Description

Silicon wafer, 6-inch diameter disc with a flat bottom edge that has the MIT seal engraved on its surface. The image was formed by etching the names of 320,000 MIT community members into the design. The object was delivered in custom plastic case.

For the 2019 dedication of MIT.nano, a specialized facility for nanoscale research, laboratory director Vladimir Bulovic conceived of an imaginative relic to mark the occasion: the lab would etch the names of the more than 270,000 students, faculty and alumni who had been associated with MIT from its founding until Spring 2018 on a 6-inch diameter silicon wafer. The project was developed, designed and fabricated by Annie Wang and W. Craig Carter with the assistance of several volunteers. The story of the project reveals many interesting challenges from machine learning and CAD design to the fact that the one-of-a-kind design severely taxed the fabrication capacity of the new laboratory. A new copy (one.MIT 2020 version) was fabricated for the MIT Museum's inaugural exhibition, "Essential MIT.”