2023 Women@MIT Fellows Announced

Rachel Lane and the team of Deborah Tsogbe and Soala Ajienka have been named Women@MIT fellows for 2023. They will engage in archival research, using MIT’s rich collections, to create projects that contribute to greater understanding of the history of women at the Institute and in the history of STEM.

A project by Deborah Tsogbe, SMArchS ‘23, and Soala Ajienka, a current student in MIT’s Masters of Architecture program, highlights the women who were instrumental to the development of computers, exploring how the creation of technical prototypes paralleled practices of traditional textile fabrication that women have long pioneered. They will focus on the weaving of core rope memory, a form of read only memory for computers that was first used in the 1960s for the NASA Mars space probes and then in the Apollo Guidance Computer. Their project will culminate with the exhibition of two large-scale core memory prototypes that will relay their stored information in readable format to a visual display. Tsogbe and Ajienka will also document their archival journey through Instagram, produce a bound volume of archival resources and illustrations, and lead an IAP workshop.

Oral historian Rachel Lane will curate an online exhibit highlighting the experiences of international women at MIT. Using oral history interviews of 18 women from the Women@MIT collections and the Science History Institute digital collections, she will create an exhibit using StoryMaps, mapping experiences from each woman’s country of origin, time at MIT, and position at the time of the interview to a particular GPS coordinate.

 

Building 14 Courtyard Receives Landscape Design Award

The Building 14 Courtyard, revitalized as part of the Hayden Library renovation, won a 2023 Merit Award in General Design from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. The design team includes Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects, Inc., Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Buro Happold, Pine & Swallow Environmental, and Aqueous Consultants.

Praising the design for its simplicity and elegance, the jury said, “There is a nice seasonality of planting done beautifully. There is a simple, modern, understated vibe, and the view into and within is beautiful…The placement of the sculptural pieces is well-considered and provides nice visual anchors in the landscape.”