Skip to Content
MIT News magazine

Seen on Campus

Pomp and Optimism
August 15, 2007

In June, 2,110 students filed into Killian Court to receive their diplomas and a dose of wit and wisdom from President Emeritus Charles M. Vest, now head of the National Academy of Engineering. Vest spoke of two letters he’d received from MIT. In 1968 he got a rejection letter after applying for an assistant professorship. But 22 years later a second letter arrived, offering him the presidency. “Always read your mail from MIT,” he joked. “There is an outside chance that instead of asking for an alumni donation, it may ask you to be president … or perhaps commencement speaker.” Vest also urged his audience to embrace optimism. Despite the world’s complexity and the immensity of its challenges, he said, MIT graduates can–and must–use their knowledge and skill to “make the world well.”

Photograph by Donna Coveney/MIT

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.