Nathan B. Ball G is this year's winner of the Lemelson-MIT $30,000 Student Prize. A powered rope ascender (lower-left) is among the inventions which led to Ball's receipt of the award.

Media Arts and Sciences Professor Marvin L. Minsky presents his thoughts on future directions of artificial intelligence research to a standing-room-only crowd in the Media Lab's Bartos Theater yesterday evening. After the lecture, Minsky chatted with members of the audience and signed copies of his latest book, "The Emotion Machine."

Rachel M. Niehuus '07 crosses the finish line after running the anchor leg of the women's 4x400m relay, which finished first with a time of 4:17.41. The MIT men's and women's track and field teams trained and competed in Florida over spring break.

Rachel C. Grey ’98 (right) and Alan F. deLespinasse ’94 tinker with a xylophone after this past Sunday’s performance by the Time Table Percussion ensemble. After the concert, which featured pieces by students Cynthia (Tilly) N. Whitney ’07, Thomas J. Carr ’09, and Nina C. Young ’07, audience members were invited onto the Kresge stage to learn about the instruments used during the performance.

An audience member at yesterday evening’s xkcd webcomic lecture holds on to one of hundreds of labelled playpen balls which fell from ceiling hatches in 10-250. The label, which says ‘Our hobby: Posting “09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0” in public places,’ alludes to a number of past strips. Randall Munroe, xkcd’s author, gave a lecture on the webcomic to a packed house in 10-250. See page 11 for additional photos.

xkcd author Randall Munroe signs a playpen ball with a man in a hat, a character featured in many of Munroe’s strips.

xkcd author Randall Munroe considers audience suggestions for an on-the-fly comic regarding funny things that might fall from a kite. Randall Munroe gave a lecture on his webcomic, xkcd, to a packed house in 10-250 last night.

Contractor Wolf Hutchinson trims part of a temporary staircase to fit on Wednesday morning, June 6. The staircase will provide access from the Stata Center's third floor outdoor plaza to ground level while the Stata Amphitheatre is closed for renovation. Amphitheatre construction, which will begin this Monday, June 11, is scheduled to finish in early September.

Neal Smith, a contractor from Carr-Dee Corporation, examines some sediment flushed from a monitoring well during drilling near the Stata Center. John Brancaccio, another Carr-Dee contractor, said that the 37-foot-deep well will be used to take water and soil samples in preparation for the construction of a building next to Stata.

Eric M. Edlund G sprints to the finish line at the conclusion of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic road race last Saturday, June 30. Edlund placed 24th in the men's category 3 road race, and finished the Classic, a multi-stage race, in 17th place out of the 99 finishing riders in the general time classification.