EECS 2022 Visit Days event will be virtual (again)

After watching the news, attending the regular 8 AM MIT Covid-response Zoom meetings, viewing the ‘surge’ data on a daily basis, consulting with institute leaders and with the EECS faculty, the department of EECS has made the difficult decision to hold the EECS 2022 Visit Days event for doctoral graduate students virtually. In collaboration with the leaders of our peer schools (including Stanford EE, Stanford CS and Berkeley EECS), all agreed to hold 2022 visit day events as a virtual experience, similar to the visit day’s events in 2021. This decision was made out of an abundance of concern for the safety of our traveling visitors, recognizing the potential disruption that the omicron variant may cause to their lives.

Department administrators are currently planning the activities of the 2022 EECS Visit Days virtual event, which begins on Thursday, March 3^rd and will end late on Saturday, March 5^th. Those activities will include meet-and-greets with EECS faculty and research staff, current graduate students and administrative staff. Virtual visitors will have a chance to learn about research activities in EE, AI+D, and CS; and to hear from our departmental leaders, deans of the School of Engineering and the Schwarzman College of Computing, and directors of our research laboratories. An important goal of graduate visit days is to orient the newly-admitted class of doctoral students not only to the landscape of EECS today, but also where EECS is headed and how the new admitted students will be a part of the future of EECS.

The EECS Graduate Officer will provide details of the PhD program and highlight the many ways the department supports our graduate student body. Additionally, leaders of our various grad student organizations will share the many community-building activities that new graduate students can look forward to. Current graduate students will talk about their PhD experience, give the pros and cons of living on- and off-campus, and share tips for fun in New England and metropolitan Boston. Current students will share the ups and downs of grad school in EECS at MIT, and will talk about the value of diversity and inclusion across a wide variety of backgrounds and identities.  Finally, newly-admitted graduate students will hear from EECS alumni who will expound on their experience as PhD students, opportunities they took advantage of, and what they are doing now in their careers.

While we are staying safe this year, we will all look forward to 2023 for the return of in-person traditions. In the meanwhile, we look forward to greeting newly-admitted students virtually for EECS 2022 Visit Days.