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.

Comments

$8.75

[eples]

Assuming that is per hour - it is still a paltry sum.

I believe even Taco Bell pays it slaves $9/hr.

Re:$8.75

[IPFreely]

It's not about the amount.
These are students. Their primary concern is education and graduation. Along with that, they get (often as a part of financial aid) on campus or school related jobs.
The media lab offers work that is in a related field, the opportunity to see cutting edge research up close, the opportunity to work with the best researchers and learn how it's done. That is what they are mostly getting. that's why it is called Undergraduate Research Opportunities. Oh and by the way, they also get a little cash on the side.

How many of you have turned down more money to get a job that is more fun, in a more interesting area, or has better environment? I have. If these students want more money, they can quit school and get super wage jobs. That's not why they are there.

Cut everything else back, but save the salaries

[Em Emalb]

$8.75 per hour huh? To some of the brightest minds in the world? I say cut the stupid first class travel, cut the nice office equipment, but save that salary. These "kids" are cutting edge innovators.

Imagine if something like this had happened to the folks at Bell Labs? Even with all the layoffs Lucent had, business there went on pretty much as usual. Throughout history, the true innovators were rewarded for their knowledge, not penalized for something they didn't really have anything to do with. Poor spending is poor spending, but save the salaries...

I expect to hear from people on my innovators of history part, but bear in mind I said most....

thanks

Sad and yet not

[cadfael]

Having used many of the papers and ideas that came out of media lab as jumping off points for my own research, any cut back in their research will impact many others outside their doors. However, the loss of perks is just aligning them with the rest of the world.

The scariest part is the layoff of the staff. I hope that these weren't specifically research assistants (instead of admin staff). RA's (often unrecognized for their efforts) usually complete the necessary but inglorious tasks that really help get research done.

The 8.75 is not a typo...

[Anonymous Coward]

Many people think that it's a typo...it's not. The MIT Minimum Wage is basically ~$8/hr...Meida Lab UROPs got paid a little more base starting salary. Hardly the small fortune the article makes it out to be, considering how much most could've gotten paid locally at some dotcom (esp., during the height of the boom).

Also, as a former Media Lab UROP, I can strongly state that the UROPs in the Media Lab were the BACKBONE of work in the Media Lab. Another misconception from the article is that they UROPs had "projects" that they circulate looking for funding that the Media Lab would fund. Couldn't be more wrong. The UROPs are/were more like contract programming labor hired to support/flesh out the theories of the grad. students/professors. Cutting such is going to be the hardest cut to make...

Re:Must Be A Typo...

[plam]

$8.75 is the standard pay for a Undergrad Research
Opportunities Program appointment at MIT. It's always seemed
rather low to me. If you have a professor paying for your UROP appointment,
then he can give you more money, and I think a lot of profs will do that.

Keep in mind that this is undergrad student pay, and can be done during
the term. Plus you get to work with researchers, etc etc.

Yep, this is exactly what I heard

[srichman]

A few weeks ago a friend of mine in the Media Lab mentioned to me that the shit was really hitting the proverbial fan because of the missing millions, and that layoffs and cutbacks were a result of this. So, as I understood it, the belt tightening was a direct result of this serious accounting mistake (oops) and not some nebulous result of the dot com slowdown.

Re:This should keep them focused...

[Mr. Frilly]

Yes, the Media Lab was a unique place, but even during my time at MIT (4 years ago already), it was considered an embarrassment by the majority of the MIT community. This is the place that could suck down $40 million a year and have only Lego Mindstorms to show off after a decade of work by the entire laboratory. This is the place that would hire fashion models to wear their wearable computer crap for the dog and pony shows they'd run to try to suck more money out of the industry suits. This is the place that would do non-novel, non-useful research as long as it looked cool and they could show it off to their corporate sponsors.

The majority of the research that was done at the Media Lab belonged in industry, and was of no academic significance (electronic ink being on of the few counter examples). The only real reason it was tolerated at MIT was 'cause the Media Lab brought in its own money (and a lot of it).

And no, HDTV was not created by the Media Lab, the EE department (Prof. Lim) worked on that.