During this course, we would like to make sure everyone is treated properly, feels welcome, and follows the code of conduct.
Welcome to the 2020 MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute!!
This summer you will be part of a class of over 180 talented young people from across the United States. We hope that you are ready for a transformational learning experience over the next four weeks! Our program is quite rigorous and will provide you with a good understanding of what it means to be an engineer and scientist, as well as introduce you to career opportunities and current research in the engineering and science professions.
In addition to the technical work you will be performing as part of your classes, you will also attend daily guest lectures and seminars, and have assignments to work on at night. Your teacher assistants (TA’s) and instructor’s will be available to assist you in the classroom.
Please listen carefully during the First Day Orientation. Do not be shy about raising your hand and asking questions. Please read over all program materials provided, paying particular attention to your class schedule and syllabus. You will be responsible for being where you need to be, on-time, and ready to participate. Listen to your instructor’s and program staff. Be respectful of them and your fellow students. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and have different levels of experience, so please practice tolerance and patience with your fellow students.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The 2020 MIT BWSI Staff
Each participant in the MIT BWSI Program has a responsibility to add positively to the high standards of the academic, social, and scholarly environment. Participants in the program shall strive to ensure that all actions are consistent with their fundamental responsibility to contribute freely to the intellectual core of the program. Students who violate the rules and/or code of conduct are subject to punishment up to and including immediate dismissal from the program. Your acceptance into the program shows our confidence that you will conduct yourself with the highest regard for moral, legal, ethical, and academic standards. This program is one of excellence. In continuing that MIT tradition, we require the following.
The listing below provides only summaries of the rules for Online conduct for BWSI students; staff; parents and/or visitors.
All BWSI students; staff and/or visitors are expected to follow these rules. Violations of the rules can subject the offender to Institute disciplinary proceedings, dismissal from the program, and, in some cases, civil or criminal prosecution.
Note: Laws that apply in “the real world” also apply in the “virtual” computer world (including MITnet). Laws about libel, harassment, privacy, copyright, stealing, threats, etc. are not suspended for computer users, but apply to all members of society whatever medium they happen to be using: face-to-face, phone, or computer. Furthermore, law-enforcement officials are more computer-savvy than ever, and violations of the law in “Cyberspace” are vigorously prosecuted.
Similarly, Institute policies (as described in MIT’s Policies and Procedures, for example) also apply to online postings.
Along with the many opportunities that BWSI provides the community to share information comes the responsibility to use the system in accordance with MIT standards of honesty and personal conduct. Those standards, outlined in Section 13.2 of MIT’s Policies and Procedures, call for all members of the community to act in a responsible, professional way.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 USC 2510 et seq., as amended) and other federal laws protect the privacy of users of wire and electronic communications.
As Section 11.1 of MIT’s Policies and Procedures notes, “Invasions of privacy can take many forms, often inadvertent or well-intended.” All staff, students and/or visitors should make sure that their actions don’t violate the privacy of other users, if even unintentionally.
Some specific areas to watch for include the following:
Don’t make any personal information about individuals publicly available without their permission. This includes both text and number data about the person (biographical information, phone numbers, etc.), as well as representations of the person (graphical images, video segments, sound bites, etc.) For instance, it is not appropriate to include a picture of someone on a World Wide Web page without that person’s permission. (Depending on the source of the information or image, there may also be copyright issues involved; cf. Rule 4).
Don’t create any shared programs that secretly collect information about their users. (This means, for example, that you may not collect information about individual users without their consent.)
MIT faculty, students, and staff produce and consume a vast amount of intellectual property, much of it in digital form, as part of our education and research missions. This includes materials covered by the patent, copyright, and trademark laws, as well as license or other contractual terms.
Members of the MIT community also avail themselves of a wide variety of entertainment content that is available on the Internet, most of which is protected by copyright or subject to other legal restrictions on use.
All users need to insure that their use of all these protected digital materials respects the rights of the owners.
Digital materials that may be covered by this rule, without limitation, are:
You should assume that all materials are subject to these legal protections, and may have some restrictions on use. Ease of access, downloading, sharing, etc., should not be interpreted as a license for use and re-distribution.
“Harassment,” according to MIT’s Policies and Procedures (Section 9.5), is defined as:
“…any conduct, verbal or physical, on or off campus, which has the intent or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual or group’s educational or work performance at MIT or that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive educational, work or living environment… Harassment on the basis of race, color, gender, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or age includes harassment of an individual in terms of a stereotyped group characteristic, or because of that person’s identification with a particular group.”
The Institute’s harassment policy extends to the networked world. For example, sending email or other electronic messages which unreasonably interfere with anyone’s education or work at MIT may constitute harassment and is in violation of the rules of BWSI.
Any member of the MIT community who feels harassed is encouraged to seek assistance and resolution of the complaint. Contact BWSI staff for help with the situation.
Some members of the BWSI community access similar, or additional, 3rd party services on the Internet.
Users of all such services have a responsibility to use these services properly and to respect the rights of others in their use of these services, and in accordance with published terms of service.
Users may not use these services in violation of any applicable law.
All relevant MIT policies apply to the use of these services, but in particular:
Any content posted to a service that is inconsistent with these rules, as well as unsolicited mail from outside of MIT (e.g., spam), may be subject to automated interception, quarantine and disposal.
This policy was last updated in April 2020.