In 2015, comments from a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist claiming female scientists distract their male colleagues in the lab immediately led to backlash across social media. Women shared selfies going about their routine conducting research to demonstrate just how “distracting” they are. Months later, individuals around the world responded to offhand comments about a female engineer with the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Earlier this year, General Electric envisioned a reality in which female scientists, such as the late MIT Professor Emerita Millie Dresselhaus, are revered just as much as celebrities and athletes. These events reflect a wider movement to combat sexism and encourage women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The gender gap in these fields is pronounced, to be sure. In mechanical engineering, for example, only 13.2 percent of bachelor’s degrees in 2015 were earned by women, according to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). However, this number is in stark contrast to the undergraduate population in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE), which as of fall 2016, comprised 49.5 percent women....

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 17 (ANI/NewsVoir): MIT-AOE, the top engineering college in Pune opens the doors for future engineers. MIT Academy of Engineering an elite institution was established in 1999 under MAEER. The institution is known for its customized academic distinction with comprehensive growth of students. Conferred with "Academic Autonomy" by the UGC (University Grants Commission), the institution all set to define academic excellence once again.MIT-AOE is now also offering full-time Bachelors in Design apart from 7 UG courses (B. Tech) and 3 PG courses (M. Tech) courses. The institute currently offers full-time B. Tech in Civil, IT, Computer, Chemical, Electronics, ENTC, and Mechanical Engineering and M. Tech in Electronics, Computer, and Mechanical Engineering. The 2020-21 academic sessions will witness its first batch of Bachelor of Design after the introduction of course at MIT-AOE.Under the mentorship of MIT Institute of Design, MIT-AOE is offering a four-year Bachelor of Design course. The aspiring candidates who have passed the XIIth examination with minimum 50 per cent marks in Physics, Chemistry (could be replaced with the permissible technical vocational subject), and Mathematics with a valid score in MHT - CET/JEE (Main) are eligible for UG courses. For PG courses, candidates are required to have a valid GATE score to be a part of this elite institution. The admission is open for both UG and PG courses.With world-class infrastructure and global standards facilities on campus, MIT Academy of Engineering strives for the holistic development of students. Modernized learning approach with the traditional essence of teacher-student relation, learning at MIT-AOE is through practical skill-based education. The industry-centric academic curriculum designed by the experts of respective fields assures the professional transformation of the potential mind....

In late March, as part of the Institute’s response to the evolving Covid-19 pandemic, the Team 2020 working group was charged with rigorously evaluating options for the upcoming academic year, to inform the final decisions by the senior administration. Co-leads Ian A. Waitz, vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate education, and Tony P. Sharon, acting deputy executive vice president, dove into the complex task, framing it as “defining all the switches that needed to be turned off (to scale back operations) or turned on (to return to different increased-density operational states), and some sensible order for doing so, under different scenarios.” On Friday, Team 2020 released a report online that synthesizes its assessment of options for the upcoming academic year. The working group based its findings on many inputs from the MIT community, from charrettes to town halls to pulse surveys, expertise from public health and medical experts, guidance from local and state government officials, and consultations with peer institutions....

Sanjay Sarma, MIT vice president for MIT Open Learning and the Fred and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and William B. Bonvillian, lecturer in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society and former director of MIT’s Washington D.C. office, recently produced a new research brief, “Applying New Education Technologies to Meet Workforce Education Needs.” The publication, part of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future’s series of research briefs, asks: What lessons from learning science and new technologies might be drawn to make online education, including workforce training, more effective? The brief argues that the U.S. needs to make workforce education a policy priority, to upgrade skills for those being left behind, and to help others shift job sectors to areas where there will be work. Internet-based tools will be critical in enabling workforce education to meet growing needs. However, the brief argues that workforce education will not be able to scale unless it provides quality training, and to do this effectively, online training must incorporate lessons from the best science-based teaching practices. Sarma and Bonvillian have been leading a research project on workforce education. A preliminary report on that project is available via MIT Open Learning, and a final report will be published as a book by MIT Press in January 2021. Q: Why is it especially important now to make workforce education a policy priority?...