A celebration of creativity and community at MITArtfinity is a new festival of the arts at MIT featuring 80 free performing and visual arts events, celebrating creativity and community at the Institute. Artfinity launches with the opening of the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building on February 15, 2025, continues with a concentration of events February 28-March 16, and culminates with the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts public lecture by 2025 recipient artist and designer Es Devlin on May 1, 2025, and a concert by Grammy-winning rapper and Visiting Professor Lupe Fiasco on May 2, 2025. Artfinity embodies MIT’s commitment to creativity, community, and the intersection of art, science and technology. We invite you to join us in this celebration, explore the diverse events, and experience the innovative spirit that defines the arts at MIT.About the Artists Artfinity features the innovative work of MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni, alongside guest artists from the Greater Boston area and beyond.About the Activities & Events All 80 events are open to the public, including dozens of concerts and performances plus an array of visual arts such as projections, films, installations, exhibitions, and augmented reality experiences, as well as lectures and workshops for attendees to participate in. With a wide range of visual and performing arts events open to all, Artfinity embodies MIT’s commitment to the arts and the intersection of art, science, and technology.About the Presenters Artfinity is an institute-sponsored event organized by the Office of the Arts at MIT with faculty leads Institute Professor of Music Marcus Thompson and Professor of Art, Culture and Technology Azra Akšamija. Departments, labs, centers, and student groups across MIT are presenting partners.Visit arts.mit.edu for more information about the arts at MIT.

Want to get exercise at the start of the 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 atrium by the staircase. 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. [As of Feb 12, this calendar is defaulting to the year 1899. Click "today" to be brought to the current week.]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.

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

Special Seminar with Sven DorkenwaldDate: Monday, March 3, 2025Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 amLocation: McGovern Seminar Room (46-3189)Talk title: Reconstruction and analysis of synaptic wiring diagrams of the fruit fly brain and mouse cortexTalk abstract: Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analyzing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been scaled to chunks of mammalian brains and entire invertebrate brains. First, I will present our reconstruction of the first neuronal wiring diagram of a whole adult fruit fly brain, containing >50 million chemical synapses between 139,255 neurons, as well as the technological progress leading up to the creation of this resource. I will discuss how the connectome can be used to study synaptic pathways from the brain’s input to output neurons. Second, I will present progress toward cortical connectomes and how a densely reconstructed circuit between pyramidal neurons provides insight into rules governing circuit assembly.Bio: Sven Dorkenwald is a Shanahan Research Fellow at the Allen Institute and the University of Washington, and a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google Research. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics in 2014 and a Masters degree in Computer Engineering in 2017 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. While in Heidelberg, he worked on automated image analysis in connectomics with Jörgen Kornfeld in the department of Winfried Denk at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. Sven received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2023, where he worked with Sebastian Seung and Mala Murthy. During his PhD, he developed approaches for the reconstruction and analysis of neuronal circuits from Electron Microscopy images and spearheaded the FlyWire consortium effort that produced the first synapse-resolution connectome of an adult Drosophila brain. Sven joined Google Researcher part-time in 2020, where he is developing self-supervised machine-learning approaches for efficient annotation and encoding of cell reconstructions. Sven joined the Allen Institute and the University of Washington in 2023.

Hidden within MIT’s Distinctive Collections, many architectural elements from the earliest days of the Institute’s architecture program still survive as part of the Rotch Art Collection. Among the artworks that conservators salvaged was a set of striking windows of gypsum and stained-glass, dating to the late 18th- to 19th c. Ottoman Empire. This exhibition illuminates the life of these historic windows, tracing their refracted histories from Egypt to MIT, their ongoing conservation, and the cutting-edge research they still prompt.The Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130) is open Monday through Thursday, 10am - 4pm, excluding Institute holidays.

Weng lab I "Biochemical Characterization of the DUF3328 Protein in the Biosynthesis of Cyclic Peptide Cyclochlorotine"

Join us for "Celebrating Unteaching" where MIT Press authors where MIT Press authors of Racism Untaught, Lisa E. Mercer and Terresa Moses, will share their expertise in a hands-on workshop & conversation moderated by MIT Associate Professor Catherine D'Ignazio.Attendees will learn more about the Racism Untaught framework and practice unteaching with the book's accompanying Toolkit.Racism Untaught: Revealing and Unlearning Racialized Design (MIT Press) emerged from the need to foster learning environments that examine racialized design. Anti-racist design interventions can be difficult. Well-intentioned conversations can fuel tensions, activate racialized trauma, and lead to misunderstandings. In Racism Untaught, Mercer and Moses, two veteran educators, provide a step-by-step guide to anti-racist interventions that benefits all participants. Through dozens of successful workshops across the country, Mercer and Moses provide a framework for unlearning racialized design practices while fostering equity, justice, and community building.About the presentersTerresa Moses is creative director of Blackbird Revolt, director of design justice and associate professor of graphic design at the University of Minnesota, and owner of Black Garnet Books. She created Project Naptural, co-created Racism Untaught and Hatch & Flock, and serves on the board of Black Liberation Lab.Lisa Elzey Mercer's (she/her/hers) interests include developing and executing design interventions focused on ethics and anti-oppressive design frameworks. She developed Operation Compass, co-created Racism Untaught and Hatch and Flock, and is focused on developing a situated sense of ethics in design as a Ph.D. Student in Design at the University of Edinburgh.Catherine D'Ignazio is an Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning and Director of the Data + Feminism Lab at MIT. A scholar, artist/designer and hacker mama who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy and civic engagement, D'Ignazio has published two bookes with MIT Press and has won multiple awards for her art and design work.This event is presented in collaboration with MIT Press, Racism Untaught, and Arts at MIT as part of Artfinity: A celebration of creativity and community at MIT.

Date: March 3rd at 12pmIn-Person Location: Singleton Auditorium 46-3002Title: Elucidating laminar motifs of aperiodic and oscillatory activity in humans and miceAbstract: The neocortex is the “crowning jewel” of mammalian evolution, enabling complex thought and higher cognitive processes. Across species and areas, it’s composed of six cortical layers with distinct cell types and connectivity. Despite this highly stereotyped anatomical motif, we do not know how the cortex organizes its activity. One potential mechanism is aperiodic processing, utilizing characteristic time constants to integrate information across different temporal scales. Another are cortical rhythms, implicated in diverse functions such as attention or plasticity. Both are seen throughout the mammalian neocortex. How these characteristic features of cortical processing vary across the cortical depth is largely unknown. This thesis will elucidate physiological motifs of aperiodic spectral slope and 3-5Hz cortical rhythms using laminar recordings in humans and mice. First, we characterize conserved features of aperiodic activity as captured by 1/f power scaling of the local field potential across cortical layers and species. We find that the timescale and magnitude of aperiodic activity decrease with cortical depth in humans, mice and macaques. These effects can be parsimoniously captured by a simple model derived from the time-constants and densities of prevalent postsynaptic receptors. This chapter was adapted from a preprint. Second, we investigate the physiology of a 3-5Hz rhythm which controls spiking throughout mouse neocortex. Despite being elicited by visual stimuli, 3-5Hz spiking is highly separable from sensory-evoked activity. Instead, the rhythm is driven by large (but not small) stimuli, and reflects highly synchronous cortical spiking led by layer 5. In thalamus, the oscillation is dominated by long-latency burst spiking. The rhythm is highly stereotyped across areas, and has key physiological similarities between V1 and M2. Then, I provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that the oscillation can be imaged at the single spine level across days using a novel glutamate sensor. Together, this work contributes to understanding laminar motifs of cortical processing across species and areas.Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/3052710804Thesis Committee: : Professor, Mark Harnett, Professor Emery Brown, Professor Steve Flavell, and Pressor Ueli Rutishauser

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! [As of Feb 12, this calendar is defaulting to the year 1899. Click "today" to be brought to the current month.]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.

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 atrium by the staircase. 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. [As of Feb 12, this calendar is defaulting to the year 1899. Click "today" to be brought to the current month.]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.

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

Molecular Glues - from Protein Degradation to Transcription Factor Reprogramminghttps://broad.io/BroadMITSeminarSeries

Antoine Ferey Sciences Po

Jonathan Zinman (Dartmouth)

Speaker: Michael Salins (Boston University)Title: When do SPDEs explode?Abstract:Classic existence and uniqueness theorems for stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) prove that if the forcing terms are globally Lipschitz continuous, then there exists a unique, global solution. In this talk, I describe some of the ways that superlinear deterministic and stochastic forcing terms can combine to either cause or prevent explosion.

When: Almost every Monday (except Holidays) during the semester Time: 4:15pm – 5:45pm Where: Room 14N-417Come by for snacks, and tea with Literature Section friends, instructors, students, etc. What are you reading? What 21L classes are you taking or hoping to take? This event is specifically geared towards undergrads; but open to friends of the community that engage in the literary and humanities at MIT.

Speaker: Mirai Ikebuchi (Kyoto University)Title: Quillen cohomology of small cartesian closed categoriesAbstract: Cohomology of Lawvere theories — small categories with finite products, also called algebraic theories — is studied by Jibladze and Pirashvili. They considered three types of definitions, Quillen, Baues-Wirsching, and Ext cohomologies, and showed that their equivalences. In this talk, we extend their work to small cartesian closed categories. Also, we will briefly see its application to logic and theoretical computer science. As Lawvere theories are categorical formulation of universal algebra, there is a famous correspondence between cartesian closed categories and equational theories on simply typed lambda calculus. So, cohomology of cartesian closed categories is an invariant of such equational theories.

Welcome to being a leader, and all that goes with it! You may have heard that it can feel “lonely at the top” but that’s only if you haven’t spent time building yourself up. Through this workshop, we invite you to explore what it means to be a leader and what you need to assemble around you. This workshop uses the LEGO Serious Play method to uncover insights from you and your fellow participants. Learn about what you bring as a leader, what you may need from others, and how to connect the two. This workshop is designed to be fun and hands-on to help build you into a better leader.This CAPD event is open to MIT undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and alumni.

Come to MIT Health’s next Baby Talk Open House, and learn how we can support you and your family.Meet our pediatricians and family medicine providers. Ask questions. Learn how MIT Health cares for children. Family members and guests are welcome.Monday, March 3, 5:30–6:30 p.m.MIT Health, second floor (E23, 25 Carleton Street)Meet Rosemarie Roqué Gordon, MD, MPHRegister here: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/fc550a44a70044d6a786305ff2e0bed3

Do you think yoga is only for young, slender, super-flexible people? Think again!Yoga for Every Body with Catherine provides a gentle yoga experience in the Kripalu tradition. It offers a safe introduction for beginners of all ages, shapes, and sizes, as well as an opportunity for more experienced practitioners to share a gentle, mindful practice.Catherine hopes that this will give everyone an opportunity to turn down the “noise” of daily living and tune in to your own body, mind, and spirit.Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this website, you'll need to create one. This is fee-based class and open to the entire MIT community.

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 on Monday evenings for Argentine tango classes with outstanding instructors Fernanda Ghi, Guillermo Merlo and Mia Dalglish (read their bios on the link). Whether you are completely new to tango, or already have some experience, you will find a friendly environment in which to learn new things and improve your technique. You don't have to bring a partner, since the classes involve rotations with all participants.More info on website: https://sites.google.com/site/mittangoclub/products-services/2025-spring-series?authuser=0

Yang Sheng "Life Nourishing" Qigong is an extremely powerful tool for bringing out one's natural human potential and optimal fitness. Physical health and mental well being are a direct result of the practice.The core of our training is 'Zhan Zhuang' (Standing Meditation). It is designed to activate 'Zheng Qi' (True or Proper Qi). The effects of this training are rapid with deep therapeutic results producing a unified and balanced 'mind, body, and breath.'Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this website, you'll need to create one. This is fee-based class and open to the entire MIT community.