 1990 to 1995, and headed IDEO Europe from 1995 to 2000. Host(s): Sloan School of Management, MIT Sloan School of ManagementTape #: T21055

New Orleans: How Can We Plan for Safe and Sustainable Regions?

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 04:00:00 GMT

As various plans emerge for the recovery of New Orleans, these panelists offer some pointed lessons in flood prevention and reconstruction, from overseas, from our own history, and from other parts of the U.S. Moderated by Andrew J. Whittle, ScD '87, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Patricipants: Chaing C. Mei, Donald & Martha Harleman Professor and Acting Head, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Michael M.J. Fischer, Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies, Department of Anthropology and Program in Science, Technology and Society; Anne Whiston Spirn, Professor of Landscape Architecture, Departments of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning Event date: 10/18/2005

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