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MIT Media Lab Tightens Its Belt
Forbes Magazine has this story about the MIT Media Laboratory's current "burn rate" problem. It seems that the Media Lab is feeling the same big draft at its posterior that dot-com companies felt last year after years of go-go growth and seemingly unlimited funding. The Media Lab is particularly sensitive to this downturn due to its heavy reliance on corporate sponsorship, as well as its fondness for unconventional, even eccentric, research. Items that will no longer receive funding according to a January 5th internal E-mail from the Lab's Executive Director Walter Bender: cellular telephones, first-class air travel, food at internal Lab meetings, and furniture. Other more serious cutbacks for the Lab include layoffs for 29 staff members and reduced funding for students, including salaries for "Undergraduate Research Opportunities" (UROP) positions. The Media Lab had previously paid such positions $8.75 and up in order to remain competitive with industry offers that even not-yet-graduated students were receiving.
"The Media Lab had previously paid such positions $8.75 and up in order to remain competitive with industry offers that even not-yet-graduated students were receiving."
$8.75 per? Hour? Day? Year?
Perhaps this submission should have been polished a bit before being unleashed on the unsuspecting (and fact-hungry) public.
First class cross country airfare - $2000.
Limo to and from the airport - $400.
Building designed by I.M. Pei - $4,000,000.
Inventing the "smart" potholder - priceless
Does that mean no more bathroom server?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Where do I sign up?
Among the things Bender says won't be paid for out of the laboratory till: cell phones, limos, first-class flights and furniture.
and...
But why is the Lab unhealthy in the first place? Unlike other academic institutions at MIT and elsewhere, the Media Lab gets the bulk of its money from corporate donors. Among them: IBM, Intel, Gillette, ChevronTexaco and LEGO .
Damn, so now all those MIT researchers will be forced to build their own Lego chairs and tables? Sounds like the kind of perfect ergonomic environment we all need. Don't like the height of the table? Just snap off the legs and away you go.
--Chag
Arthur Andersen strikes again?
Remind you Office Space?
"Dammit! I always miss some mundane detail!"
The Media Lab still has a place, but it may, during the economic downturn, see itself overshadowed by more concrete research--by tangible products like drugs.
Pass the bowl, I need to do some "tangible research"...
I'm a 2000 man.
From the beginning, the Media Lab was a monument to technical optimism--or maybe hubris. Its very building, designed by MIT alum and world-famous architect I.M. Pei, was a symbol of elegance and waste. On the outside, its tiled surface resembles nothing so much as a bathroom.
But inside, it is almost entirely empty, with a giant courtyard stretching up through its center--just because it looked cool. Maybe if that space had been filled with offices, the Lab wouldn't be spending money constructing a new building next door. And perhaps without the expense of the new building, the Lab wouldn't need to lay off staff now. At one point, Bender says he actually suggested filling some of the atrium -- which is four stories high -- with office space instead of moving staff out of the building. MIT nixed the idea.
(quoted directly from the article)
Just like the Internet bubble - spiffy on the outside, empty and nearly useless within.
Items that will no longer receive funding ...: furniture
"Son, when I was your age, I had to walk 8 miles to school... in the snow... with no shoes... uphill... in both directions. We didn't even have classroom chairs in those days!"
Developers: We can use your help.
$5M in sponsorship for the "smart potholder"? Screw that. Throw some funding at the the "silent jackhammer."
MIT's endowment compared to that of other research universities is about the same as John Holmes Vs Kermit the frog.
MIT has the cash if they want to keep the funding around , but apparently they have better places to spend their money. What papers have came out of the Media lab? I haven't noticed any particualy good ones. Not quite my field of expertise, but compared to other areas of research I would venture to say the department is lacking in the results it produces.
the article states that their building was designed by I.M. Pei.
Ah yes, that building is indeed unique on campus. Some of us like to call it the Pei Toilet.
Gehry's new building on the MIT campus is across the street and back a bit :)