Daily Digest

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private university lo-
cated in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college,
containing 32 academic departments,[6] with a strong emphasis on scientific
and technological research. MIT is one of two private land-grant universities
and is also a sea grant and space grant university.
MIT was founded by William Barton Rogers in 1861 in response to the in-
creasing industrialization of the United States. Although based upon German
and French polytechnic models of an institute of technology, MIT’s founding
philosophy of ”learning by doing” made it an early pioneer in the use of lab-
oratory instruction,[7] undergraduate research, and progressive architectural
styles. As a federally funded research and development center during World
War II, MIT scientists developed defense-related technologies that would
later become integral to computers, radar, and inertial guidance. After the
war, MIT’s reputation expanded beyond its core competencies in science and
engineering into the social sciences including economics, linguistics, political
science, and management. MIT’s endowment and annual research expendi-
tures are among the largest of any American university.[8] MIT graduates
and faculty are noted for their technical acumen,[3][9][10] entrepreneurial
vigor,[11][12] and irreverence.[13][14][15]