MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A world renowned engineering school in the heart of Boston

Amanda and Sonya made their first ever trip to Boston for either of them to check out universities there.  We would get around the way Amanda would if she were living there - using only public transportation, so after flying in we take a bus and a metro and walk a block to our hotel.  Then the next day we hop back on the metro and head over the Charles River to see MIT.  The city is beautiful and the campus is right beside the river.

By chance, the first building we stepped in to was the home to the Mechanical Engineering Department!  This is Amanda's chosen field of study, so we spent some time wandering the halls before it was time for the presentations and tours.

On the tour we went into one of the libraries to see this 3-D mobius strip - it is very cool!

Another hallway held this machine that uses a strobe light to let you see the drops of water as the stream flows...

This building is one always pictured with MIT - they also have a dorm modeled after a sponge (yes, the entire building is build to resemble a sponge...) - they have some quirky people here!

Legend has it that a long, long time ago (in 1958), some fraternity members took their shortest member and measured the bridge that crosses the Charles River using his body length as the method of measurement (His name is Oliver Smoot - it took 364.4 full smoots plus one ear), marking it out along the way.  Police came and removed the markings right away, but the brothers put them back as well.  This went back and forth until finally the police gave up and left the marks.  Now they are "refreshed" every other year or so and police and others use the marks to identify where on the bridge accidents and other things take place!

Oliver Smoot graduated from MIT and later came to be the Chairman of the American National Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization - guess all that measuring paid off for him!

The Charles River - We were impressed by MIT, but we have more to see.  Next stop is just down the river...