Join a member of our Visitor Experience Team for this 45-minute introductory tour of the MIT Museum. Learn about the collection, our history, and get your questions answered by our gallery experts.

Every Wednesday at 11am

MIT is not a place so much as it is a unique collection of exceptional people. Its experimental culture and collaborative spirit drive innovations that encompass global issues and improve our daily lives.

Join Exhibit Developer Lindsay Bartholomew for a tour of Essential MIT and learn how the MIT community works. Asking questions others may not ask, and trying the unexpected in pursuit of a greater solution, is essential.

The MIT Museum has over 1.5 million objects in its collection and each one tells a story (or many stories) that reveal MIT through its material culture. Join Curator of Science and Technology Debbie Douglas and Distinguished Engineer and MIT Museum Volunteer Guy Fedorkow in MIT Collects where they will tell the fascinating story of building an emulator for Whirlwind, MIT's first digital computer. You don't have to be a computer nerd to be fascinated by how a diverse team of women and men (including the first black computer operator) figured out how to get this gigantic machine (2,500 sf!) to solve problems in "real time."

Having an idea is one thing: capturing it, testing it, and explaining to people far away is something else. For centuries, models have allowed people to think in 3D and share complex ideas across distance. Join Libby Meier, Assistant Curator for the Hart Nautical Collections, to explore how innovation and communication are built into the museum's models.

The irony of artificial intelligence is that it inspires new perspectives on human intelligence. The more we advance AI technology and consider machine ability versus human ability, the more we need to "mind the gap."

Join Exhibit Developer Lindsay Bartholomew for a tour of AI: Mind the Gap and learn about the tremendous promise, unforeseen impacts, and everyday misconceptions of AI – from robot teammates in the workplace to deepfakes in the media.

The best way to know MIT is through its models. Models (the things) and modeling (the process) have been vital to the work (and play) of MIT from its founding.

Join Assistant Curator of Science and Technology Florencia Pierri for a tour of Modeling Everything to learn about some of the models on display, and see how models reveal inspiration, creativity, and a passion for discovery that are at the heart of MIT.

Experience Stephen Benton's "rainbow" holograms in Optiker, an intimate exhibition that examines the intersection of light and vision. The tour will be led by MIT Museum Studio Director Seth Riskin.

Join Assistant Curator Jonathan Duval for a tour of Drawing After Modernism and learn how the architects in the exhibition played with color, ornament, and history in ways that modernism would never have allowed.

This program is presented as part of Cambridge Science Festival. The MIT Museum is free during the Cambridge Science Festival.