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The Faculty Newsletter recently invited new faculty members to share with us their initial impressions of the Institute. We will continue to publish these reflections throughout the year.
My first impression of MIT is how open this institution is. Many doors are unlocked and faculty can go into each other's office with ease. There are also other characteristics that are closely related to this culture of openness – lack of hierarchy, an informal style, etc. I am very impressed by and feel very comfortable with this environment. I believe that this kind of environment is conducive to honesty and creativity.
Another impression I have is that some of the buildings and classrooms are named after their – presumably – Chinese benefactors. This tells me a lot. These people must have enjoyed their experience at MIT to feel comfortable to donate a large amount of money. Many of the best educational institutions in North America have had a long tradition of drawing students from Asia but to actually succeed in cultivating a sense of belonging or loyalty from them is not easy. I may be completely wrong on this but it appears that MIT did a better job than others.
Overwhelming, energizing, and intimidating: these were my first impressions coming to MIT from the idyllic Jeffersonian culture of the University of Virginia. Although a new PhD, I am not as young as many of my peers. Prior to life in academia, I was a Navy fighter pilot, and intimidated is not a state I find myself in very often. But in anxious times, I am reminded of Soren Kierkegaard who said, "To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself."
Perhaps my most lasting impression of MIT is the electric spirit of collaboration, which pervades almost every aspect of campus life. On my second day at MIT, I found myself lost in Central Square. I asked a passerby for orientation and he replied, pointing in the direction of Harvard, "That way is Harvard. That is where all the rich kids go to school." Then pointing in the opposite direction, he said, "That way is MIT. That is the center of the universe." I was comforted knowing I was headed in the right direction, both physically and professionally! It turned out this random passerby was the president of a local robotics company (and an MIT grad, of course!). Since I conduct research with humans and autonomous vehicles, our meeting was quite fortuitous and losing my footing literally has led to new research opportunities. In how many other places can just asking for directions result in new avenues of research?
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