Callie Crossley @ WGBH radio offers a history of the MIT pranks known as hacks. We haven’t been down to Mass Ave, but could the dome be a baseball today, in honor of the Red Sox opening day? WIth today’s nature hack — snow in April – someone could just climb up there at add the stiching.
The history of hacks and pranks at MIT dates back almost as far as the venerable institution itself. Students with expertise in engineering, computer science, robotics, and math — and presumably with a little extra time and brainpower to spare — have taken pranksterism to the level of high art. Their hijinks have included a firetruck, police cruiser, and biplane replica, alternately hoisted atop MIT’s Great Dome; a fully appointed room — including a billiards table, a cat, chairs, and an illuminated lamp — hung upside down from the Media Lab; numerous interruptions staged during the annual Harvard – Yale football game; and a cross-country hacking war with rival institution, Caltech. MIT Professor Emeritus Jay Keyser, has seen a lot of it in his time, and he’ll talk about the school’s secret hacking society, the best hacks, and why bright students at a world-class institution can still find time to put one over on faculty.