Dear members of the MIT community,

I started this monthly newsletter to welcome more interaction with you. After seven editions, I have learned a few things: a high portion of our alumni read the Dean’s Note. You are interested in research news, startups, and an inside look at MIT. Articles that take readers inside the classroom draw interest. Videos that reveal a snapshot of life on campus do the same.

With intelligence and humor, readers have embraced the questions I’ve asked. Such was the case in response to last month’s question: “Which MIT idea or technology has most positively impacted the world to date?” One of my favorite emails came from an alum who credited MIT (and a decision to stay in the Boston area) for his marriage and two high-impact children.

This month, The Infinite includes news of an MIT report that spotlights worldwide trends in the changing landscape of engineering education, pinpoints the current and emerging leaders in the field, and describes some of its future direction.

Along with research news, we offer you a look at a landmark project at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Laboratory. And for a taste of life on campus, the School of Engineering videographer produced a piece on MIT’s oldest co-ed a cappella group, The Chorallaries of MIT, as they prepared for a major concert: Game of Tones.

And I would like to share a recent article by graduate students who’ve designed a popular class on deep learning. The one-week introductory course focuses on music generation with recurrent neural networks. A dataset features pop song snippets. They teach complex material in a fun and accessible manner.

My question this month: “What do MIT alumni seek from The Infinite?” While we can track general engagement trends, I welcome detail. More in-depth articles about what is happening in our labs and classrooms? More interviews with people in our community? What stories are best told in video? What are we missing? It is my hope that we will ever improve in our ability to bring you stories that deepen your connection to MIT.

Sincerely,