Dear members of the MIT community and friends,

With snow currently falling outside my window, I find myself missing our MIT campus and community at this time of year. The feeling as the term winds down and campus holiday gatherings offer an opportunity to celebrate a year of hard work and camaraderie. The quieting of the Infinite Corridor as we all bid one another farewell until the new year.

This year has been most unusual and impacted each and every one of our lives in some way. But regardless of where in the world we’ve weathered the storm, the MIT School of Engineering community has persevered in ways I couldn’t have predicted. It is for these reasons that I’ve selected the following stories for our final issue of 2020. This subset of stories, together and individually, highlight some of the incredible work happening across the school. In some cases, the uncertainty of the pandemic has provided an opportunity to innovate, respond, and deliver, and at other times a moment to pause, reflect, and shift course.

From vaccine development to energy conversion, weather monitoring to machine learning, student entrepreneurship to alumni leadership—I invite you to explore some of our most recent stories and to join me in not only reflecting on the past but looking toward the future with both excitement and anticipation.

I wish you the very best this holiday season. Here’s to a new year full of innovation, creation, and connection.

Sincerely,