Monthly Archives: February 2014

Introducing your new associate housemasters, Julie and Neel!

Julie and Neel Shah. Courtesy of Julie Shah.

Julie and Neel Shah. Courtesy of Julie Shah.

We are thrilled to begin 2014 by joining SP! From our first introduction, it was clear that SP is a very special place—in our opinion, the best living community at MIT. We feel honored to be able to help continue so many wonderful traditions and look forward to helping build new ones in the years to come.

We have both spent a lot of time at MIT. In Julie’s case, before becoming a professor she spent a decade collecting three MIT degrees. Neel went to Brown and Harvard, but considers MIT his home too after countless visits to hang out with Julie (we started dating in college). While we were graduate students we lived in Baker House as graduate resident tutors helping to support student life. After graduating we spent several years living across the river in the South End exploring the best of what Boston has to offer. We look forward to trading tips on the best galleries, markets, and restaurants in the city! We also look forward to introducing you to the other two members of our family, Sidney the puppy and Bolivar the small parrot.

Julie spends her days in Building 33 in AeroAstro and directs the Interactive Robotics Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Her research group focuses on integrating robotics and autonomous systems into human team-oriented environments, including manufacturing, search and rescue, and military field operations. Her group specializes in developing robot planning, decision-making, and control algorithms that are modified to support more natural interaction with people. In her free time, Julie enjoys gardening and scuba diving.

Neel is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, a practicing obstetrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a principle investigator in the Ariadne Labs for Health Systems Innovation. His research focuses on understanding the link between systems complexity and harmful medical decisions. He is also the Executive Director of a nonprofit called Costs of Care. In his free time, Neel enjoys playing guitar and cooking.

We decided to become housemasters because it is a pleasure and a privilege to get to know you. Please stop by any time (Room 268) and feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns, whether they are about life at SP or navigating the waters of graduate student life at MIT in general.

 

Sidney-Pacific Room Review: Indoor Garden

By Stephanie Nam,

SP Room Review is a new series exploring different rooms and lifestyles within the community. If you know of any awesome candidates, please do not hesitate to let us know!

Jenny Wang, at her desk.

Jenny Wang, at her desk.

For the second article of the room review series, we visited Jenny Wang. She is a third year student in Mechanical Engineering, and is one of the Brunch chairs at SP, serving about three hundred people every month. She is also known for her expertise in “growing living things,” so we decided to visit and see.

At first glance into her room, you’ll see a leaf-patterned curtain behind which Jenny keeps her plants and flowers in front of the large window. The plants are arranged on a storage rack, with a beautiful fuchsia hanging on a spring loaded drying rack. We also saw a recycled mini-greenhouse that was nurturing some seedlings. Next to her desk there was a special incubator for some mushrooms. In addition to these indoor plants, Jenny also grows some of her vegetables from SP community garden – if you need any advice for a plant, now you know who to turn to.

(CW from the top left) The mushroom incubator, the curtain covering the stand, the plant stand, the recycled greenhouse, and the hanging fuchsia.

(CW from the top left) The mushroom incubator, the curtain covering the stand, the plant stand, the recycled greenhouse, and the hanging fuchsia.

Having some fresh greenery in the bedroom can make it feel more like home. Another thing that can help improve the ambiance is lighting. In Jenny’s room, there are a number of different lamps, each with its own purpose. Plants like the white light, and so does Jenny for studying. For relaxed reading and resting, she has put some red cellophane over some lamps. The desk lamps are connected to a power strip so they can be conveniently turned on and off at the same time.

Jenny’s tea collection.

Jenny’s tea collection.

 

Overall, the furniture is arranged to separate the living, resting, and storage areas. The desk and the bookcase stand together, just like the wardrobe and the chest of drawers are placed next to each other. On the side of the wardrobe, just above the top of the dresser, SPeaker spotted Jenny’s collection of leaf tea. Jenny’s creative and space saving storage method is to store her tea in small metal tins, and stick them on magnets mounted on the side of her wardrobe. This makes it quick and easy to find what you’d like for tea time- if you can manage to choose from the many varieties of tea!

The visit to Jenny’s room reassured us that a dorm room can be quite homey, and you too can achieve that by bringing in some things you appreciate and enjoy. Thank you to Jenny for giving us a glimpse into her room and life!

SP Officer Profile: Photofile Chairs

This year, the SPeaker will be printing a series of articles profiling the officers that work for the Sidney-Pacific house government and the work that they do.  This month, we find out about the photofile Chairs, Tamas Kolos-Lakatos and Chi Feng.

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Tamas is a third year PhD student in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Course 16).  He is from Dunakeszi, Hungary, a town 15 minutes north of Budapest on the river Danube.  Tamas speaks Hungarian and English, as well as some French and German.

When he is not taking pictures at S-P events, Tamas can be found at airports around the world, taking pictures of airplanes.  In addition to being an avid photographer, Tamas is a pilot.  He started flying gliders at age 16 and few his first solo flight before he learned to drive a car!

Coutesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

Courtesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos

This is Tamas’ third year living in S-P and his second year as an officer.  Like many officers, he volunteered for the opportunity to get to know more S-P residents and be a part of the community.  As one of the photofile chairs, Tamas enjoys attending the large variety of events at S-P.

Chi Feng

Chi Feng

Chi Feng

Our second photographer, Chi, is a second year student in the Computation for Design and Optimization (CDO) program.  He hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan and speaks both English and Mandarin.

Aside from photography, Chi enjoys playing piano, website design and watching “Sherlock”.  In 2006, his many talents got him named Time magazine’s Person of the year (in fairness, he shares the title with a number of other people).

Chi has lived in S-P for nearly a year now.  He volunteered to apply his hobbies, specifically photography, towards improving the S-P community.  During his time in the S-P government, Chi has enjoyed meeting new people and being in-the-know about the government and its many activities.

Check out some of Chi’s photography in this month’s photo essay, entitled “Winter Wonderland at MIT”.

Chi and Tamas have a few plans for next semester.  Firstly, they plan to continue the photography discussion/tutorial group they started last term.  Additionally, look out for the upcoming photography contest for S-P residents.

Winter Wonderland at MIT

Photos by Chi Feng.

Killian Court. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Killian Court. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Student center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Student center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Sidney Pacific main entrance. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Sidney Pacific main entrance. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Bikes outside of the student center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Bikes outside of the student center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Building 1 and Killian court. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Building 1 and Killian court. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Stata center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

Stata center. Courtesy of SP-photofile.

 

Cooking Made Easy, Part II

By Jenny Wang,

Having a good stock of fast, easy recipes is probably the most important part of saving time in the kitchen.  Here are two of my favorite recipes to help you start or grow your own collection:

No Knead Flat Bread

No knead flatbread, toped with pear, gorgonzola and arugula. Courtesy of steamykitchen.com.

No knead flatbread, toped with pear, gorgonzola and arugula. Courtesy of steamykitchen.com.

(also good for pizza crust)

  • 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 3/8 cup lukewarm water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon granulated yeast
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar if desired
  • 2 1/2 to 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour depending on how thick you like the dough.
  1. The day before, mix oil, water, yeast, salt (and sugar if using) in a large bowl.  Then, mix in the flour.  This is a no knead dough so it will be quite a bit stickier than normal bread doughs.  Make sure there is room in the bowl for the dough to rise to two or three times its original volume.
  2. Leave the dough at room temperature for about two hours to rise.  After it has risen, you can store the dough in the fridge (cover the bowl with plastic wrap) for up to a week.  It may develop a beer-like smell (due to the live yeast) if you store it for too long, but it should still cook up fine.  The dough can also be frozen if necessary.  I like to prepare the dough in a large tupperware for easy storage.
  3. To cook, line a baking tray with parchment paper and spread a fist-sized chunk of dough on the paper.  The parchment paper prevents the dough from sticking to the baking tray and makes clean up a lot easier.  Spread the dough as thin as you can without making holes.
  4. Gently brush the dough with olive oil if you’d like.  You can also add toppings like shredded cheese and arugula.  Essentially, anything that works well on pizza should work here.
  5. Bake in the oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 to 15 minutes until the dough is cooked through.  If your oven doesn’t go this high, use the highest temperature setting and bake for a bit longer.  The first few times you try this recipe, check on the bread during baking to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Easy Miso Soup

Miso Soup. Courtesy of www.steamykitchen.com.

Miso Soup. Courtesy of www.steamykitchen.com.

Traditional miso soup is make from dashi (fish stock) and miso (fermented soy bean paste), but there are now plenty of packaged instant soup mixes.  However, by adjusting the traditional recipe, you can make miso soup from scratch just as easily as from commercial mixes.  The ingredient amounts are not critical in this recipe so you can adjust to suit your own tastes.

  • 1/2 teaspoon bonito flakes (can omit if you don’t have it, but it gives the soup a more complex flavor)
  • 2 teaspoon miso paste (I like white miso for this, but you can also try other types for a different flavor)
  • 1 teaspoon dried wakame seaweed
  • chopped scallions, cilantro, and/or other herbs for flavoring
  • 2 cups hot water

* bonito, miso, and wakame can all be found in Chinatown or Whole Foods.

  1.  Set the water to heat before prepping the rest of the soup.  If you have one, an electric kettle is likely the fastest way to heat water.  Microwave and stove top works too.  The water should be very hot, but doesn’t have to be boiling.
  2.  Mix the miso paste with a bit of water to soften it.  If you don’t use miso much, just soften the miso directly in the soup bowl.  I make this soup a lot so I just keep a jar of softened miso in the fridge and add a couple spoonfuls to the soup bowl.  In it’s original form, miso paste will last months in the fridge.  The softened miso doesn’t last as long, but should stay good for at least a couple weeks.
  3.  Crush the bonito flakes as small as you can into the soup bowl.
  4.  Add in the wakame and herbs.  Although not authentic, I like to add some Thai basil and vinegar.  Feel free to experiment with herbs or to leave them out altogether.
  5.  Pour the hot water into the soup bowl.  The hot water will rehydrate the wakame and cook the herbs slightly to draw out more flavor.  If the water cools too quickly to properly rehydrate the wakame, cover the bowl.  Once the wakame softens, the soup is ready.

This recipe also makes a good base for noodle soups.