美国麻省理工学院英语介绍

美国麻省理工学院英语介绍

Massachusetts Institute of Technology麻省理工学院

Occupying 153.8 acres alongside the Charles， the Massachusetts Institute of Technology （MIT） provides an intellectual counterweight to the otherwise working-class character of East Cambridge. Originally established in Allston in 1865， MIT moved to this more auspicious campus across the river in 1916 and has since risen to international prominence as a major center for theoretical and practical research in the sciences. Both NASA and the Department of Defense pour funds into MIT in exchange for research and development assistance from the university's best minds.

　　The campus buildings and geography reflect the quirky， nerdy character of the institute， emphasizing function and peppering it with a peculiar notion of form. Everything is obsessively numbered and coded： you can go to E15 （the Weisner Building） for a lecture in 4.103 （advanced computer-assisted design）， which， of course， gets you no closer towards a degree in 17 （political science）。 Behind the massive pillars that guard the entrance of the Rogers Building， at 77 Massachusetts Ave， you'll find a labyrinth of corridors through which students can traverse the entire east campus without ever going outside - known to Techies as the Infinite Corridor. Atop the Rogers Building is MIT's best-known architectural icon， a massive gilt hemisphere called the Great Dome. Just inside the entrance to Rogers， you'll find the MIT Information Center （Mon-Fri 9am-5pm）， which dispenses free campus maps and advice.

　　MIT has drawn the attention of some of the major architects of the twentieth century， who have used the university's progressiveness as a testing ground for some of their more experimental works. Two of these are located in the courtyard across Massachusetts Avenue from the Rogers Building. The Kresge Auditorium， designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen， resembles a large tent， though its real claim to fame is that it puzzlingly rests on three， rather than four， corners. In the same courtyard is the MIT Chapel， also the work of Saarinen. Shaped like a stocky cylinder and topped with abstract sculpture crafted from paper-thin metals， it's undoubtedly the city's least traditional religious space. The I. M. Pei-designed Weisner Building is home to the List Visual Art Center （Tues-Sun noon-6pm； free）， which displays student works， often heavily influenced by science and involving a great deal of computer design， and more technologically impressive than visually appealing.

　　Of perhaps more interest， down Massachusetts Ave at no. 265， is the MIT Museum （Tues-Fri 10am-5pm， Sat-Sun noon-5pm； $3， students and seniors $1.） The museum has two main permanent displays， the Hologram Museum and the Hall of Hacks， the latter of which provides a retrospective on the various pranks （"hacks"） pulled by techies. Among other things， the madcap funsters have placed a fake cow and a real MIT police car atop the Great Dome， and have wreaked havoc at the annual Harvard-Yale football game by landing a massive weather balloon in the middle of the gridiron. Both shows alone warrant a visit， though there are excellent rotating exhibits as well.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research. MIT is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, the Institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date.MIT's early emphasis on applied technology at the undergraduate and graduate levels led to close cooperation with industry but curricular reforms under Karl Compton and Vannevar Bush in the 1930s re-emphasized basic scientific research. MIT was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934 and researchers were involved in efforts to develop computers, radar, and inertial guidance in connection with defense research during World War II and the Cold War. Post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre (68.0 ha) campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile (1.6 km) along the northern bank of the Charles River basin. In the past 60 years, MIT's educational disciplines have expanded beyond the physical sciences and engineering into fields like biology, economics, linguistics, political science, and management. MIT enrolled 4,232 undergraduates and 6,152 graduate students for 2009–2010. It employs around 1,000 faculty members.76 Nobel Laureates, 50 National Medal of Science recipients, and 38 MacArthur Fellows are currently or have previously been affiliated with the university. MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would be the eleventh largest economy in the world. MIT managed $718.2 million in research expenditures and an $8.0 billion endowment in 2009.