Second Fridays

Featured Program: Video Games at MIT

Meet some of the creative minds behind the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab which researches game design, and aims to produce real games for people (like you) to play. Learn a bit of MIT’s video gaming history and try out some of GAMBIT’s latest and greatest games. In conjunction with the Sampling MIT exhibit.

Featured Program: Light Expo

Celebrate the opening of Luminous WIndows 2011, featuring the art and science of holography through the ages. Enjoy a 'light' offering of hands-on activities and demonstrations as the curtain rises onthe MIT Museum's third annual nighttime holography exhibition, on diplay from sunset to 2 a.m. until April 1, 2011.

5:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Featured Program: 150 and Beyond

It's a Sesquintenial Celebration at the MIT Museum! Be among the first to explore the new MIT 150 Exhibition, celebrating 150 years of Institute invention and innovation. Mingle with members of the MIT community as you discover one-of-a-kind artifacts that have changed the course of history on campus, in Cambridge, Boston, and the wider world beyond. This free opening event features hands-on demonstrations and conversations with experts throughout the exhibition.

5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Featured Program: Making Movies/Making Science

Challenge your views of the world around you with video screenings from MIT’s DV Lab. See what happens when documentary film production takes on a social science outlook. Eight short films offer innovative perspectives on science and technology-related issues both at MIT and beyond.

6:00 - 7:45 p.m.

Featured Program: Nautical Night

Come 'sea' the MIT Museum in a new way! Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the MIT Nautical Association and take a maritime tour of the Museum's new MIT 150 exhibition. Program will feature on-gallery conversations with Kurt Hasselbalch, Curator of the Hart Nautical Collections, and demonstrations of the latest marine technologies from local entrepreneurs and researchers.

5:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Featured Program: MIT Hacks

MIT is known for its hacks, clever, benign, and "ethical" pranks or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community. Enjoy free admission at the Museum as we celebrate the history of hacking at MIT through special lectures and the release of the newest edition of Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT, published by The MIT Press. The event will include a celebration of Nightwork, a public lecture, hack-parts on display, and an open mic session with local "hackers" (stories welcome!).

6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Featured Program: Reel World MIT

Join Larry Gallagher and the MIT Academic Video Productions team with special guest, the original MIT Science Reporter, John Fitch, for a night "behind the screens" at the MIT Museum. See historic and entertaining films from MIT's archives and learn how the AMPS team from the MIT Libraries are preserving the Institute's video history during MIT's 150th anniversary celebration. The event will feature highlights from the Elemental MIT and From the Vault collections, as well as the landmark Science Reporter series produced by MIT and WGBH. Question and answer session to follow--you'll never look at MIT the same way again!

Free admission to the galleries

Jump-start your weekend at the MIT Museum during our monthly free evening. Mingle with friends in the Museum's unique galleries with displays of holograms, kinetic sculptures, historic robots and some of the latest research coming out of MIT.

Explore MIT

Jump-start your weekend at the MIT Museum during our monthly free evening. Mingle with friends in the Museum's unique galleries with displays of holograms, kinetic sculptures, historic robots and some of the latest research coming out of MIT. Groups of all ages can enjoy scavenger hunts in the Museum's award-winning MIT 150 Exhibition. Available at the second floor reception desk.

5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Summer Sampler

Come enjoy many of our summer activities all in one free night! Try your hand at technoart with Light Graffiti and experiment with computer programming with our Lego Mindstorms Robots. See innovative robotic technology projects created right here at the MIT Museum by current MIT students working in Museum Lab. Finally, don’t miss the opportunity to preview upcoming spring exhibitions through new interactive demonstrations. Activities are available for all ages: take photographs of science experiments, go on an expedition of the MIT Museum, and test your knowledge of Boston through the art and science of map-making.

5:00 - 8:00 p.m.