iCampus, the MIT-Microsoft Alliance for research in
educational technology, supports faculty innovations in educational
technology, helps incubate them through classroom use, and promotes
their adoption, evaluation, and continued evolution both within MIT
and through worldwide multi-institutional cooperation. iCampus is
funded by Microsoft Corporation, conducted in collaboration with
Microsoft Research, and directed by a joint steering committee
composed of members from MIT and from Microsoft Research. For more
information, visit MIT iCampus on the Web at http://icampus.mit.edu/.
iCampus supports transformative projects whose scope
transcends an individual course and whose impact extends beyond an
individual campus. The iCampus research program concentrates on three
broad project areas: the Internet and Web services for shared
educational resources, active learning alternatives to traditional
learning, and instructional applications of emerging technology.
Leadership
Hal Abelson
Hal Abelson is the Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, a fellow of the IEEE, and a co-chair of MIT's Council on Educational Technology. He has a Bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a PhD degree in mathematics from MIT. In 1992, Prof. Abelson was designated as one of MIT's six inaugural MacVicar Faculty Fellows, in recognition of his significant and sustained contributions to teaching and undergraduate education. Prof. Abelson was recipient in 1992 of the Bose Award (MIT's School of Engineering teaching award). He is also the recipient of the 1995 Taylor L. Booth Education Award given by IEEE Computer Society, cited for his continued contributions to the pedagogy and teaching of introductory computer science.
Prof. Abelson has a longstanding interest in using computation as a conceptual framework in teaching. He directed the first implementation of LOGO for the Apple II, which made the language widely available on personal computers beginning in 1981; and published a widely selling book on Logo in 1982. His book Turtle Geometry, written with Andrea diSessa in 1981, presented a computational approach to geometry has been cited as "the first step in a revolutionary change in the entire teaching/learning process."
Together with Gerald Jay Sussman, Prof. Abelson developed MIT's introductory computer science subject, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs," a subject organized around the notion that a computer language is primarily a formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology, rather than just a way to get a computer to perform operations. This work, through their computer science textbook, videotapes of their lectures, and the availability on personal computers of the Scheme dialect of Lisp (used in teaching the course), has had a world-wide impact on university computer-science education.
Tom Magnanti
Tom Magnanti is the Dean of Engineering at MIT and co-director of iCampus, the MIT-Microsoft Alliance.
He is a former president of INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and of ORSA, the Operations Research Society of America, and is currently president of IFORS, the International Federation of Operational Research Societies. He has been a co-director of the Operations Research Center at MIT and was a founding co-director of MIT's noted Leaders for Manufacturing Program as well as of its System Design and Management Program. His teaching and research focus on theory and application of large scale optimization, particularly in the area of network flows and combinatorial optimization.
He joined MIT in 1971 as an assistant professor at the Sloan School of Management. He earned his PhD in operations research in 1972 from Stanford University, where he studied with one of the founders of the field, George Dantzig.
He has conducted research on such topics as production planning and scheduling, transportation planning, facility location, logistics, and communication systems design. He is a recipient of the MIT Billard Award and ORSA Kimball Medal for distinguished service, the Lancaster Prize for best publication in the field of Operations Research, and the Irwin Sizer Award for significant innovations in MIT education. Dr. Magnanti co-authored two textbooks, "Applied Mathematical Programming" (Addison-Wesley, 1977) and "Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms and Applications" (Prentice Hall, 1993).
Dr. Magnanti has been a research fellow at the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics at the University of Louvain in Belgium and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School. He has also spent sabbatical leaves at GTE Labs, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Sabre Technology Solutions. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He has received honorary degrees from the University of Montreal, Linköping University of Sweden, and the University of Louvain.
Video
Windows Media streaming: Broadband (220K) Dialup (56K)
Windows Media download: Broadband (220K) Dialup (56K)
Quicktime download: Broadband (220K) Dialup (56K)
