Glossary - A

Click on letter to jump to the list of terms starting with that letter. Click on a term to jump to the full definition. The excerpts on this page show the first line of each definition.

• 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 key — a method by which web page authors can embed keyboard shortcuts to specific elements on their page that users can jump to using the access key and shortcut combination from their keyboard...
• 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
• 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
• Active Directory (AD) — a directory and authentication service created by Microsoft and used by many applications and services for user lookup and authentication
• 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
• Application — Software running on a server that is remotely accessible, including mobile applications.
• 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
• Atlas — Atlas is a single online gateway for administrative systems at MIT.
• 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
• Auto-Responder — a retired service which sends an automatic reply to senders while the intended recipient of a message is away from her office and email.
• 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