MIT Better World

At MIT, we believe education equals opportunity. Through online learning platforms MITx and EdX, we’re making our discoveries available to millions of people around the world. Take a look as our students and faculty help create the next generation of thinkers and problem solvers. -------------------------- The MIT Campaign for a Better World is all about rising to meet humanity’s urgent global challenges through the vision and talent of the people of MIT. Learn more:

Breakthroughs result from unfettered curiosity, and at MIT, we’re more curious than most. Watch our researchers seek out new discoveries that will translate into solutions for humanity’s great challenges. Our relentless search for knowledge is an investment in the future and a better world. ------------------------- The MIT Campaign for a Better World is all about rising to meet humanity’s urgent global challenges through the vision and talent of the people of MIT. Learn more:

Throughout its history, MIT has been an engine of discovery—from GPS to modern linguistics to space exploration. However, the challenges of today call for bold thinking and new action. At MIT, we believe that to make a better world, we need to innovate innovation. Watch our faculty and students strive to unleash a new era of growth. ------------------------------------ The MIT Campaign for a Better World is all about rising to meet humanity’s urgent global challenges through the vision and talent of the people of MIT. Learn more:

Meet the makers: Weixun He ’19 Filmed in: ProtoWorks During his time at MIT, mechanical engineer and entrepreneur Weixun He ’19 utilized the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s ProtoWorks space, which he describes as the “premiere makerspace of the entrepreneurship community.” There he made, among other things, a Brass Rat. “Makerspaces allow people to bring out their creative side,” he says. “This space represents the bridge between the physical world and your idea.”

Meet the makers: Effie Jia ’20 Filmed in: Architecture Woodshop “Making to me is being able to take my ideas as a visual thinker and transform them into tangible and useful products that are beautiful as well,” says Effie Jia ’20, an architecture major and a design fellow in the MIT Office of Sustainability. She characterizes her making experience at MIT as allowing her to view the world as something she “can break apart and understand more easily.”

Meet the makers: Juan Carlos Garcia ’20 Filmed in: Music Technology Lab “MIT students see opportunity and we can’t just let that go away,” says Juan Carlos Garcia ’20, a computer science and music major. Garcia is creating ConcertCue, an application that streams program notes to audience members during concerts. “Making can introduce people to a whole new medium of culture and art they might have not been able to experience,” he says.

Meet the makers: Bobby Johnston, PhD candidate Filmed in: Hobby Shop For physics doctoral candidate Bobby Johnston, MIT makes it easy to bring ideas to life. Using the MIT Hobby Shop, Johnston fabricated a machine that makes cocktail ice cubes shaped like the Star Wars Death Star. “To physically create something and hold it—whether you have 3-D printed it or machined it—it just brings it to a whole other level,” he says. “You feel as if you can accomplish anything.”

Meet the makers: Sabrina Hare ’22 Filmed in: The Deep “I discovered through makerspaces and a lot of the hands-on classes I took freshman year that I really liked making things,” says Sabrina Hare, a mechanical engineering major who created a map of Barcelona, her home town, using The Deep makerspace. Hare describes the process of making, testing, and breaking things—and learning from her mistakes—as what gets her “brain going.”

Meet the makers: Nora Enright ’19 Filmed in: Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space “Making at MIT is getting to put what you learn about in class into practice,” says Nora Enright ’19, who graduated with a degree in biological engineering. Enright believes the advent of the new Huang-Hobbs BioMaker Space at MIT lets students explore the field of bioengineering, which has become mainstream, more deeply. “It’s preparing us to have that same enthusiasm and excitement that is driving science,” she says.

For Jessica Quaye ’20, coming to MIT was the fulfillment of a long-held dream, one that generous financial aid made possible. Quaye, an electrical engineering and computer science major, talks about how her research and other activities at MIT are fueling her drive to make an impact on people’s lives in her home country of Ghana. She also reveals how having her sister at MIT profoundly affected her experience on campus. --------------------------- The MIT Campaign for a Better World is all about rising to meet humanity’s urgent global challenges through the vision and talent of the people of MIT. Learn more: