Many people think gentle yoga is too easy and not an effective form of fitness. Think again! You can practice yoga in ways that are both active and gentle at the same time.

Come enjoy the many known benefits of yoga through:

• the practice of active yet gentle, rhythmic movement
• held yoga poses and vinyasa flow (moving from pose to pose via the breath)
• pranayam (breath work)
• relaxation and meditation

In this well-rounded class, Celeste LeMieux, 500 hr certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor, provides clear instructions and modifications, making it accessible and beneficial to practitioners of all ages and stages of yoga practice and life.

You will leave class feeling both stretched and strengthened while also feeling more calm and relaxed. This class is the perfect mid-week reset for body and mind. Come see how less really can be more!

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Join MHH for a Lego break! We will have snacks, drinks, and plenty of Legos to create your masterpiece. Take a picture of your creation and tag us on social media to be entered in a drawing for an MIT Values t-shirt.

No registation required! 

Interested in the Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space? Come learn more about the facilities and opportunities in the space.  Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, and chat with the Director of the space. Learn about the ongoing programming in the space and how you can start a project or join one already in progress.  No registration required. Attend any session.

EC.S00/ EC.S12: The goal of this special IAP Learning Opportunity is to provide participants with a “how to” decarbonization manual, along with experiential learning opportunities through workshop-activities and field trips to Net Zero buildings in the greater Boston area. Elements of this Learning Opportunity include: 1) how to calculate a carbon footprint of a person, building, campus, city, country, 2) learning the basic science and engineering of decarbonization 3) examining case studies of 4th and 5th Generation geothermal district energy systems, such as the 1st 100% net zero campus, Colorado Mesa University 4) taking a deep dive into a D-Lab, Geo@MIT student team + MIT Alumni for Climate Action proposal for “100% Decarbonization of MIT Campus by 2035 via 6th Generation Geothermal District Heating and Cooling” 5) several field trips to Net Zero Buildings in the greater Boston area.

This boot camp will introduce you to the fundamentals of deep learning. What are deep networks and how do they work? We will start by introducing the key data structures and algorithms used by neural nets. Then we will cover popular architectures that build upon these structures, including convolutional networks, residual networks, and transformers. We will look in detail at how these architectures have been applied to the field of computer vision, and we will also give examples of applications in other areas, such as natural language processing and scientific data analysis. The course will also include a hands on tutorial where you will run and code simple networks in Pytorch in your browser.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Artificial intelligence leveraging multiple data sources and input modalities (tabular data, computer vision, and natural language) is poised to become a viable method to deliver more accurate results and deployable pipelines across various applications. This session aims to review progress in a variety of applications, including healthcare, meteorology and education, and discuss future directions.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Are you done with your experiment and wondering how in the world to analyze the mountain of data you generated? Is your advisor hating on your Excel-drawn plots? Join a bootcamp on data management and build a toolbox worthy of your science! We will include relational data management, data preparation, data cleaning, visualizations, parallelism, the basics of machine learning, and a lot of chances to try things out on your own and ask questions. Introductory (very basic, really) python knowledge assumed. Taught by students from the Data Systems Group at CSAIL.

Registration is now closed.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Join faculty from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science for short talks on security.

Speakers:

• Ron Rivest: Welcome Remarks
• Henry Corrigan-Gibbs: Private Search
• Nickolai Zeldovich: Verification on Hardware
• Yael Kalai: Verification of Computation
• Vinod Vaikuntanathan: FHE

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

The MIT authors of three recent books on design will talk about what design means in their domain, present examples of successful designs, and suggest prospects for the future of design in computing.

Design of Socio-Technical Systems
David Clark, Designing an Internet (MIT Press, 2018)

In this talk I will talk about the design principles of the Internet. I will describe how our understanding of system requirements evolved in the first decades, and how our changing understanding influenced the evolving design.  I will illustrate the space of system requirements and design options by looking at some alternative proposals for how to design an Internet, and the implications of some recent design proposals.

Design of Software Products
Daniel Jackson, The Essence of Software (Princeton University Press, 2021)

I’ll explain how successful innovations in software can usually be traced to just one or two “concepts” that offer new scenarios that, with seemingly small shifts, radically change how an application is used. I’ll give examples from apps such as Zoom, WhatsApp and Photoshop. I’ll also mention how viewing apps through concepts enables use of LLMs for code generation.

Design of Programs

Gerald Jay Sussman, Software Design for Flexibility (MIT Press, 2021)

It is hard to build systems that have acceptable behavior over a larger class of situations than was anticipated by their designers.  The best systems are evolvable: they can be adapted to new situations with only minor modification.  How can we design systems that are flexible in this way?

We have often programmed ourselves into corners and had to expend great effort refactoring code to escape from those corners.  We have now accumulated enough experience to feel that we can identify, isolate, and demonstrate strategies and techniques that we have found to be effective for building large systems that can be adapted for purposes that were not anticipated in the original design. I will illustrate such strategies with examples.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

This session will feature short talks by faculty from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science on trustworthy systems.

Adam Chlipala, Correct-by-Construction Cryptographic Software: Important cryptographic algorithms have many different variations for different parameters and target hardware platforms, and conventionally, expert engineers need to reimplement an algorithm for each such combination, to get good performance.  The Fiat Cryptography project provides a generator that automates that specialization work that was previously highly manual.  As a bonus, the Fiat Cryptography code generator has a machine-checked mathematical proof of correctness.  It has been adopted to produce parts of a number of popular open-source libraries.

Srini Devadas, Security With Minimal Trust: We describe an approach to build computing systems that provide integrity of computation and data privacy for users while minimizing software and hardware that needs to be trusted.

Frans Kaashoek, Verifying Distributed Systems With Concurrent Separation Logic: Distributed systems are at the heart of cloud computing and bugs in them can lead to outages of Web sites. Unfortunately distributed systems are hard to get right because they must handle concurrency, crash recovery, replication, and reconfiguration, which interact in subtle ways.  A promising approach to verifying such systems (and thereby systematically eliminating bugs) is based on concurrent separation logic, which allows components to be verified independently yet handle tricky interaction between components.

Mengjia Yan, Principled Hardware Defenses Against Side-channel Attacks

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Iyengar yoga is Hatha yoga as taught by BKS Iyengar and develops strength, coordination, and flexibility of the body and mind. Participants learn how to use their embodiment as an anchor - a way to find peace and inner strength during busy and difficult times.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Come sing with the MIT Women’s Chorale!  We are a concert choir open to women from all portions of the MIT community. Rehearsals for our spring season will be held on Wednesdays from 7-9 pm in the main building complex at MIT, beginning on January 17. Our talented and enthusiastic music director, Nhung Truong, supports our philosophy, that we are serious about making music and serious about enjoying making music. Join our welcoming group as we prepare for our May program, which will include the lovely Missa Brevis by Delibes, small works by Handel,  and an exciting piece by Elaine Hagenberg. 

We ask that prospective singers contact us before the first rehearsal:  mitwc@mit.edu.  

Further details are available on our website.
https://web.mit.edu/womensleague/womenschorale/

This yoga practice provides the opportunity to relax and de-stress as well as to stretch, strengthen, and balance your body. The practice begins with a meditative centering followed by warm-ups, a posture flow, and a restful final relaxation. We conclude with a closing and some time for connecting with your fellow yogis.

The yoga postures are led at a moderate intensity. Lower intensity modifications are always offered and there is absolutely no obligation to do any posture. The goal is to make the class accessible to beginners as well as experienced practitioners. Listening to your body is the key to safety, especially in this online format.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

This live, virtual 15-minute class is a combination of simple stretches to release tension in the body and guided meditation to mentally reset during the day.

It is offered on as a drop-in session to encourage taking a midday break. Register for free anytime and attend as often as you wish. Feel free to invite others to register as part of a stress-reduction routine.

Pleasures of Poetry meets this IAP 2024 in 14E-304 from 1-2 p.m. every weekday from January 8-26, with the exception of MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 15). This popular activity – which aims to reach all those with an interest in poetry, regardless of experience level – has been offered every IAP for several decades. This will be the 28th year of Pleasures of Poetry at MIT. Each one-hour session is devoted to a poet or two, often a single poem, chosen by session leaders who volunteer to facilitate conversation for that day. Collaborative close reading is the aim and ideal of each hour. Some participants attend every session, but many others may drop in only once or twice during the series to discuss a favorite poet or poem, or to discover new favorites. The roster of poets is typically diverse — from classic Chinese poets to American poets laureate, and from such canonical figures as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, and Bishop to contemporary poets including Louise Glück, Joy Harjo, Terrence Hayes, and many more. 

Free and open to the public; as well as staff, alumni, and students.

Pleasures of Poetry 2024 Poetry Booklet PDF 

Schedule: January 8 – January 26
(with the exception of MLK Day January 15th)
Building 14, 14E-304 @ 1:00-2:00pm

-

Mon 8 Stephen Tapscott and Tom Özden-Schilling
"An American Sunrise” by Joy Harjo

Tues 9 Peter Shor
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth
“Immortality” by Matthew Arnold
"Reply to Mr. Wordsworth” by Archibald MacLeish

Wed 10 Mark Hessler
"Retreating Light”
“Grace”
"Parable" by Louise Glück

Thurs 11 Ben Mangrum
“sort by day, burn by night” Rita Wong

Fri 12 Avery Nguyen
”Triptych (#3)” by Diana Khoi Nguyen
“The Last Prom Queen in Antarctica” by Ocean Vuong

Mon 15 MLK Jr. Day (Institute Closed)

Tues 16 Anne Hudson
"Good Bones"
"Poem Beginning with a Line from Basho” by Maggie Smith

Wed 17 Moderator
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

Thurs 18 Sandy Alexandre
”Abecedarian for Alzheimer's" by Joy Priest

Fri 19 Arthur Bahr
"Caelica - Sonnet 100” by Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke

Mon 22 Elizabeth Doran
"Et quoi penser du silence? (And What to Think of Silence?)"
"à toi (to you)" by Alejandra Pizarnik

Tues 23 Marah Gubar and Kieran Setiya
“Blocks World: The Lobster” by Emma Catherine Perry

Wed 24 Bronwen Heuer
"La loba (The She-Wolf)"
"Tú me quieres blanca (You Want Me White)"
"Cuadrados y ángulos (Squares and Angles)"
"Hombre pequeñito (Little Tiny Man)" by Alfonsina Storni

Thurs 25 Kevin McLellen
"States" by Kevin McLellan

Fri 26 Jessica Ruffin
“Spirit Matters” by Peter Rose

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.

Using Roll Model therapy balls*, stretching and breathing techniques, this session will help you navigate the new year with ease. Give yourself a deep tissue massage from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, from the surface of your skin to your deep fascia.

Learn effective ways to unwind shoulder, neck and back tension, find more energy and create inner calm. We will close with a guided breath meditation and find a state of deep, conscious relaxation. You will leave feeling refreshed in body, mind and spirit… ready for anything 2024 might send your way. Well… almost anything!

• Self-care first
• Flow with your breath, roll out your tension
• Turn on your off switch

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based workshop.

*Registration includes a pair of Roll Model therapy balls. You will receive them as you arrive for the workshop.

Experience the immediate benefits of myofascial release with this simple and effective self-care practice. Learn specialized ball rolling techniques that help penetrate through layers of skin, fascia and muscle and massage into your high-tension areas.

Each class includes guided exercises using the Roll Model therapy balls, breath work and stretching techniques specifically designed to ease overburdened muscles and encourage deep mind-body relaxation. Explore various muscle groups and needy body areas each week to eliminate strain and discomfort from sitting too long, working on screens and living with stress.

You will find greater self-awareness, freedom and ease in your body. Put the power of self-massage into your own hands.

All levels welcome! This is a movement class and workout attire is strongly encouraged.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

In order to prepare for sleep, the body, breath, and mind all need to downshift. There are several ways that gentle yoga stretches and relaxation can support the sleep process.

This workshop will include an overview of why yoga can be helpful and a demonstration of three gentle yoga poses for sleep, which can be done in a small space using a chair. It will finish with a deep relaxation technique. Feel free to participate or watch the demonstration.

Wear comfortable clothing and have a chair available. A firm pillow and a blanket or mat for lying down on the floor are also helpful. No previous experience needed.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This workshop is free and open to the entire MIT community.

Come for a day-long visit to learn about planning issues and efforts in the Forest City with the former Planning & Urban Development Director for Portland. We will travel by transit to experience how an innovative transit system works in a small city, and meet with city planning officials working on economic, housing, climate resilience and transportation issues.

Well known for its great architecture and food, Portland is rapidly becoming a place where climate migrants, affluent retirees, and those seeking urban amenities at a smaller scale are relocating. As a result, housing prices are up – as is homelessness. How does a Small City make sure any success is equitable? How do you make transit and walkability work in a place with relatively little traffic congestion? We will learn about how this small city by the ocean is trying to guide growth and change sustainably and justly. We will close out the day with a visit to a redevelopment district and one of the many tasting rooms in town, before taking the Downeaster train back to Boston.

This session will use this visit to learn about an emerging trend in urban development – the rise of the Small City. More than previous generations, Millennials are choosing to locate in these second- and third-tier cities as a way of balancing quality of life, employment opportunities, and the benefits of city amenities. The pandemic and increases in working “wherever” appear to be driving this trend even more quickly. How do we make sure current residents can stay when new residents inevitably drive up the cost of housing and create competition for employment? What about social services and the opportunity faced by New Americans, who are also living in Small Cities?

Be prepared for a long but interesting day, starting around 7 am. and returning to the Boston area around 8 pm. You should plan to dress for a Maine winter, including proper footwear, warm socks, and layers, as we will be walking outdoors for parts of the day.

Enrollment is limited to 12. Please send a short email of interest to Jeff Levine at jrlevine@mit.edu before 12/15/23.  Given limited spots and likely strong interest, admitted students must commit to attending, except in case of illnesses or other serious issues. Preference given to DUSP students.

A martial art known for its many health benefits, tai chi is a moving study in meditation.

Designed for small spaces, this class covers fundamental tai chi skills including postures, hand, and footwork. A short Yang style tai chi form will be taught.

Special clothing is not necessary, but athletic shoes and loose fitting pants are recommended.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Nonfiction is easy to read but not so easy to write. In this workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of writing compelling storylines for children. Who did it? Why did they do it? How did something happen without human intervention? The most important part of this process is to create a work that causes the reader to wonder, “what else is there to know?” Bring ideas, paper and writing tools.

Christine Taylor-Butler is a children's book author who has written more than 90 books, among them The Lost Tribe series, which she describes as “the technical Harry Potter.” Her 30 books for the Scholastic True Books educational nonfiction series range in topic, from planets and the human body to civil rights and the Supreme Court. She also visits schools, libraries, and festivals, where she encourages kids to explore the science behind her books. An advocate for diversity in children’s literature, she wrote an essay about gender inequity at the Caldecott Awards and the CSK Illustrator Awards, which she discussed on the kidlit women* podcast. In addition, her essay “Failure is Not An Option” on the importance of STEM literacy appeared in The Horn Book.

Taylor-Butler holds dual SB degrees in Civil Engineering and in Architecture (1981) from MIT and was formerly an interviewer for MIT Admissions. Her past experience includes working at a start-up software company and at Harvard University before moving to Kansas City, where she served as a graphic-arts and engineering manager at Hallmark Cards for more than a decade.

In addition to her writing, she served as a judge for the Society of Midland Authors children’s nonfiction award, the Walter Dean Myers children's literature award, and PEN America’s Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. Taylor-Butler is past president of the Missouri Writers Guild, an Emeritus Board member of Kindling Words, and a Toastmaster for World Fantasy. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, and a Director At Large of Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).

_________________________

We are committed to making this event fully accessible to everyone who wants to attend. Please let us know if there is anything you need to participate fully in this event by e-mailing vulfp@mit.edu.

Photographs and/or videos may be taken at this event.

By entering and attending this event, you acknowledge and agree that your likeness and/or voice may be included in photos and videos of the event and used by MIT in connection with communications about the Institute Community and Equity Office or in other MIT communications.

If you do not agree to this usage, please notify the event organizer or do not enter the event.

This live, virtual 15-minute class is a combination of simple stretches to release tension in the body and guided meditation to mentally reset during the day.

It is offered on as a drop-in session to encourage taking a midday break. Register for free anytime and attend as often as you wish. Feel free to invite others to register as part of a stress-reduction routine.

A martial art known for its many health benefits, tai chi is a moving study in meditation.

Designed for small spaces, this class covers fundamental tai chi skills including postures, hand, and footwork. A short Yang style tai chi form will be taught.

Special clothing is not necessary, but athletic shoes and loose fitting pants are recommended.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Many people think gentle yoga is too easy and not an effective form of fitness. Think again! You can practice yoga in ways that are both active and gentle at the same time.

Come enjoy the many known benefits of yoga through:

• the practice of active yet gentle, rhythmic movement
• held yoga poses and vinyasa flow (moving from pose to pose via the breath)
• pranayam (breath work)
• relaxation and meditation

In this well-rounded class, Celeste LeMieux, 500 hr certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor, provides clear instructions and modifications, making it accessible and beneficial to practitioners of all ages and stages of yoga practice and life.

You will leave class feeling both stretched and strengthened while also feeling more calm and relaxed. This class is the perfect mid-week reset for body and mind. Come see how less really can be more!

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Come sing with the MIT Women’s Chorale!  We are a concert choir open to women from all portions of the MIT community. Rehearsals for our spring season will be held on Wednesdays from 7-9 pm in the main building complex at MIT, beginning on January 17. Our talented and enthusiastic music director, Nhung Truong, supports our philosophy, that we are serious about making music and serious about enjoying making music. Join our welcoming group as we prepare for our May program, which will include the lovely Missa Brevis by Delibes, small works by Handel,  and an exciting piece by Elaine Hagenberg. 

We ask that prospective singers contact us before the first rehearsal:  mitwc@mit.edu.  

Further details are available on our website.
https://web.mit.edu/womensleague/womenschorale/

Experience the immediate benefits of myofascial release with this simple and effective self-care practice. Learn specialized ball rolling techniques that help penetrate through layers of skin, fascia and muscle and massage into your high-tension areas.

Each class includes guided exercises using the Roll Model therapy balls, breath work and stretching techniques specifically designed to ease overburdened muscles and encourage deep mind-body relaxation. Explore various muscle groups and needy body areas each week to eliminate strain and discomfort from sitting too long, working on screens and living with stress.

You will find greater self-awareness, freedom and ease in your body. Put the power of self-massage into your own hands.

All levels welcome! This is a movement class and workout attire is strongly encouraged.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Interested in the Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space? Come learn more about the facilities and opportunities in the space.  Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, and chat with the Director of the space. Learn about the ongoing programming in the space and how you can start a project or join one already in progress.  No registration required. Attend any session.

Pleasures of Poetry meets this IAP 2024 in 14E-304 from 1-2 p.m. every weekday from January 8-26, with the exception of MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 15). This popular activity – which aims to reach all those with an interest in poetry, regardless of experience level – has been offered every IAP for several decades. This will be the 28th year of Pleasures of Poetry at MIT. Each one-hour session is devoted to a poet or two, often a single poem, chosen by session leaders who volunteer to facilitate conversation for that day. Collaborative close reading is the aim and ideal of each hour. Some participants attend every session, but many others may drop in only once or twice during the series to discuss a favorite poet or poem, or to discover new favorites. The roster of poets is typically diverse — from classic Chinese poets to American poets laureate, and from such canonical figures as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, and Bishop to contemporary poets including Louise Glück, Joy Harjo, Terrence Hayes, and many more. 

Free and open to the public; as well as staff, alumni, and students.

Pleasures of Poetry 2024 Poetry Booklet PDF 

Schedule: January 8 – January 26
(with the exception of MLK Day January 15th)
Building 14, 14E-304 @ 1:00-2:00pm

-

Mon 8 Stephen Tapscott and Tom Özden-Schilling
"An American Sunrise” by Joy Harjo

Tues 9 Peter Shor
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth
“Immortality” by Matthew Arnold
"Reply to Mr. Wordsworth” by Archibald MacLeish

Wed 10 Mark Hessler
"Retreating Light”
“Grace”
"Parable" by Louise Glück

Thurs 11 Ben Mangrum
“sort by day, burn by night” Rita Wong

Fri 12 Avery Nguyen
”Triptych (#3)” by Diana Khoi Nguyen
“The Last Prom Queen in Antarctica” by Ocean Vuong

Mon 15 MLK Jr. Day (Institute Closed)

Tues 16 Anne Hudson
"Good Bones"
"Poem Beginning with a Line from Basho” by Maggie Smith

Wed 17 Moderator
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

Thurs 18 Sandy Alexandre
”Abecedarian for Alzheimer's" by Joy Priest

Fri 19 Arthur Bahr
"Caelica - Sonnet 100” by Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke

Mon 22 Elizabeth Doran
"Et quoi penser du silence? (And What to Think of Silence?)"
"à toi (to you)" by Alejandra Pizarnik

Tues 23 Marah Gubar and Kieran Setiya
“Blocks World: The Lobster” by Emma Catherine Perry

Wed 24 Bronwen Heuer
"La loba (The She-Wolf)"
"Tú me quieres blanca (You Want Me White)"
"Cuadrados y ángulos (Squares and Angles)"
"Hombre pequeñito (Little Tiny Man)" by Alfonsina Storni

Thurs 25 Kevin McLellen
"States" by Kevin McLellan

Fri 26 Jessica Ruffin
“Spirit Matters” by Peter Rose

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.

This yoga practice provides the opportunity to relax and de-stress as well as to stretch, strengthen, and balance your body. The practice begins with a meditative centering followed by warm-ups, a posture flow, and a restful final relaxation. We conclude with a closing and some time for connecting with your fellow yogis.

The yoga postures are led at a moderate intensity. Lower intensity modifications are always offered and there is absolutely no obligation to do any posture. The goal is to make the class accessible to beginners as well as experienced practitioners. Listening to your body is the key to safety, especially in this online format.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

EC.S00/ EC.S12: The goal of this special IAP Learning Opportunity is to provide participants with a “how to” decarbonization manual, along with experiential learning opportunities through workshop-activities and field trips to Net Zero buildings in the greater Boston area. Elements of this Learning Opportunity include: 1) how to calculate a carbon footprint of a person, building, campus, city, country, 2) learning the basic science and engineering of decarbonization 3) examining case studies of 4th and 5th Generation geothermal district energy systems, such as the 1st 100% net zero campus, Colorado Mesa University 4) taking a deep dive into a D-Lab, Geo@MIT student team + MIT Alumni for Climate Action proposal for “100% Decarbonization of MIT Campus by 2035 via 6th Generation Geothermal District Heating and Cooling” 5) several field trips to Net Zero Buildings in the greater Boston area.

Iyengar yoga is Hatha yoga as taught by BKS Iyengar and develops strength, coordination, and flexibility of the body and mind. Participants learn how to use their embodiment as an anchor - a way to find peace and inner strength during busy and difficult times.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based class.

Are you done with your experiment and wondering how in the world to analyze the mountain of data you generated? Is your advisor hating on your Excel-drawn plots? Join a bootcamp on data management and build a toolbox worthy of your science! We will include relational data management, data preparation, data cleaning, visualizations, parallelism, the basics of machine learning, and a lot of chances to try things out on your own and ask questions. Introductory (very basic, really) python knowledge assumed. Taught by students from the Data Systems Group at CSAIL.

Registration is now closed.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Come for a day-long visit to learn about planning issues and efforts in the Forest City with the former Planning & Urban Development Director for Portland. We will travel by transit to experience how an innovative transit system works in a small city, and meet with city planning officials working on economic, housing, climate resilience and transportation issues.

Well known for its great architecture and food, Portland is rapidly becoming a place where climate migrants, affluent retirees, and those seeking urban amenities at a smaller scale are relocating. As a result, housing prices are up – as is homelessness. How does a Small City make sure any success is equitable? How do you make transit and walkability work in a place with relatively little traffic congestion? We will learn about how this small city by the ocean is trying to guide growth and change sustainably and justly. We will close out the day with a visit to a redevelopment district and one of the many tasting rooms in town, before taking the Downeaster train back to Boston.

This session will use this visit to learn about an emerging trend in urban development – the rise of the Small City. More than previous generations, Millennials are choosing to locate in these second- and third-tier cities as a way of balancing quality of life, employment opportunities, and the benefits of city amenities. The pandemic and increases in working “wherever” appear to be driving this trend even more quickly. How do we make sure current residents can stay when new residents inevitably drive up the cost of housing and create competition for employment? What about social services and the opportunity faced by New Americans, who are also living in Small Cities?

Be prepared for a long but interesting day, starting around 7 am. and returning to the Boston area around 8 pm. You should plan to dress for a Maine winter, including proper footwear, warm socks, and layers, as we will be walking outdoors for parts of the day.

Enrollment is limited to 12. Please send a short email of interest to Jeff Levine at jrlevine@mit.edu before 12/15/23.  Given limited spots and likely strong interest, admitted students must commit to attending, except in case of illnesses or other serious issues. Preference given to DUSP students.

In order to prepare for sleep, the body, breath, and mind all need to downshift. There are several ways that gentle yoga stretches and relaxation can support the sleep process.

This workshop will include an overview of why yoga can be helpful and a demonstration of three gentle yoga poses for sleep, which can be done in a small space using a chair. It will finish with a deep relaxation technique. Feel free to participate or watch the demonstration.

Wear comfortable clothing and have a chair available. A firm pillow and a blanket or mat for lying down on the floor are also helpful. No previous experience needed.

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This workshop is free and open to the entire MIT community.

Join MHH for a Lego break! We will have snacks, drinks, and plenty of Legos to create your masterpiece. Take a picture of your creation and tag us on social media to be entered in a drawing for an MIT Values t-shirt.

No registation required! 

Using Roll Model therapy balls*, stretching and breathing techniques, this session will help you navigate the new year with ease. Give yourself a deep tissue massage from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, from the surface of your skin to your deep fascia.

Learn effective ways to unwind shoulder, neck and back tension, find more energy and create inner calm. We will close with a guided breath meditation and find a state of deep, conscious relaxation. You will leave feeling refreshed in body, mind and spirit… ready for anything 2024 might send your way. Well… almost anything!

• Self-care first
• Flow with your breath, roll out your tension
• Turn on your off switch

Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this site, you'll need to create one. This is a fee-based workshop.

*Registration includes a pair of Roll Model therapy balls. You will receive them as you arrive for the workshop.

Join faculty from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science for short talks on security.

Speakers:

• Ron Rivest: Welcome Remarks
• Henry Corrigan-Gibbs: Private Search
• Nickolai Zeldovich: Verification on Hardware
• Yael Kalai: Verification of Computation
• Vinod Vaikuntanathan: FHE

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

This session will feature short talks by faculty from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science on trustworthy systems.

Adam Chlipala, Correct-by-Construction Cryptographic Software: Important cryptographic algorithms have many different variations for different parameters and target hardware platforms, and conventionally, expert engineers need to reimplement an algorithm for each such combination, to get good performance.  The Fiat Cryptography project provides a generator that automates that specialization work that was previously highly manual.  As a bonus, the Fiat Cryptography code generator has a machine-checked mathematical proof of correctness.  It has been adopted to produce parts of a number of popular open-source libraries.

Srini Devadas, Security With Minimal Trust: We describe an approach to build computing systems that provide integrity of computation and data privacy for users while minimizing software and hardware that needs to be trusted.

Frans Kaashoek, Verifying Distributed Systems With Concurrent Separation Logic: Distributed systems are at the heart of cloud computing and bugs in them can lead to outages of Web sites. Unfortunately distributed systems are hard to get right because they must handle concurrency, crash recovery, replication, and reconfiguration, which interact in subtle ways.  A promising approach to verifying such systems (and thereby systematically eliminating bugs) is based on concurrent separation logic, which allows components to be verified independently yet handle tricky interaction between components.

Mengjia Yan, Principled Hardware Defenses Against Side-channel Attacks

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

The MIT authors of three recent books on design will talk about what design means in their domain, present examples of successful designs, and suggest prospects for the future of design in computing.

Design of Socio-Technical Systems
David Clark, Designing an Internet (MIT Press, 2018)

In this talk I will talk about the design principles of the Internet. I will describe how our understanding of system requirements evolved in the first decades, and how our changing understanding influenced the evolving design.  I will illustrate the space of system requirements and design options by looking at some alternative proposals for how to design an Internet, and the implications of some recent design proposals.

Design of Software Products
Daniel Jackson, The Essence of Software (Princeton University Press, 2021)

I’ll explain how successful innovations in software can usually be traced to just one or two “concepts” that offer new scenarios that, with seemingly small shifts, radically change how an application is used. I’ll give examples from apps such as Zoom, WhatsApp and Photoshop. I’ll also mention how viewing apps through concepts enables use of LLMs for code generation.

Design of Programs

Gerald Jay Sussman, Software Design for Flexibility (MIT Press, 2021)

It is hard to build systems that have acceptable behavior over a larger class of situations than was anticipated by their designers.  The best systems are evolvable: they can be adapted to new situations with only minor modification.  How can we design systems that are flexible in this way?

We have often programmed ourselves into corners and had to expend great effort refactoring code to escape from those corners.  We have now accumulated enough experience to feel that we can identify, isolate, and demonstrate strategies and techniques that we have found to be effective for building large systems that can be adapted for purposes that were not anticipated in the original design. I will illustrate such strategies with examples.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

This boot camp will introduce you to the fundamentals of deep learning. What are deep networks and how do they work? We will start by introducing the key data structures and algorithms used by neural nets. Then we will cover popular architectures that build upon these structures, including convolutional networks, residual networks, and transformers. We will look in detail at how these architectures have been applied to the field of computer vision, and we will also give examples of applications in other areas, such as natural language processing and scientific data analysis. The course will also include a hands on tutorial where you will run and code simple networks in Pytorch in your browser.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.

Nonfiction is easy to read but not so easy to write. In this workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of writing compelling storylines for children. Who did it? Why did they do it? How did something happen without human intervention? The most important part of this process is to create a work that causes the reader to wonder, “what else is there to know?” Bring ideas, paper and writing tools.

Christine Taylor-Butler is a children's book author who has written more than 90 books, among them The Lost Tribe series, which she describes as “the technical Harry Potter.” Her 30 books for the Scholastic True Books educational nonfiction series range in topic, from planets and the human body to civil rights and the Supreme Court. She also visits schools, libraries, and festivals, where she encourages kids to explore the science behind her books. An advocate for diversity in children’s literature, she wrote an essay about gender inequity at the Caldecott Awards and the CSK Illustrator Awards, which she discussed on the kidlit women* podcast. In addition, her essay “Failure is Not An Option” on the importance of STEM literacy appeared in The Horn Book.

Taylor-Butler holds dual SB degrees in Civil Engineering and in Architecture (1981) from MIT and was formerly an interviewer for MIT Admissions. Her past experience includes working at a start-up software company and at Harvard University before moving to Kansas City, where she served as a graphic-arts and engineering manager at Hallmark Cards for more than a decade.

In addition to her writing, she served as a judge for the Society of Midland Authors children’s nonfiction award, the Walter Dean Myers children's literature award, and PEN America’s Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. Taylor-Butler is past president of the Missouri Writers Guild, an Emeritus Board member of Kindling Words, and a Toastmaster for World Fantasy. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, and a Director At Large of Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).

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We are committed to making this event fully accessible to everyone who wants to attend. Please let us know if there is anything you need to participate fully in this event by e-mailing vulfp@mit.edu.

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Artificial intelligence leveraging multiple data sources and input modalities (tabular data, computer vision, and natural language) is poised to become a viable method to deliver more accurate results and deployable pipelines across various applications. This session aims to review progress in a variety of applications, including healthcare, meteorology and education, and discuss future directions.

Part of the Expanding Horizons in Computing IAP series presented by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. See the full list of activities at computing.mit.edu/ExpandingHorizons.