Certainly one of MIT’s missions helps to resolve the world’s biggest issues — with a big deal with probably the most urgent subjects going through the world as we speak, local weather change. The MIT Vitality and Local weather Membership, (MITEC) previously often called the MIT Vitality Membership, has been working since 2004 to tell and educate your complete MIT group about this pressing problem and different associated issues.
MITEC, one of many largest golf equipment on campus, has tons of of energetic members from each main, together with each undergraduate and graduate college students. With a broad attain throughout the Institute, MITEC is the hub for thought management and relationship-building throughout campus.
The membership’s co-presidents Laurențiu Anton, doctoral candidate in electrical engineering and pc science; Rosie Keller, an MBA scholar within the MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration; and Thomas Lee, doctoral candidate within the Institute for Knowledge, Methods, and Society, say that school, employees, and alumni are additionally welcome to affix and work together with the constantly rising membership.
Whereas they carefully collaborate on all features of the membership, every of the co-presidents has a spotlight space to help the scholar managing administrators and vice presidents for a number of of the membership’s committees. Keller oversees the Exterior Relations, Social, Launchpad, and Vitality and Local weather Hackathon management groups. Lee helps the management workforce for subsequent spring’s Vitality Convention. He additionally assists the membership treasurer on price range and finance and guides the trade Sponsorships workforce. Anton oversees advertising, group and training in addition to the Vitality and Local weather Night time and Vitality and Local weather Profession Truthful management groups.
“We consider MITEC because the umbrella of all issues associated to vitality and local weather on campus. Our objective is to share actionable info and never simply have discussions. We work with different organizations on campus, together with the MIT Environmental Options Initiative, to deliver consciousness,” says Anton. “Our Group and Schooling workforce is at the moment working with the MIT ESI [Environmental Solutions Initiative] to create an ecosystem map that we’re excited to supply for the MIT group.”
To share their information and get extra folks occupied with fixing local weather and vitality issues, every year MITEC hosts a wide range of occasions together with the MIT Vitality and Local weather Night time, the MIT Vitality and Local weather Hack, the MIT Vitality and Local weather Profession Truthful, and the MIT Vitality Convention to be held subsequent spring March 3-4. The membership additionally provides college students the chance to achieve invaluable work expertise whereas participating with high firms, resembling Constellation Vitality and GE Vernova, on actual local weather and vitality points via their Launchpad Program.
Based in 2006, the annual MIT Vitality Convention is the biggest student-run convention in North America centered on vitality and local weather points, the place tons of of individuals collect yearly with the CEOs, policymakers, buyers, and students on the forefront of the worldwide vitality transition.
“The 2025 MIT Vitality Convention’s theme is ‘Breakthrough to Deployment: Driving Local weather Innovation to Market’ — which focuses on the significance of each cutting-edge analysis innovation in addition to large-scale business deployment to efficiently attain local weather targets,” says Lee.
Anton notes that the primary of 4 MITEC flagship occasions the MIT Vitality and Local weather Night time. This analysis symposium that takes place yearly within the fall on the MIT Museum shall be held on Nov. 8. The membership invitations a choose variety of keynote audio system and a number of other dozen scholar posters. Company are allowed to stroll round and interact with college students, and in return college students get observe showcasing their analysis. The membership’s profession honest will happen within the spring semester, shortly after Impartial Actions Interval.
MITEC additionally supplies members alternatives to fulfill with firms which are working to enhance the vitality sector, which helps to decelerate, in addition to adapt to, the results of local weather change.
“We just lately went to Provincetown and toured Eversource’s battery vitality storage facility. This helped open doorways for membership members,” says Keller. “The Provincetown battery helps tackle grid reliability issues after excessive storms on Cape Cod — which speaks to vitality’s connection to each the mitigation and adaptation features of local weather change,” provides Lee.
“MITEC can be a good way to fulfill different college students at MIT that you just won’t in any other case have an opportunity to,” says Keller.
“We’d at all times welcome extra undergraduate college students to affix MITEC. There are many management alternatives throughout the membership for them to reap the benefits of and construct their resumes. We even have good and rising collaboration between totally different facilities on campus such because the Sloan Sustainability Initiative and the MIT Vitality Initiative. They help us with assets, introductions, and assist amplify what we’re doing. However college students are the drivers of the membership and set the agendas,” says Lee.
All three co-presidents are excited to listen to that MIT President Sally Kornbluth needs to deliver local weather change options to the subsequent stage, and that she just lately launched The Local weather Undertaking at MIT to kick off the Institute’s main new effort to speed up and scale up local weather change options.
“We stay up for connecting with the brand new administrators of the Local weather Undertaking at MIT and Interim Vice President for Local weather Change Richard Lester within the close to future. We’re desirous to discover how MITEC can help and collaborate with the Local weather Undertaking at MIT,” says Anton.
Lee, Keller, and Anton need MITEC to proceed fostering options to local weather points. They emphasised that whereas particular person actions like bringing your individual thermos, utilizing public transportation, or recycling are essential, there’s a much bigger image to contemplate. They encourage the MIT group to assume critically concerning the infrastructure and intensive provide chains behind the merchandise everybody makes use of every day.
“It’s not nearly bringing a thermos; it’s additionally understanding the life cycle of that thermos, from manufacturing to disposal, and the way our on a regular basis selections are interconnected with world local weather impacts,” says Anton.
“Everybody ought to get entangled with this worldwide drawback. We’d wish to see extra folks take into consideration how they will use their careers for change. To assume how they will navigate the kind of function they will play — whether or not it’s in finance or on the technical aspect. I feel exploring what that appears like as a profession can be a extremely fascinating mind-set about learn how to get entangled with the issue,” says Keller.
“MITEC’s e-newsletter reaches greater than 4,000 folks. We’re grateful that so many individuals are occupied with vitality and local weather change,” says Anton.
