Pretty insane news! I am proud to belong to MIT when I know that nearly 30 percent of MIT students will soon have all tuition charges covered! The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced its financial aid program for 2008-2009. Increases in financial aid will make it possible for a larger fraction of MIT students to have their tuition and fees completely covered. Here is an excerpt of the newsletter I received from the MIT alumni association:
Under the new plan, which will take effect in the 2008-2009 academic year
Families earning less than $75,000 a year will have all tuition covered. For parents with total annual income below $75,000 and typical assets, MIT will ensure that all tuition charges are covered with an MIT scholarship, federal and state grants, and/or outside scholarship funds. Nearly 30 percent of MIT students fall into this tuition-free category. (...) Under this provision, for example, students in this income group who participate in MIT's paid Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) each semester would be able to graduate debt-free.
For families earning less than $100,000, MIT will eliminate home equity in determining their need. In determining the ability to pay for college, MIT will no longer consider home equity for families with total annual income below $100,000 and typical assets. On average, this will reduce parental contributions by $1,600. For families who rent, rather than own a home, MIT will provide a comparable reduction in the expected parental contribution.
Total financial aid budget is one of the highest per enrolled student in the nation. Building on this commitment, MIT will increase its financial aid budget to $74 million. MIT's total financial aid budget is one of the highest per enrolled student in the nation. Sixty percent of MIT undergraduates receive scholarship aid from the Institute's internal resources. Fully 90 percent of MIT undergraduates receive financial aid of some kind, from a range of sources. While MIT focuses assistance on those with fewer resources, it also provides aid to families with incomes well above $100,000 who demonstrate need--for example, because they have more than one child in college at a time. In fact, approximately 38 percent of our current MIT scholarship recipients come from families earning more than $100,000.
"We will continue our longstanding financial commitment to students and their families in the years ahead," Hastings stated. "That we can welcome to our campus such extraordinary students, regardless of their economic background, is due to our historic dedication to need-based financial aid."
More news & letter to the MIT community!
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Blog Jouons 
Saturday, March 08, 2008
MIT to be tuition-free for families earning less than $75,000 a year
Costumes for Domestic Oppositional Training
atHABITAT: Costumes for Domestic Oppositional Training, 2007
Kate James focuses on interests of the body, it’s habits, movements, and dynamic sectional relationship to it’s surrounding structures. She hopes to question and complicate the interfaces between the corporeal and the environmental — those objects, surfaces, and systems that mediate the body’s experience within an environment and fuel the habitual kinesthesia of everyday life.
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Blog Jouons
Friday, March 07, 2008
A village on the ice
Antarctic Village by Orta Studio is a symbol of the plight of those struggling to transverse borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape political and social conflict.
Dotted along the ice, the tents formed a settlement reminiscent of the images of refugee camps we see so often reported about on our television screens and newspapers. Physically the installation Antarctic Village is emblematic of Ortas’ body of work, composed of what could be termed modular architecture and reflecting qualities of nomadic shelters and campsites. More on Orta's web site.
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Blog Jouons
Coloring book
I love this coloring book and sticker kit idea by Sanithna Phansavanh.
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Blog Jouons
A ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch
TosPom is a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch created By Izumi Yagi and Mitsuyoshi Kimura.
When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display. With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch. Moreover, the photographer can draw out a more natural and relaxed expression from the object.
Video
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Blog Jouons
Sound Candy
"Sound Candy is a toy which makes public playground yours with sounds and gestures. Wear Sound Candy on your body, record your favorite sounds to it, and jump! Hop! Run! Sound candy mutates the recorded sound according to your movement. Play creatively." By Shuichi Ishibashi, Daisuke Uriu and Professor Naohito Okude at the Okude Lab in Japan.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons
Blog Maison Blog Lesson
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Spam architecture
The images from the Spam Architecture series are generated by a computer program that accepts as input, junk email. Various patterns, keywords and rhythms found in the text are translated into three-dimensional modeling gestures. Created by Alex Dragulescu.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.............................................................................................
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
An Environment for the Prosthetic Body
Hybrid Architecture: An Environment for the Prosthetic Body by Georges Teyssot The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol. 11, No. 4, 72-84 (2005)
Drawing from philosophical, literary, artistic and technological sources, this text focuses on the theoretical relations between body and environment. It illustrates the argument by probing into various topics such as: desiring machines, body without organs, organs without body, gymnastic implements, body-building, celibate machines, incorporation, disembodiment, androids, robots, cyborgs, electro-mechanical and electronic apparatuses, spacesuits, wearable computers and augmented reality, the eco-technical spheres and the matrix. In addition, it looks into theories of medical devices that help explain the notion of the prosthetic body. Finally, within the context of theories of tools and cyber-organism, it attempts to rethink design through the terms of contemporary practices of daily life.
Zombie Kit V1, 2007 by Brian Walker
See also the Prosthetic Impulse
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