INTERVIEWER 1: This
is the second year we have done
commencement this way and we are really
thrilled with how this new process is working. It provides intimate and lovely
settings for the graduates to receive their diplomas. The big one will be
tomorrow morning, where the undergraduates
all received their diplomas. But today, we gather for the
formal academic processional. We have the members of the
corporation, the president, faculty, and of course, our
honored guests and speakers. There will be music, the
singing of the school song, certain traditions such
as turning the Brass Rat. And as you look at the crowd
right now, you're seeing-- well, right now you're
seeing the stage, and that features the Seal
of MIT on the main podium. That seal was created by
the founder and the earliest members of MIT'S
corporation back in 1864. INTERVIEWER 2: Debbie, it
wouldn't be an MIT commencement without some numbers. We will have 1,146
undergraduates commencing over the next couple of days. The formal degree ceremony
will be tomorrow morning. And over the three days of
yesterday, today, and tomorrow, 2,613 masters, PhDs,
and Doctor of Science degrees awarded throughout
the five schools and the Schwarzman
college of computing. INTERVIEWER 1: Here
in Killian Court, there are seats for about 13,000
people and they'll be filled. I know the organizers
of today's events are eagerly urging the graduates
to take their seats now and we are hopeful that the
ceremony will start on time. INTERVIEWER 2: This is an
interesting commencement. When most of these
students entered, it was the middle
of the pandemic. And for many of them,
it was remote learning for a year or two. And now they're
all here on campus, and Kendall Square has
really transformed. INTERVIEWER 1: It certainly has. And one of the
biggest changes has been the relocation
of the MIT Museum to a brand new building
there in Kendall Square right next to the T stop, as
well as the relocation of the admissions office and the
creation of a brand new Welcome Center. For the first time
in 100 plus years, MIT has a proper
gateway for its guests. INTERVIEWER 2: We left MIT at
the beginning of the pandemic, what, in March of
2020, and there were five holes in
the ground where there used to be parking lots. And we came back a
couple of years later, and five brand new
towers have sprouted. And they're populated by
companies, Boeing and Apple and MIT are in one
of the-- or rather, IBM are in one of the buildings. We have graduate student
housing, we have, as you mentioned, the museum
and many other MIT functions. We have general community
housing, we have restaurants. It's really blossomed. It's quite beautiful. INTERVIEWER 1: In
fact, there's been quite a bit of construction. INTERVIEWER 2: We're going
to take just a quick break for an announcement now. Good afternoon. As we await the alumni
parade and the procession, please welcome the MIT
police honor guard. ["AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL"
PLAYING] INTERVIEWER 1: So the
MIT police honor guard was created in 2002, so
this is their 21st year of participating, not
only in commencement, but really all official
MIT ceremonies. Most recently they
were at the head of the procession
for the inauguration of our 18th president,
Sally Kornbluth. INTERVIEWER 2: And there's
a lot of administration and bureaucracy that goes into
creating this program, which when you watch it from the
outside, looks so smooth. But the detail
that goes into it, we have the faculty
gathering in one place, lining up by
department, by school. We have the corporation, the
Board of Trustees of MIT, lining up in another place. We have the students lining up. And the guests are coming
in through the front door, if you will, of Memorial drive,
right on the banks of the River Charles. INTERVIEWER 1: As you watch the
procession of the honor guard, you're getting a glimpse at
the students in their caps and gowns. If they're wearing
a black gown, they are undergraduates receiving
a bachelor's degree today. But particularly distinctive
are the gray and cardinal gowns for the doctoral
degree recipients. INTERVIEWER 2: And then we're
going to see a sea of red coming up in just a
couple of minutes. They are the guests of honor-- the 50th reunion class. INTERVIEWER 1: Indeed. And I'm excited also
to share with you a little bit of information
about the class of 1973. Smaller than today's class-- excuse me, larger. They were 2,300 degrees
awarded in 1970-- 300 degrees awarded in 1973. About 1,038 bachelor's degrees. One of the most distinguished
degree recipients that day was Shirley Ann Jackson, who was
a member of the class of 1969. Dr. Jackson received her PhD,
the first woman and Black woman to receive her PhD
in physics at MIT, and she has become one
of the Institute's most notable alumni. INTERVIEWER 2: And
speaking of which, it's time to welcome them. Please welcome the
MIT class of 1973, celebrating their 50th reunion. You hear the applause
out in the courtyard. INTERVIEWER 1: They are
wearing cardinal jackets. That was a tradition
started back in the 1950s when that
50th reunion class in 1957 was back celebrating,
and they wanted a way to distinguish themselves. And you can, on
the screen, begin to see that they're
marching in, not only with those cardinal jackets
festooned with special patches, but also custom hats
that have become the moniker of that
particular class. INTERVIEWER 2: This is coming
around full circle for me. I had a friend when I entered
as a freshman who had just graduated from this class
and was working with me as a volunteer at the MIT
student radio station, then WTBS. We have kept in touch
for all of these years and it would be a thrill
to see him here along with all of his classmates. And they look so happy, just
beaming to come into the court. INTERVIEWER 1: So just
to put it in perspective, this class, when they
arrived for their first year, the tuition for the
full year was $2,150. INTERVIEWER 2: That's a deal. INTERVIEWER 1: There
was an enormous protest. At that time, the
signs went up and said 2150 is just too damn much. Today, if you're curious,
that's worth about $17,800. INTERVIEWER 2: But
today's tuition is? INTERVIEWER 1: It is $59,750. So it's really grown
considerably over the years. INTERVIEWER 2: And
that does not include room and board and books
and personal expenses, which will add a few more dollars. But I guess the good
news is that, of course, MIT has always been
need blind admission. And if you are accepted,
MIT will find a way for you to afford to be here. INTERVIEWER 1: In
fact, that's so true. And a majority of
our students today receive need-based
scholarships as well as additional opportunities
to support their time here. We are grateful for the
generosity of alumni and many other donors who have
provided scholarship funds and support the idea of bringing
the best and the brightest in the world here to
campus in Cambridge. INTERVIEWER 2: It's interesting. As I was walking towards
the room we're in right now, I obviously passed a lot of
graduates and other students, and none of them are
talking about social things or political things. They're still talking about
science and engineering as they're walking down the
hallway on commencement day. INTERVIEWER 1: Yes. I have-- in the
last few weeks when all of the capstone projects
are being presented, it is a remarkable
time to be on campus. You find robots and art works
and musical performances just by the dozens. And it is as vibrant a time-- and probably for the
students, as stressful a time as they will ever
experience in their lives. INTERVIEWER 2: But
what opportunities these graduates
will have to work, whether it be an industry or
academia or go into government or whatever their
chosen field may be. In my office, I work closely
with large corporations that invest in research
at MIT, and there is an amazing demand
across all industries, especially the life sciences
is particularly in demand right now. INTERVIEWER 1: That's one of the
big changes that has occurred over the last quarter century. MITs largest
department continues to be electrical engineering
and computer science, and they dominate the
landscape in one sense. But all of a sudden,
the pie, in large, beginning in the mid
2000s-- and perhaps it was no accident
that Susan Hockfield, when she became president,
was our first life scientist. And now Sally Kornbluth
is also a life scientist. INTERVIEWER 2:
And even if you're still interested in electrical
engineering but as well in the life sciences,
there's the opportunity through our incredible
multidisciplinary system here at MIT, to
combine those interests and have a major that combines
both electrical engineering and life sciences. And through the Schwarzman
college of Computing, you can practically create
your own major in computing and fill in the blank. INTERVIEWER 1: In
fact, that's one of the big developments on
campus, that new college, the Schwarzman college
was inaugurated just as this class of 2023
was receiving their admissions letters. INTERVIEWER 2: We heard
from Dan Huttenlocher, who is the Dean of the College
at the graduate ceremony yesterday, and they are looking
forward to their new building. It's right across the
street from the data center. It's finishing up
its construction. It is going to house the
College of Computing, where almost all the faculty
have a joint appointment in another academic department. So they'll have some
offices there obviously, but a lot of laboratories
and makerspace as well. INTERVIEWER 1: I don't know if
there will be any alumni back here on campus this weekend who
will remember the spot where that new college
building is going up. It was originally the
site of the Van der Graaff generators brought up from
Round Hill, and then in the 50s, transferred over to
the Museum of Science, where you can still go today
to see them do demonstrations on the hour and really get
a feel for how dramatic those gigantic power
generators were in their day. That was, of course,
replaced by the cyclotron, which was the beginning of
nuclear engineering at MIT. INTERVIEWER 2: And
right across the street from the fabled
building 20, which was so important
during World War II, in developing radar
and other technologies. INTERVIEWER 1: They called
it the Plywood Palace. It was about 240,000
square feet of space, but it actually was
only about a quarter of the space that was occupied
on the Institute, which took over multiple
buildings that were blocked off from students. MIT developed 150
different radar systems and invented the
communication system of LORAN during this time period. And it had a
transformative effect on education and, of course,
the Institute's relationship with the federal government. It really pioneered a
hothouse environment of both theory and practice,
reinventing William Barton Rogers motto mind in hand. INTERVIEWER 2: It's
just incredible, the kinds of inventions
that have come out of MIT over the years--
too many to mention. But here's a plug. If you go to the
MIT Museum, you will learn a lot about that
and a whole lot more. INTERVIEWER 1: Indeed. We've really relish
the opportunity to become a new and bolder
stage for the Institute and the public
engagement with science. We feel that there's never
been a more important time in history to communicate
the ideas of the Institute and the world at large,
and how important science and technology
will be to solving some of the greatest challenges
humanity has ever faced. INTERVIEWER 2: So it's back
when I was an undergraduate and graduated from
MIT, we did not have a commencement speaker. As I recall, the first
commencement speaker was 1982. Is that correct? INTERVIEWER 1: That is correct. And prior to that,
it was in fact always the president who gave
a speech, most notably, William Barton Rodgers
when he gave a speech actually died, mid-speech,
leading to a joke by a subsequent speaker when
Vice President Al Gore was here in the mid 1990s. He claimed that he could
never top William Barton Rodgers as the stiffest of
MIT'S commencement speakers. INTERVIEWER 2: That first
commencement speaker in 1982 was Katharine Graham, then
chair of the board of directors and CEO of the
Washington Post company, followed by so many luminaries
such as Shirley Chisholm, Lee Iacocca, from Chrysler
Corporation, William Hewitt, from Hewlett-Packard, Ken Olsen,
founder of Digital Equipment Corporation. On and on it goes. Al Gore, INTERVIEWER 1:
President Clinton. INTERVIEWER 2:
President Clinton. INTERVIEWER 1: Kofi Annan as the
Secretary General of the United Nations was here. We've had the
administrators of NASA, presidents of
corporations ranging from Hewlett-Packer and on. I think, though, one of
my favorites was 1999, and that was when Ray and
Tom Magliozzi, the hosts of the National Public
Radio series car talk gave their speech,
and it was as funny as those men were on the
air in their many years. INTERVIEWER 2: And I think
the most inspirational for me was during
the special ceremony last year to recognize those
who could not come to graduation in 20 and 21, and
it was Kealoha Wong, who was at MIT alum from
the late '90s, I believe, from Hawaii. And he transitioned from being
a nuclear engineer to a poet laureate. It is an incredibly
inspiring talk. It's on YouTube, I would invite
you to go and look at it. INTERVIEWER 1: Indeed. I loved that talk as well. Today, though, our
speaker is Mark Rober. He is an internet superstar,
but he started his career as a mechanical engineer
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked
on the Mars Curiosity Rover. INTERVIEWER 2: He's
a YouTube star. So our generation may not
know him all that well, but the students out there in
the courtyard certainly do. Think squirrels. And I invite everybody to
keep a keen eye on the talk. I'm not going to be
a spoiler, but it's going to be quite interesting. INTERVIEWER 1: I think it
will be a memorable one if all goes well. His videos highlight
the fun of learning. They encourage curiosity
and imagination and have reached in the
billions of hits on them. And so it really has
a sense of the power that science and
technology has to ignite the creative spirit of our
youngest people in the world. INTERVIEWER 2: Now in
a couple of minutes, Deb, the academic procession
will be coming into the court, and there are many symbols
that we'll be looking for. INTERVIEWER 1: Yes. So perhaps the most
noticeable, of course, is that everybody is
dressed up in medieval garb. They're wearing caps and gowns. I mentioned earlier
that you'll see, as you do right now, that
bachelor's and master's degrees are in the traditional
black garb. The master's degrees have kind
of a long, moon-shaped crescent swath of fabric that hangs
down from their sleeves. The stoles that you see
around the necks of many of these graduates identify
clubs, organizations, honor societies that the
students belong to. And MIT has one
important rule regarding the stoles, that everyone
in that organization must be eligible to wear them. There is no singling
out a top speaker. So MIT has no valedictorians, no
salutatorian, no class ranking. INTERVIEWER 2: No
honorary degrees. INTERVIEWER 1: In fact,
yes, that's correct. Every degree from MIT
is an earned degree. INTERVIEWER 2: So
one of the symbols that we'll be seeing coming down
the center aisle pretty soon is the mace. It was created by Leverett
Cullen, the class of 1907, gifted to the Institute
by that class as part of their 50th reunion, and
contains engraved names of all of the presidents of MIT
since William Barton Rogers. It'll be carried by
the Chief Marshal during this one MIT ceremony
and at the very top of the mace is MITs mascot, the Beaver. INTERVIEWER 1: Yes. So the Beaver was selected
in 1913 to be the mascot. It was around the time that
many colleges and universities wanted to have some
lighthearted symbols to identify their schools and many selected
different kinds of animals. Sometimes a trademark,
Purdue, became known as the
Boilermakers, for example. But MIT putting
some thought to it. Lester Gardner,
a member of class there said, I think we
need to choose the Beaver. He thought about the kangaroo
for a while and the turkey, but he said, no, the Beaver
is nature's engineer, and he or she does their
best work at night. INTERVIEWER 2: And many MIT
Alumni, yours truly included, wear the Beaver on the ring
finger, the MIT class ring. Each one is a little
bit different, created, designed by a ring committee
of the undergraduates. And one of the trademarks is
that the Beaver, the engineer of the animal kingdom is
always sitting on twigs, and embedded in those
twigs is your class year. INTERVIEWER 1: The ring
was another tradition that was established
in the late 1920s. A group in 1929 got together
and said, we want a ring, but we don't want it to be like
any other college ring, which is traditionally
a gold or silver ring with a set
with a large stone and perhaps the name of
the institution and year. And so they considered
many different designs, but settled on one that
featured a square bezel. And then the debate
was, is it the dome, which is really one of--
become the symbol of MIT or the Beaver. And after much
discussion and debate, they put the Beaver on top
and the dome on the side. INTERVIEWER 2: Two
different views of the dome. One on either side. INTERVIEWER 1: That
dome, by the way, was part of the design of
William Welles Bosworth. When this campus
was opened in 1916, he was an architect
from the class of 1896, so therefore trained in Boston. Many of our viewers may not
know that MIT spent its first 50 years in Copley
Square in Boston, and only in 1916 did they move
across the river to the campus that we presently enjoy
and take advantage of. INTERVIEWER 2: One
of the other symbols that will be coming
down the center aisle in a couple of minutes
is the Shepherd's Staff. It is carved from
black walnut, and it's carried by the outgoing
chairperson of the MIT faculty, who this year as Professor Lily
Tsai, of political science, and has gifted a new shepherd's
staff replacing the one given by outgoing faculty chair,
Hartley Rogers Junior, way back in 1973. So as chair of the
faculty, she will carry the staff in this
one MIT procession, symbolizing her
leadership of the faculty. INTERVIEWER 1: The
staff was a creation of Professor Brandon Clifford of
the Department of Architecture. He is a noted American
designer and sculptor, and it's full of symbolism
with celestial bodies and the angles of it are too
complicated for me to explain. I encourage you to go to
the commencement website and read the exact details
about how the angle of noon, and the angle of the crook
are precisely aligned. INTERVIEWER 2: Its science. INTERVIEWER 1: Yes. INTERVIEWER 2: The
Beaver stick will also be carried-- a piece of
wood chewed by a Beaver will be carried by the Marshal
of the commencement ceremony. And on the screen
every now and then, you get to see another-- what
has become a symbol of MIT commencement, and
that is the MIT Sail at the very front
of Killian Court, abutting building 10 where
the great dome is located. It was originally designed
by the Chair of the Faculty who designed sails for
sailing competitions to properly capture the
wind on Killian Court. But more importantly, it shades
the faculty and the other invited guests up on the stage. It keeps the
diplomas dry in case of poor weather, which
we're having sunny, but not rainy weather today. And it's made very
sturdy with metal cables. We've had many very, very
windy days here on the court and it has been rock solid. INTERVIEWER 1:
Speaking of sailing, I want to give a shout
out to the sailing pavilion and the longtime
sail master, Fran Charles, who is retiring this year after 30
years as the head of sailing. There are nearly 80,000
MIT students and alumni and faculty and staff
who hold sailing cards. It is the preeminent
sport of the Institute. And in fact, MIT pioneered
collegiate competitive sailing with the introduction of
the tech dinghy, a sailboat designed by Professor George
Owen of the then Department of Naval architecture. INTERVIEWER 2: That's
just one example of the extracurricular
activities here at MIT. We're reputed to have more
extracurricular activities and intramural sports than any
other University out there, just too many to count. I participated in
many, my friends participated many others. And it was such a welcome
diversion from the need to study, and sleep,
and eat here at MIT, and is really made
for lifetime friends. INTERVIEWER 1: If you catch
in the screen, just passed out on the right side, you'll
see a banner with the numbers two and three on them. That is the classes
official banner that will be carried at all
reunion events here on out, and they are different colors
and stripes and shades. But we look forward
to-- we have some of the oldest class banners in
our collection at the museum. INTERVIEWER 2: So we mentioned
our newly inaugurated president, Sally Kornbluth,
who was officially inaugurated about a month ago right
here on this court, but has been in office
since the first of the year, recently appointed as the
18th president of MIT, our second woman president,
a cell biologist, and came to us from Duke
University where for a decade, she oversaw the institution's
teaching and research missions as the
provost, developed its intellectual
priorities, and really improved the faculty and
student experience was really an overwhelming choice
to be our new president. INTERVIEWER 1: In, fact Diane
Greene shared this insight with the students of SDS050,
the history of MIT class that I teach each
spring, she said it was, in fact, a unanimous
choice of the committee. She, I like to
point out, was not-- didn't start life
as a scientist, but actually as a humanities--
or social science major at Williams College,
and then discovered biology her senior year. INTERVIEWER 2: So I understand
that President Kornbluth over the last couple of months
has done a listening tour here on campus to meet the faculty,
the staff, the students, and will soon be
embarking around the world to meet affiliates and alumni to
really become entrenched in MIT knowledge and tradition to help
lead her strategy for the years to come. INTERVIEWER 1: In her
inaugural address last month, one of the points
that she stressed was that for her presidency, she
felt the challenge of climate change was the urgent
existential challenge of our times, and
that she hoped to lead the Institute in what she
called a Rad Lab like effort, to address these problems
from all perspectives, whether you focused in the
humanities and social sciences, the arts,
architecture, planning, that you would, in fact,
be engaged in helping think about these great
challenges before us. INTERVIEWER 2: And it
would be remiss of us to not give a tip of the hat
to retiring president, Rafael Reif, who served as the 17th
president of MIT from July 2012 to December 2022. He came up through
the ranks from through electrical engineering
and computer science, and he led MITs
pioneering efforts in many, many different
very important areas, such as redefining the
future of higher education through online learning. He led MIT through the
pandemic, many other challenges. Really committed to
advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. He launched initiatives to
foster breakthrough research and pilot high-impact
solutions to address the urgent challenges of
climate change and of course, as we just said, that mission
will be continued and enhanced by President Kornbluth. INTERVIEWER 1: In
the procession, one of the first
groups that you see and first individuals
that you will see accompanying our speaker is
the chair of the corporation, Diane Greene. Diane Greene earned her
master's degree in 1978, and she specialized
in Naval architecture. But the person that perhaps
influenced her the most she met on the very first
day arriving on campus, and that was Dr.
Harold Edgerton, one of MITs original
superstars and a man whose high speed photography, those
famous bullet through the apple and milk drop photos that
still grace the walls of art museums around the world, has
transformed so many students' lives here at the Institute with
his, well, come on in, let's try it out. INTERVIEWER 2: I remember that
as a freshman, walking down the hall, I think it was
the fourth floor of building six or eight, maybe. And he'd stand in the
door with his post cards and he'd say, come on in. Let me show you how this works. INTERVIEWER 1: So we-- and the Edgerton Center, of
course, continues to this day, is one of the preeminent
interdisciplinary centers here at the Institute. But the corporation that Greene
leads is MITs governing body. We were incorporated by the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts in April of 1861. It took us a few years to
get started because two days after the incorporation
was signed by the governor, it became-- the Civil War broke
out with the firing on Fort Sumter in
South Carolina. And we-- INTERVIEWER 2: We're
going to pause now for a quick announcement. Now please rise and welcome
the academic procession. There we go, and here we come. The academic procession
about to enter Killian Court from Memorial Drive. You can see on the screen,
the Charles River separating Cambridge and
Boston, and behind, a few of the administrators. You will see that mace
that we just spoke of, as well as President Kornbluth
on the left and the ranking faculty right behind. INTERVIEWER 1: Yes. Chair Greene is to Kornbluth's
right, just behind the mace. MIT adopted a custom robe for
its doctoral students in 1995, but more recently, it's
also adopted a standard robe for its leadership. And so you'll see not
only the president and the chair of
the corporation, but also all the
corporation members and many of the Marshals
wearing variations on this cardinal and gray robe. Most notable about the robe
that President Kornbluth wears is the stole which contains
18 infinity symbols, marking-- symbolizing her as
the 18th president. INTERVIEWER 2: The faculty
who are marching behind represent five schools and
the College of computing, the schools of
engineering, science, the Sloan School of
Management, humanities, arts, social sciences, architecture
and planning, and as mentioned, the Schwarzman college of
computing that has faculty that cut across all of the
five schools in the 30 or so academic departments
we have here at MIT. As I like to say,
academic departments are where teaching happens
and students learn. But the real fun here at
MIT are the cross-cutting, research laboratories
and centers, that take people from all
different disciplines, allow them to work
together from the bottoms up to solve the world's
most challenging problems. For example, one of the largest
is MITEI, the MIT Initiative which has, I believe close
to 200 faculty researchers who work in various aspects
of energy from all over MIT. Some of our research centers
have just two, three, or four faculty, and
they tend to come and go as the need arises. And that's really one
of the beauties of MIT, is that we have the
ability to bring together these people to work
on these problems to challenge the students. Because when MIT students
come here to enter, they want to solve problems
that nobody has solved before. It's not a lot of
fun to solve problems that other people
have already solved. INTERVIEWER 1: One of the things
that young students often-- or new students are
often entranced by is the different colors that
you're seeing on the robes, and those represent different
academic institutions as well as the degrees that are awarded. These gray robes,
of course, are MIT. But all of the other
colors that you see, the Crimson of Harvard
University, for example, is particularly common. Well, here comes
the corporation, Megan Smith is right
center screen right now. She was an alumna and former
chief technology officer under President Barack Obama. INTERVIEWER 2: It's
about 75 strong, the Board of Trustees of MIT. It does include a diverse
set of individuals from many different disciplines,
from academia, from government, from industry, with also
student representation. Now you see President
Kornbluth on the left side of the screen there, beaming
at her first commencement. INTERVIEWER 1: The corporation
has a really crucial function. They form the core of
advisory boards that oversee-- every two years, they visit
every single department at the Institute. And these advisory boards speak
with students, with faculty, with staff, with experts
around the field, and they really urge and
assist the departments in maintaining the
highest standards and being as close as possible
to the cutting edge of science and technology or architecture,
or any of the disciplines that are represented
at the Institute. INTERVIEWER 2: They're known
as visiting committees, and I've met many people
who have served on them. And they're challenging for
our departments, the faculty, the staff, and the students. They're also challenging for the
visiting committee individuals themselves, because
they are faced with what are some of the very
top programs in the world, how to make them better,
and how to address the needs of the future. INTERVIEWER 1: So we've let you
in on some of MITs secret sauce here, but now you're
beginning to see members of the faculty coming in. INTERVIEWER 2: I saw Professor
Eric Grimson just a moment ago, who was in the department
of electrical engineering and computer science, now
serves as the chancellor for academic advancement
who travels the world. I find myself quite
often on airplanes with him, visiting alumni and
other donors around the world to talk about MIT, listen to
what the needs are in the world and to bring all of
that back here to MIT. INTERVIEWER 1:
There are a number, of course, academic officers,
deans and provosts who are also participating in this ceremony. There's Dr. Professor Paula
Hammond, Professor Dan Hastings. Paula Hammond in
chemical engineering, Dan Hastings, AeroAstro. And he's just been named the
acting head of MITs diversity-- office of diversity,
equity, and inclusion. INTERVIEWER 2: He's a
real rocket scientist. INTERVIEWER 1: He is, indeed. INTERVIEWER 2: A
fabulous guy leading the Aeronautics and
Astronautics department for a number of years. And before that, he served,
I believe for five years, as the director of
SMART, the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research
and Technology located in the
country of Singapore, where MIT has a robust
research collaboration with two of the key universities
there and exchange faculty and students for
the benefit of all. INTERVIEWER 1:
That's a good point, is that MIT has a really
extensive international program and has students taking
classes and participating in programs, both during the
academic term around the world, but also during the summer
and during our independent activities period in January. You will find students doing
everything in the farthest reaches of the globe. INTERVIEWER 2: One of the
great programs is called MISTY, and that's the opportunity
for undergraduate students to travel to another country
and be embedded in the society, in companies and universities,
to learn the languages, to learn the cultures, and to
bring their experiences back here. Many, many MIT undergraduates
participate in that. And one of the other very,
very popular programs is called UROP, the
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. I believe close to
80% of undergraduates will participate
in it at some point in their undergraduate
career, which allows them to
work with a faculty member and graduate students
to do actual research on a project that has meaning. INTERVIEWER 1: And here, I
believe, we are about to start. Thank you for-- immigration DIANE GREENE: Operation and the
faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are
declared convened together with this assembly on the
occasion of the one MIT commencement ceremony
of this institution and in recognition
of the degrees being conferred on the class of 2023. [APPLAUSE] If the stage assembly
and audience will please remain standing. We'll have the invocation
by Reverend Thea Keith Lucas, Chaplain
to the Institute, and join the corollaries of
MIT in the singing of one verse of the Star-Spangled Banner. THEA KEITH LUCAS:
Good afternoon. In middle school
science, Mr. Cameron dropped a heavy ball bearing
in our hands and said, use this to put out a flame. Now there are few things easier
than blowing out a candle. Just to carry a lit
birthday cupcake from the kitchen
to the table, have to keep her hand
cupped around it so you won't make
too much of a breeze. We weren't good at much at
13, but we could quickly extinguish a flame. It turns out, efficiency
is not the point. You learn how the world works
by creating your own crazy path, putting a screw, a lever, a
pulley, and an inclined plane in between the
release of the ball, and that satisfying moment when
you drop the candle into water or seal it tight under a cup. Today, we bless all your
mistakes and your restarts. If there is an optimal moment-- if there is an optimal path
to this moment, not one of us managed to make it. How many times did we bump
the dominoes with our elbows and have to line
them all up again? How many times did
we tweak the angle before the ball made the
big jump, stuck the landing, and kept on rolling? Maybe you took some
detours because you had to, through stupid chance,
or the cruelties of fate. Maybe you chose a side path,
just to try something new and add some style
points to your run. We all have days when we
stick the pieces back together with a bit of wire and duct
tape and wonder whether we will land on our feet this time. On the way, we learn how to roll
through the gravity of sorrow, to break the inertia
of old assumptions, and ride the surprising
momentum of hope. Now you step up to the starting
ramp, waiting for the signal. We lean in, eager for you to
surprise us all over again. [APPLAUSE] ["STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" PLAYING] (SINGING) Oh, say can you see,
by the dawn's early light. Once so proudly we hailed, at
the twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes
and bright stars through the perilous fight,
o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets red glare,
the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night,
that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star
spangled banner yet wave? O'er the land of the free. And the home of the brave. [APPLAUSE] DIANE GREENE: Wonderful. Please be seated. Welcome to the start
of today's ceremony celebrating MITs
awesome class of 2023. [APPLAUSE] And a warm welcome to
our graduates families, their friends, our faculty,
our MIT alums, president Sally Kornbluth and her
administration, and our commencement
speaker, Mark Rober. [APPLAUSE] And a special welcome
to the alumni, celebrating your 50th reunion. [APPLAUSE] You honor MIT with your
distinguished red jackets. Going back in time, I'm sure
you remember 50 years ago. It was the end of
the Vietnam War, the launch of the United States
first Space Station, Skylab. Pink Floyd released The
Dark Side of the Moon and the US Congress passed
the Endangered Species Act. MIT class of 1973, a special
welcome to today's 2023 One MIT commencement ceremony. [APPLAUSE] And now turning to our
commencement speaker, Mark Rober. [APPLAUSE] He earned a bachelor's
and master's degree in mechanical engineering
and then spent nine years at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. He worked on the Mars
Curiosity Rover team, specifically on
the jet pack that lowered the Rover
to the surface, and other hardware used for
collecting dirt samples. After a stint as
an Apple engineer, Mark pivoted and
became a YouTube star. He has 24 million subscribers
for his video series on outlandish
engineering experiments and help the world projects. In last year's listening
tour for the MIT presidential search, we
repeatedly heard about the need to articulate and promote
the value of science and engineering to the world. Class of 2023, you
have chosen a speaker that is spreading the
word to young people as no one has ever done before. If you look at his videos,
the below the video comments are full of kids
saying he's made them want to be engineers
when they grow up. Mark hides the vegetables,
the formulas and concepts, in awesome experiments
and projects, and brings them to life with
his contagious laughter. Mark reframed the classic
high school egg drop challenge to be from outer space. It took three years of
trials and re-engineering, and the amazing video
released four months ago already has 41 million views. Four years ago, Mark posted
his, the world's largest Jell-o pool, can
you swim in Jell-o, and it now has
127 million views. To do that, he had to somehow
boil and then refrigerate an entire swimming
pool of Jell-o. But Mark is about even
more than egg drops from space and swimming in
Jell-o engineering feats. He's issued challenges
to plant 20 million trees and clean up 30 pounds
million of ocean plastic. He admonishes people to
quit texting while driving, and he advocates for the
wonders of special needs kids. Mark is modern, fun, and if
we're counting YouTube views, the most listened to engineering
and science evangelist our world has. A true force for
good in the world, please give a warm
welcome to Mark Rober. [APPLAUSE] MARK ROBER: All right. Good afternoon, esteemed
faculty, distinguished guests, relieved parents,
bored siblings, confused pets, and of
course, the 2023 graduating class of MIT. [APPLAUSE] It is indeed a warm welcome. It's hot. And you know what
I love to do on a beautiful, sunny,
95 degree summer day? Where a big, black blanket. At least I'm up
here in the shade. You'd think the best
engineering school on the planet could design a bigger
awning for everyone. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] It's for next year. Standing here
before you is weird. I feel this pressure
to give some timeless advice that will endure,
despite our world changing at an unprecedented pace. The world is so different,
even from four years ago. For example, for
the undergrads, you are the first graduating
class to have persevered through a global
pandemic, just as this is the first commencement speech
written entirely by ChatGPT. The tech is still very new, so
if I make a grammatical errors or threaten to end all human
life, that did not come for me, that's the robot. At this point, I should probably
tell your parents who I am. I'm Mark Rober, a former
Apple and NASA mechanical engineer who became a YouTuber. And yes, I know to some of
you it sounds like I just said I quit the NBA
to work at FootLocker, or I traded a Picasso for
an NFT of a stoned monkey, but I wouldn't have
it any other way. I sort of feel at home here,
because Buzz Aldrin went to MIT, and just like me,
Buzz was a NASA engineer, only Buzz stuck with it and
became one of the first humans to set foot on the
moon, whereas I quit to become the first human
to sprinkle porch pirates with glitter and fart spray. It's on YouTube, your kids
will explain it at dinner. But whether it's seeking karmic
justice for package thieves or building an obstacle course
for squirrels in my backyard, I plan my monthly YouTube videos
really far out in advance. In fact, I've already
decided what my June 2053 video will be, and it's going
to be a collab with all of you. It's going to be a retrospective
look at all the amazing things this MIT graduating class
of 2023 has accomplished. In fact, this right
now is the video intro. So if you've ever wanted
to be in one of my videos, this is your chance. [CHEERING] Now will YouTube still
be around in 30 years? Hopefully. Unless Elon buys it. [LAUGHTER] But here's the thing, the
degree to which you positively impact the world is the
degree to which you'll be featured in the video. So in order to increase your
chances of making the cut, I want to give you three
pieces of advice based off my life experience. The first bit of advice
is to moisturize when giving a commencement speech-- is to embrace naive optimism. What do I mean by
naive optimism? Actually, before
I go any further, usually in my YouTube
videos when I get to like, the juicy part-- I'm not really used to
this public speaking thing, so the music kicks in. So if you'll just give me a
moment and hit this button. Trust me, this is going to
be better for both of us. Here we go. Right here. Let's see. There we go. [LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING] All right. That's better. OK. What do I mean by
naive optimism? Naive optimism means
it's easier to be optimistic about your
future when you're sort of naive about
what lies ahead, when you don't know
what you don't know. As an example, think back
on the first week at MIT. How naive you were about the
number of all-nighters and cans of Red Bull that would
be required to be sitting where you are right now. In fact, you guys
drank so much caffeine, I'm surprised you're
even sitting at all. If you truly understood
what would be required, that discouragement
might have prevented you from even starting. Sometimes it's an advantage
not to be the expert with all the experience. There's no reputational risk,
so it's easier to try new things and approach them from a fresh,
first principles approach. Naive optimism
can also help when faced with a big life decision. When you feel like you want
to know the results before you decide but the true outcome
is simply unknowable. Naive optimism means you have
irrational-- naive optimisim means you have the irrational
confidence of a child learning to walk or a mom
learning to TikTok. And you pick what you think
is the best path and just move forward, knowing there's
more than one trail that leads to the top of Mount Fuji. It's OK that you don't
know exactly what you want to be doing
20 years from now or what you want to
have accomplished. And by the way,
even if you do know, it doesn't matter,
because you're wrong. Anyone who tells you knew
they'd be where they're at 20 years ago is either
lying, or delusional, or a time traveler, or Pat Sajak. Life is like trying
to cross a big flowing river with lots of rocks
and boulders strewn about. If you want to cross the river,
you have to start on the bank and look at the first several
rocks in front of you. You can wiggle
them with your toe and sort of scan a few boulders
out, but at some point, you've just got to
pick one and jump, because the river is
dynamic and always changing. If the first rock in
this metaphor is a hobby, let curiosity and passion
guide your initial step. If the first rock represents
your professional career, take curiosity and
passion into account, but you should also
weigh what you're good at and what the world needs,
even if the world might not know they need it yet. Whichever one you pick, the
real secret is to dominate it. Obsessively study it from
every angle, master it. Now from your position
more secure footing, you can reevaluate
the river, and you'll find you've got a few more rocks
available that you couldn't even see from where
you started, so you can continue on your journey. Instead of putting
the pressure on myself to create some master-like plan,
this attitude of naive optimism combined with
dedication, enthusiasm, and the willingness to jump
from my current safe rock to the next is what
I feel has led me from college, to NASA,
to YouTube, to eventually landing on this rock of giving
the commencement speech at M-I frickin' T. [APPLAUSE] There's no way I could have
predicted that path when I was exactly in your
shoes 20 years ago. So cross your river
one rock at a time, but do it with a naive
optimism that it's all going to work out. Let that be your North Star. If you actually knew how
cold the river can get or how long it takes to
recover from a sprained ankle if you slipped, your knowledge
might get in the way. So have faith in yourself. You're about to get
a degree from MIT, so you've obviously made
some pretty great decisions. So embrace your inexperience
and keep taking leaps forward. And apologies to all
the civil engineering majors who have been grumbling
sitting there saying, if he wants to cross
this river so bad, why does he just build
a suspension bridge, because it's my
metaphor, all right? Back off. And now for some real talk. You're going to take
that leap of faith, land on a rock, and
only then realize it's not as stable as your
foot wiggle had predicted, and you're going to fall
into the river sometimes. That leads to my second
of three pieces of advice to maximize your chance of
positively impacting the world and making the video cut, which
is to frame your failures. [MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING] You could tell it's the juicy
part, because the music's back. To illustrate what
I mean by this, I asked 50,000 of
my YouTube followers that subscribe to my channel
to play a simple computer programming puzzle that I made. But what they didn't
know is that I had served up two slightly
different versions of the puzzle. In one, if you
failed the puzzle, you didn't lose any of
your starting 200 points and you were prompted
to try again. Whereas in the other,
if you didn't succeed, you were also prompted
to try again, but I said I was taking away five of
those starting 200 points. That was the only difference. And even though they were
no value in the real world, no one will ever see
these completely fake, meaningless internet
points, those who didn't lose those
points attempted to solve the puzzle two
and a half times more and saw success 16%
more of the time. And because 50,000
people took the test, those results are super
statistically significant. Basically, those
who didn't frame losing in a negative light
stuck with it for longer, saw more success,
and learned more. And I think a great example
of this in real life is video games. When Super Mario
Brothers first came out, my friends and I became obsessed
with making it to the castle and rescuing Princess
Peach from the evil Bowser. Water break. We'd get to school
and ask each other, dude, what level
did you make it to? Did you pass the game? We never asked each
other for details on all the different
ways we might have died. This was before Call of Duty. When it comes to
video games like this, no one ever picks up the
controller for the first time, falls in the pit
right away and thinks, I'm so ashamed, that
was such a failure. I'm never doing this again. How am I going to
break it to Luigi? I murdered his brother. What really happens is I
think, OK, I got to remember, there's a pit there. Next time, I'm going to come
at it with a bit more speed. The focus and obsession is about
beating the game, not how dumb you might look if you get
hit by a sliding green shell. And as a direct result
of that attitude of learning from but not
being focused on the failures, we got really good
and learned a ton in a very short amount of time. And in my personal
and work life, I've dealt with my share
of sliding green shells. I still feel like
every video we make each month, there's a moment
where it seems everything that can go wrong, has gone
wrong and those failures can be gut-wrenching, and
they can sting real bad. But they sting like missing that
one key Mario long jump right at the end of level A-1, and
then right after that really quickly it turns
in, OK, what did we just learn from that, what
should we try differently from next time. And this concept of
life communication is more than just, have
a positive attitude or never give up,
because those imply you have to fight against
your true desire to quit. And I feel like when you frame
a challenge or a learning process in this way, you
actually want to do it. It feels natural to ignore
the failure and try again, in the same way a
toddler will want to keep trying to stand
up, or in the same way you want to keep playing
Super Mario Brothers, or in the same way
half the people who attempted my coding puzzle had
the desire to stick with it two and a half times longer. The framing of their
failures made it so they wanted to keep
trying and learning. And that's exactly why the
most meaningful high fives of my adolescence
were when I said, dude, I finally beat
Bowser last night. It probably goes without saying,
but girls didn't talk to me until I was much older. And in case you're like,
yeah, but my real life would just be so much better
if my top five challenges disappear. Would it? I'd like to point out that if
Super Mario Brothers was just jumping over one pit and then
you rescued Princess Peach, no one would play it. Where's the risk and the reward? Where's the challenge? There's no ultimate
feeling of satisfaction. The degree you're getting
today means so much to you precisely because of all
the struggle and setbacks that you've had to endure. So if you want to cross
the river of life, you're going to get wet. You're going to
have to backtrack, and that's not a bug,
that's a feature. Frame those failures and
slips like a video game, and not only will you learn
more and do it faster, but it will make all the
successful jumps along the way that much sweeter. All right, now I've
got some good news, which is that you're not
crossing the river alone. For my third and
final bit of advice is to foster your relationships. [MUSIC PLAYING] Nice. A sad truth about getting older
is life gets busier and busier, and it gets harder and harder
to make really close friends like you did here at school. And this isn't great,
because we evolved to be social, cooperative
creatures, right? Like 50,000 years ago,
conditions were much harsher. So those who are more
inclined to cooperate with their fellow
humans were also much more likely
to succeed and pass on those cooperation genes. So we've inherited
these brains designed for social interaction,
and we are hardwired to cooperate with other people. And look, I don't blame you if
you want to cast aside advice from a guy who makes a living
trying to outwit squirrels, but I wouldn't
recommend doing that to six million years of
evolutionary programming. Because in today's society,
it's really convenient just to isolate yourself. You could attend the board
meeting from your kitchen table, you can order
food in the shower, you can bank on the
toilet, you can even look for a new apartment
without leaving your apartment. It's easier to stay
anonymous in our big cities versus the small
tribes of our ancestors where everyone knew
each other, which means we've got to
actively work at fostering meaningful relationships. And because I know
this can be harder for some more than
others, here's a life hack I've found
that really helps. Confirmation bias is when
your brain ignores evidence that doesn't support
your beliefs, and then it cherry picks
the evidence that does. And generally, when
people hear this term, they think it's a broken,
unscientific way for our brains to approach the world. And this is true, but
you could sort of judo flip it to your advantage. The trick is to positively
apply confirmation bias to your relationships. If you assume good intentions
on the part of your friends and family, and
you tell yourself you're lucky to have
them, your brain will naturally work to find
evidence to support that. That's just how our brains work. If you tell yourself that your
fellow humans are inherently good, your brain will find
examples of it everywhere, and that will
reinforce your outlook. The opposite,
unfortunately, is also true. Basically whether you think
the world and everyone in it is out to hurt you or
help you, you're right. Studies have shown that the
best predictor of divorce is if the couple assumes bad
intentions in their partner's actions, or if you marry Kanye. [LAUGHTER] But if you get it in your head
that your partner is selfish, or inconsiderate, or
willfully refusing to take out the garbage, that creates
a negative feedback loop of confirmation bias, seeking
to find further evidence that your spouse is a jerk,
even when good faith efforts are being made. And this hack works not just
for spouses, friends and family, but even total strangers
who might infuriate you. And look, I agree with
you, they're wrong. But don't forget, as George
Carlin pointed out, anyone who is driving slower than you
is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. Fostering your
relationship closes out my list of
three bits of advice because that may be where
you impact is the greatest. Due to a challenging
upbringing, my mom barely graduated high school,
but she took being a mom and instilling values in her
children really seriously. As such, she's the single
biggest influence on my life by far. She passed away
over a decade ago from ALS, six months before I
ever released my first YouTube video. But I love the idea that the
ripples from her influence are still being felt as
strongly as they ever have through the work
that I try and do today. If anything I've said today has
resonated with you in my mind, it's a direct result
of her commitment to this third piece of advice. So leverage confirmation bias
to enhance your relationships as you cooperate
to cross the river. Train your brain to
assume good intentions, and try to remember if someone
cuts you off on the freeway, maybe they're not
out to get you, maybe they just have diarrhea. [LAUGHTER] Now for a piece of
advice number four-- [STAR WARS MUSIC PLAYING] Engage in occasional
playful anarchy. But Mark, you told us
were only going to give us three pieces of advice. Boom. Here's a fourth,
because why not? I am playing music
in a commencement speech because why not. Is not ending your
speech with pump up music just objectively better? Or like, how these
graduation robes and hats are just objectively silly? Why shouldn't I take my
own fourth piece of advice right now and engage in
some playful anarchy. Anybody can toss
their hat in the air. We see it at every graduation. But few have dared to
make it actually fly. Bet Buzz Aldrin
never tried this. You know what? Time out. [MUSIC STOPS] This is actually a
great opportunity to review everything
we just talked about. To my first point, I will
embrace my naive optimism that my hat will
actually get airborne. But if not, to my second
point, if it goes haywire and I accidentally
blow up E53, I can reframe the failure
as an opportunity to renovate a very old
and sketchy building. Maybe this time we'll
even add a few windows. And then to my third point,
when I get sued by the faculty, I will foster the relationship
I have with my defense lawyers, because settling
with MIT over damages will bring us all
closer together. And so now [MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING] After turning on my
hat, I've done my part and filmed a banger of an intro
to our upcoming collab 30 years from now, which means
all that's left to do is your part, to
go out and change the world for the better. Congratulations MIT class of
2023, you totally got this. [APPLAUSE AND CHEERING] Thank you. DIANE GREENE: You know, Mark,
I think you just redefined the commencement speech. That was fantastic. Hey, everybody, keep
drinking your water. And now I want to
introduce Mr. Adam Joseph Miller, President of the
Graduate Student Council. And he'll give a salute from
the graduate student body. Following this, Miss
Anna Sun, President of the undergraduate
class of 2023. We'll offer a salute,
after which President Sally Kornbluth will deliver
her charge to the graduates. AJ MILLER: Good
afternoon, everyone. I'm AJ Miller, President of
the Graduate Student Council, and it is my honor to represent
our graduate student body and salute the achievements of
MITs graduating class of 2023. Today marks a celebration
of an accomplishment many years in the making,
and appreciation for everyone who made that accomplishment
possible along the way. It is a time to think back
and a time to dream ahead. This degree carries
many things with it. It is the culmination of
many years of hard work, resilience in the
face of adversity, and high excellence
in your field. It also carries
with it the legacy and values of the institution
that we as alums must now uphold. The hunger for curiosity, the
expectation of high standards, the courage to try bold,
new ideas and be wrong, and the humility to know
that there is always so much more to learn. We go forth into a world
facing very real and very big challenges. Artificial intelligence is
fuel for rising inequality. Misinformation drives divide in
a globally connected society, and climate change threatens
the very existence of the world as we know it. We're a generation
stepping into the unknown because the world is
changing ever faster, and the status quo is
no longer good enough. I say that all, not
for us to be afraid, but to recognize the
imperatives we now face. This degree carries
the trust and hope of our friends, our families,
the staff, the faculty, the institution, and the world. This degree is a privilege
we are fortunate to hold, but also a testament to
our skills, our values, and our potential. I came to MIT, because
the future is made here, and we are that future. We are the stewards of what is
to come and to make the better world. We stand up for
what's right and hold close to what we believe in. We expect the very
best of ourselves and cherish our differences. We value teamwork
and collaboration, because we are always
stronger together than apart. And most importantly,
we do not give up. Despite all the challenges,
the future is bright-- bright because of the
brilliance of this class and this generation. In our last days
here as students, we should be sure
to take the time to appreciate the
people around us who have made this day possible. The friends who kept our
sanity through late nights, the faculty who
guided our growth, the staff who made
everything in this place possible, and the
family who have always been there and
supported our journeys. Thank you to all of you. To the class of 2023,
while our time as students is fast coming to a close,
our future is just beginning. I look forward to
everything you all do and to seeing the future
we create together, and once again, congratulations. [APPLAUSE] [CHEERING] ANNA SUN: Good afternoon,
family, friends, faculty, esteemed guests, and of course,
the graduating class of 2023. [APPLAUSE] I'm so excited and honored
to be here with you today. I'd like to start by
sharing a story with you. It all began in
elementary school when I stumbled
over a small rock and I shattered the
screen of my iPod touch. Determined to fix it with a $30
replacement screen from eBay and the all knowing
Wikihow article titled, How to fix a broken iPod, I
embarked on a repair mission. Little did I know back then,
if circumstances had been ever so slightly different, I might
not be here at MIT today. Unfortunately, my
valiant efforts failed to revive my iPod. Sorry mom and dad. But days of tinkering
with the inner mechanisms ignited an unexpected passion
for technology within me. I think about this a lot,
about how a single event can cause a chain reaction. In 1961, MIT Professor
Edward Lorenz discovered the butterfly
effect, also known as the ripple effect. It's the idea that small things
can have nonlinear impacts on a complex system. For example, a pebble dropped
into the Charles River could eventually lead to a
typhoon in the Philippines. We often think that
monumental events like world wars,
huge earthquakes, or global pandemics have
equally monumental origins. But the smallest
occurrences, in fact, can lead to an enormous impact. During our time at
MIT, small pebbles skipping across the
water traveled further than we expected. We sparked creative project
ideas during late night runs at Cafe 472, we found
lifelong friendships through striking
of conversations with strangers at CPW. We found our homes in the
clubs that we randomly applied to on a whim. So start tossing
in more pebbles. Drop in a resume for
that job you know is a long shot, say hi to the
person sitting next to you on your flight back home,
volunteer for an event that sparked your curiosity. These seemingly small
acts could serve as stepping stones
towards your dream job, a broadened perspective, or a
new community you can fall back on. To the parents out
there, buy your kid that $30 replacement screen,
even if you really don't think it's going to work out. It could spark a new passion
that they may have never otherwise discovered. Now is our time. We have the opportunity,
the privilege, and the responsibility
to create ripples that make this world a better place. Be the ripple that
creates a wave. Let's see how far our
influence can spread. Together, we have the
power to change the world. Class of 2023, please join
me in an age old tradition, the turning of our Brass Rat. Raise your ring-bearing hands,
take off your Brass Rat, and flip it so that
the ring-- the Beaver is now facing the world. Let the world know that you
are now a graduate of MIT. Thank you class of 2023. [APPLAUSE] SALLY KORNBLUTH: OK. So Anna and AJ, thank
you both for your remarks and for your leadership. There's an old piece of
wisdom from show business-- never follow an act
with kids or animals, or as we've just seen
with Mark Rober or drone, nobody told me I could have
music in the background. And since Anna and AJ
rose to the challenge, I will give it my
best shot as well. Technically as
president, it's my role to deliver the charge
to the graduates, and I will do that in a moment. But I want to begin by offering
our new graduates a few words of admiration and thanks. There are quite a few Brass Rats
out in the world-- let's say, more than 145,000-- and every one of them
represents the remarkable feat of self-discipline
and perseverance it takes to earn an MIT degree. But the Brass Rats
that were just turned by today's graduates will
always have a special luster, because all of you graduating
today did more than tame your chosen discipline. You also completed an
involuntary double major in applied pandemic studies. You learned, you created,
you explored in ways that no one at
MIT has ever done, all while caring for your
friends, your families and yourselves, through the
long struggle that none of us were prepared for. Now I'm sure, sure
we're glad to have that years long exam behind us. But I want to acknowledge,
on behalf of the faculty, that we honor all
that you achieved. Just like an Olympic
athlete who wants to get that perfect 10
having taken on this added degree of difficulty. And what I learned
from colleagues here is that you did more
than hold things together for the people close to you. In an important sense, you
also held together MIT. Somehow, across
thousands of miles and endless, endless
hours of Zoom, you kept the cultures,
the traditions, and the values of MIT
alive and thriving as if it were that precious
jar of sourdough starter passed on to the next generation. Because of you, the
Institute that I've inherited is kinder, wiser,
nimbler, and more playful. You made sure that
the MIT spirit, the spirit that drew
you here, would endure, and you found ways to make
it even better, and for that, I cannot thank you enough. So since I'm a
bit of a newcomer, I can probably deliver
the unwelcome news that given those Brass
Rats, the world will expect a great deal from you. I don't even have one,
yet from the minute I accepted this new
position, people have been saying things to me
like, so, you folks from MIT are going to save us
on climate, right? Right? And with such stellar students
and faculty and graduates, if anyone can do it, we can,
and we sure are going to try. Of course, the world has
always expected a lot from MIT graduates, and I
think our friends out there in the red jackets
would agree with that. As ever, people will
expect you to be analytical, and practical,
and fearless, and brilliant. And now, also
whatever your field, no matter how you
did on the GIRs, people will expect you
to understand everything, from nuclear fusion,
to cryptocurrency, to synthetic biology, to
artificial intelligence, and to be able to explain
them like an expert. And by the way, to guard us
from all the attendant dangers. To be clear, I hope
and I believe that you can do all that and more. But while the world and
possibly your parents may be expecting big
things from you right away, I want to give you permission
for a while to not know, and to try different paths,
and to change your mind. Especially in this world
with new industries, new disciplines, new jobs
emerging on every frontier. Mark Rober just described you
crossing the river one wobbly stone at a time. And for me, and
probably for many in the audience who are also
maybe a couple of decades past graduation, hearing Mark talk
about changing course midstream brought a sudden memory of being
metaphorically soaking wet. Like that time I lobbied
really, really hard to get a vice provost job with
big, new administrative duties, which I thought would be a
crucial step in my career. And the university made
a big announcement, and only then did
I realized that I was really wrong for the
job, and it was wrong for me. And then I had to tell
the president that I couldn't take it after all. And that was a big
splash, but not the kind you all want to make. Or even the time I had
to explain to my parents that although I had just
earned my bachelor's degree in political science, the
way we'd always discussed, now I'd received a scholarship to
go on a whole new bachelor's degree in biology. They were not unsupportive,
but they were really deeply puzzled. There'd never been an
academic in my family. Now with both of these
midstream course corrections, I definitely got a little wet. It was kind of
awkward at the time. But the world did
not come to an end. And if I hadn't changed my mind
and taken an alternative route, I probably would not have found
my way to this audience today. So now it's time for me
to deliver your charge. So I always think the
word charge sounds like some kind of
grand assignment, which sounds suspiciously like
some farewell problem set, so that sounds like
a good idea, right? OK, I didn't think so either. So I want to give you a
different kind of charge. A charge as in a
source of energy. We've all seen that
little warning box in the corner of the
screen, your laptop will sleep soon if it is not
plugged into a power source. And I'm sure that
every student here has felt that same sensation,
deep down and personally, and often without the
option to sleep soon. What's more, even without an MIT
curriculum to test our limits, we all live surrounded
by devices, and media, and societal forces that
tend to drain our batteries and dissipate our energy
and our attention. Which means that
for each one of us, it has never been more
important to cultivate our personal sources
of renewable energy. You can name your own
sources, I'm sure. But in my life, beyond the
company of the people I love, and those many hours spent
watching British mysteries about small rural towns that
have inexplicably high crime rates, I found two infinitely
renewable sources of energy-- curiosity and a sense
of larger purpose. Frankly, the prominence of
these two factors in my life and the life of this
community are a key part of what drew me to MIT. This place runs on curiosity and
Dunkin, and it never runs dry. There's a moment I
will never forget from graduate school that
tells the exact same story. Some of you may have
heard it, because I've told it in other places, but
I believe it bears repeating. So we had this arrangement
in graduate school where each one of
us had a desk that was face to face with
another student's desk, but separated by a high-- sorry, I keep hitting
that-- high partition. You could talk, you
could hear across it, but you couldn't
actually see the student on the other side
of that partition. And one day, I'm
sitting at my desk and I heard a loud
shout and an expletive which I will not repeat,
but in a good way, if you know what
I mean, which I'm sure was accompanied by a fist
pump, though I couldn't see it. Sitting at his computer,
my fellow graduate student had been stared at
the DNA sequence of the new cancer causing
gene that he had discovered. And he suddenly realized
that that missing piece of DNA sequence,
which he thought was an artifact or an error,
was actually an indication that he found a whole new
class of cancer causing genes. It opened the way not
only to his PhD thesis, but to his entire career. He still works on and is
considered a world expert in that class of
genes, and I am quite sure he would tell you
that it was one of the most exciting moments of his life. And the curiosity
that has led him there has renewed itself over and
over, powering his own work, and inspiring those
around him ever since. So curiosity is
endlessly electrifying. And best of all,
you can find a way to harness your curiosity to a
purpose larger than yourself. One of the greatest joys
in life is the feeling of using your
skills to the limit, to do something
important for others-- your community, your discipline,
your institution, your country, or even the whole human
family and our fragile planet. If you can do that, you will
find a free, wireless charge wherever you go. So I wish you all the warmest
congratulations on all that you've achieved, and I
cannot wait to see where your curiosity and sense
of purpose lead you next. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] DIANE GREENE: Thank
you for those inspiring words, President Kornbluth, and
also Mr. Miller and Ms. Sun. It's now my pleasure
to introduce Stephen Baker, the Chief Marshal
and President of the MIT Alumni Association. He will greet the graduates. Mr. Baker is a two-time
graduate himself of MIT. [APPLAUSE] STEPHEN BAKER: Good afternoon. It is my honor to recognize
the class of 2023 the newest alumni and alumnae of MIT. The entire alumni
body, 145,000 strong, joins me in congratulating
all of the 2023 graduates and officially welcome
you into our alumni family, your infinite
connection to MIT. Congratulations,
and we look forward to seeing you at
future alumni events. Stay connected. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] DIANE GREENE: That was concise. [LAUGHTER] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you to everybody
that made today possible for our remarkable,
stunning graduates. The MIT class of
2023, yes, you're entering a world
full of problems, but it's also an amazing
and beautiful world, and it is one that you can
make more beautiful and more amazing. On behalf of the MIT
Corporation and all of MIT, congratulations class of 2023. [APPLAUSE] The One MIT
commencement ceremony of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology is now concluded. At this time, would everyone
please rise and join the corollaries of MIT
in singing the school song followed by,
Take Me Back to Tech. ["ARISE ALL YE OF MIT" PLAYING] (SINGING) Arise all ye of
MIT, in loyal fellowship. The future beckons onto ye
and life is full and rich. Arise and raise
your glass on high, tonight shall ever
be a memory that will never die, for ye of MIT. My sons and daughters MIT
return from far and wide and gather here once more to
be renourished by thy side. And as we raise our glasses high
to pledge our love for thee, we join all those of days
gone by in praise of MIT. [APPLAUSE] (SINGING) Oh I wish that
I were back again at Tech on Boylston street,
dressed in my dinky uniform so dapper and so neat. I'm crazy after calculus,
I never had enough, it's hard to be
dragged away so young. It was horribly, awfully tough. Hurrah for technology,
'ology, 'ology, oh. Glorious old technology,
'ology, 'ology oh. Back in the days that
were free from care in the 'ology varsity shop, with
nothing to do but analyze air in an anemometrical top. The differentiation of
the trigonometrics powers, the constant pi
that made me sigh in those happy days of ours. Hoorah for technology,
'ology, 'ology, oh.. Glorious old technology,
'ology, 'ology, oh. Take me back, oh take me back. Take me back to tech. Take me back, to take me
back, take, oh take me back to, take me back to tech. [VOCALIZING] (SINGING) Oh
M-A-S-S-A-C-H-U-S-E-T-T-S, I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E O-F
T-E-C-H-N-O-L-O-G and Y comes after G. It's the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Hey! [APPLAUSE] [BAND MUSIC PLAYING]
