Pranksters embracing their school’s reputation for braininess customized a street sign.Īnother street sign from the same era warned motorists they were entering MIT’s territory. The piano launch is now an annual event at MIT. The piano launch from the roof of Baker House. Recently, MIT interrupted another Harvard-Yale game by tossing out stuffed beavers from a balloon above.Ī plastic cow from Hilltop Steakhouse was hoisted up to the top of the dome. MIT made its mark on the Harvard-Yale football game by burying a weather balloon and then inflating it during the match. The pranksters turned the dome into Star Wars character R2D2.Ī speed limit sign geared toward an advanced audience. The Wright Brothers’ plane replica included a dummy figure. MIT pranksters transformed a statue of John Harvard - the namesake of Cambridge’s other well-known university - into a video game character from “Halo 3.”Ī fire truck appeared on the top of the Great Dome, one of the signature buildings on the campus.Īs you’ll see in the coming slides, putting things on top of the dome is a recurring theme for MIT pranks.Ī Civil War-era cannon was moved from rival CalTech to the area outside MIT’s Green Building.Ī replica of the first airplane appeared on the Great Dome to celebrate the 100th anniversary of controlled powered flight. The solar-powered installation rode around the entire circumference. MIT students placed a replica of an MBTA’s Red Line car on the Great Dome. The upside-down room even featured a cat.Īn anonymous group of students scaled the Great Dome of the campus and installed the first seven notes of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The prank highlighted the resemblance of the dome’s horizontal lines to a blank piece of sheet music.Ī half scale replica of the Apollo Lunar Module was placed on the Great Dome to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The students furnished the room with a pool table, framed painting, and leather seats. In 2009, MIT students built an upside-down room at the Wiesner building on Ames Street in Cambridge, according to the Cambridge Chronicle. In 2010, Cantabrigians noticed a strange sight atop an MIT building: A police call box reminiscent of the time machine used by science fiction hero Doctor Who. Hackers placed a Dalek, a cyborg from the British series “Doctor Who” on top of the school’s Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory. In April 2012, an odd addition appeared on the Stata Center roof in MIT. The project was the result of almost five years of planning, according to MIT’s school newspaper. In 2012, MIT hackers turned the Green Building, the tallest building in Cambridge, into a giant, playable, full color game of Tetris. (Lights along the L-shaped scaffolding, representing the dots from the game, are seen better at night.) This may be the most recent stunt by MIT’s student body, but it’s far from the first. Unknown persons converted the scaffolding construction workers are using to install a new skylight in MIT’s Great Dome into a Pac-Man reference. How Cambridge ranks against other towns.Shared workspaces in Cambridge & Somerville.Recent changes, history of Kendall Square.The day after the “Breaking Bad’’ finale, students turned the school’s Alchemist into an homage to Heisenberg, the alter-ego of show’s main character. Outside, Killian Court was draped with banners signiying three different armies in the sci-fi story: Grffin, Dragon, and Tiger. Latest: According to Rachel D., an MIT Admissions blogger, Lobby 7 was converted into the anti-gravity Battle Room from the novel ‘Enders Game’ on the same weekend the movie adaptation was released. Take a look at the University’s long history of clever public disruptions. MIT’s legacy as one of the world’s most prestigious technical universities has a curious byproduct - a history of clever pranks, or “hacks.”
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