MIT Commencement Program 2005 - Includes Address by Irwin Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm

[MUSIC PLAYING]

STUDENT 1: Hi! This is Kelly, and I have with me my friends David, Matye, Steven, Michael, and Sandra.

JONES: Oh my goodness, that's quite a collection of students. So where are you all from?

STUDENT 1: Well, I'm from California.

STUDENT 2: New York City.

STUDENT 3: Toronto, Canada.

STUDENT 4: Kansas City.

STUDENT 5: Westborough, Massachusetts.

STUDENT 6: Knoxville, Tennessee.

JONES: Quite the range. You having a good day today?

STUDENT 1: I'm sorry, can you repeat that, please?

JONES: Are you having a good day?

STUDENT 1: Are we having a good day? Yeah.

JONES: Is this better than the day you got your admit letter to MIT?

STUDENT 1: Ooh, is this better than the day we got our admit letter to MIT? That's a pretty tough call.

STUDENT 2: I would say so.

STUDENT 6: This is much more of a relief.

STUDENT 5: Probably, yeah.

STUDENT 1: I guess much more of a relief.

JONES: It's much more of a relief because you got out?

STUDENT 1: I'm sorry, say that again?

JONES: Because you got out finally?

STUDENT 1: Well, because we got out, finally, I guess so.

JONES: So Kelly.

STUDENT 1: Yeah.

JONES: Just give me one memorable moment at MIT.

STUDENT 1: One memorable moment at MIT.

JONES: A person, a thing, a course?

STUDENT 1: I guess I don't know. Right now, standing here with Sandra, who I work with on the ambulance, the only thing that's coming to my mind's the ambulance. So hi to all the EMTs out there.

JONES: Did you save anybody's life this week?

STUDENT 1: Not this week. Did we save anyone's life?

STUDENT 6: No. We didn't work this week, I don't think we were-- [LAUGHS]

JONES: So what's the most traumatic EMT thing you did? I used to be an EMT years ago in in New York State.

STUDENT 1: Oh, wow. Wait, what was your question again? I'm sorry, it's really loud.

JONES: It's really loud over there with everybody-- a million graduates. What's the most memorable EMT thing you did?

STUDENT 1: The most memorable EMT thing I did was showing up one time to a choking victim and finding him completely out on the ground. And I wasn't actually involved with his care, but I was involved with the hysterical wife care, which ended up being a lot more memorable than anything else I've ever done.

JONES: Ah, yes. So MIT students save the world, and individual lives as well. So, you guys, we have to close this now. You want to give a big shout-out and a thank you to people who are here today? Each of you--

STUDENT 1: --shout-out and thank you to people who are here.

STUDENT 5: What?

STUDENT 1: Shout-out and thank you to people who are here.

STUDENT 5: Thanks to all my friends. I mean, I wouldn't be here without you guys.

STUDENT 6: Thank to all my friends, and my mom and dad, who-- I wouldn't be here without them.

STUDENT 2: Thank you, mom and dad.

STUDENT 3: Thanks to my mom and dad for helping me get here.

STUDENT 4: Thanks, mom, dad, and Eric.

STUDENT 1: And I have to say the same. Thanks, mom and dad.

STUDENT 6: I got to thank my brother, too. He graduated class of '99. He's also the reason why I'm here.

JONES: Have fun today, you guys!

STUDENT 1: Thanks, you too.

ROSKO: Now, the technology that enables us to interview the students over at the Johnson Athletic Center is the same technology that we use for much greater distances. Last year at Tech Day-- MIT's annual alumni reunion-- President Charles Vest conducted a particularly long-distance interview with a distinguished alumnus from the class of 1989-- astronaut Mike Fincke-- aboard the International Space Station, some 400 kilometers above the earth. Let's see this long-distance communication.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- Mike, welcome to your reunion.

[APPLAUSE]

- President Vest, thank you very much for your kind introduction. I'd like to check our coms. Can you hear me?

- You can-- we can hear you very well.

- When we were setting this up with NASA, we were wondering if we'd be able to get a good audio and video, and I can see you guys great. I'm glad you guys can hear me. And I said, if anybody could do great audio and video, it's MIT.

VEST: Lot of applause there.

- I miss MIT, 15 years ago. And everybody who is an alumnus in front of me said, you know, it goes by fast. And boy, it really does. And I'm sure I'll probably feel that way after 20 and 25 years.

But the nice thing about having time is it's given me a little bit of perspective. And the view we have on the planet from up here gives me some more perspective. And what MIT does is very important-- the mission of MIT, the way that MIT goes about teaching its students, and the way that MIT's not afraid to be world-class. These are very important things to the entire planet.

[END PLAYBACK]

ROSKO: Now, when the class of 2005 were sophomores, a good number of them took MIT's renowned mechanical engineering course, 2.007. This is a much-emulated course where students design, engineer and build a machine that accomplishes specific tasks. All this hard work culminates in an end of the semester contest where students compete head to head in MIT's most exciting spectator sport. We offer first a retrospective look at the evolution of the course over the last 30 years, followed by highlights from the contest from 2002, the year the class of 2005 were hard at work as sophomores. Pay close attention, and you might recognize your graduates among some of the competitors.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

[BUZZING SOUND]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- 2.70 started long, long ago, in a place actually not far away-- in the basement of this building. We gave the students a creativity kit.

- Inside the tube is a rod-- that is, the piece of welding rod.

- And I was a graduate student at the time, worked closely with the students, and learned that for their first design project, it was really hard for them to decide what to do.

- This is where the lanyard's going to be attached, and that will be stretched out.

- So the next year, we decided that we give them a kit of materials, but give them a very specific thing to try to accomplish.

- I'm doing that for lightness to cut mass, but basically it's for looks and steadiness.

- And they got into it immediately, and that sort of got the ball rolling. And 2.70 began with a very simple contest that involved making the machine go down a hill in three minutes.

- --down and just drill a big hole to know until you're okay.

- The 2.70 contest evolved to where it is today. When we first started, it was a simple machine doing a single thing while people watched. And it was quite slow. After a while, we had machines, side by side, doing things, so you could see some competition. And then we got interested in what happens if the machines actually collide in the middle, and compete for territory.

- Tie the knot, move it back, replace it, set it in the sand.

- From that, we evolved robotically-controlled things.

- Ready, get set, go.

- Oh!

Yeah!

Oh!

- And that has become a much more interactive, interesting thing to watch. But the most important thing that happened was the students took on the challenge, they competed like crazy, but helped each other in the process. That, I think, is one of the most important things about 2.70, 2.007 first-- the whole idea that you can work together, but still compete and help each other. A shared environment, a shared learning experience, a great model for what the profession of engineering ought to be about.

- I first came in contact and actually heard about it when I was here as an undergraduate. And Woodie Flowers was my UROP advisor. Actually, I was blueprinting an engine for my pickup truck. And I was kind of looking forward to taking 2.70, but I had blown my engine on my truck, so he actually agreed to let me at that point rebuild the engine on my truck. So I was peripherally involved, I was always looking in on the class-- gee, that looks like a lot of fun-- but never really got around to doing it. Always kind of wishing I had, but vicariously living it by helping my friends and stuff.

And then I graduated, went off to work, came back as a professor. And then I taught one section in it, because the course has the main instructor in charge of the whole class, where you're really the manager or the captain of the ship. So if I recall, there was a committee for a while, and they were debating to whom to give the class to. And they said, well, the only person who really should teach is Alex, because he has good taste in fashion. And we need someone with a good taste in fashion.

So they ask me if I would do it even though I have tenure, and I said, okay, but let's go ahead and involve the undergraduates more in actually running it, and that will be like a whole army of people helping. Those are the-- that was kind of a birth of the undergraduate assistant arm of it. And we've been having fun ever since.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- The contest is just a lot of fun.

- It's one of the best classes I will ever take. I'm sure of it.

- 2.70 rocks.

- 2.70 has changed a lot. Now, it's remote control, interactive, lots of things happening. That happened gradually.

- The real thing that has changed is that we gone to radio control from the old days of a tether. So now the machines have a lot more freedom. And it also means in designing a contest, we can put more things into it, so it's more like a pinball machine.

- At first, the students were required to do pencil drawing of devices before they would go build them. And most of them wouldn't, they just go start building. Then we learned drafting-- computer-aided drafting-- and they use those tools to help a little bit. Now, we're at the point where you can do solid models, and tools are becoming much more useful, and students will do that because it's actually fast and works. And we're getting to the point now where the onscreen dynamic simulations are good enough that you can actually use them to get an insight about what's going to happen.

- So the kit has involved with the class, and with technology in general. We just give them primarily raw materials-- sheets of aluminum, bars of metal, just gears, bearings, motors. That's it. We just give them the most basic of LEGO bricks. And then they design, cut, fold, weld, put together real machinery from it.

- We always try to change the character of the transportation problem if there is one involved. One year, we had putting a square peg in a round hole, which was a lot of fun, and MIT students can do that. That's probably a good experience.

- So the contests have not really changed at all in the sense that they are to provide a challenge to the students-- that when you look at the contest, there is no single right answer. No one can look at this and say, aha, that's how you win.

- When you get to the end and there's four or five completely different designs that are competitive, it's a good sign.

- And it's fun, because all the students are all really excited. And it's not just, oh, no, a problem set. Let's see. It's like, wow, I'm really doing something useful. Wow, cool. This is cool. I'm going to win. Yeah.

- In 2.70 and 2.007, we try hard to make sure the students know that they have the freedom to try something different. Just get your instructor on board, and say, you know what? I don't know if I'm going to do this or not, but I want to try this crazy thing. And that's okay, because it's not about winning the competition, It's about doing a meaningful, good job.

- When I start the class off, first lecture, I said, okay. Everyone wants to win this contest. First of all, it's not a contest, it's a celebration. It's just a great geeking time, get together with your robots, and yow, going to have fun. Because statistically, everyone here is going to lose, because your chances of winning are only one in 120.

So like, chill out, relax, have fun. And when you're having fun, A, you will do better, and B, when other people ask you for help, or you see someone needs help and you help them, you learn. And the more you learn, the better chance you will of doing better yourself. And that's true in your professional life, also.

- And you compete like crazy, and you get a lot of kudos for helping other people. One of the things that teaches, by the way, is that ideas are cheap. The combination of ideas and execution, and excellence in the whole process, is what really matters.

So, occasionally, someone would keep their secret. They would say, this is my idea, and I'm not telling anybody. And they would do that for a while, and they looked up, and said, wait a minute. Everybody else has had the same idea, and they chose not to. Maybe this is not-- maybe I'll talk to people about what I want to do.

[MUSIC - CHUMBAWAMBA, "TUBTHUMPING"]

- When you're a student, failing early and often is a very healthy thing to go through. Because every time that happens, pick yourself up, say, I now understand something that is very important here. I'm going to use that information go forward.

- If you don't fail, you will never have fun. The trick is to learn how to fail, and that's a very important part of what we want to teach in this class.

- It's also nice to have an environment in which failing is okay. The competition is always designed so that there are lots of ways to go. And consequently, there are a lot of ways to hide your ego, and you can try something that has very low probability of working, but your instructor will say, hey, go for it.

Later in life, if you have not established a faith in your own ability to be creative, it's really hard to do that when the stakes are so high. If you make a mistake, you might lose your job. So while you have a chance to test your creative wings, you better do it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[END PLAYBACK]

JONES: Okay, welcome back. How about you in the cheap seats? Can you see us? Wave. Way in the back there.

I'm the dean of admissions, Marilee Jones. Let's talk to some more students. Who do we have here?

STUDENT 10: Hi!

STUDENTS: Hi!

STUDENT 10: We're part of the MIT Muses. I'm [? Algie. ?]

STUDENT 11: I'm [? Taowi. ?]

STUDENT 12: I'm Fran.

STUDENT 13: I'm [? Nikki. ?]

JONES: Oh, good morning, ladies.

STUDENT 10: Hello!

JONES: So where are you from?

STUDENT 10: I am from Lexington, Massachusetts.

STUDENT 11: I'm from Hong Kong.

STUDENT 12: I'm from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

STUDENT 13: I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

JONES: Aw. And, quickly, what were your majors?

STUDENT 10: What's that?

JONES: Your majors here.

STUDENT 10: Oh, I am Course 6.1 Electrical Engineering.

STUDENT 11: I'm Economics major, Course 14.

STUDENT 12: Course 8, Physics.

STUDENT 13: I'm Course 9, Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

JONES: Okay, so who are the Muses? What do you do?

STUDENT 10: We are MIT's only all-female a capella group, and we like to sing. Except that's past tense-- we liked to sing.

JONES: Oh, too bad, you're going to be breaking up. So let's see, can you sing the national anthem?

STUDENT 10: The national anthem?

JONES: No, no, just kidding. They're going to sing that later. Okay, can you sing some MIT song like-- what about the Beaver Call song?

STUDENT 10: Oh, okay, the Beaver Call. Beaver Call. Okay.

[HUMMING]

STUDENT 11: Okay.

STUDENT 10: Ready, go.

STUDENTS: (SINGING) I'm an engineer, you're an engineer, we are engineers all. And when we get together, we do the engineer call. E to the u, du dx, E to the x, dx-- cosine, secant, tangent, sine, 3.14159. Integral, radical, mu, dv-- slipstick, slide rule, MIT.

[LAUGHTER]

STUDENT 10: You guys are great give me a hug.

JONES: Very good. So you love the Muses. So why don't you each tell me something wonderful and memorable.

STUDENT 10: Wonderful and memorable that we did at MIT.

JONES: Maybe your favorite hack or something.

STUDENT 10: Our favorite hack. I don't know, do you guys have any?

STUDENT 12: I liked The Lord of the Rings on the Dome.

STUDENT 13: I don't know.

STUDENT 11: Me neither.

JONES: How about something memorable?

STUDENT 10: Something memorable. Well, we went to DC this IAP and sang. We went on a little tour, and we sang at state representative offices, at hospitals, on the street, everywhere. And it was really awesome. So, it's been a fun time.

STUDENT 12: Yeah!

JONES: Okay, so quick, call out to your parents and say thank you.

STUDENT 10: Call out to our parents.

STUDENTS: Hi, mom! Hi, dad!

STUDENT 11: Hi, grandma! Sam.

JONES: Oh good. Well, thank you ladies, it was good.

STUDENT 10: thank you!

STUDENT 12: Thanks!

JONES: We have one more student interview, there. Can you hand yourself off to him?

STUDENT 10: Sure, of course.

JONES: Thank you.

STUDENT 10: Bye!

JONES: I believe there are nine a capella groups at MIT. Lot of singers here. There's something about that math gene and the music gene. When one gets triggered, the other goes on as well.

There are a number of a capella groups here. Theirs are the only female group. I notice they changed the words to some of that song, heh heh. And there's a mix, and there are all men as well.

So, right now in Johnson, if you're wondering what's happening to your children, or your loved one, they're actually robing. And they're getting in line, and they have to stay in their exact place in line, because they're going to receive their actual diploma. MIT does this very differently from other schools. At other schools, you just go up and get some empty case. At here, you get the actual diploma. So they have to get in line and stay in line, and this is why this is a big production.

How are we doing? Do we have our student there? Okay, who's there? It's Eric Chemi!

CHEMI: Hello!

JONES: Hello, Eric.

CHEMI: Can you hear me?

JONES: Eric, where are you from?

CHEMI: I'm from Los Angeles.

JONES: So I think Eric and his-- your mom and your sister here are today, too, and they brought Los Angeles weather with you.

CHEMI: Yes. We should thank the nature spirits for the good weather today.

JONES: Ah, I know. It's the great MIT weather machine.

CHEMI: Hi to my mom, and hi to Jennifer out there in the audience.

JONES: So can you sing the national anthem?

CHEMI: Say it again?

JONES: Can you sing the national anthem?

CHEMI: Can I sing?

JONES: No, no, no, never mind.

CHEMI: Heh heh. So Eric.

CHEMI: Yeah?

JONES: This is the most connected student at MIT. Eric knows everybody there.

CHEMI: Well, my connections didn't go that way. I got-- my tassel didn't have a little class of 2005. Everyone has one with 2005, and mine didn't have it, so I think I got a raw deal. and my hat barely fits.

JONES: [LAUGHING]

CHEMI: So my connections don't go too far. They don't work at the coop.

JONES: Eric is a winner of the Compton Award. It's the highest award a student can win for service at MIT. So how's your day been going?

CHEMI: It's been pretty good, just looking around, seeing a bunch of friends, and lots of people here. It's a big crowd.

JONES: What's it like over there, Eric?

CHEMI: It's chaotic, but it's under control. It's very loud, everyone's around, and it's fun. I'm running into people I haven't seen in a while.

JONES: So what happens to you if you step out of line?

CHEMI: I think you get in big trouble.

JONES: I think they don't give you that 2005 for your hat.

CHEMI: Yeah. They're starting to move now, I think. it's around 8:50. We have to report back pretty soon.

JONES: So give me just one memorable moment that you've spent at MIT.

CHEMI: One memorable moment.

CHEMI: My swim test barely making it on the last lap the day before the first day of classes. I almost didn't make it, but I got there.

JONES: So tell me. What is the swim test? A lot of people here don't even know what that means.

CHEMI: Swim laps in the pool, non-stop. And if you don't make it, you don't graduate. That can be the hardest requirement for a lot of people, I think. But I barely did it.

JONES: So you had to take math, and physics, and chemistry, and biology. And you also have to learn how to swim.

CHEMI: Yeah, the swimming is a tough one. That math is pretty easy.

JONES: So what's the square root of 79?

CHEMI: 79? Uh oh. A little less than 9. It should be about 8.9 or something, right? But I don't know how accurate I can make it.

JONES: So what's your favorite hack?

CHEMI: What's my favorite hack?

JONES: Yeah.

CHEMI: Oh, I don't know. Too many good ones. I'm not going to pick a favorite. I'll get in trouble with my friends. I know some of those kids.

JONES: Well, Eric helped us admit the past two freshman classes to MIT because he serves on the undergraduate admissions board. And so, Eric, I'm going to ask you. What do you do for the sheer joy of it?

CHEMI: Say it again?

JONES: What would you do for the sheer joy of it? Remember that question on the application?

CHEMI: We didn't have it, I think, our year.

JONES: I know you didn't, and I'm asking you now. This is your final exam.

CHEMI: That's a tough one. I don't know if I'm qualified to graduate. I guess I can't think of the answer. I would follow directions.

I brought a water bottle today. I don't think that security is going to let me bring it through. Following directions might be what I should try to work on. After four years, I never really got around to doing that.

JONES: [LAUGHING]

So what are you doing this summer, now that you're leaving? What are you going to do?

CHEMI: I'll be working in New York City, trying to pay back MIT.

JONES: Okay, Eric.

CHEMI: Okay, thank you, Marilee.

JONES: Wonderful talk with you.

CHEMI: Great.

JONES: Have a good day.

CHEMI: You too. Bye-bye.

JONES: Okay.

ROSKO: Now, here at MIT, there's a program in the School of Engineering that helps prepare aspiring engineers for the realities they'll face in the day-to-day world. Unlike the Apprentice, where only one individual is crowned a winner, the UPOP program-- Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program-- aims to make them all winners. Let's take a look at the video.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- UPOP stands for Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program. It's a program in the School of Engineering that we have designed to help engineering students gain a better appreciation of the engineering practice, the workplace, and to help them acquire the skills they need to be effective and be leaders in engineering practice out there.

- We have four phases to the program.

The first is a 40-hour corporate training seminar. It's called the Introduction to Engineering Practice Workshop that we teach during IAP. The second is a spring seminar series taught by alumni that focus on career development topics. The third is the summer practice experience, where the students do an internship for 10 weeks during the summer. And then, finally, we have a fall reflective experience, where the students come back and share with other students, faculty and alumni what they've learned from their engineering practice experience, and how it relates to what we taught them.

- I think in doing a program like UPOP in the School of Engineering [INAUDIBLE] responds to that [INAUDIBLE] in the sense that not only do we have to have our students strong in their technical discipline, but it is important that they have an appreciation, and have the skills and ability, to deal with engineering practice as they are in the real world.

- The topics I was most interested about in the UPOP program were how organizations work, what engineers can do and what their role is within an organization, and what sort of factors you need to take into account when you are planning a business, such as marketing, knowing your customers, and working together with your whole team-- rather than just your engineers-- to deliver the product that people really want.

- There is a little bit of warming up to do with the people I worked with. And I guess there were some challenges. They gave my project for the summer, and on the first day I finished it. And they were a little confused as to what to do with me. But I explored around, I ended up learning a huge amount, and I had a marvelous time there.

- It definitely provided a different approach to things. You think engineering, you think private industry. You don't necessarily think the public sector. People miss out on that, especially MIT students. They miss out on the opportunity to explore other realms, because you have these great companies who come here, recruit the students, provide them with great packages for the summer.

So it's hard to turn that down. And to have that opportunity, to have some other opportunities available, like non-profits or government or whatever, I think is a good-- it's a good thing for MIT students, because you need MIT students in all aspects of life, including government.

- I definitely see myself really curious, and not just being able to come up with an idea, but marketing it. Because I've seen these companies fail, and this company was on the edge for a long time now. And so now I'm really-- I really wonder. I really want to learn about what makes a company, and what can really make it great.

- I think that the UPOP experience has been very important to my MIT education as a whole, because it's really helped me get a perspective on the technologies and skills that I've been learning in my classes. While I know from my classes how to get the right answer to a problem from UPOP, I know how to put together questions, how to think about an organization, or new technology, or about my career, and really how to set things up. So it's really taking a broader view and incorporating a lot of different elements from psychology, managerial science, marketing, pretty much everything. And when I add my MIT education to that, I feel very prepared for my career and future.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[END PLAYBACK]

ROSKO: So 2004-2005 was a big year in sports. So 2004 and 2005 was a big year in sports here in Boston with a Super Bowl championship, and, of course, the Red Sox won the World Series. Woo! I'm actually a Yankee fan, but when in Rome--

JONES: Boo!

ROSKO: Now, the 2.007 contest is MIT's biggest spectator event. But a lack of spectators does not prevent MIT students from participating in athletics. In fact, it's not widely known that MIT has more varsity sports-- 41-- than almost any other college in the country-- aside from the one up the river there. As this video illustrates, at MIT, students don't just sit in the stands, they also participate.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- MIT sponsors a uniquely expansive athletic department, which features 25 intercollegiate sports, 40 club sport offerings, and 42 intercollegiate athletic programs.

- Athletics are part of this notion of building a community, and building a complete individual's education.

- I certainly feel more well-rounded because of it. I feel that I've had the chance to excel in different aspects of my life.

- MIT has the largest number of academic All-Americas in the country with 114 since the program began in 1980. I think it showcases that our kids are doing exceptionally well in the classroom, as well as on the field.

- At the beginning of each season, the football coach says, "Gentlemen, the first priority for you is going to be your academics. Second priority is going to be football, and if your list doesn't look like this, then you shouldn't be in this room."

- Nearly 60% of our undergraduates compete in organized sports at some level on campus. It's a good thing, because I met a lot of people that I wouldn't have met otherwise who I would see afterwards. And I was like, ah, you're on my IM team. So how's it going? How's your research?

- They don't exist for themselves. They don't exist for the alumni to make the alumni feel good. We have them because they're part of the educational experience.

- Towards the edge, roll [INAUDIBLE] Out into the water. Down.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- The crew boat itself-- this 70-foot boat-- is a micromanaged system in and of itself. You've got the administrator-- your coxswain. And then you've got your powerhouse. You've got your stroke, who's your leader of your powerhouse. And then you've got your four and five seats, who are the peak of your boat. And then you've got your bow, who kind of guides you along in the little directions, left and right. And so together, you work as a team to the common goal.

- They learn incredible amounts about leadership, teamwork, sportsmanship, and courage-- the willingness to take risks and push their abilities beyond what they think they can achieve.

- I've learned to push myself during races and during practices so hard, and commit myself to a certain goal unequivocally in a way that I never had before.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- The MIT I knew in the 60s and early 70s had a proper emphasis on athletics and a tremendous diversity of sports, and really emphasized participation. That part hasn't changed. But what's happened is there's an even greater variety of sports today.

- If MIT doesn't have something-- be it a club or organization or sport-- if two people want to do it, they'll let you organize it, and you can have it. It's up to the individual, but MIT will embrace that.

- It always has been in the past and always will be about opportunity for all.

- One of the things that I think is particularly striking about the athletic program at MIT is the emphasis on participation in sports, rather than spectator sports. You don't see the whole campus coming out to watch the football game on a Saturday afternoon, like you might plan on some college campuses. But you do see an incredible number of students that are engaged.

Currently, about 20% of the students are involved in a varsity sport; about 80% of the students are involved in intramural sports; and 100% of the undergraduates are involved in the physical education program.

- So it really lets students pursue their interests, whether they pursue them as an extracurricular activity through their school previously, or whether it's something brand new.

- We've been able to make major investments in facilities and support services that have enhanced an already vital program. The biggest single change has been the opening of the Zesiger Center.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- The Z Center-- that thing is just beautiful.

- It just seemed like the MIT campus became healthier, because people were more willing to work out, because there were more facilities, and they were nicer.

- The new facilities had been made possible because there was a vision on the part of MIT, but then the facilities could not have been created without the financial support of the alums who have come forth to say, yes, we recognize that that is an important priority, and we want to be able to support it. You'll be in there lifting weights, and your professor will be in there lifting weights also, or something, and say hi to him. Just little things like that, seeing people outside of the classroom and interacting not in an academic way I think really helps build a community.

- It's not just about the classroom, or just about the laboratory, but it's about growing as a person. And part of that is working with other students who are participating in sports, or other sort of events, the arts-- all of which will carry forward into their future lives.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[END PLAYBACK]

JONES: Welcome back, everyone. This is like breaking news, I feel like I'm on Peter Jennings. Anyway, it's time for us to interview some of the families here today, because the point is that this is all about our graduates. So here, we have several families. I have our first family here. So I want to introduce you.

MILLER: I'm Tony Miller. This is Annette [? Taverner's ?] parents, Manuel and Barbara.

JONES: Welcome. So your wife is graduating today, their daughter.

MILLER: She's receiving her PhD in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology from the Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

JONES: You are also--

MILLER: I'm also a PhD student in the same program.

JONES: But she's graduating before you?

MILLER: She is. She's two years ahead of me.

JONES: She's a little smarter than you?

MILLER: Oh, definitely.

JONES: So tell me something. Her name is what again?

MILLER: Annette Taverner.

JONES: Annette Taverner. Okay. So let's talk about Annette for a minute. So Annette grew up where?

MILLER: In Miami, Florida. Her mother is a Cuban exile. Her father is from Argentina. She's the first person of the family to graduate from college.

JONES: So the very first person in your family to graduate from college, and she's getting her PhD from MIT. Nothing like going to the top. So here's a big call out to Annette, over there robing and getting ready for this today. So what-- why do you think her interest is in hearing and speech? Is there any of that in your family?

MILLER: No, but she was originally trained as an electrical engineer, and she was very interested in communication technologies.

JONES: And how about you? Did you meet her here?

MILLER: I met her here.

JONES: Oh my god, so you're like a real MIT family? We became your matchmakers. This is wonderful.

MILLER: She not only received her PhD. She received her MRS at MIT.

JONES: Oh, her MRS. No babies yet?

MILLER: No babies yet.

JONES: Sorry, I'm a mother. Sorry, forgive me. So tell me a little about your daughter. Tell me a little bit about Annette. What's she like?

MILLER: Annette is very personable. She served on many committees here. She's an avid trap shooter when she's in Miami.

JONES: A trap shooter?

MILLER: Shotguns.

JONES: Shotguns, so like, pull, bang. Like that?

MILLER: Exactly. Yeah.

JONES: So she's got good hand-eye coordination?

MILLER: Very good.

JONES: She's nobody you want to make mad at you?

MILLER: No, especially if you're one of those little clay disks. Don't do it.

JONES: And where do you live here?

MILLER: We live in Davis Square, Somerville.

JONES: Okay, so not in the [INAUDIBLE]

MILLER: No.

JONES: Well, welcome to you. I hope it's a wonderful day for you, and a wonderful day for your daughter Annette.

MILLER: Thank you.

JONES: Thank you. Nice to meet you. Great. So Tom.

TOM: Yes, Marilee? I'm supposed to-- so the students being honored today have been at MIT during a period of unprecedented growth in student life and learning programs, resulting in the construction of new dorms, new classrooms, and a beautiful new athletic center. We recently produced a series of short video retrospectives where students talk about their MIT experiences outside of the classrooms and laboratories. Watch the screen, and you might once again catch a glimpse of your graduate.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- When I came as a freshman coming in, there's all of these things thrown at you. So many activities to do, so many organizations.

- And that's what's really so impressive about this place, is that everyone is passionate about something. You just have to talk to them for five minutes, and you'll start to hear about it.

- I think what surprised me most is really just how much there is to do, and how many people are doing that stuff, like there's a club for almost anything you can imagine. There's enough people that actually fill the club, too.

- We're about to perform an opera made up on the spot from Italy. Let the opera begin.

[NON-ENGLISH SONG]

- I came here at MIT. I was interested in computer science majoring, but I also like the arts. My favorite type of art is dance. I love to dance. I've been dancing since I was two.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- I've been studying mechanical engineering at MIT. And during the time I've been here, I've been really involved in the Hobby Shop.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- I came to MIT to major in computer science, but while I was here, I discovered lion dance.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- What I also found here is a passion for service on a scale, which is different from anything that I had really been able to conceive of.

- We're going to explain about filter systems for water.

- I was a coordinator of the freshman leadership program. I've also done a lot of work within the community at different schools within the Cambridge system.

- The thing that I'm most involved in right now is MIT African Internet Technology Initiative.

- I play both field hockey and lacrosse. I am involved in a sorority alpha phi.

- I'm a small group leader-- a small group Bible study leader-- for Asian Christian Fellowship. And I was involved in MIT Cross Products, which is the only Christian a capella group on campus.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- The range is just so large. It would take a huge amount of time just to enumerate the opportunities. And in some sense, this challenge for the student is figuring out which of those things they want to do, because they can't do everything. They can't even do a small fraction of everything.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[END PLAYBACK]

JONES: Hi, everybody, we're back. We're back with the Mahoney family. So let's talk about your kids. So who's graduating today?

MRS. MAHONEY: 2/3 of our triplets are graduating today-- Maya and Quinn Mahoney. Their sister Brenna graduated from Cornell University last weekend.

JONES: So 2/3 of your triplets are going to be in the great Court in about an hour. So how come your other one chose to go to Cornell? That's what I want to know.

MR. MAHONEY: She's very bright.

JONES: He's mad at me because we were not able to get enough kids out of his high school. You teach there, right?

MR. MAHONEY: Right. I teach in an inner city high school in Washington, DC. It's a public school, and we want to send our graduates to MIT.

JONES: Amen. Benjamin Banneker, right?

MR. MAHONEY: Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.

JONES: And so where did your triplets go to school?

MRS. MAHONEY: Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC, where John taught for 24 years, before he went to Benjamin Banneker.

JONES: You know, I remember these cases very well. I remember your children's cases. Oh yeah. It's not every day you see twins or even triplets. So did they have a good experience here?

MR. MAHONEY: They had a great experience. And our son Quinn was just involved with the Time Traveler Convention. And we're anticipating seeing some sort of prank this morning, but we don't know anything about it. He certainly is not involved.

JONES: So he could be someone who knows people, who knows people who have something to do with hacks?

MRS. MAHONEY: Could be, could be.

JONES: Could be.

MR. MAHONEY: Could be.

JONES: So where do they live here? Which living groups?

MR. MAHONEY: Even though they have the same major-- Course 6-- they live on opposite ends of the campus. Our son lives on East Campus, and our daughter lives in Next House.

JONES: In two different ZIP codes. So how are you financing three big educations? Plus you said you also have an older son. Is that right?

MRS. MAHONEY: And he's here today. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor's and Master's degree. We had help from the grandparents.

JONES: Help from the grandparents. And would you have to hitchhike here for the graduation? Got no gas money anymore?

MR. MAHONEY: And we're going to ask them to pay us back.

JONES: They better get good jobs. Do they have good jobs lined up?

MR. MAHONEY: No. Our daughter's going to get a PhD in biomedical engineering at Purdue University, and our son's staying here for his master's. But they will eventually have good jobs-- good, lucrative jobs. And they'll pay us back.

JONES: And they'll take care of their parents in their old age.

MRS. MAHONEY: Hopefully.

JONES: So did any future time travelers show up at the time traveler convention?

MR. MAHONEY: They decided they rather show up at graduation.

JONES: That's good. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for sending your two kids to MIT. Any more at home? Any other Mahoneys at home we should be looking for?

MRS. MAHONEY: No, no younger ones. This is it.

MR. MAHONEY: But there'll be another generation coming in about 30 years. So now that you guys are empty nesters, now when are you going to do? Now that you're broke and empty-nested, what are you going to do?

MRS. MAHONEY: Well, we travel a lot now. We're not totally broke.

MR. MAHONEY: And at my school, we do the first robotics competition, which is co-founded by Woodie Flowers and Dean Segue, and--

MRS. MAHONEY: Dean Kamen.

MR. MAHONEY: --this is a-- Dean Kamen. And this is a way in which the influence of MIT has spread through the schools of this nation. Robotics is just turning kids into engineers. It's just been a lot of fun.

JONES: So your kids are really loving that, are they?

MR. MAHONEY: Yeah. It's just been a great program. It's an extension of Course 2.70 into the high schools, same sort of kit that we get, and it's neat. We do it in the back of my classroom.

JONES: Well, that's great. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. And we're going to get some of those kids out at Banneker.

MR. MAHONEY: Thank you.

MRS. MAHONEY: Thank you.

ROSKO: Hello again. Once again, I'm Tom Rosko, the Institute Archivist and head of special lectures and archives in the libraries here. And that was Marilee Jones, Dean of Admissions. And welcome to you all, those just arriving for the ceremonies that are about to occur. Now, most people understand that MIT is a research institution, and that new inventions happen all the time. And here's a look at the genesis of a particular recent student intervention.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

- I like working on projects where I'm dealing with the smaller things in life, the little things that perturb you every day. And this problem of waking up in the morning is certainly something that I used to think about a lot. When I was waking up I would hit the snooze button accidentally for up to two hours, or even accidentally turn the alarm clock off. So this is just sort of a way I could include some sort of playfulness inside technology, and solve a problem without adding complexity.

Alarm clocks are traditionally very annoying devices, and I wanted to create something that was playful and meaningful, and that could sort of even excite some laughter in one of the most hateful times of the day. So I took an industrial design course at the MIT Media Lab that inspired me to create Clocky, and I came up with the idea and just sort of prototyped it for a few days. And from there, I think somebody picked up on it and realized it was something that everybody could relate to.

- Part of the goal of consumer electronics research here at the MIT Media Lab is to take advantage of the intelligence that we could put inside ordinary products to make them more delightful, to make them do the right thing, to make them behave in a predictable and understandable way. Clocky is a clock that has behavior, and as Gauri likes to say, it has the behavior of a somewhat troublesome pet that you still love. And in this case, we also think the behavior is useful. And one of the reasons I believe that we've seen such a response from press, and just from ordinary people to Clocky, is that they understand exactly what it does, and they think that's going to help them wake up in the morning.

- The concept for Clocky originally was not to use the most advanced technology, but to create a new place for technology that was playful and that has a personal meaning for an individual's life. Clocky is made up of a small computer inside that is programmed with a random generating sequence of numbers that control the speed and the direction that Clocky will move in. And it's connected to a couple of motors and a couple of wheels, and that does enable it to move around the room. When you hit the snooze button, Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away on the floor running in random directions and speeds, until he finds a place to rest. And every day, Clocky will find a new place to rest, so it's sort of like a hide and seek game that you play every morning.

Clocky is of course a research project at the Media Lab, and I'm currently developing on more prototypes. But Clocky could be soon be in production within a year. The Media Lab is a great environment for a project like this to emerge. I've been able to do everything from fabricating to programming, to coming up with ideas and thinking about real world problems, all in the space of one lab.

- Well, I think Clocky answers a need that is felt across cultures throughout the world, and that is being able to get up in the morning when one really doesn't want to. And the snooze bar makes it very easy not to get up in the morning. Well, in this case, Clocky lets you use the snooze bar once, and then you have to go find the alarm clock in order to turn it off the second time. And by that point, you're out of bed. And it's a very simple scenario to explain. Anybody who has an alarm clock can understand exactly why this is an interesting idea.