Glossary of IT terms

Click on letter to jump to the list of terms starting with that letter. Click on a term to jump to the full definition. Excerpts on this page usually show the beginning of each definition.

• 0..9 and symbols
  • 5ESS — 5th-release Electronic Switching System
  • 127.0.0.1 — Also known as localhost, this is a special network address (IP address) of the loopback network interface on the local host. It always directs traffic to the local machine. Also sometimes referred to as the computer's Home address.
• A
  • A.E. — Aeronautical Engineer (degree)
  • A&MT — Arts and Media Technology
  • AA — Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of
  • AA (Affirmative Action) — Positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded.
  • AA (Association of Alumni and Alumnae of MIT ) — An Alumni Association that provides services and resources that strengthen alumnis' ties to MIT and each other.
  • AA (Athletic Association) — Department of athletics at MIT. Its goal is to bring together students, faculty, and staff in educational activities that promote healthy lifestyles, enhance a sense of community, foster growth in leadership and teamwork skills, and encourage the pursuit of excellence.
  • AAAS (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) — An independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems.
  • AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) — An international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson, and professional association.
  • AAC II — Administrative Advisory Council
  • AACR — American Association for Cancer Research
  • AACSB — Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
  • AACU — Association of American Colleges and Universities
  • AAM — American Association of Museums
  • AAMIT — Arab Alumni of MIT
  • AAP — Affirmative Action Plan
  • AAS — American Astronomical Society
  • AAU — Association of American Universities
  • AAUI — Apple's Auxilary Unit Interface
  • ABD — Artists Beyond the Desk (formerly Artists Behind the Desk)
  • ABET — Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
  • ABS — Applied Biological Sciences (no longer a department)
  • AC — Academic Council
  • ACAT — Administrative Computing Advocacy Team (part of Administrative Computing)
  • ACCESS MIT — An information product of the Industrial Liaison Program.
  • Access Point (AP) — A hardware device or a computer's software that acts as a communication hub for users of a wireless device to connect to a wired LAN. APs are important for providing heightened wireless security and for extending the physical range of service to which a wireless user has access.
  • ACCORD — Academic Computing Coordinating Group
  • ACDL — Aerospace Computational Design Lab
  • ACE — American Council on Education
  • ACH — Automated Clearing House
  • ACM — Association for Computing Machinery
  • ACME — Academy of Courageous Minority Engineers
  • ACS (American Cancer Society) — The American Cancer Society is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem.
  • ACS (American Chemical Society) — The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization and is the world's largest scientific society. It publishes numerous scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry.
  • ACSA — Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
  • ACSP — Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
  • ACSR — Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility
  • ACST — Academic Computing Support Team
  • ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act
  • ADONIS — The name of the gifts database
  • ADP — Administrative Development Program (old)
  • ADP (Airline Data Project) — The Airline Data Project was established by the MIT Global Airline Industry Program to better understand the opportunities, risks and challenges facing the airline industry. The ADP presents the most important airline industry data in one location in an easy-to-understand, user-friendly format.
  • ADP (Alpha Delta Phi ) — One of the many fraternities of MIT.
  • ADSCMD — Associate Dean for Student Conflict Management and Discipline
  • AEPhi — Alpha Epsilon Phi
  • AEPi — Alpha Epsilon Pi
  • Aero Astro — MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • AFMIT — Adoptive Families at MIT
  • AFROTC — Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps
  • AGREA — Analysis Group for Regional Electricity Alternatives (in MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment)
  • AGS — Alliance for Global Sustainability
  • AGU — American Geophysical Union
  • AIA — American Institute of Architects
  • AIAA — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • AID — Association for India's Development-MIT
  • AI Lab — Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  • AIM — Not an acronym. It's a group of senior administrators in central administrative departments who meet informally for mutual edification, group problem solving, and to serve as a link between their peer group and the Administrative Advisory Council II.
  • AIP — American Institute of Physics
  • AISES — American Indian Science and Engineering Society
  • AITI — African Internet Technology Initiative
  • AJAS — American Junior Academy of Science
  • AKA — Alpha Kappa Alpha
  • ALC — Alumni Leadership Conference
  • AMITA — Association of MIT Alumnae
  • AMPS — Academic Media Production Services
  • AMSL — Active Materials and Structures Laboratory
  • AMT — Anonymous Medical Transport
  • ANMI — Amsterdam New Media Institute
  • ANS — Alumni Network Services
  • AO — Administrative Officer
  • AO Query — An email list of administrators, maintained by the Administrative Advisory Council II (AAC II)
  • AP — Accounts Payable
  • APDA — American Parliamentary Debate Association
  • APhi — Alpha Phi
  • APL — Affiliates Program in Logistics
  • APMT — Aviation Portfolio Management Tool (in PARTNER)
  • APO — Alpha Phi Omega
  • APR — Association of Puerto Rican Students
  • APT — Automatically Programmed Tools
  • ARA — MIT food services vendor, ARAMARK
  • ARC — Academic, Research, and Careers (committee) of the Graduate Student Council
  • ARCADE — Assisting Recurring Cultural and Diversity Events
  • ARCTAN — American Red Cross Team and Network
  • ARMIT — AIDS Response at MIT (student group)
  • AS — Aerospace Studies (subject designation)
  • ASA (Acoustical Society of America) — The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics, dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications.
  • ASA (African Students Association) — An organization that promotes African culture on the MIT campus by hosting events and providing a setting for all those interested in African culture to meet and engage in discussion.
  • ASA (Association of Student Activities) — The Association of Student Activities is a joint committee of both the Undergraduate Association (UA) and the Graduate Student Council (GSC). Its main responsibility is to oversee student group activity and is the governing body of student groups on the MIT campus.
  • ASAP — After School Astronomy Project
  • ASC — Architecture Student Council
  • ASCB — American Society For Cell Biology
  • ASCI — American Society for Clinical Investigation
  • ASCII — American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) in computer science is a standard way of encoding what is commonly referred to as "plain text".
  • ASEAN — Association of South-East Asian Nations
  • ASL — American Sign Language
  • ASME — American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • ASPCC — Administrative Systems and Policies Coordinating Council
  • ASPEN — Automated Speech Exchange Network
  • ASRL — Aeroelastic and Structures Research Laboratory
  • ASTRA — Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America
  • Athena — MIT's academic computing system.
  • ATIC — Adaptive Technology for Information and Computing (Lab)
  • ATL — Automated Tape Libraries
  • ATO — Alpha Tau Omega
  • ATP — Advanced Technology Program
  • Authentication — The process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it is declared to be.
  • AUTM — Association of University Technology Managers
  • AUV — Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
  • AV — Audio-Visual (Services)
  • AV Lab — Acoustics and Vibrations Laboratory
  • AVU — African Virtual University
  • AWIS — Association for Women in Science
  • AWM — Association for Women in Mathematics
  • AWS — Association of Women Students
  • AXO — Alpha Chi Omega
• B
  • B.E. — Building Engineer (degree)
  • BAGI — Bay Area Glass Institute
  • BAMIT — Black Alumni of MIT
  • Barton — MIT Libraries Online Catalogue
  • Base Station — A hardware device or a computer's software that acts as a communication hub for users of a wireless device to connect to a wired LAN. APs are important for providing heightened wireless security and for extending the physical range of service to which a wireless user has access.
  • BASICS — Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (program)
  • BC — Burton-Conner House
  • BCS — Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Course 9)
  • BE — Biological Engineering, Department of
  • BEAM — Building Energy Audit and Modification (Program)
  • Beaver — The MIT mascot, chosen because it is nature's engineer.
  • BEP — Biomedical Enterprise Program
  • Beta — Beta Theta Pi
  • BFSG — Budget and Finance Steering Group
  • BGALA — Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alumni of MIT
  • BGSA — Black Graduate Student Association
  • BI — Broad Institute
  • BICSO — Boston Intercollegiate Service Organization
  • BIG — Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics
  • BIOMATRIX — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • BLC — Boston Library Consortium
  • BLT — Business Liaison Team
  • BMES — Biomedical Engineering Society
  • BOMA — Building Owners and Managers Association
  • BosMUN — Boston Invitational Model United Nations
  • BPEC — Biotechnology Process Engineering Center
  • BSAD — Bachelor of Science in Art and Design
  • BSU — Black Students Union
  • BT — Building Technology (program in the Department of Architecture)
  • BTP — Beta Theta Pi
  • BUG — Biology Undergraduate Journal
  • Business Area — Data Warehouse Explorer term which groups information in the Warehouse according to data type. e.g. Financial, General, Student, Human Resources.
• C
  • C4FCM — Center for Future Civic Media
  • C.E. — Civil Engineer (degree)
  • C.H.E. — Chemical Engineer (degree)
  • C.S.E. — Computer Science Engineer (degree)
  • CA — Certificate Authority
  • CAA — Computer-Aided Automation
  • CAAB — Campus Alcohol Advisory Board
  • CAAFI — Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative
  • CAC (Campus Activities Complex) — The Campus Activities Complex provides a range of facilities and services designed to support the educational mission of the institute and the out-of-classroom needs of the community. CAC services include facilities management, event planning and support, retail and contracted services.
  • CAC (Committee on Animal Care) — MIT's Committee on Animal Care was established to ensure that all MIT, WIBR, and Broad Institute researchers working with animals or making funds available to support other researchers' work with animals comply with federal, state, local, and institutional regulations on animal care. To that end, the CAC inspects animals, animal facilities and laboratories, and reviews all research and teaching exercises which involve vertebrate animals or other tissues before activities are performed.
  • CADLAB — Computer-Aided Design Lab
  • CAES — Center for Advanced Educational Services (formerly Center for Advanced Engineering Study)
  • CAMIT — Chinese Alumni of MIT
  • CAMS — Collaboration Accounts Management System of CAMS is a part of MIT's Touchstone single sign-on infrastructure. It is used to register and manage identities for users outside the MIT community who may need to access MIT services.
  • CANES — Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems
  • CAN-SPAM — Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act
  • CAO — Controller's Accounting Office
  • CAP — Committee on Academic Performanc
  • CAS — Cost Accounting Standards
  • CASE — Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (based in Washington, DC)
  • CASPAR — Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcoholism Rehabilitation
  • CAVS — Center for Advanced Visual Studies
  • CBA — Center for Bits and Atoms
  • CBE — Center for Biomedical Engineering
  • CBI — Center for Biomedical Innovation
  • CBIP — Center for Biological Information Processing
  • CC at MIT — Catalyst Collaborative at MIT, a collaboration between MIT and the Underground Railway Theater
  • CCCOB — College Career Centers of Boston
  • CCI — Center for Collective Intelligence
  • CCIS — Center for Intelligent Control Systems
  • CCNEs — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • CCOP — Corporation Committee on the Presidency
  • CCP — Communication, Coordination, and Planning (Group)
  • CCR — Former acronym for the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (KI) based on the name Center for Cancer Research
  • CCR (Committee on Corporate Relations) — The mission of the Office of Corporate Relations (OCR) is to create and strengthen mutually beneficial relationships between MIT and corporations and other organizations, measured in part by maximizing the flow of corporate investments to support the basic mission of MIT.
  • CCREMS — Center for Computational Research in Economics and Management Science
  • CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) — The Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program at MIT conducts research into technologies to capture, utilize, and store CO2 from large stationary sources.
  • CCS (Center for Coordination Science) — Founded in 1991, the MIT Center for Coordination Science studied how coordination occurs in a variety of different systems, including human organizations, markets, and computer networks. The Center's work emphasized how new information technologies are making it possible to organize businesses—and other organizations—in new ways. In order to place even more emphasis on these new possibilities, the Center was reorganized and renamed in July 2006 to be the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.
  • CCSC — Community Charter School of Cambridge
  • CDB — Campus Dining Board
  • CDC — Corporation Development Committee
  • CDD — City Design and Development (program in the Department of Architecture)
  • CDIO — Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate (interactive learning model in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
  • CDO — Computation for Design and Optimization Program
  • CDP — Cell Decision Processes (MIT has a "Center of Excellence in CDP, with funding from NIH.)
  • CDSA — Community Development and Substance Abuse, Office of
  • CECI — Center for Educational Computing Initiatives
  • CEE — (Department of) Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • CEE (Center for Excellence in Education) — The Center for Excellence in Education nurtures careers of excellence and leadership in science and technology for academically talented high school and college students. It currently sponsors two programs for high school students: the Research Science Institute (RSI) and the USA Biology Olympiad (USABO).
  • CEESA — Civil & Environmental Engineering Student's Association
  • CEEW — Cyprus Institute Program for Energy, Environment and Water Resources (program in LFEE)
  • CEHS — Center for Environmental Health Sciences
  • CEI — Center for Environmental Initiatives (See LFEE.)
  • CENSAM — Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling
  • Centrex — Central Exchange (main telephone system until October 1988)
  • CEP — Committee on Educational Policy. No longer in existence. It was split into the Faculty Policy Committee (FPC) and the Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP).
  • CERN — European Organization for Nuclear Research
  • Certificate — An electronic credential that allows access to secure web applications.
  • CESF — Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals (in the Engineering Systems Division)
  • CET — Council on Educational Technology
  • CETI — China Education and Technology Initiative
  • CEUE — Commission on Engineering Undergraduate Education
  • CFA — Committee on Faculty Administration
  • CFA (Harvard) — (Harvard-Smithsonian) Center for Astrophysics
  • CFP — Communications Futures Program
  • CFP (old) — Community Fellows Program. Now called Center for Reflective Community Practice.
  • CFW — Council on Family and Work
  • CG — Competency Group (former name of HR team in IS and IS&T)
  • CGSP — Committee on Graduate School Programs (formerly Policy)
  • ChemE — (Department of) Chemical Engineering
  • Chocolate City — Name used for the top three floors of New House 1
  • CHP — Chemical Hygiene Plan
  • CHP (Combined Heat and Power) — Also known as Cogeneration, CHP is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat.
  • CIC — Computationally Intensive Computing (team) in Information Services and Technology
  • CIDMS — Center for Information-Driven Mechanical Systems
  • CI-H — Communication Intensive subject in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (undergraduate requirement)
  • CII — Communications Innovation Institute
  • CIL — Committee on Industrial Liaison
  • CI-M — Communication Intensive subject in the Major (undergraduate requirement)
  • CIMIT — Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology
  • CIPD — Center for Innovation in Product Development
  • CIS — Center for International Studies
  • CISR — Center for Information Systems Research
  • CIST — Center for Infrastructure Science and Technology
  • CITP — Clinical Investigator Training Program
  • CJAC — Corporation Joint Advisory Committee on Institute-wide Affairs
  • CLC — Cambridge Licensing Commission
  • CLI — Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation
  • CLM — Center for Learning and Memory
  • CLSS — Computerized Literature Search Service (Libraries)
  • CME — Cambridge-MIT Exchange (Program)
  • CME-MSRI — Chicago Mercantile Exchange-Mathematical Sciences Research Initiative
  • CMI — Cambridge-MIT Institute
  • C-MORE — Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education
  • CMP — Cooperative Mobility Program
  • CMRAE — Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology
  • CMS — Comparative Media Studies
  • CMSE — Center for Materials Science and Engineering
  • COBE — Cosmic Background Explorer (NASA's)
  • COBRA — Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
  • COC — Committee on Curricula
  • COCA — Committee on Central America
  • COD — Committee on Discipline
  • Coeus — MIT's electronic proposal and award system.
  • COFHE — Consortium on Financing Higher Education
  • COG — Communications Operating Group
  • COGR — Council on Governmental Relations
  • Cog Shop — The Humanoid Robotics Project
  • COHH — Center for Oceans and Human Health
  • COIL — Community Innovators Lab (formerly Center for Reflective Community Practice)
  • COLAB — Cost of Living Advisory Board (formed by the Graduate Student Council)
  • Collaboration Account — A way to use Touchstone for people that do not have an MIT Kerberos principal, nor an account with other members of the InCommon Federation
  • COM — Computer Output Microfilm
  • Concourse — An experimental freshman program
  • Confluence — a wiki web application created by Atlassian software.
  • Container — A term used in the context of Microsoft Windows Domains and Group Policy. Containers hold groups of items to which policies and settings can be applied remotely.
  • COOP — Harvard Cooperative Society (including the MIT branch known as Tech Coop)
  • COPA — Committee on Outside Professional Activities
  • COSO — Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (of the Treadway Commission). COSO is a voluntary private-sector organization whose purpose is improving the quality of financial reporting.
  • COSYSMO — Constructive Systems Engineering Cost Model
  • COUHES — Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects
  • CP — Campus Police
  • CP (Chi Phi) — One of the fraternities of MIT
  • CPA — Center for Policy Alternatives
  • CPRL — Ceramics Processing Research Laboratory
  • CPSE — Council on Primary and Secondary Education
  • CPSR — Contractor Purchasing System Review (conducted by the federal government)
  • CPW — Campus Preview Weekend
  • CQI — Continuous Quality Improvement
  • CRC — Clinical Research Center
  • CRCP — Center for Reflective Community Practice (previous name of Community Innovators Lab)
  • CRD — Committee on Race and Diversity
  • CRE — Center for Real Estate
  • CRI — Council on Resources for the Institute
  • CRN — Computer Resource Network
  • CRO — Computer Resources Office (in the Department of Architecture)
  • CRSP — Committee for the Review of Space Planning
  • CRTMA — Charles River Transportation Management Association
  • CSA — Committee on Student Affairs
  • CSAB — Computer Science Accreditation Board
  • CSAIL — Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  • CSBi — Computational and Systems Biology, a Ph.D. program at MIT
  • CSC — Chinese Students Club
  • CSDL — Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
  • CSF — Community Service Fund
  • CSHE — Center for Studies in Higher Education
  • CSI — Center for Sports Innovation (Now named Sports Innovation @ MIT)
  • CSO — Conference Services Office
  • CSPI — Community Solar Power Initiative
  • CSR — Center for Space Research. Now called MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research (MKI)
  • CSSA — Chinese Students and Scholars Association
  • CSTF — Computer Space Task Force
  • CSWG — Computing Support Working Group
  • CTL — Center for Transportation and Logistics
  • CTP — Center for Theoretical Physics
  • CTPID — Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development
  • CTS — Center for Transportation Studies (old name of the Center for Transportation and Logistics)
  • CTSS — Compatible Time-Sharing System
  • CU — (MIT Employees Federal) Credit Union
  • CUAFA — Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid
  • CUP — Central Utilities Plant
  • CUP (Committee on the Undergraduate Program) — The Committee on the Undergraduate Program exercises oversight for the undergraduate academic program including the freshman year, the General Institute Requirements, and other interdepartmental educational activities.
  • CUTC — Council of University Transportation Centers
  • CVA — Committee on the Visual Arts (old)
  • CWFPL — Center for Work, Family and Personal Life (now called the MIT Work-Life Center)
  • CWIS — Campus Wide Information Systems (now Web Communication Services)
  • CWSP — College Work-Study Program
  • Cyborg — Personnel Database in Human Resources replaced by SAP 9/2003
• D
  • D.P.H. — Doctor of Public Health (degree)
  • DACCA — Distribution by ACCount, (a monthly consolidated salary expense report)
  • DAPER — Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation
  • DARPA — (Federal) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Data Item — Data Warehouse term: Component of a table catalog, also called a field.
  • DCAA — Defense Contract Audit Agency
  • DCAD — Departmental Consulting and Application Development
  • DCEE — Discover Civil and Environmental Engineering (a pre-Orientation program)
  • DCM — Division of Comparative Medicine
  • DCMA — Defense Contract Management Agency
  • DCSP — Direct Salary Charging Plan (used in the School of Engineering)
  • DCTI — Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
  • DDC — Dewey Decimal Catalogue (Libraries)
  • DDEC — Development, Design, Engineering and Construction (in the Department of Facilities)
  • Debathena — The latest version of the Athena operating environment, based on Ubuntu Linux. Also known as Debathena and Athena 10.
  • Delete (email) — When you delete email it is not immediately erased from the mail server or your local computer. Instead, it is marked for removal. Email marked for removal that has not been purged can be recovered. Deleted email stored on the mail server continues to count towards your until you purge it.
  • Description — Data Warehouse Explorer term: a lengthier explanation of the table or the field in a table. The table and field description contains information about the data in the table and field respectively.
  • DGI — Diabetes Genetics Initiative (partnership between Broad Institute, Harvard, Novartis, and Lund University)
  • DH — Department Head
  • DHCP — An Internet protocol for automating the configuration of computers that use TCP/IP.
  • DIC — Division of Industrial Cooperation (former name of the Industrial Liaison Program)
  • DID — Direct Inward Dial (DID) number. A DID is a telephone number that can be dialed from outside of MIT, is routed to MIT's telephone network by other carriers on whose network the number may be dialed, and is then connected to an MIT telephone by MIT's voice network. MIT pays for a pool of direct inward dial numbers from outside telecommunications providers.
  • DINDI — Distribution by Individual (support staff payroll account sheets)
  • DIRT — Data Incident Response Team
  • DIT — Dublin Institute of Technology
  • DITR — Distributed Information Technology Resources (DITR), MIT IS&T's desk-side support resources
  • DITR+ — A VIP help service for senior members of the MIT administration and their staff
  • DITR Plus — A VIP help service for senior members of the MIT administration and their staff
  • DKE — Delta Kappa Epsilon
  • D-Lab — Development Lab (Introduction to Development course in DUSP)
  • DLC — Departments, Labs, and Centers (DLCs) is used as a catch-all term to indicate an organizational unit at MIT
  • DLCs — Departments, Laboratories and Centers - used to refer to all academic and research areas; may be used to include central units.
  • DMA — DuPont MIT Alliance
  • DMCs — Distributed Mail Centers
  • DME — Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • DMSE — Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  • DNS — An Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses.
  • DOD — (Federal) Department of Defense
  • DOE (Department of Education ) — The Federal Department of Education's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
  • DOE (Department of Energy ) — Department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material.
  • DOL — (Federal) Department of Labor
  • DOME — Distributed Object-based Modeling Environment (for designing on the web)
  • DormCon — Dormitory Council
  • DormLine — Dormitory telephone exchange
  • Double E — Electrical Engineering
  • Draper — Charles Stark Draper Lab, Inc.
  • DS — Departmental Services (Information Services & Technology)
  • DSA — Dean for Student Affairs (old name)
  • DSL — Dean for Student Life
  • DSO — Disabilities Services Office
  • DSP — Division of Sponsored Programs (former name of the Office of Sponsored Programs)
  • DSpace — An open-source institutional digital repository developed by the MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard Co. to capture, store, distribute and preserve the intellectual output of MIT's faculty and research staff
  • DSPG — Digital Signal Processing Group (Prof. Alan Oppenheim's research group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics)
  • DSP Lab — Digital Signal Processing Laboratory
  • DSR — Division of Sponsored Research (former name for the Office of Sponsored Research)
  • DSRE — Division for Study and Research in Education (old)
  • DTE — Dance Theater Ensemble
  • DTSO — Digital Technologies and Streaming Operations
  • DU — Delta Upsilon
  • DUE — The MIT Dean for Undergraduate Education and associated offices and business units
  • DUNS — Data Universal Numbering System (MIT's DUNS number, 00-142-5594, must be included on applications for federal grants and cooperative agreements.)
  • DUSP — Department of Urban Studies and Planning
  • DynaMIT — A real-time traffic management system used in the Intelligent Transportation Systems lab at MIT
• E
  • E.A.A. — Engineer in Aeronautics and Astronautics (degree)
  • E.B. — Employee Benefits
  • E.E. — Electrical Engineer (degree)
  • E.G.D. — Doctor of Engineering (degree)
  • EACUBO — Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers
  • EAG — Enterprise Architecture Guide
  • EAPs — Electroactive Polymers
  • EAPS (Department) — (Department of) Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • EAR — Export Administration Regulations
  • EC — Educational Council and/or Educational Counselor
  • EC3 — Enhancing Client Communication Competencies
  • EC (Dormitory) — East Campus dormitory of MIT
  • ECAT — Electronic Catalog (for ordering supplies from MIT partner vendors)
  • E-Center — MIT Entrepreneurship Center
  • E-Club — MIT Entrepreneurs Club
  • ECRIM — European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics
  • ECSEC — a level of access granted to MIT ID. ECSEC is a general doors clearance that most cards are given by the card office, and general purpose card readers on MIT doors checking for valid IDs will accept.
  • ECSEL — Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership
  • e-DACCA — electronic Distribution by Account, (a monthly consolidated salary expense report)
  • EECS — (Department of) Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • EEF — Energy and Environmental Finance Club
  • EEO — Equal Employment Opportunity (or Officer)
  • EEWRC — Energy, Environment and Water Research Center at the Cyprus Institute (partnership with MIT)
  • EG&G — Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier
  • EHS — Environmental Health and Safety (Office)
  • EHSS — Environmental Health and Safety Seminar
  • EIP — Engineering Internship Program
  • EIT — Engineer in Training exam (also known as the Fundamentals of Engineering exam)
  • E-Lab — Energy Laboratory (old). New name is Laboratory for Energy and the Environment.
  • Email Quota — Each IMAP email account has a 2 GB disk quota on the post office server. You should check your post office quota regularly and archive old mail to keep yourself below quota.
  • emergency.mit.edu — the host name of MIT's emergency web site. This site is replicated at emergency.mit.net
  • emergency.mit.net — the host name of MIT's emergency web site. This site is replicated at emergency.mit.edu
  • eMIT — MIT entrepreneurship portal (student run)
  • EMO — Environmental Management Office
  • EMS — Environmental Medical Service
  • EMS (Experimental Music Studio) — Founded by Professor Barry Vercoe in 1973
  • Env.E. — Environmental Engineer (degree)
  • EOC — Equal Opportunity Committee
  • EPCs — Emergency Preparedness Coordinators
  • EPG — Environmental Policy Group (also known as the Environmental Policy and Planning Group)
  • EPO — Environmental Programs Office
  • EPS — Electronic Proposal System
  • EPSCO — Former name of Buildings N51 and N52
  • EPSEL — Electric Power Systems Engineering Laboratory
  • EPTF — Environmental Programs Task Force
  • Equivalent Full-Time — Equivalent Full-Time
  • ERC — Energy Research Council
  • ERISA — Employee Retirement Income Security Act
  • ERL — Earth Resources Laboratory
  • ES&C — Engineering Systems and Computation
  • ESCRO — Embryonic stem cell research (committees)
  • ESD — Engineering Systems Division
  • ESG — Experimental Study Group
  • ESI — Earth System Initiative
  • ESL — English as a Second Language
  • ESL (Laboratory) — Electronic Systems Laboratory
  • ESLC — Engineering Systems Learning Center
  • ESP — Educational Studies Program
  • ESS — Employee Self-Service
  • ESSP — Earth System Science Pathfinder (a NASA program)
  • ET — Epsilon Theta
  • Ethernet — Ethernet is a standard for connecting computers into a local area network (LAN).
  • Ethernet Adapter Card (Network Interface Card, pcmcia Card) — A network interface card, sometimes built in to a computer, or inserted into a PCMCIA slot.
  • Ethernet Drop — A wall or floor outlet, often associated with a telephone jack, into which you can plug a network cable and thus physically connect a computer to the network. At MIT, this requires registering for DHCP.
  • ETS — Educational Testing Service
  • EURAB — European Research Advisory Board
  • EVP — Executive Vice President
  • EVR — Educational Video Resources
  • Exchange — Exchange is an integrated email and calendering service offered by IS&T.
• F
  • F&A — Facilities and Administrative (Rate) — formerly the "indirect cost rate"
  • FAC — Freshman Advisory Council
  • FACT — Families Accessing Computer Technology
  • FAFSA — Free Application for Federal Student Aid
  • FAP — Forum on American Progress
  • FASIP — Freshman/Alumni Summer Internship Program
  • FAT — Friday After Thanksgiving, an educational program sponsored by and at the MIT Museum
  • FBML — Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory
  • FCLS — Faculty Committee on the Library System
  • FDP — Federal Demonstration Partnership
  • FDRL — Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratory (Old; see ACDL.
  • Federation — An association of organizations that use a common set of attributes, practices and policies to exchange information about their users and resources in order to enable collaborations and transactions.
  • FEE — Freshman Essay Evaluation
  • Fenway — Fenway House
  • FERC — Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
  • FERPA — Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
  • FFRDC — Federally Funded Research and Development Center
  • Fiji — Phi Gamma Delta fraternity (no longer exists at MIT)
  • FinBoard — (Undergraduate Association) Finance Board
  • FIPG — Fraternity Insurance Purchasing Group
  • FIRE — Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
  • FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a non-profit organization established by inventor Dean Kamen
  • Fishbowl — A workstation cluster of Project Athena
  • FIXIT — Telephone number of Department of Facilities' Work Control Center
  • FJE — Festival Jazz Ensemble
  • FL&L — Foreign Languages and Literature
  • FLOWLAB — Laboratory for Ship and Platform Flows
  • FLP — Freshman Leadership Program
  • FNL — Faculty Newsletter
  • FO — Fiscal Officer
  • FPC — Faculty Policy Committee
  • FPOP — Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs
  • FRAD — Foundation Relations and Academic Development, Office of (also known as Office of Foundation Relations)
  • FRAP — Flexible Reimbursement Account Plan
  • FRC — Financial Review and Control
  • FRC (old) — Family Resource Center. Now called the MIT Work-Life Center.
  • FSEP — Faculty Student Exchange Program
  • FSILG — Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups
  • FSS — Financial Systems Services
  • FTE — Full-Time Equivalent
  • FTL — Flight Transportation Laboratory
  • FTO — Financial Technology Option, a certificate program for Ph.D. students in engineering and science
  • FUP — Freshman Urban Program
  • FX — (The MIT Student) Furniture Exchange, run by the Women's League
  • FYE — (Enhancing the) First-Year Experience at MIT
  • GAPSFAS — Graduate and Professional Schools Financial Aid Service (form)
• G
  • G (following a name or subject number) — When preceded by a name and comma, indicates the person is a graduate student. When appearing after a subject number, denotes a subject offered primarily to graduate students.
  • G&S — Gilbert and Sullivan (Players), theater group at MIT, also known as MITGASP
  • GA — General Assembly
  • GA (old) — Graphic Arts (old)
  • GABLES — Gay, Bisexual and Lesbian Employees and Supporters
  • GAMIT — Gays at MIT
  • GASB — Governmental Accounting Standards Board
  • GAST — Graduate Aid Simplification Team
  • Gateway — A node on a network that serves as an entrance to another network.
  • GBEP — Greater Boston Executive Program
  • GCRC — General Clinic Research Center
  • GECD — Global Education & Career Development
  • GEM — Graduate Education for Minorities
  • GEM4 — Global Enterprise for Micro-Mechanics and Molecular Medicine
  • GEMS — Graduate Education in Medical Sciences (program)
  • GGT — Gamelan Galak Tika
  • GIR — General Institute Requirement (in the undergraduate program)
  • GIS — Geographic Information Systems
  • Global Address List (GAL) — The global address list (GAL) is a directory that contains entries for every group, user, and contact within MIT's implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server. For Exchange users, the GAL is displayed in the Outlook, Entourage or OWA Address Book on your computer.
  • GMAT — Graduate Management Admissions Test
  • GMT — Giant Magellan Telescope, a project of the GMT consortium, of which MIT is a partner university
  • GOD — JS
  • GPA — Grade Point Average
  • GRAIL — The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory
  • GRE — Graduate Record Examination
  • GRIP — Graduate Research Initiation Program
  • GRT — Graduate Resident Tutor
  • GSC — Graduate Student Council
  • GSL — Guaranteed Student Loan
  • GSN — Graduate Student News, the newsletter produced by the Graduate Student Council
  • GSO — Graduate Student Office
  • GTD — Getting Things Done (GTD)
  • GTL — Gas Turbine Laboratory
  • Guest Operating System — A guest operating system is an operating system installed on a host machine (a physical machine) and run virtually using VMware or other virtualization software.
• H
  • HAL — Humans and Automation Lab
  • HALP — Housing Assistance Loan Program (for MIT faculty)
  • HapMap — A comprehensive genomic catalog (from "haplotypes")
  • HASS — Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (requirement)
  • HASS-D — Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Distribution (requirement)
  • HASTS — History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society
  • HCED — Housing, Community and Economic Development
  • HCF — Hispanic College Fund
  • HCHP — Harvard Community Health Plan
  • HERC — (New England) Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
  • Hermes — Hermes was the project name of The Knowledge Base (this site).
  • Hesiod — A name service that keeps track of information (e.g., post office servers, printers, and machines) in a distributed network environment such as MITnet. Hesiod keeps track of each registered MIT email user's post office server where his/her email account resides.
  • HETE — High-Energy Transient Explorer (satellite)
  • HHMI — Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • HHS — (Federal Department of) Health and Human Services
  • HIE — Highlands and Islands Enterprise network
  • HIPAA — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
  • HISP — Hosts-To-International-Students Program
  • HKU — Hong Kong University
  • HMS — Harvard Medical School
  • HMTL — (Warren M. Rohsenow) Heat and Mass Transfer Laboratory
  • HOC — Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) Overview Committee
  • Home address — usually refers to localhost or 127.0.0.1, which are special addresses that always refer to the computer they are being referenced on.
  • Home page — can have several different meanings depending on context. It most commonly refers to the top-most page of a web site for a person or organization.
  • Host Operating System — A term often used in relation to virtualization. It refers to the operating system run on the physical machine.
  • HR — Human Resources
  • HRO — Human Resource Officer
  • HRPD — Human Resource Practices Development team
  • HSN — Human Services Network
  • HST — (Harvard-MIT Division of) Health Sciences and Technology
  • HTC — History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture, Art and Urban Form
  • HTF — Hypermedia Teaching Facility
  • HUGE Fund — Helping Undergraduates Gain Excellence Fund
  • Hum-D — Humanities Distribution (subject)
  • HVRL — High Voltage Research Laboratory
• I
  • IAA — International Academy of Astronautics
  • IAC — International Advisory Committee
  • IAC (Institute Awards Convocation) — Annual awards convocation that honors students, faculty, and staff for their remarkable contributions to the Institute.
  • IACME — Industrial Advisory Council of Minority Education
  • IAIA — International Association for Impact Assessment
  • IAMAS — International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
  • IAP — Independent Activities Period
  • IAU — International Astronomical Union
  • iCampus — MIT-Microsoft Alliance
  • ICAN — Institute Career Assistance Network
  • ICANN — Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
  • ICAT — International Center for Air Transportation
  • ICE — Information and Control Engineering Laboratory
  • ICRMOT — International Center for Research on the Management of Technology
  • IDDS — International Development Design Summit
  • IDEA — Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  • IDEAS — Innovation, Development, Enterprise, Action, and Service (student program for public service projects)
  • IDF (old) — International Development Forum. Now known as the International Development Network (IDN)
  • IDG — International Development Group (with Urban Studies and Planning)
  • IDI — International Development Initiative
  • IdP (Identity Provider) — A system that creates, maintains, and manages identity information.
  • IDRP — International Development and Regional Planning. Former name of the International Development Group.
  • IEEE — Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • IESL — Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory
  • IETF — Internet Engineering Task Force
  • IFC — Interfraternity Council
  • IFNP — International Food and Nutrition Program
  • iGEM — Intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine
  • IGERT — Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
  • iHouse — International House for Global Leadership
  • IHTFP — I Hate This F*****g Place. Also: I Have Truly Found Paradise, I Help Tutor Freshman Physics, Institute Has the Finest Professors, It's Hard to Fondle Penguins, and more.
  • IIE — Institute of Industrial Engineers
  • IIT — Italian Institute of Technology
  • iLabNotebook — An electronic laboratory notebook
  • ILC — Institute Library Catalogue (Libraries)
  • ILG — Independent Living Group
  • ILO — Industrial Liaison Office (now called the Industrial Liaison Program)
  • ILP — Industrial Liaison Program
  • IM — Intramural (sports)
  • IMAP — IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a client-server approach to email in which email is kept on the server. When you work with email, your email program (the client) connects to the post office server to access your email. Since your email stays on the server, you can easily access it from multiple workstations and programs just like you can access your voice mail messages from any phone.
  • iMOAT — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • IMVP — International Motor Vehicles Programs
  • Incident — Any one of the following:
  • Incoming Mail Server (Post Office Server) — The server on which messages sent to your email address reside.
  • InCommon — A common framework for trustworthy shared management of access to on-line resources.
  • INCOSE — International Council on Systems Engineering
  • Infinite Corridor — A quarter-mile hallway through the heart of the Institute (ground floor of buildings 7, 3, 10, 4 and 8)
  • INFORMS — Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
  • INL — Idaho National Laboratory
  • InSar — Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • INSITE — Institutional Space and Inventory Techniques
  • Interfaces (Cables and Connectors) — The cable that comes out of the wall jack is a UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) Ethernet cable.
  • IOM — Institute of Medicine
  • IP (generic term) — Intellectual Property (generic term)
  • IP (Internet Protocol) — The Internet protocol defines how information gets passed between systems across the Internet.
  • IP address — An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numeric address that identifies a computer or network device on the internet, usually written in decimal notation, separated by periods. All resources on the Internet must have an IP address.
  • IPAP — Institute Personal Assistance Program
  • IPC — Information Processing Center
  • IPC (Industrial Performance Center) — An MIT-wide research unit, based in the School of Engineering.
  • IPhO — International Physics Olympiad
  • IPO — Intellectual Property Office
  • IPOP — Interim Planning Overlay Permit
  • IPS — Information Processing Services (old)
  • iQuarium — A colorful, interactive aquarium display screen. A project of iCampus.
  • IRB — Institutional Review Board
  • IREX — International Research and Exchanges Board
  • Iris Project — Infrastructure for Resilient Internet Systems (a project among MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, the International Computer Science Institute, New York University, and Rice University)
  • IRMs — Instructor Resource Modules (in Aero-Astro CDIO)
  • IS — Information Systems - MIT administrative IT dept up through 2003. Reorganized in 2004 as Information Services and Technology (IS&T)
  • IS&T — Information Services and Technology
  • ISCM — Integrated Supply Chain Management (Program)
  • ISG — Iranian Studies Group (at MIT)
  • ISN — Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
  • ISP — Integrated Studies Program
  • ISTAB — IS&T Student Technology Advisory Board
  • ISU — International Space University
  • IT — Information Technology - generic term
  • ITAG — Infrastructure Technology Architecture Group
  • ITAR — International Traffic in Arms Regulations
  • ITCC — Information Technology Coordinating Council
  • ITER — International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
  • ITIL — The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of industry-standard best practices and procedures for IT service management.
  • ITRI — Industrial Technology Research Institute
  • ITS — Internet Transaction Server
  • ITS (Laboratory) — Intelligent Transportation Systems, a lab at MIT
  • IT-SPARCC — Information Technology Strategic Planning and Resources Coordinating Council
  • ITSS — Information Technology Security Support (within Information Services and Technology)
  • IVCF — InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
  • IWPC — Information Work Productivity Council
• J
  • J (following subject number) — indicates subject offered jointly by two or more departments
  • Jacks — Computers are connected to the network via 5ESS jacks, the same kind used to connect the ISDN (digital) phones. If you look at a jack, you will see that it has two ports (places to plug in a wire). You need an open port on a 5ESS jack to have a connection to MITnet.
  • JAMA — Journal of the American Medical Association
  • JCAHO — Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
  • JCF — Joint Computer Facility
  • JCUS — (Harvard-MIT) Joint Center for Urban Studies
  • J-PAL — Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (Economics)
  • JudComm — Judicial Committee, a generic term signifying a group of students charged with enforcing student laws. Usually attached to a living group.
  • JV — Journal Voucher
  • JYA — Junior Year Abroad
• K
  • Kerberos — An authentication system used to prove your identity to servers and systems.
• L
  • L2L — Leader to Leader Program
  • LA — Lab Assistant
  • LAI — Lean Advancement Initiative (formerly Lean Aerospace Initiative, and Lean Aircraft Initiative)
  • Lambda Chi — Lambda Chi Alpha, a fraternity of MIT
  • LAMP — Library Access to Music Project
  • LARA — Labor Aerospace Research Agenda
  • LARC — Lunar Array for Radio Cosmology
  • LBGT — Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgendered (also commonly referred to as LGBT)
  • LBRC — Laser Biomedical Research Center
  • LCA — Lambda Chi Alpha
  • LCC — Latino Cultural Center
  • LCEE — Laboratory Consortium for Environmental Excellence
  • LCS — Laboratory for Computer Science
  • LDAP — Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, an Internet protocol that programs use to look up information from a server.
  • LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
  • LEES — Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems
  • LEXCOM — Laboratory for Experimental and Computational Micromechanics
  • LFEE — Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
  • LGC — Living Group Council
  • LGO (Program) — Leaders for Global Operations (formerly Leaders for Manufacturing; name changed in 2009)
  • LIDS — Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
  • LIFT2 — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • LIGO — Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (joint project with MIT, CalTech and 20 other institutions)
  • Limits — Data Warehouse term: Criteria used to narrow the scope of a query.
  • LINAC — (Bates) Linear Accelerator
  • LINC — Learning International Networks Consortium
  • LINCC — Lincoln Laboratory Children's Center
  • LINEAR — Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (Project)
  • LIS — Lowell Institute School (no longer at MIT)
  • LL — Lincoln Laboratory
  • LLARC — Language Learning and Resource Center. Currently known as the Foreign Languages and Literatures Resource Center (FLL)
  • LMF — La Maison Française (also known as French House)
  • LMIT — Lemelson-MIT Program
  • LMP — Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity
  • LNS — Laboratory for Nuclear Science
  • localhost — "localhost" is the standard host name given to a computer's loopback network interface.
  • LOFAR — Low Frequency Array, a radio telescope being built in the Netherlands and part of Germany
  • LOGyCA — Columbia-based logistics company
  • loopback — The term "loopback" or "loop-back" refers to a special route that sends traffic from your computer back to itself, usually without this traffic actually being sent out over the network.
  • LSAT — Law School Admissions Test
  • LSC — Lecture Series Committee
  • LUChA — La Union Chicana por Aztlan
  • LVAC — List Visual Arts Center
• M
  • M.A.A. — Master in Architecture Advanced Studies (degree)
  • M.A.E. — Materials Engineer (degree)
  • M.Arch. — Master of Architecture (degree)
  • M.B.A. — Master of Business Administration (degree)
  • M.C.P. — Master in City Planning (degree)
  • M.E. — Mechanical Engineer (degree)
  • M.E.B.E. — Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering (degree)
  • M.M.E. — Marine Mechanical Engineer (degree)
  • M.P.H. — Master in Public Health (degree)
  • MAC — Multi-Level Access Computer or Machine-Aided Cognition
  • MAC (Media Access Control) Address — A unique identifier on a network interface card; on most wireless cards, this is the 12 character (hexadecimal) string printed on the card.
  • MacG — MacGregor House
  • MADMEC — MIT and Dow Materials Engineering Contest
  • MAES — Mexican American Engineers and Scientists, Society of
  • MAP — Midcareer Acceleration Program (taught on the MIT campus with internships at company sites)
  • MARC — MARC Records Management System
  • MAS — Media Arts and Sciences (and the degree program)
  • MASCO — Medical Area Service Corporation
  • MASCOT — MIT Astronomical Spectrometer Camera for Optical Telescopes
  • MAS Lab — Mobile Autonomous Systems Laboratory
  • MassDTI — Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative
  • MassPEP — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • Master Data — Data Warehouse term: Information describing characteristics of information such as cost collectors, customers, or vendors.
  • MBL — Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole)
  • MBTA — Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Also known as the "T".
  • MCAT — Medical College Admissions Test
  • MCC — MIT Computer Connection
  • MCIL — Marine Computation and Instrumentation Laboratory
  • MDS — Managed Desktop Services (Information Services & Technology)
  • MechE — (Department of) Mechanical Engineering
  • MEET — Middle East Education through Technology (program)
  • MEGA Women — Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association of Women
  • MEMP — Medical Engineering and Medical Physics
  • MEMS — Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Metadata — Data Warehouse term: Data (information) about data. Term which describes the data.
  • MGH — Massachusetts General Hospital
  • MGH-HMS CNSR — Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School Center for Nervous System Repair
  • MHEC — Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium
  • MI — Medical Informatics
  • MIBR — McGovern Institute for Brain Research
  • MIDAS — MIT's Information Distribution and Access System
  • MIG (1) — Microsystems Industrial Group
  • MIG (2) — Minority Interest Group
  • MIME — MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is an encoding method designed for exchanging binary files over the Internet (particularly via email messages) in a standardized, platform-independent form using a coding scheme called base64. A MIME-encoded message can contain several parts, each of which can be a different type of file: ASCII text, pictures, video, sound, or any other type of binary data.
  • MIND — Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery (Institute)
  • MINT — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • MISTI — MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives Program
  • MITAA — MIT Athletic Association
  • MITAC — MIT Activities Committee
  • MIT Alert — the Institute's emergency notification program, designed to provide information and advisories via a number of communication channels
  • MITBSU — MIT Black Student Union
  • MITCET — MIT Council on Educational Technology
  • MITCO — MIT Chamber Orchestra
  • MITCRC — MIT Community Running Club
  • MITCRE — MIT's Center for Real Estate
  • MITCTL — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • MITEI — MIT Energy Initiative
  • MIT E-News — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • MITERS — MIT Electronic Research Society
  • MITES — Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science
  • MITFCU — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • MITHAS — MIT Heritage of the Art of South Asia
  • MITILAC — MIT Information Laboratory Automatic Coding
  • MITIMCo — Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management Company
  • MIT IQ — MIT Information Quality program
  • MITnet — the short name for the MIT campus network.
  • MITOC — MIT Outing Club
  • MITP — MIT Press
  • MITPAY — Not an acronym, MITPAY is the electronic presentation of the student account bill
  • MITR — MIT Research Reactor
  • MITSFS — MIT Science Fiction Society
  • MITSI — MIT Students for Israel
  • MITSIM — Microscopic Traffic Simulator
  • MITSIS — MIT Student Information System (also known as WebSIS)
  • MITSO — MIT Symphony Orchestra
  • MIT TechTV — MIT Television
  • MITTwA — MIT Tiddlywinks Association
  • MITWE — MIT Wind Ensemble
  • MKI — MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
  • MLK Leadership Awards — Martin Luther King Leadership Awards (given at MIT)
  • MLN — Museum Loan Network
  • MLOG — Master of Engineering in Logistics (degree)
  • MMITT — Molecular Mechanics Interactive Teaching Tool (a student project funded by iCampus)
  • MMRRI — Mining and Minerals Resources Research Institute
  • MMSA — Material and Manufacturing Systems Analysis, a collaborative research laboratory between the General Motors Corp. and MIT.
  • moira — A large database and API containing user, machine, list, filesystem, and other essential information to manage the MITnet, MIT Email, and Athena infrastructures.
  • moira list — a mailing list, group list, or mail alias managed through MIT's moira central database.
  • MOSE — Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (or Experimental Electromechanical Module, an MIT-affiliated flood-control project in Venice)
  • MOT — Management of Technology Program
  • MPC — Materials Processing Center
  • MREM — Mineral Resources Engineering and Management (Program)
  • MRG — Microsystems Research Group
  • MRL — Microreproduction Laboratory (Libraries)
  • MRS — MIT Rocket Society
  • MRSEC — Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. (MIT's Center for Materials Science and Engineering, CMSE, has been part of the MRSEC program since 1994.)
  • MS — Military Science (subject)
  • MSA — Mexican Students Association (also known as ClubMex)
  • MSE — Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  • MSKCC — Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • MSL — Materials Systems Laboratory
  • MSMR — Massachusetts Society for Medical Research
  • MTA — Material transfer agreement
  • MTC — Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
  • MTDC — Modified Total Direct Cost, a Federal government term used in contracts.
  • MTG — Musical Theater Guild
  • MTL — Microsystems Technology Laboratories
  • Multics — Computer system used at MIT until 1988
  • MURJ — MIT Undergraduate Research Journal
  • MUSIC — MIT-U.S. Geological Survey's Science Impact Collaborative program
  • MVL — Man-Vehicle Laboratory
  • MVP&DT — MIT Video Productions and Digital Technologies
• N
  • N.A. — Naval Architect (degree)
  • N.E. — Naval Engineer (degree)
  • NAAB — National Architecture Accreditation Board
  • NACAC — National Association for College Admission Counseling
  • NACME — National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
  • NACUBO — National Association of College and University Business Officers
  • NAE — National Academy of Engineering
  • NAGPS — National Association of Graduate and Professional Students
  • NAMSE — National Association of Minority Students and Education
  • NAS — National Academy of Science
  • NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • NASPA — National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Foundation
  • NBER — National Bureau of Economic Research
  • NCAA — National Collegiate Athletic Association
  • NCI — National Cancer Institute
  • NCIIA — National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance
  • NCREIF — National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries
  • NCRR — National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • NCURA — National Council of University Research Administrators
  • NEA — National Endowment for the Arts
  • NEASC — New England Association of Schools and Colleges
  • NEBHE — New England Board of Higher Education
  • NE-COSEE — New England Center of Ocean Science Education Excellence
  • NECST — Nano-Engineered Composite aerospace Structures Consortium
  • NED — Nuclear Engineering Department (now known as the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering)
  • NEH — National Endowment for the Humanities
  • NERCOMP — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • NERI — Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (in U.S. Dept. of Energy)
  • NEROC — Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation
  • NEST — New England Science Teachers (later renamed to the current Network of Educators in Science and Technology)
  • NETL — National Energy Technology Laboratory
  • NGOs — Non-governmental organizations
  • NHGRI — National Human Genome Research Institute
  • NHLBI — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
  • NIAID — National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • NIBR — Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research
  • NIC (Network Interface Card) — An adapter card that physically connects a computer to a network cable, e.g., an Ethernet card.
  • NIEHS — National Institute of Environmental Health Science
  • NIGMS — National Institute of General Medical Sciences
  • NIH — National Institutes of Health
  • NIHGPS — National Institutes of Health Grants Policy Statement
  • NIMWF — National Initiative on Minority Women Faculty
  • NIST — Network Infrastructure and Services Team (within Information Services and Technology)
  • NIST (gov) — National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • NMC — New Media Center
  • NML — (Francis Bitter) National Magnet Laboratory
  • NNI — National Nanotechnology Initiative
  • NNSA — National Nuclear Security Administration
  • No. 6 — Number Six Club (Delta Psi)
  • NOAA — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Nom Comm — Committee on Nominations
  • NOSB — National Ocean Sciences Bowl
  • NPMA — National Property Management Association
  • NRA — NASA Research Announcement
  • NRC — National Research Council
  • NRC (Federal) — (Federal) Nuclear Regulatory Commission
  • NREL — National Renewal Energy Laboratory (Colorado)
  • NRFI — Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence Imaging
  • NRL — Nuclear Reactor Laboratory
  • NROTC — Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps
  • NRP — Neurosciences Research Program
  • NRSA — Non-Resident Student Association
  • NS — Naval Science (subject)
  • NSABB — National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity
  • NSB — National Science Board
  • NSBE — National Society of Black Engineers
  • NSBRI — National Space Biomedical Research Institute
  • NSE — Nuclear Science and Engineering, Department of
  • NSF — National Science Foundation
  • NSL — Nonlinear Systems Laboratory
  • NSPIRES — NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System
  • NSTC — National Science and Technology Council
  • NTU — Nanyang Technological University (part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance)
  • NUS — National University of Singapore (part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance)
• O
  • OBFP — Office of Budget and Financial Planning
  • OCE — Ocean Engineer (degree)
  • OCR — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) — The mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten, or printed text into machine-encoded text.
  • OCW — OpenCourseWare
  • ODSA — Office of the Dean for Student Affairs (old)
  • ODSL — Office of the Dean for Student Life (formerly part of the Office of the MIT Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs)
  • ODUE — Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education
  • OE — Ocean Engineering
  • OED — Organization and Employee Development (office within the Human Resources Department)
  • OEIT — The Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
  • OFCCP — Office for Federal Contract Compliance Programs
  • OFDS — Office of Faculty Diversity Searches
  • OFMS — Office of Facilities Management Systems
  • OH — Overhead (rate)
  • OIS — Operations and Infrastructure Services, a directorate within IS&T
  • OKI — Open Knowledge Initiative
  • OLPC — One Laptop per Child
  • OLS — Office of Lab Supplies (old)
  • OME — Office of Minority Education
  • ONR — Office of Naval Research
  • OO — Ombuds Office, in the Office of the President
  • OPAC — Online Public Access Catalog (Libraries)
  • OpenID — A shared identity service.
  • ORC — Occupational Resource Center
  • OSP — Office of Sponsored Programs
  • OSTP — (White House) Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • Outgoing Mail Server — The server that routes email messages to incoming servers on the Internet. Outgoing mail servers are also referred to as SMTP servers. The outgoing mail server at MIT is named outgoing.mit.edu and secure connections are recommended.
  • Outliner — A BrioQuery tool used to construct and modify reports, Pivot reports and Charts.
  • OWA — Outlook Web Access or Outlook Web App is the web email client for the Exchange integrated email and calendering service.
  • owa.mit.edu — The server name for our Outlook Web Access (OWA) instance. See also OWA.
  • OWL — Web Ontology Language
• P
  • P3 Award — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's student design competition for sustainability focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet
  • P.I. — Principal Investigator
  • P&P — MIT Policies and Procedures
  • PANTHER — Pathogenic Notification for Threatening Environmental Releases
  • PARTNER — Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction
  • PBE — Phi Beta Epsilon
  • PBK — Phi Beta Kappa
  • PC&T — Performance Consulting & Training (team)
  • PCAST — President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
  • PCLM — Picower Center for Learning and Memory (formerly CLM)
  • PCMCIA — Short for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
  • PDSI — A major building and renovation project of the Physics Department completed Fall 2007 - bldg 6C
  • PDT — Phi Delta Theta
  • PECASE — Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
  • PEER — Program for Environmental Education and Research
  • PEP — Professional Education Programs
  • PESO — Philippine Emerging Startups Open
  • PGD — Phi Gamma Delta
  • Ph.D. — Doctor of Philosophy (degree), also known as a doctorate
  • Phishing — an illegitimate solicitation via email for personal information, disguised as coming from a legitimate source. They often ask for usernames and password. THESE MESSAGES SHOULD BE IGNORED AND NEVER RESPONDED TO.
  • PIB — Program in International Business (now called the Center for International Studies)
  • PII — Personally Identifiable Information or Personally Identifying Information e.g. Social Security Number
  • PiKA — Pi Kappa Alpha
  • PILOT — Payment in Lieu of Taxes (MIT makes such payments to the City of Cambridge.)
  • PIRN — Personal Information Requiring Notification if lost or stolen, e.g. Social Security Number
  • PIVoT — Physics Interactive Video Tutor
  • Pivot Report — Data Warehouse term: A report that you can construct in BrioQuery to display data from the Results section of the query.
  • PKS — Phi Kappa Sigma
  • PKT — Phi Kappa Theta
  • PLOS — Public Library of Science (Biology Journal)
  • PLP — Pi Lambda Phi
  • PMD — People Making a Difference (projects)
  • PMG — Programming Methodology Group
  • PNAS — Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • PO — Purchase Order
  • PO (old) — Planning Office (old)
  • PoET — Program on Emerging Technologies
  • POP (Post Office Protocol) — POP (Post Office Protocol) was the recommended method for accessing your mail before IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). POP is a basic store and forward mail handling system. When you connect to the mail server, your mail is downloaded to your machine (or home directory on Athena) and deleted from the server. It does not support reading mail from multiple locations or have the modern message handling features of IMAP.
  • POPI — Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry
  • Postdoc — Postdoctoral fellow
  • POWER — Program for Overcoming Worries: Energize and Relax, a health promotion program for students
  • PowerFAIDS — Power Financial Aid Information Data System, a computer system used to administer financial aid at MIT
  • PP — Physical Plant (now known as the Department of Facilities)
  • PPST — Program in Polymer Science and Technology
  • Primary Provider — Data Warehouse term: This is the MIT organization or computer system which supplies the data to the Warehouse.
  • Problem — the unknown cause of one or more incidents.
  • PROCEED — Program for Continuing Engineering Education
  • Process — Data Warehouse term: A BrioQuery command.
  • PROFIT — Productivity From Information Technology (initiative based at the Sloan School of Management)
  • PRS — Public Relations Services
  • PSB — Publishing Services Bureau
  • PSC — Public Service Center
  • PSD — Production System Design (Laboratory)
  • PSFC — Plasma Science and Fusion Center
  • PSGs — Problem-Solving Groups, sponsored by the Administrative Advisory Council II
  • PSK — Phi Sigma Kappa
  • PSSC — Physical Sciences Study Committee (old)
  • PTS — Pi Tau Sigma (honorary mechanical engineering fraternity)
  • Purge (email) — Purging email is when the messages you have marked for removal by the delete command are erased from the server or your local computer drive. Once email is purged it cannot be recovered. Be sure you have archived or do not need any messages marked for deletion before you issue the purge command.
• Q
  • QCC — Quarter Century Club, composed of Faculty, Administrative, Research, Support, and Service Staff with twenty-five years of employment with the Institute.
  • QEM Project — (Carnegie) Quality Education for Minorities Project
  • Query — Data Warehouse term: A set of criteria that is used to retrieve data from the Data Warehouse.
  • Queue administrators — Users with administrative rights on one or more Request Tracker queues on help.mit.edu.
  • Queue staff — Refers to those individuals with Staff rights in one or more Request Tracker (RT) queues on help.mit.edu.
• R
  • R&R — Rewards and Recognition (program)
  • RA (Research Administrator) — An individual who demonstrates the knowledge necessary to serve as an administrator of professional and sponsored research programs.
  • RA (Research Assistant) — A researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute for the purpose of assisting in academic research.
  • RAC — Rooming Assignment Chair
  • RAC (Religious Activities Center) — The Religious Activities Center (Building W11) houses the MIT Chaplains, student religious organizations, and other religious functions. The Religious Activities Center has three small multipurpose rooms available on a limited basis.
  • RACP — Research Administration Compliance Program
  • RADL — (Division of Comparative Medicine) Research and Diagnostic Lab
  • RADLAB — Radiation Laboratory (old)
  • RAII — Research Administration Improvement Initiative
  • Rambax MIT — Replace this text with one or more definitions for this term. Remember to use a pair of {excerpt} tags to contain the text you want displayed on the glossary index pages.
  • RBA — Residence-Based Advising (program)
  • RCC — Residential Computing Consultant
  • RCRA — Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
  • REL — Resource Extraction Laboratory
  • Report — Data Warehouse term: A report that you can construct in BrioQuery to display data from the Results section of the query.
  • Request Tracker — Also commonly known as RT, Request Tracker is an open source trouble ticket system developed by Best Practical Solutions.
  • Results — Data Warehouse term: The data that has been retrieved after processing a query and displayed in the Result section of BrioQuery.
  • REX — Residence Exploration and Selection
  • RFC 822 — defines the standard for the format of ARPA internet text (email) messages.
  • RFID — Radio-Frequency Identification
  • Ribbon — a term coined by Microsoft for its new user interface tool bar in Microsoft Office 2007 applications
  • RIKEN — Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (in Japan)
  • RIKEN-MIT — Neuroscience Research Center
  • RLE — Research Laboratory of Electronics
  • RLSLP — Residential Life and Student Life Programs (In July 2002, RLSLP was divided into the Department of Student Life Programs and the Department of Housing.)
  • RNAi — RNA interference
  • ROI — (old) Title of the Sloan School's alumni magazine
  • ROSES — Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences
  • ROTC — Reserve Officers Training Corps
  • ROV — Remotely operated vehicle
  • RPE — Retirement Plan for Employees
  • RPSM — Retirement Plan for Staff Members
  • RSC — RetroSpective Collection (Libraries)
  • RSI (medical condition) — Repetitive Strain Injury
  • RSI (summer program) — Research Science Institute
  • RSIT — Residence System Implementation Team
  • RSJP — Radiological Sciences Joint Program
• S
  • S.B. — Bachelor of Science (degree)
  • S.E. — Sanitary Engineer (degree)
  • S.M. — Master of Science (degree)
  • S.M.Arch.S. — Master of Science in Architectural Studies (degree)
  • S.M.T. — Master of Science in Transportation (degree)
  • S.M.Vis.S. — Master of Science in Visual Studies (degree)
  • SAA — Student Art Association
  • SAAS — South Asian American Students
  • SACC — Student Action Coordinating Committee (old)
  • SAE — Sigma Alpha Epsilon
  • SAFO — Student Activities Finance Office (part of Student Life Programs)
  • SAIS — Student and Administrative Information Services, a directorate within IS&T
  • SALA — La Sala de Puerto Rico, a large, all-purpose room in the Student Center
  • SANDI — Staff Appointments and Distribution (staff and exempt payroll account sheets)
  • SAO — Student Activities Office
  • SAP — MIT's major financial/business management application.
  • SAP (school) — School of Architecture and Planning
  • SARA — Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
  • SAS — Student Assistance Services
  • SAS (software) — Statistical Analysis Software
  • SBIR — Small Business Innovation Research program
  • SBM — Society for Biomaterials
  • SC — Sigma Chi
  • Sc.D. — Doctor of Science (degree)
  • SCC — Student Center Committee
  • SCEP — School of Chemical Engineering Practice
  • SCEP (old) — Student Committee on Educational Policy
  • SCFG — Science Club for Girls
  • SCOUTs — Surface Crafts for Oceanographic and Undersea Testing
  • SDM — System Design and Management (Program)
  • SEBC — Science and Engineering Business Club
  • SEBL — Scanning-Electron-Beam Lithography (a facility in the Nanostructures Laboratory)
  • SEDS — Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
  • SEED — Saturday Engineering Enrichment and Discovery (Academy)
  • SEIP — Student Extended (Medical) Insurance Plan
  • SEM — Undergraduate Seminar (subject designation)
  • SEMS — Student Emergency Medical Services (also known simply as Emergency Medical Services)
  • Sensitivity — Data Warehouse Explorer term indicating how sensitive the data is.
  • SEO — Student Employment Office
  • SEPT — Science and Engineering Program for Teachers
  • SEVIS — Student Exchange Visitor Information System (of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service)
  • SEVT — Solar Electric Vehicle Team
  • SFS — Student Financial Services
  • SH — Student House
  • SHAC — Student Health Advisory Committee
  • SHASS — School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
  • SHBT — Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology
  • Shibboleth — A package for web single sign-on.
  • SHPE — Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
  • SIA — Signals Information and Algorithms (a group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics)
  • SI at MIT — Sports Innovation at MIT
  • Sig Ep — Sigma Phi Epsilon
  • SIGUS — Special Interest Group in Urban Settlements
  • SIP — Sloan Innovation Period
  • SIP (industry term) — Session Initiation Protocol
  • SIPB — Student Information Processing Board
  • SIS — Student Information System
  • SK — Sigma Kappa
  • SL — Sloan Laboratory
  • SL (Service Learning) — Service learning is a pedagogy that involves the integration of academically relevant service projects into the academic context.
  • SLA — Service Level Agreement
  • S-LAB — Laboratory for Sustainable Business
  • SloanSpace — an online course management system for putting courses on the Internet
  • SLP — Student Life Programs
  • SLS — Spoken Language Systems, a group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  • SMA — Singapore-MIT Alliance
  • SMART — Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Center)
  • SMBT — Master of Science in Building Technology (degree)
  • SmL — Servomechanisms Laboratory
  • Smoot — Unit of measurement of Harvard Bridge that used an MIT student named Smoot
  • SMR — Sloan Management Review
  • SMTP — SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard set of rules that define an email message format, and the message transfer agent (MTA), which stores and forwards email.
  • SNC — Sensor Network Consortium. (MIT is one of the academic members.)
  • SOCR — CUP's (Committee on the Undergraduate Program)Subcommittee on the Communication Requirement
  • SoE — School of Engineering
  • SOHO — Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  • SOP — Standard Operating Procedure
  • SoS — School of Science
  • SP (Service Provider) — Shibboleth term for an application server that has been integrated with Shibboleth.
  • Space — a term used in Confluence (which powers Hermes) to indicate a collection of pages with their own access control and look-and-feel settings.
  • SPE — Sigma Phi Epsilon
  • SpecLab — (George Russell Harrison) Spectroscopy Laboratory
  • SPHERES — Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellites (at MIT Aero-Astro)
  • SPHR — Senior Professional in Human Resources - level of certification by SHRM
  • Split Mailbox — A method of forwarding your @mit.edu email to another email account while having a copy still sent to your MIT (Athena) account.
  • SPS — Special Studies (subject designation)
  • SPURS — Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies
  • SRE — Study and Research in Education
  • SSC — Student Services Center
  • SSG — Stochastic Systems Group (in Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems)
  • SSIT — Student Services Information Technology (formerly ODSUE-IT); part of IS&T as of 2005
  • SSL — Space Systems Laboratory
  • SSL (internet security protocol) — Secure Socket Layer
  • SSM — Sloan School of Management
  • SSP — Security Studies Program
  • SSPCC — Student Systems and Policies Coordinating Committee
  • SSPR — Support Staff Peer Resources
  • Star table Group — Data Warehouse term: The tables in the Data Warehouse are designed to be grouped together in certain ways - these groupings are referred to as Stars because diagrams of these groupings resemble star patterns.
  • STC — Student Technology Consultants
  • Stellar — Stellar is MIT's course management system. It is a platform for learning, course management and collaboration, serving the entire MIT community.
  • STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. May also refer to the program at MIT for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from Boston Public Schools
  • STEP — Secondary Technical Education Project (also called Project STEP)
  • STIR — Signal Transformation and Information Representation (a group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics)
  • STOP — Security Tracking of Office Property (in Campus Police)
  • Stopit — MIT-wide process to report cases of misuse of MIT's computer systems
  • STS — (Program in) Science, Technology, and Society
  • STS (Sloan) — Sloan Technology Services
  • SWE — Society of Women Engineers
• T
  • 'Tute — The Institute (i.e. MIT)
  • TA — Teaching Assistant
  • Table Catalog — Data Warehouse term: A list of tables displayed in BrioQuery which you are authorized to use to build queries.
  • Table Name — Data Warehouse term: This is the name of a table stored in the Data Warehouse. These table names are the same as those seen in the "Table Catalog" in BrioQuery.
  • Tables — Data Warehouse term: Logical groupings of data items.
  • TAG — Town and Gown (team)
  • TALARIS — Terrestrial Artificial Lunar And Reduced Gravity Simulator (Aero-Astro project, a collaboration between the MIT Space Systems Laboratory and Draper Laboratory)
  • TAP — Technology Architecture and Planning - Sub team in ITAG
  • TAP (program) — Technology Adaptation Program
  • TBI — Transaction-Based Index
  • TBP — Tau Beta Pi (national engineering honor society)
  • TC — Theta Chi (also known as TX)
  • TCA — Technology Community Association
  • TCC — Technology Children's Center, Inc.
  • TCC (Tech Catholic Community) — A community of Roman Catholics at MIT who minister to the community.
  • TCF — Technology and Culture Forum
  • TCGA — The Cancer Genome Atlas
  • TCP IP (Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol) — These two protocols were developed by the U.S. military to allow computers to talk to each other over long distance networks.
  • TCW — Technology Community Women
  • TDA — Tax-Deferred Annuity (plan)
  • T-Day — Technology Day
  • TDC — Theta Delta Chi
  • TDP — Technology and Development Program
  • TEAL — Technology Enabled Active Learning
  • TechLink — Joint venture between the MIT Sloan Senate and the Graduate Student Council to provide links among graduate and professional students at MIT
  • TEK — Time Equals Knowledge
  • TELAMS — Technology Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Structures
  • TEP — Teacher Education Program
  • TEP (Tau Epsilon Phi) — A fraternity of MIT
  • TESS — Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
  • TFO — Temporary Faculty Office
  • THA — Technology Hackers Association
  • THSTI — Translational Health Science and Technology Institute of India
  • TIPS — Training and Intervention Procedures program, which teaches how to serve alcohol responsibly
  • TLL — Teaching and Learning Laboratory
  • TLO — Technology Licensing Office
  • TMRC — Tech Model Railroad Club
  • TNQ — Technique, MIT's yearbook
  • TNS — Telecommunications and Network Services (in Information Systems; outdated as of 2004)
  • TNSTAAFL — "There's no such thing as a free lunch" - name used for IS lunch seminars prior to 2003
  • TOEFL — Test of English as a Foreign Language
  • Torrent — usually refers to a file downloadable via the BitTorrent client or other peer-to-peer file sharing clients implementing BitTorrent's peer-to-peer protocol.
  • TOT — Toys of Tomorrow (old)
  • Touchstone — A web authentication system.
  • TPP — Technology and Policy (Ph.D.) program
  • TR — Technology Review
  • Transceiver — A piece of networking hardware usually used to moderate interfaces.
  • TRB — Technology Review Board - sub team of ITAG (thru 2007)
  • Trend — refers to IT activity or incidents MIT is monitoring because they may be related. Trends may turn into identified problems, but may also just continue to be watched as trends.
  • TREX — Traveling Research Environmental Experiences
  • Trojan — A program that appears desirable to encourage downloading and/or running the program, but actually contains something undesirable, often in addition to the desirable program.
  • TSCA — Toxic Substances Control Act
  • TTT — Things That Think
  • TWAS — Third World Academy of Sciences
  • TWO — Technology Wives Organization (old)
  • Type — Data Warehouse term: Refers to how tables are used in constructing queries.
• U
  • U (following subject number) — Designates an Undergraduate subject
  • UA — Undergraduate Association
  • UAP — Undergraduate Association President
  • UARC — University Affiliated Research Center
  • UASO — Undergraduate Academic Support Office
  • UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
  • UAVP — Undergraduate Association Vice President
  • UCF — Used Computer Factory (at MIT)
  • UCS — Union of Concerned Scientists
  • UDC — Urban Design Corps
  • UIS — Urban Information Systems
  • UMIFA — Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act
  • UMOC — Ugliest Manifestation on Campus (contest)
  • UPOP — Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program
  • URC — University Residential Community
  • URL — Uniform Resource Locator - aka web/internet address e.g. http://mit.edu
  • UROP — Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
  • USGS — U.S. Geological Survey
  • US-VISIT — U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology
  • UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) — A type of interface used to connect workstations or printers to 5ESS (digital phone) jacks, and then to MITnet.
• V
  • VoIP — Voice Over Internet Protocol. MIT's primary phone service is based on this.
  • VPN — stands for Virtual Private Network and refers to a server and client software allowing computers to connect securely over the internet to a server on a private or institutional network, such as MITnet, making it appear to the computer that it is directly connected to this network.
• W
  • W1MX — A high-frequency radio club
  • W3C — World Wide Web Consortium
  • WAG — Women's Advisory Group
  • WAUS — Windows Automatic Update Service (offered by Information Services and Technology)
  • WAYF - Where Are You From? — A service to guide a user to his or her Identity Provider.
  • WBWT — Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel (in Aero-Astro)
  • WCS — Web Communication Services (formerly CWIS, or Campus Wide Information Systems)
  • WebAuth — One of the authentication servers used by MIT Touchstone is based on Stanford's WebAuth package.
  • WebSIS — Web-(based) Student Information System
  • WEL — World Economy Laboratory (Economics)
  • WGR — Working Group Recycling (Committee)
  • WGS — Women's and Gender Studies
  • WGSSI — Working Group on Support Staff Issues
  • WHOI — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • WI — Whitehead Institute
  • WICGR — Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research
  • wikis.mit.edu — wikis.mit.edu is MIT's central wiki server. The wiki service running on wikis.mit.edu is based on Atlassian's Confluence enterprise wiki application, and is available to the entire MIT community.
  • WILG — Women's Independent Living Group
  • win.mit.edu — MIT's central Windows domain
  • WinAthena — A legacy name for some computers in the win.mit.edu domain. This term should no longer be used as it has no well-defined meaning.
  • WISP — Written Information Security Program
  • WMBR — MIT FM Radio Station - "Walker Memorial Basement Radio"
  • WSRI — Web Science Research Initiative
  • WTBS — Former call letters of WMBR Radio prior to 1979, for "Technology Broadcasting System." Ted Turner acquired the WTBS call letters.
  • WWW — World Wide Web
• X
  • XC — Executive Committee (of the MIT Corporation)
  • XPL — X Prize Lab at MIT
  • xQIT — Extreme Quantum Information Theory, which will be studied in the W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory
• Y
  • YAA — Youth Astronomy Apprenticeships
• Z
  • ZBT — Zeta Beta Tau
  • Z-Center — The Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center
  • ZLC — Zaragoza Logistics Center (affiliated with the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics)
  • ZMIT — The main SAP menu for MIT's financial system
  • ZP — Zeta Psi