MIT in Service (Trailer)

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OCHSENDORF: This semester I'm co-teaching a class that we call D-Lab School, and we're focusing on the design of better schools at lower cost. If we can reduce the cost of a standard government school, then they can build more schools and lift more families out of poverty through education.

We're focusing on Cambodia, where a brutal regime in the 1970s basically wiped out an educated class in Cambodia, educational materials. So, there's a tremendous need for better schools and for learning materials.

NEWMAN: The current students that I have the pleasure to teach have some of the hardest challenges in front of them in terms of energy, in terms of climate change, in terms of exploration. The great news is that they have passion. They will rise to the occasion, they have all of the skills.

ANDERSON: I think we all came to MIT because we knew that it was a place where we can make a big difference, and we all want to make an impact in our field. Solving some of those really tough challenges are the things that get us up in the morning.

OCHSENDORF: This class is about technology and implementation of technology, but fundamentally, it is about public service. It's about how do you bring your MIT education to bear on vital problems facing the world, and how do you make the world better one MIT class at a time?

This is not a new idea. It goes back to William Barton Rogers and the founding of MIT. That mission of MIT, the notion of public service, is part of our work as professors, as students, runs through the institute today and is a big part of what makes MIT what it is.