massachusetts institute of technology virtual tour

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology Virtual Tour

Are you applying to massachusetts institute of technology explore the campus using the virtual tour below..

Virtual tours are a great way to refresh your memory or to preview an on-site tour of MIT.

Why a Virtual Tour?

At the beginning of your college search, a virtual tour can be a beneficial tool to explore the campus before your visit. When you do visit the campus, be sure to talk to current students about their experiences. A student perspective is a helpful way to gauge your future experience when attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Already took an on-campus tour? It's inevitable. All of your college tours will blend, and you might forget the appearance of MIT's library, dorms, or cafeteria. Use the virtual tour to jog your memory! With the interactive mapping tool below you can even explore the area surrounding the campus.

Use the resources below to start your virtual tour.

Using the Map

Click and drag the little orange person to a location on the map. Locations with panoramas appear as blue lines or blue dots when moving the orange person. The blue dots are panoramic views that you may swivel. The blue lines are paths that you can navigate along.

Panoramic View

You can "pan" or "swivel" the camera around by clicking on the image and dragging your mouse or finger. If you see a white arrow on the picture, you can click or tap on it to move in the direction of the arrow. This will also update the location of the little orange person on the map so you can get a better sense of where you are and what direction you are facing.

Continue Your Research on MIT

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We are part of one of the coolest, most creative, and intellectually vibrant ecosystems on Earth.

Originally founded in Boston, MIT now makes its home in the city of Cambridge, a place the New York Times   says, “blends its erudite character with a rich serving of arts and culture.”

Our campus is situated in Kendall Square , a hub brimming with technology giants, biotechnology firms, and   startups. Ever evolving, the plans to develop our neighborhood are next-level cool.

But we aren’t all engineering and no play. Our campus is a mere 364.4 smoots (plus or minus one ear) across the Charles River to Boston, where foodies can indulge, sports fanatics can cheer, and history buffs can walk the streets of Paul Revere. We are also only a subway ride away from the beach and a short road trip to the Green Mountains or the White Mountains.

The bottom line: this city has something for everyone. We encourage you to come check it out for yourself.

Official Tours

Prospective students.

The Office of Admissions conducts information sessions followed by student-led campus tours for students, families, and groups. For more information on how to schedule, please contact the MIT Office of Admissions .

MIT Campus Map and Directions

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Unofficial Tours

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Virtual Tours

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70 Amherst Street - Immersive Imaging

Take a peek inside the building, immersive imaging .

Building Amenity Spaces

Common Area (Fifth Floor)

Music Room  (Basement)

Outdoor Courtyard

Primary Fitness Area  (Basement)

Secondary Fitness Area  (Basement)

Shared Community Space (Basement)

Example Unit Types*

Single Room (First Floor)

Single Room (Fifth Floor)

​ *Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only.

Ashdown House - Immersive Imaging

Immersive imaging.

​Building Amenity Spaces

Community Lounge (First Floor)

Community Lounge (Second Floor)

Fitness Area (First Floor)

Floor Lounge (First Floor)

Floor Lounge (Second Floor)

Multipurpose Room (First Floor)

Music Room (First Floor)

Crafts Lounge  (First Floor)

Shared Kitchen Space ** (Second Floor)

• Three-Bedroom Suite **

*Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only.

**Units with no kitchen have access to community kitchens within the  building

Edgerton House - Immersive Imaging

Fitness Area (Basement)

Floor Common Area

Shared Community Space (Large Space, Basement)

Shared Community Space (Small Space, Basement)

Two-Bedroom Apartment

Three-Bedroom Apartment

*Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only. 

Graduate Tower at Site 4 - Immersive Imaging

Community Outdoor Balcony (Fourth Floor)

Outdoor Space (Fourth Floor)

Primary Fitness Area (Fourth Floor)

Secondary Fitness Area (Fourth Floor)

Shared Community Kitchen & Lounge Space (Fourth Floor)

Shared Community Space (Fourth Floor)

Shared Community Space (Third Floor)

Study Room (Third Floor)

Efficiency A partment

One-Bedroom A partment

* Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only. 

Sidney-Pacific - Immersive Imaging

Building Amenity Spaces ​

Community Function Space (First Floor)

Computer Lounge (First Floor)

Floor Lounge (Fifth Floor)

Game Room (First Floor)

Shared Community Kitchen (Fourth Floor)

Shared Community Space 1 (First Floor)

Shared Community Space 2 (First Floor)

Shared Community Space 3 (Second Floor)

Study Area (Fifth Floor)

Efficiency Apartment

Two-Bedroom S uite

Two-Bedroom Quad Suite

Tang Hall - Immersive Imaging

Building Amenity Space

Community Lounge (24th Floor)

Four-Bedroom Apartment

The Warehouse - Immersive Imaging

Atrium Study Area (First Floor)

Primary Fitness Area (Basement)

Secondary Fitness Area (Basement)

Shared Community Kitchen Area (Basement)

Shared Community Room (Basement)

Study Area (Large Space, Basement)

Study Area (Small Space, Second Floor)

Television Lounge (Basement)

Example Unit Type*

Efficiency Unit

*Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only.

Westgate Apartments - Immersive Imaging

Children's Playroom (High Rise, First Floor)

Fitness Area (High Rise, First Floor)

Lobby Seating Area (High Rise, First Floor)

Shared Community Space (High Rise, Large Space, Basement)

Shared Community Space (High Rise, Small Space, Basement)

Efficiency Apartment  (High Rise)

One-Bedroom Apartment  (High Rise)

Two-Bedroom Apartment (Low Rise)

*Please note that specific unit types and fixtures may vary. All immersive images are for illustrative purposes only. 

visiting MIT

General information.

Find people on campus by searching the MIT directory online .

The annual MIT Facts booklet provides milestones in research and teaching , Nobel Prize winners , MIT history, annual reports , organization charts , the non-discrimination policy , acronyms and abbreviations , directions , and the campus map .

Everything you’ve heard about New England weather is true. Please visit Weather Underground to see how we’re faring on any given day.

Blending imagination with the physical world through advancing the art and engineering of XR technologies.

The mit center for advanced virtuality, the mit center for advanced virtuality — virtuality for short — pioneers innovation with technologies of virtuality including xr (vr, ar, mr, etc.), videogames, social media, and new forms unanticipated by these platforms..

These technologies are important, as nearly everyone uses virtual identities through platforms such as social media profiles, e- commerce accounts, or avatars in video games. More importantly, these platforms are increasingly interconnected. MIT Virtuality takes a thoughtful approach to such technologies that enable us to communicate, express, play, and work virtually. We believe that virtuality is more than just a particular type of head-mounted interface. It refers experiences that are real, but not primarily physical. By advancing the state of computer-based virtuality systems (virtual reality, augmented reality, and beyond), MIT Virtuality hopes to better serving human needs through artful innovation. Our focus is the array of computationally enabled experiences in which we explore aspects of our selves, environments, and societies imaginatively constructed atop our physical world.

The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality supports designing, developing, and researching, technologies of virtuality.

The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality pioneers innovative experiences using technologies of virtuality. Such technologies, ranging from Virtual Reality (VR) to Cinematic Reality (CR) and beyond, all use computing to construct imaginative experiences atop our physical world. It is crucially important to create and deploy such technologies effectively since they are now used every day to communicate, express, learn, play, and work.

The Center for Advanced Virtuality has several functions supporting its mission. Its production function serves as both a studio and a laboratory to support both creative projects and research endeavors. The studio brings faculty together with professionals to innovate new genres, aesthetics, and conventions for using technologies of virtuality. Its laboratory investigates the impacts of these technologies, focused on learning, simulation, and cognition. Its enabling function brings together students, experts, and resources to further the intellectual and creative capacity of work involving technologies of virtuality across MIT. Taken together, these functions advance the state of the art for virtuality research and development with a cutting-edge humanistic ethos that considers the social and ethical impacts of technologies as we invent them.

Creation of new genres, aesthetics, and conventions in virtuality.

Research to understand effective new models of virtuality and to understand its critical learning, social and ethical effects.

Innovation to foster culturally and economically impactful outcomes.

Through its Studio, Lab, Salon, and Hub (see diagram below) The Center for Advanced Virtuality advances the making, researching, sharing, and enablement, of computer-based virtuality systems and aims to better serve human needs through artful virtual innovation.

There are four central functions of the center:

Content creation [virtuality innovation studio].

The studio supports XR Arts Production focused on expression, innovation, and professional quality XR development.

Social Impact and Learning Research [Critical XR Pedagogy Lab]

The lab supports research to assess the impacts of XR systems, focused on critical pedagogy, experiential learning, learning via simulation, and the cognition of XR experiences.

Capacity Building Events [XR Salon]

The salon supports visiting speakers, panels, and other events to further the intellectual and creative capacity of XR work across MIT.

Sharing Resources and Abilities [XR Hub]

The hub offers coordination of student involvement in XR projects, physical space, and equipment for XR production and research.

Faculty & Researchers

Professor D. Fox Harrell, Ph.D., Founding Director; Studio Head & Principal Investigator Fox Harrell is a researcher exploring the relationship between imaginative cognition and computation. His research involves developing new forms of computational narrative, gaming, social media, and related digital media based in computer science, cognitive science, and digital media arts. The National Science Foundation has recognized Harrell with an NSF CAREER Award for his project “Computing for Advanced Identity Representation.” Harrell holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego. His other degrees include a Master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunication from New York University, and a B.F.A. in Art, B.S. in Logic and Computation (each with highest honors), and minor in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked as an interactive television producer and as a game designer. His recent book is Phantasmal Media: An Approach to Imagination, Computation, and Expression (MIT Press, 2013).

Caglar Yildirim, Ph.D., Research Scientist Caglar Yildirim is a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher and holds a PhD in HCI from Iowa State University. His research is in the areas of HCI, immersive environments, and applied machine learning, striving to apply HCI principles to the design, development, and evaluation of 3D interfaces to support and improve human interactions with virtual/augmented/mixed reality environments. Caglar is also a professor and has taught HCI, VR/AR development, data science, and game programming courses at Northeastern University, State University of New York at Oswego, and Iowa State University.

Tyler Carroll, Administrative Assistant

Researchers

Research assistants, affiliates & collaborators.

Cecil Brown, Researcher and Lecturer, Stanford Cecil Brown’s undergraduate education was at Columbia University in Comparative Lit (German and French). He has a M.A in English Literature from the University of Chicago; and a PhD in Folklore, African American Literature, and Narrative Theory from UC Berkeley. He is a novelist and folklorist. He directed the first hip-hop conference in 2002 at U C Berkeley. He co-produced the first conference on the cell phone (“Cell Phone Justice”) and “Swinging and Flowing the Digital Divide” both sponsored by CITRIS (the Center for Information Technology Research for in The Interest of Society).

Zephyr Frank, Professor of Latin American History, Stanford Zephyr Frank is Professor of History and the Director of the Program on Urban Studies. He was also the founding Director of the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) 2011-16. His research interests focus on Brazilian social and cultural history, the study of wealth and inequality, and the digital humanities.

Eric Klopfer,  Professor, MIT Eric   Klopfer  is a  Professor  and Director of the  Scheller  Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade at MIT. He is also a co-faculty director for MIT’s J-WEL World Education Lab. His work uses a Design Based Research methodology to span the educational technology ecosystem, from design and development of new technologies to professional development and implementation. Much of  Klopfer ‘s research has focused on computer games and simulations for building understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Much of his research centers on the affordances of new technologies including AR, VR and mobile, and how those can be applied today.  Klopfer  is also the Co-founder and past President of the non-profit: Learning Games Network.

Sercan Sengun,  Research Affiliate Dr. Sercan Sengun is a researcher, teacher, and game designer, exploring phenomena at the intersections of video game studies, gamer communities, game design, cultural informatics, virtual identities, and interactive narratives. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies at Illinois State University. In the past, he conducted research as a part of MIT CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), MIT ICE Lab (Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory), and Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s QCRI (Qatar Computing Research Institute), and taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Northeastern University, Bahcesehir University, and Istanbul Bilgi University.

Eyup Kucuk, Research Affiliate Eyup E. Kucuk has a background in philosophy and holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Bogazici University. His previous studies focused on the transformation of the idea of human nature throughout the history of thought. He now focuses on the nature of experience in virtual environments and its effect on our perception, cognition, and values. His main interests include VR/AI Ethics, philosophy of cognitive science, phenomenology, Kant’s critical philosophy, history of philosophy, and philosophy of mind/consciousness.​

Pakinam Amer, Research Affiliate Pakinam Amer is an award-winning journalist, science writer and a virtual reality and emerging technology researcher. She’s also a graduate of the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT. Previously, she was the chief editor of  Nature Middle East , the regional copy of  Nature . Pakinam has an MA in Investigative Journalism from City, University of London. She has a strong passion for storytelling, game design, comics, and long-form narratives .

Vik Parthiban, Research Affiliate Vik Parth is passionate about teams and technologies that shape how people interact with digital information and the physical world. He is currently the Director of Product and Innovation at Arrow Electronics. He graduated from MIT where he worked on holographic interfaces and hardware to push AR/VR technology forward at the Media Lab. He also worked at Magic Leap in the Advanced Photonics division to develop the first consumer pair of Mixed Reality wearable computers. An inventor, engineer, and entrepreneur at heart, Vik desires to positively change how we interact and use technology.

Megan Prakash, Research Affiliate, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)  Megan Prakash is an M.Eng. student in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at MIT and works as a Research Affiliate in the Imagination, Computation, and Expressions (ICE) Lab within the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Megan graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from MIT in 2018. She previously worked at Akamai Technologies as a security platform engineer developing planetary-scale distributed systems. Currently, her interests include researching virtuality for museum and informal learning environments. She intends to create novel virtual experiences that can represent culture, stimulate curiosity, and enable global empathy.

Alumni & Past Student Affiliates

Eduard De Vidal i Flores, Visiting Undergraduate Research Assistant

JJ Otto-Hawke, MS, Comparative Media Studies, Alum

Danielle Olson, Ph.D, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Alum

Pablo Jose Ortiz-Lampier, Ph.D, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Alum

Runjia Tian, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Student Affiliate

Minzi Long, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Student Affiliate

Angela Wang, Wellesley College, Student Affiliate

Magdalena Price, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Student Affiliate

Advisory Groups

Advisory council.

Mark Loughridge is the Director of the CASE Center for Entrepreneurship at Punahou School . He was also a co-founder of Foundation 9 Entertainment (F9E), which grew to be the largest independent game developer in the world. During his 11+ years in growing this business, Mr. Loughridge oversaw the creative direction of the company, spearheaded new product development, and provided leadership on strategic planning. Mr. Loughridge sold his stake in 2006 and now invests in a variety of projects, with a particular interest in educational innovations and technologies that foster creativity.

Errol Arkilic is a Founder of M34 Capital . M34 is an investment company that focuses on seed and early-stage projects being spun out of academic and corporate research labs.. M34 focuses on turning science projects into companies and does so across a broad spectrum of technologies and geographies. He is also a founder of USRCA.org, a non-profit with a focus on entrepreneur education for science and engineering graduates. Previously, Errol was the founding and lead program director for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program. He led the I-Corps effort from its inception until July 2013. Prior to this, he was the lead software and services Program Director for the NSF SBIR program. Before his government service, Errol was founder and CEO at StrataGent Lifesciences (Acquired by Corium International: CORI) and Manager of Product Engineering at Redwood Microsystems. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Aero/Astro Engineering from MIT.

ADVISORY BOARD

Arvel Chappell III, Vice President, Emerging Technology, Warner Bros

John Jennings, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, U.C. Riverside

Kamal Sinclair, Director, Sundance New Frontiers Lab

Karim Ben Khelifa, VR Director

Lisa Caruso, Head of U.S. Content, Population Media Center

Mahyad Tousi, CEO, Boomgen Studios

MIT STEERING COMMITTEE

Vladimir Bulović, Founding Director of MIT.nano, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology

Joe Checkelsky, Assistant Professor of Physics

Ekene Ijeoma, Assistant Professor and Director of Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab, Director of Studio Ijeoma

Leila W. Kinney, Executive Director of Arts Initiatives, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST)

Nick Montfort,  Professor of Digital Media, Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Danielle Wood, Assistant Professor, Program in Media Arts and Sciences

The studio supports XR Arts Production focused topics including on creative expression, social impact, and cultural innovation.

“the enemy” by visiting artist karim ben khelifa.

“The Enemy” is a groundbreaking interactive Virtual Reality (VR) exhibition and immersive experience by acclaimed photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa. The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality director, Professor Fox Harrell, was the Human-Computer Interaction Producer on the project. The project immerses participants in discussions about war and humanity by using pioneering VR technology to present interviews with soldiers on opposite sides of conflicts in Israel and Palestine, The Congo, and El Salvador. Using virtual-reality headsets, participants encounter real, 360-degree imaging and recordings of combatants on opposite sides of international conflicts who were interviewed by Ben Khelifa for the project. In their own words, the combatants offer personal perspectives on war, their motivations, suffering, freedom, and the future.

The Noir Initiative The Narrative, Orality, and Improvisation, Research (NOIR) Initiative

The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality’s NOIR Initiative will focus on the research and practice of digital improvisation, phantasmal media, and cross-cultural forms of expression. An important aim is on designing and engineering experiences that convey the characteristics of oral communication forms of expression through information and communication technologies.

Key commitments include:

• Using vernacular language for free expression and against oppression
• Decolonization of media practices (grounding them in diverse cultural origins)
• Recognizing value in ephemeral, transitory media (such as everyday spoken language)
• The importance of live performance
• Integrative cultural systems, e.g., remediating vernacular cultural forms in computational environments
• Critical connoisseurship (high quality content that is also accessible)
• Speculative design (fiction plays a key role in innovation and meaning-making)
• Transdisciplinary scholarship and production

The lab supports XR Research, focused on topics including learning, cognition, and technical innovation.

Xr learning enriching virtual reality (vr) narratives with embodied and gestural interaction.

There is an increasing need for embodied and gestural interfaces for VR narratives. This research aims to develop theories and technologies to advance an understanding of embodied identity expression in virtual reality (VR) narratives through designing interfaces which use speech, gestural, and physiological and other inputs oriented to reflect the nuance of real-world human interaction.

Workplace Learning (Supported by J-WEL) Provoking Critical Reflection on Gender Discrimination with Chimeria: Grayscale

In late 2017, the media attention to this perpetual ill and the harrowing #metoo stories sparked us to share our own computational tale of fiction that we humbly hope can participate in this dialogue.

The computer as a medium offers a unique expressive palette for storytellers. With it, we can build models of crucial and moving issues in our world. Grayscale, an interactive narrative experience provokes players to reflect critically on sexism in the workplace, both overt & hostile and more subtle.

Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory

Passage home by danielle olson, project director; dr. d. fox harrell, thesis advisor; riana elyse anderson, committee member and collaborator.

Aspects of identity such as race and ethnicity which have significant impacts on how people experience the physical world seldom impact interactions implemented in virtual reality (VR) narratives. Even when race and ethnicity are taken into account, their impacts are often minimal.

This research investigates: (1) how racial socialization (RS) mediates how users experience emotion, perceive characters, themes, and events in VR narratives, (2) how social phenomena related to RS can be computationally modeled to facilitate meaningful storytelling on an individual and cultural level, and (3) how culturally-situated gestural interaction can be used to drive forward VR narratives.

The Education Arcade at MIT

Taleblazer – location-based augmented reality game play and creation by eric klopfer, professor and director of the scheller teacher education program and the education arcade at mit, collaborative learning environments in vr (clevr) by eric klopfer, professor and director of the scheller teacher education program and the education arcade at mit.

The Collaborative Learning Environments in Virtual Reality (CLEVR) team aims to develop conceptual understanding and scientific habits of mind through educational games. The Education Arcade is developing Cellverse, a collaborative, cross-platform game where players explore virtual cells, diagnose diseases, and select therapies.

Cellverse creates learning experiences that integrate knowledge, skills, and identity. Players learn about biology by asking “how should cells work, what’s wrong with this cell, and which therapy would address this disease?” They develop spatial skills by navigating the VR cell, and collaboration skills through working with a partner. Working together across different technologies and sources of information, players formulate hypotheses, collect evidence, evaluate and refine, thereby developing identities as scientists.

• Representing cells and their components authentically in commonly misrepresented aspects, such as size, shape, number, orientation, position.
• Making learning about science more like doing science and less like memorizing discrete facts – investigative, situated, experimental, and innovative
• Get Involved

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program

Superurop 2020-2021 – advanced undergraduate research opportunities program, news & events.

• On AI, Computational Creativity, & the Art of Teaching

• Tackling the Misinformation Epidemic with “In Event of Moon Disaster”

• Exploring Hip Hop History with Art and Technology

Submissions

Virtuality studio & laboratory: how we can help you.

The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality supports producing work that innovates involving technologies of virtuality. Makers and researchers on campus may submit proposals to calls for projects. These works may be studio (expressive) projects or laboratory (research) projects.

Studio projects: primarily focus on innovating new genres, aesthetics, and conventions for using technologies of virtuality.

Lab projects: may focus on researching social impacts, learning, simulation, cognition involving new technologies, and may also involve inventing new technologies.

We also welcome projects that span both expressive and research aims.

Who can submit?

Anyone on campus may submit a project involving technologies of virtuality. If aligned with the Center’s aims, we shall feature the work on the site and support publicity and media outreach for the project.

The Production Process

Accepted proposals are produced in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Virtuality and paired with a production team at the Virtuality Studio or Lab. Typically, the Studio helps to cultivate the project’s expressive vision, professional production, and impact. Typically, the Lab helps to foster productive interdisciplinary research collaborations to further the research.

The Center also produces in-house projects within the Studio and Lab, supporting ongoing initiatives in innovation and research regarding technologies of virtuality. Some such projects are solicited by the Center that align with ongoing initiatives within the center.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2024 mit dorm tours and info, what percent of freshman live on campus.

According to our research, 100.0% of freshman live on campus at MIT?

What type of housing does MIT provide?

The below table outlines the different housing options available at MIT, and how what percent of students are estimated to live in each type of university housing.

What are the dorms like at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ?

You’ll have to watch the CampusReel videos to see for sure. However, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dorms are similar to most college housing options. Most on-campus residence halls include singles, double, and suites. Floor plans vary from residence hall to residence hall. CampusReel hosts dorm tours of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , and every one is different. As you’ll see, every dorm room is decorated in a unique and fun way - students are creative with their setups to make Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) feel like home!

• MIT Building 4 Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Ames St Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Kresge Auditorium Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Killian Court Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Stratton Student Center Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Department of Chemical Engineering Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Hayden Memorial Library Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Great Dome Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Maseeh Hall Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• MIT.nano Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Baker House Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Ray and Maria Stata Center Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Walker Memorial Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 320 Memorial Dr Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Cambridge Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Green Bldg Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Eastman Court Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• MIT Media Lab Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• MIT Recreation - Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 118 Amherst St Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 119 Amherst St Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Dr Paul Dudley White Bike Path Dorm at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

What are the dimensions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dorm rooms?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dorms dimension depend on the residence hall. This information is usually contained in one of the dorm room tours of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on CampusReel. Supposedly the average dorm room size in the U.S. is around 130 square feet, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) likely has dorms bigger and smaller than this.

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Hacking virtual reality

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One of the newest makerspaces on MIT’s campus exists in virtual reality — where students are pioneering a medium so new that the terminology is still being defined.

In the hands-on humanities class CMS.339 ( Virtual Reality and Immersive Media Production ) students are grappling with multiple dimensions of making virtual reality (VR), among them: technical challenges, such as how to prevent the fatigue common to users of VR devices; philosophical questions, such as the difference between “presence” and “immersion”; and issues related to the art of storytelling, especially discovering the visual languages and narrative forms that VR enables.

“It takes eight minutes to learn how to make the 360-video camera work. The rest — figuring out the experience you want to make — is your mind,” says instructor Sandra Rodriguez , who first taught the semester-long class in 2017 in collaboration with William Uricchio, professor of comparative media studies. Their class, which made history as the first VR class ever to be offered at MIT, ran again this term.

Inventing a new language

Offered by the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program (CMS/W), the new VR class appeals to students interested in the nexus of technology, design, and storytelling. Production in the class relies on tech elements — including the Unity development platform — and the course focuses on the creative works that the technology supports.

“A medium is a way of expression. With this new medium, we’re inventing new language,” says Rodriguez, who is also a visiting scholar in the Open Documentary Lab within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and creative director of the EyeSteelFilm Creative Reality Lab.  

Cattalyya Nuengsigkapian, a junior majoring in computer science, says she enjoys the class because it delves more into design than most of her classes. “This is not only technical. It’s more like art," she says. "That’s why I think I learn a lot.”

Entering the world of virtual reality

To enable students to gain a rich understanding both of the medium and its potential, Rodriguez begins with an introduction. “I want our students to understand the field and to be able to distinguish themselves.”

First, the terms. Today, “virtual reality” is generally held to mean a computer-generated experience that attempts to immerse the user in a simulated world. “Augmented reality” (AR) inserts computer-generated elements into the user’s view of the real world; you might, for example, be able to bounce a virtual ball while otherwise viewing the room in which you are actually standing. Another term, “360 video,” describes the experience of essentially being in the movie you are viewing — except that you are not an actor; while you can look at the scene from every angle, you can’t affect the scene.

A longstanding dream

Next, Rodriguez outlines the history of the field. Students learn that the earliest VR forays date back to the 1950s and ’60s. In 1962, for example, a “Sensorama” machine was created that gave users a way to see films enhanced with sounds, odors, and motion. “Human beings have long had this dream of being in the scene," says Rodriguez. "We like to have our senses fooled and to feel like we are there. That’s not new.”

Rodriguez notes that one could easily teach a whole class on the history of VR, and another on the pure technical requirements of a 360 video or VR experience production. But as a documentary-maker herself — she worked on “ Do Not Track ,” an interactive web series that won a Peabody Award in 2015 — she chooses to focus the bulk of the CMS.339 class on helping MIT's maker-oriented students produce their own virtual reality projects.

“For this medium to thrive, we need to ensure there is a healthy diversity in the stories that are created, produced, and distributed. To me, this means helping students become creators themselves,” Rodriguez says.

Students get to experiment with emergent VR gear including new Oculus Rift Touch Controllers, Samsung Gear 360 cameras and headsets, and Mixed Reality HP headsets. Rodriguez also introduces them to principles of design and storytelling. “You need to understand the technical tools," she says, "but this class is about creativity, overcoming challenges, and contributing to the culture of pioneers.”

To illustrate the process, the class features a rich array of guest speakers chosen from among the top contributors in the VR field. Highlights this year included talks by Arnaud Colinart, co-founder of AtlasV, which produced " Notes on Blindness ," a star attraction at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016; and Viktor Phoenix, head of audio for Los Angeles at Headspace Studio, which won a Primetime Emmy Award for the VR work “ The People's House : Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama.”

“In this class, we start on the creative side. People are gravitating toward the stories they want to tell,” says Emily Salvador ’16, a master’s student in media arts and sciences who serves as the teaching assistant for the class. “I’m trying to help them bring their stories to a technically implemented reality,” says Salvador, who previously designed immersive experiences as an intern for Walt Disney Imagineering and NBCUniversal Media.

Hands-on humanities

As the spring 2018 class began to focus on production, the 21 students split into seven teams to develop their own VR and AR projects, ranging from an interactive game in which users work to unlock their chakras to a 360 video centered on life after incarceration.

Nuengsigkapian’s group, for example, is creating a virtual reality tour of MIT. “We think it would be great if we could share our world here on campus, make it even more real than on the MIT website,” she says.

Libby Falck, a first-year graduate student in CMS/W, is part of a team that is producing a VR experience about the future of work. A native of Wisconsin, Falck says she has seen how the loss of industry impacts workers, and she is interested in exploring both the history of work and a vision for the future through VR. “We would like to exhibit our final VR work in libraries,” she says.

The art of the possible

The students’ goals are ambitious for a one-term class, but Rodriguez says exploring what’s possible is part of the creative process. “Feel free to fail. That’s the best way to learn,” she tells students. “It's about iteration. You have an idea. You try it. You iterate.”

The success of MIT’s first virtual reality class suggests a promising future for MIT VR endeavors. One student sent his 360 video to the Vatican and now has a full-time job shooting 360 videos of Pope Francis. Another is working on VR projects for the New York Police Department.

Not every student in the class will make a career of virtual reality, of course, but for Rodriguez it is rewarding that the class is opening up the VR world to more makers. Because VR equipment is expensive, access to the field has often been limited. “My preoccupation," says Rodriguez "is about facilitating access to creation.” Equipment for CMS.339 was provided by Oculus through a partnership with Oculus NextGen, a program that selected 12 leading universities across the United States to jumpstart the next generation of VR and AR makers.

Story prepared by MIT SHASS Communications Editorial and Design Director: Emily Hiestand Senior Writer: Kathryn O’Neill

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Related links.

• Hacking Reality student blog
• Sandra Rodriguez
• William Uricchio
• Comparative Media Studies / Writing

Related Topics

• Comparative Media Studies/Writing
• Technology and society
• Augmented and virtual reality
• School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences

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