The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world’s great challenges. 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. We seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.
The Institute admitted its first students in 1865, four years after the approval of its founding charter. The opening marked the culmination of an extended effort by William Barton Rogers, a distinguished natural scientist, to establish a new kind of independent educational institution relevant to an increasingly industrialized America. Rogers stressed the pragmatic and practicable. He believed that professional competence is best fostered by coupling teaching and research and by focusing attention on real-world problems. Toward this end, he pioneered the development of the teaching laboratory.
Today MIT is a world-class educational institution. Teaching and research—with relevance to the practical world as a guiding principle—continue to be its primary purpose. MIT is independent, coeducational, and privately endowed. Its five schools and one college encompass numerous academic departments, divisions, and degree-granting programs, as well as interdisciplinary centers, laboratories, and programs whose work cuts across traditional departmental boundaries.
Malvika Verma, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Treating infectious diseases is a huge challenge because patients often fail to take the medicine for the long duration, especially for tuberculosis. Now there’s a new device that may help.
Felice Frankel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Using an artistic eye when creating pictures of scientific phenomena and new technologies can elevate the resulting images in terms of both their beauty and how informative they are.
Only a small share of the vehicles Americans buy are electric. Even if all of them were, it would take until 2040 to phase out the fossil fuels used to power personal travel and road-bound freight.
While some alarmists predict AI will decimate the workforce, the truth is concerted action by leaders in labor, business, government and education can ensure workers aren’t replaced by robots.
The Paris Agreement was a breakthrough in global climate talks, but nations now face major hurdles to meeting long-term emissions goals – and maintaining global support for the deal.
Steven Barrett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ionic winds – charged particles flowing through the air – can move airplanes using only electricity; no propellers or jet engines needed. The scholar who led the project explains how it works.
The UN’s panel on climate change said that technologies to remove CO2 will be necessary to limit global temperature rise to only 1.5 degrees Celsius. But these techniques are largely unproven.
Thomas Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management; Duanyi Yang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Erin L. Kelly, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Will Kimball, MIT Sloan School of Management
Americans want more say about their benefits, training and other important issues at work.
More students must acquire IT skills in order to secure jobs with upward mobility, according to a researcher who developed an index that shows a dramatic growth in ‘IT intensive’ jobs.
Julia Leonard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Persistence and self-control are valuable traits that can help kids succeed in school and beyond. A new study suggests infants can learn stick-to-itiveness by watching adults persist in a difficult task.