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Real World Learning

Part 1: Learning by Doing

Part 2: Internships Expand Learning

Part 3: Professors of Practice

Questions & Answers

Prof. J. Kim Vandiver, SM '69, PhD '75

Prof. Deborah Nightingale

Whay Lee, '82, SM '83, EE 86, PhD '88

Dave Das, '96, MEng '97

Gina Yip, '00, MEng '01

Laura Kennedy, SM '01

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Edwin Land's 1957 MIT speech, "Generation Of Greatness: The Idea of a University in an Age of Science," created quite a stir. By then Polaroid's founder and president had earned many of the 500+ patents and innumerable awards that signaled his commitment to solving real world problems. So people were listening. He cautioned against an education comprised of lectures and tests as a sure way to dim the potential greatness in every student. "I believe each incoming freshman must be started at once on his own research project if we are to preserve his secret dream of greatness and make it come true."

Land's fervor for learning by doing reflected MIT's own founding principles. MIT's motto, "Mens et Manus"--or Mind and Hand--expresses the commitment of MIT's founders to education for practical application. Today MIT remains explicitly committed to "generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges."

A year after Land's lecture, the Physics Department offered a course involving undergraduate research, a topic of interest to then undergraduate Margaret MacVicar. In 1969 MacVicar, an Assistant Professor of Physics, took Edwin Land's suggestion to heart along with a grant of $50K from the Land trust. She started a group of 25 students on undergraduate research projects--the birth of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

Through undergraduate research and a long history of hands-on experimentation in laboratories, MIT practices real world learning. This month, openDOOR looks as several manifestations of this practice.

Learning by Doing
From the Edgerton Center's support of the MIT Rocket Team to the 2,500+ students engaged in UROP each year, MIT students are tackling the real work of scientists and technologists.

Internships Expand Learning
Students have thousands of opportunities. They can study agile manufacturing at ABB in Finland or explore engineering policymaking via MIT's Washington Internships or contribute to computing advances in Course VI-A's internships at Motorola or Texas Instruments.

Professors of Practice
Industry and government experts bring real world learning to campus as professors of practice, such as the Sloan School's appointment of Gerhard Schulmeyer, President and CEO of Siemens Corporation.