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MIT Club of New YorkFall 2014 Newsletter for the Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Michael G. Johnson, CP ‘97

I am excited to serve as your Club President for the 2014-15-membership year. This year’s theme is engagement. We, the officers want to engage you, the members and alumni through multiple ways: we want to connect virtually, at club events and through service to our communities and MIT. Our engagement reminds us of our Club’s mission; that is to promote greater awareness and social connections, to encourage professional development, to educate and provide activities and to create links between alumni throughout the New York City metropolitan area. I look forward to greater engagement and making those connections this membership year.

NEW YORK ENERGY WEEK TOUR: NEWTOWN CREEK FACILITY Jay Damask ’90 EECS

New York Energy Week 2014 was celebrated by our alumni with a lecture and tour of the newly built Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Angelique Mercurio, MIT Sloan ‘08, created the event for nearly 40 alumni with key representatives from the Newtown Creek facility and National Grid plc.

The Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is uniquely positioned to extract renewable energy from water treatment in the form of commercial-quality methane gas, to reduce green-house emissions comparable to removing 19,000 cars from the road, to reduce by hundreds of thousands of tons of organic waste from landfills, and to provide energy to self-sustain the processing as well as heat 5,200 homes in New York. Waste Management Co. will soon divert pre-processed food waste to the plant to boost the methane that is produced, and National Grid is building a facility to capture 100% of the methane, which increases energy output and reduces green-house emissions. The Plant and its partnerships are leading the nation in forward looking environmental programs, energy production and waste management.

New York Energy Week 2013 was celebrated with an energy plant tour at Calmac Manufacturing, a regional, industry leading and MIT-alumnus-founded firm. With Angelique’s initiatives we look forward to the next fantastic energy plant tour at New York Energy Week 2015.

Above: MIT Club of New York Members on tour at the Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, for New York Energy

Week. Tour Guide: Jim Pynn, Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Photo Credit: Michael Meyer for New York Energy Week

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Fifteen years ago I joined the club as its Secretary. Today, as Club President, I am proud of the service and connections I made through those years.

Volunteers are valuable to the success and operation of our Club. We need your time and talents. If you have an idea for an event, are good at planning or organizing, enjoy taking on special projects or can take great photos, the club needs your help.

If you are interested in volunteering for the club, please contact me at mgjohnson@alum.mit.edu or Jay Damask at damask@alum.mit.edu

2014-2015 MEMBERSHIP

Sign up online at www.mitclub.org or complete and mail the form on the back of this newsletter.

SOCIAL AND INTERCLUB PROGRAMMING

The Club brings together MIT alums from around NYC for happy hours, brunches, and other small group social gatherings and outings, as well as mixers with alumni from peer institutions. Have an idea for a meet-up? Interested in organizing a happy hour?

Contact domr@alum.mit.edu to see how you can get involved.

NEWSLETTER:

Editor: Yiting Shen GM ‘07

Production Editor: Kenneth Namkung AR ‘03

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“DREAM IT. CODE IT. WIN IT.” CREATE-A-THON A SUCCESS! Cristina Dolan MAS ’94 and Carmen Cedeno (Volunteer)

MIT Alumni were treated to a double lecture at the renowned Hayden Dream it. Code it. Win it., a coding contest organized by the MIT Club of New York, the MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City, and TradingScreen, had a successful turnout on the night of its celebration on April 30th, 2014 at the historic Cooper Union Great Hall. Despite the torrential downpour on that night, over 450 venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and students came together to celebrate and reward creativity in computer science.

Organized by former MIT Club of New York President, Cristina Dolan, the contest and celebration featured a panel discussion led by visionaries from Yahoo!, Google Ventures, and Forbes Media, and included MIT Media Lab Director, Joi Ito. The discussion revolved around the future of innovation in a networked world, and how Internet connectivity has accelerated entrepreneurialism in computer science.

Students at the high school and college level received $70,000 in cash and prizes, of which $50,000 was donated by the MIT Community. With over 100 submissions from around the country, fifty percent of the entrants were women, which surpassed the national average of just eleven percent, according to VentureBeat.

Catherine D’Ignazio, a PhD student from the MIT Media Lab, won the Tekserve Women in Technology prize worth $5,000 for her project, The Babbling Brook, a prototype for a networked sensing flower that grows out of a body of water and constantly jokes about the water quality that it is sensing to whoever will listen. D’Ignazio cites Glorianna Davenport, Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, as her mentor. The first place team was comprised of two young men from Harvard College, who took home $20,000 for their social mobile app, “Balloon.”

To view news segments, read press coverage, or for more information about the finalists and their creations, visit http://dreamitcodeitwinit.org.

COMMUNITY SERVICE Sarah Kaspers ’85 CM

Come out and meet other alums to improve the community together! Last year we provided judges and assistants for the FIRST robotics events for High schoolers at the Javits center. We also worked on an Urban garden at the site of a torn down building in the Bronx at a community garden. Other MIT alums volunteered to mentor kids and teach a lab class at the Harlem Academy. We will organize these again this year and more!!!! Please watch the club’s email for specific dates and times.

Left: MIT alums and families help at an urban garden in the Bronx.

MIT CLUB OF NEW YORKOFFICERS: 2014-2015

President Michael G. Johnson CP’ 97

Executive Vice President Jay Damask ’90 EE, SM ’93, PhD ‘96

Vice President, Educational and Cultural Programs Rubi Rajbanshi ‘04 CE

Vice President, Social Programs and Inter-Club Relations Dominic Ricci ’99 PH

Vice President, Professional Programs Malinda Foy ’87 SB

Vice President, Community Service Programs Sarah Kaspers ’85 CM

Vice President, Membership Jeremy Gerstle ’99 EECS

Vice President, Communications Yiting Shen GM ‘07

Secretary Charlene Chuang ’05 BC

Treasurer Anshu Sinha ’98 EE, MNG ‘99

Club Counsel Pierre Yanney ’87 EE, SM ‘88

Nominating Committee Chair Gregory Arenson ’70 EC

Directors Karen Ho ’94 EE Arthur Katz, ’61 MG Kenneth Namkung AR ‘03 Liora Sukhatme ’98 MG

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THE ART OF ART COLLECTING Yiting Shen GM ‘07

On April 2, the owner of the Curator Gallery, Ann S. Moore, retired Chairman and CEO of Time Inc. and wife of an MIT alumnus, has kindly invited MIT Club of New York alumni to see her first exhibit of abstract art from Maine, and meet art dealer Rebecca Michelman. Rebecca gave an interesting talk on how to start an art collection. Alumni had quite a few engaging questions on pricing, where to find art, how to visit art shows. Several has bought art pieces on the spot, which were very much MIT themed. This is a testament that alumni likes art, enjoys talking about art. The networking session with wine and cheese post the talk allowed like-minded alumni to connect and share experiences and making some new friends. The Club also made gift a donation to the artists on behalf of each attendee at the event.

EXTENDING OUR REACH:KIM HUNTER VISITS Charlene Chuang, BCS ‘05

This spring, we happily welcomed Kim Hunter ’86 CE, Associate Director of Admissions and Director of the MIT Educational Council. She first joined Jay Damask, VP of Professional Programs, and Charlene Chuang, VP of Educational and Cultural Programs, at Harlem Academy, an independent school that serves the Harlem community and whose mission is to prepare bright, motivated students for success at top secondary schools and lifelong learning.

In the evening, Kim turned her focus to the college process and met with MIT alumni (and several of their children) to paint a clearer picture of the world of MIT admissions. She gave many tips for students—be nice to your parents and love every school you apply to—and described the record yield of the Class of 2018. More importantly, Kim confirmed that MIT remains true to its process, preserving its own application and not joining the Common Application. Kim recommended to the students in the audience that they genuinely reveal true things in an application, a student can be sure an officer will be able to read the application and immediately identify the student—and this is the goal.

Kim’s visit, while short, demonstrated our reach as an institution, beginning with the youngest and brightest of our future and concluding with our cherished and loyal alumni, that night, as far back as the class of ’59. For more information on mentoring at Harlem, contact sarah.kaspers@alum.mit.edu.

Above: MIT Alumni at the Curator Gallery. Photo Credit: Yiting Shen GM ‘07

LINKEDIN RE-LAUNCH Yiting Shen GM ‘07

The MIT Club of New York as part of the MIT Alumni Association wants to invite you to join this newly launched MIT Club of New York LinkedIn group (INSERT LINK). This group is created for you to engage with other fellow alumni virtually in addition to all the club events you can attend. It is a forum for you to share your interests such as MIT itself, one’s field, health and education, and/or community engagement. It’s also a place for resource sharing, i.e. a good book or presentation you recently read or participated. Some industry events that you’d like to ask fellow alumni to join together. This group is open to MIT alumni resides in the greater New York area or have strong connections with the New York. Check it out!

UPCOMING EVENT: A CONVERSATION WITH DR. ROBERT METCALFE

For this year’s 2014 kickoff event on Wednesday, September 17th at 6:30pm, we will be joined by Dr. Robert Metcalfe, who currently serves as Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise in The University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering. Dr. Metcalf will join the club to give his perspectives on the present and future of technology and innovation as well as its impact on society.

Dr. Metcalfe was an Internet pioneer at MIT starting in 1970 and in 1973 received his PhD from Harvard for “Packet Communication.” He invented the Ethernet in 1973 and founded 3Com Corporation (now part of HP) in 1979. Dr. Metcalfe will be joined and interviewed by fellow MIT and Harvard alumnus, Karen Arenson, retired American journalist and Higher Education reporter for the New York Times.

CLUB 2014 KICKOFF - FEATURED ALUMNI GUEST VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI

The 2014-2015 Club year begins at our Kick-off, September 9th at Aleo. An occasion to learn about your alumni club and mingle with fellow MIT alumni while enjoying refreshments and hors d’oeuvres, we are pleased to feature an appearance by Vishaan Chakrabarti CP ’93, the director of the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University and author of “A Country of Cities”.

UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OFTHE CONTINENTAL CRUST Jay Damask, EECS ‘90

MIT Alumni were treated to a double lecture at the renowned Hayden Planetarium in April 2014 given by Geochemists Prof. Max Schmidt of ETH, Zurich, and Prof. Oliver Jagoutz of MIT. Through a remarkable collaboration that fuses field research, chemistry, experimental petrology, thermodynamics and the like, the researchers have uncovered clear evidence of how tectonic plates form. Through field research in Northern Pakistan, Prof. Jagoutz and colleagues identified rock formations that are on the surface today but represent over 55 km of depth of the Indian and Eurasian Plates. Back in the lab, Prof. Schmidt and colleagues invented new methodologies to perform experimental chemistry under extreme temperatures and pressures. These breakthroughs impact all areas of geology today and offer an increased ability to forecast the long-range future of the plates that we call home.

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