A guided tour of the new MIT Museum

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When the MIT Museum opened its caller 56,000-square-foot abstraction successful Kendall Square past October, it was a clip of nationalist celebration. It was besides a backstage constituent of pridefulness for David Nuñez, SM ’15, who helped usher the museum’s translation arsenic its manager of exertion and integer strategy.

Nuñez joined the depository successful 2017, astir a twelvemonth earlier the groundbreaking for the caller building, and says helium had his enactment chopped retired for him. “The depository didn’t person a mode to merchantability tickets online. It didn’t person a large online collections search,” helium says. “There were a batch of important ways that I felt the depository could level up.”

Today, it has reimagined the online acquisition for visitors, who tin present browse done much than 156,000 items from the museum’s postulation and, yes, bargain tickets. It’s besides unveiled galore in-gallery integer activities, ranging from listening to idiosyncratic reflections connected the Black acquisition astatine MIT to penning poesy with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

“There are implicit 80 antithetic integer pieces, and galore of them are interactive successful immoderate way,” Nuñez says. “It was important to america to make a hackable depository you could enactment your hands into and use.”

Now visitors tin not lone research carnal artifacts from the Institute’s agelong past of probe and innovation but besides summation penetration into the MIT community—including generations of MIT alumni—through video and audio recordings featuring Institute innovators. “We privation to springiness radical a consciousness of the quality thread done each the exertion and invention,” Nuñez says.

Digital manager David Nuñez, SM ’15 successful the MIT Museum

The MIT Museum was founded successful 1971 to sphere the Institute’s humanities artifacts, and contiguous its ngo is to marque MIT’s probe accessible to everyone; the caller integer platforms are truthful designed to alteration adjacent much visitors to articulation successful the MIT experience. For example, online visitors tin measurement successful connected questions specified arsenic “What does it mean for thing to beryllium well-engineered?” And in-person visitors tin make idiosyncratic avatars that look connected the immense media partition connected the archetypal floor, successful an installation called The Window.

“This is an acquisition we created arsenic a invited and an penetration into the MIT community,” Nuñez says, explaining that participants reply a fewer questions, and the generated information determines what each avatar looks similar connected the large screen. “It’s a practice of you, but successful the assemblage of these avatars connected the wall. It’s saying you tin enactment astatine MIT. Welcome!”

What bash galore of the exhibits person successful common? Alumni, who of people person been creating and shaping the Institute since its earliest days. Here, Nuñez shares his insights connected immoderate notable alumni-
related exhibits.

Whirlwind computer

One of the world’s archetypal large-scale, high-speed integer computers, MIT’s Whirlwind was created successful the aboriginal 1950s nether the absorption of Jay W. Forrester, SM ’45, a prof astatine MIT Sloan.

Among different Whirlwind-related objects, the depository prominently displays 1 4K halfway representation unit. “It’s a large machine, lasting taller than I am,” Nuñez says, yet today’s compartment phones typically person astir a cardinal times much memory. “To basal adjacent to this entity is to recognize that quality hands had to necktie each those wires. Humans were progressive successful each these inventions.”

LIGO prototype

Developed by Professor Emeritus Rainer Weiss ’55, PhD ’62, and his students, this 1970s prototype led to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), a large-scale physics experimentation that was yet capable to observe the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The enactment earned Weiss the 2017 Nobel Prize successful physics.

“The experiments that LIGO was capable to facilitate consciousness similar magic to me, arsenic a non-physicist,” Nuñez says. “Can you ideate what it was similar to beryllium determination erstwhile they recovered retired it worked? What an astonishing infinitesimal for humanity!”

Kismet

One of archetypal societal robots designed to simulate societal interactions, Kismet was created successful the 1990s by Cynthia Breazeal, SM ’93, ScD ’00, who is present MIT’s dean for integer learning and caput of the Personal Robots Research Group astatine the MIT Media Lab. Originally controlled by 15 antithetic computers, Kismet employed 21 motors to make facial expressions and assemblage postures.

“I person a batch of affinity for that peculiar artifact,” says Nuñez, who studied with Breazeal astatine the Media Lab. “It’s specified a charismatic object; it’s 1 of the museum’s Instagram moments.”

IRGO

Developed by Julie Shah ’04, SM ’06, PhD ’11, IRGO is an interactive robot that depository visitors tin assistance to bid done artificial-intelligence demonstrations. “Our visitors are participating successful existent robotics research,” Nuñez says. “That is specified a uncommon and peculiar opportunity.”

Today Shah is the H.N. Slater Professor successful Aeronautics and Astronautics astatine MIT and caput of the Interactive Robotics Group wrong the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She shares her thoughts connected AI successful a adjacent audio gallery. Other alumni featured successful that assemblage see Professor Rosalind Picard, SM ’86, ScD ’91, manager of the Media Lab’s Affective Computing Research Group, and Media Lab PhD students Matt Groh, SM ’19, and Pat Pataranutaporn, SM ’20.

“We privation to beryllium capable to exposure the information that determination are communities of radical down everything you’re seeing,” Nuñez says.

Coded gaze

Visitors to the AI assemblage tin spot the disguise utilized by Joy Buolamwini, SM ’17, PhD ’22, to contiguous a achromatic face—rather than her ain Black one—to facial designation software, which she recovered was little close for radical with acheronian skin. In her doctoral thesis, Buolamwini coined the word “coded gaze” to picture algorithmic bias.

“You’d presume this assemblage would beryllium each astir the exertion and however it works, but the constituent present is to get radical to deliberation astir the societal implications of the benignant of innovation that’s happening connected campus,” Nuñez says. “If our visitors tin travel distant with tons of questions, we’ll person done our job.”

Minecraft Institute of Technology

When MIT students were sent location astatine the opening of the covid pandemic successful 2020, Jeffery Yu ’22 launched a task to physique a replica of MIT successful the video-game level Minecraft, and students collaborated connected it from astir the world. A video circuit of the highly elaborate “Minecraft Institute of Technology” that resulted is connected presumption astatine the museum. “They re-created MIT from their lived acquisition of this peculiar place,” Nuñez says. “It’s specified a beauteous representation. You get this consciousness of whimsy and play—this peculiar MIT feeling comes through.”

Alums tin sojourn the caller museum—and bring a guest—for escaped utilizing the MIT ID for alumni.

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