Computing on Campus

The computing environment at MIT supports an impressive array of information technologies and resources, many of them notable to MIT.

MITnet. The campus network is part of the MIT Regional Optical Network—a 2,500 mile optical ring connecting Boston, New York City, and approximately 10 other locations. The optical network provides connectivity to key internet exchange points at speeds of 10 Gbps and beyond, making it one of the world's largest and fastest institutional networks for global research and collaboration.

Mobility. MIT is a fully wireless campus with an extensive mobile web—m.mit.edu—featuring customized applications for the iPhone and Android platforms.

Devices. About 40,000 devices access MIT regularly. Close to 90 percent of MIT students arrive on campus with a laptop or a mobile device (and often both), with a 2:1 ratio of Macintosh to Windows machines across the campus.

Kerberos. Created at MIT, Kerberos—which was originally developed to secure network services on Athena, MIT's main academic computing environment, which provides academic software, courseware, and public computing facilities primarily to students—is the widely adopted protocol for network authentication. The Kerberos Consortium was launched in 2007 to create a "universal authentication platform" to protect the world's computer networks.

Systems. Stellar, MIT's course management system, currently houses 1,000 sites containing course materials, assignments, and other class activities. WebSIS, the student information system, provides access to personal records, course information, and scheduling.

Support. An extensive Help Desk handles about 150 service requests per day, and Hermes, a self-help knowledge base, draws on the cumulative intelligence of the MIT community. Support for high performance research computing in our data centers is also provided.