SIPB IAP 2026 Activities

Classes teach you all about advanced topics within CS, from operating systems to machine learning, but there’s one critical subject that’s rarely covered, and is instead left to students to figure out on their own: proficiency with their tools. We’ll teach you how to master the command-line, use a powerful text editor, use fancy features of version control systems, and much more!

Students spend hundreds of hours using these tools over the course of their education (and thousands over their career), so it makes sense to make the experience as fluid and frictionless as possible. Mastering these tools not only enables you to spend less time on figuring out how to bend your tools to your will, but it also lets you solve problems that would previously seem impossibly complex.

These days, many aspects of software engineering are also in flux through the introduction of AI-enabled and AI-enhanced tools and workflows. When used appropriately and with awareness of their shortcomings, these can often provide significant benefits to CS practitioners and are thus worth developing working knowledge of. Since AI is a cross-functional enabling technology, there is not a standalone AI lecture; we’ve instead folded the use of the latest applicable AI tools and techniques into each lecture directly.

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Sign up for the IAP 2026 class by filling out this registration form.
Contact: Email [email protected].

Description coming soon :)

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Colin Clark, colclark at mit dot edu

Cell phones are an ubiquitous part of modern computing, yet the current operating system ecosystem appears to be a duopoly of data-mining tech giants. This presentation will discuss free and open source mobile operating systems such as SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch, and postmarketOS that aspire to bring openness, privacy and freedom to everyday users of cell phones. In particular, we will demonstrate how any person may install and experiment with these systems to see for oneself the status of mobile Linux. In addition, we will discuss the unique technical architectures of these systems and the difficulty of running alternative OSes on mobile hardware. Community efforts to develop open mobile hardware will be presented. Finally, we will also discuss how people of varying technical backgrounds may get involved and make contributions to these projects to help shape the future of free and open mobile computing.

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Heng Ye, hng at mit dot edu

• Friday, January 16 @ 6pm (1.5hr)
• Tuesday, January 20 @ 6pm (1.5hr)
• Friday, January 23 @ 6pm (1.5hr)

Tired of debugging bad code? Interested in weird programming languages? Curious about using computers for doing math? In this fast-paced not-for-credit class, we'll learn the Lean programming language, which is probably radically different from any other language you've used before. We'll explore some of Lean's powerful features, such as dependent types, type classes, monads, local imperativity, and tactics. Hopefully, this class will give you a fresh new perspective on an alternative way of programming and doing math.

Prerequisite(s): 6.101 or equivalent, 6.120 or equivalent
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Anthony Wang, xy at mit dot edu

Have you been curious about that popular terminal-based text editor but feel intimidated or that you don't have time? Intended as a catalyst to get you started, this 1 hour class will teach you the foundations of VIM. A casual class that I wish I'd had when first learning VIM. Bring your laptop, we'll do some live demos, Q&A, and we'll go over resources/tips for learning more beyond the class. If you're a seasoned VIM user, you're welcome to stop by and provide your experience too!

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Madison Landry, almonds at mit dot edu

• Wednesday, January 21 @ 12pm (1hr)
• Thursday, January 22 @ 12pm (1hr)

To many MIT students, computers are a powerful, personal tool. But to most people, computers are a thing that they have to deal with, for work or technical tasks that they'd rather not have to do. And with the slopification of the most common operating systems and browsers, forced updates, and alternatives following close behind, Linux is a palatable alternative and probably a safe decision.

This cluedump is about how best to support friends & family moving to Linux. The key is not to be a jerk about it, sure, but it's helpful to make space and talk about what that even means. In this hour, we'll go over a framework for supporting someone's switch to Linux, discuss some theories of trust & resistance from the human-computer interaction literaure, and look into some tools & software that may be helpful.

Even for those who don't use Linux (yet?) but are interested in helping others feel empowered with their computers are welcome to join!

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Madison Landry, almonds at mit dot edu

Like free stuff? SIPB's XVM service XVM service offers free VMs to all MIT students, but it's a bit difficult to use. This short cluedump will explain how to set up an Ubuntu VM on XVM, the quirks of the Xen hypervisor used by XVM, and some things that you can use your new VM for.

Prerequisite(s): Some prior experience with Linux servers
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Anthony Wang, xy at mit dot edu

Have you ever been frustrated while building, installing, or updating software? Nix might be the answer! Nix is a package manager with an innovative and unique approach towards these problems, inspired by programming language theory, with lots of fancy features like installing multiple versions of the same package, atomic updates, rollbacks, reproducible and sandboxed builds, and transparent binary caching. NixOS is an operating system with the same benefits and reliability of Nix where the entire system is built and configured using Nix. This cluedump will give an overview of Nix, NixOS, and the Nix ecosystem, as well as how you can use these powerful tools for your own projects and computers. I will also present some of my own crazy Nix projects and what happens when you set NIXOS_REBUILD_I_UNDERSTAND_THE_CONSEQUENCES_PLEASE_BREAK_MY_SYSTEM=1 (yes this is real).

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Anthony Wang, xy at mit dot edu

Hurl is an open-source command line tool that runs HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format. In this seminar, we will review the basics of Hurl including writing test files, running tests, and reviewing otuput reports. We'll explore how Hurl can be used for acceptance and integration testing of APIs and web applications.

For more information, see https://sipb.mit.edu/iap/hurl/.

• [Part I] Wednesday, January 28 @ 2pm (1hr)
• [Part II] Thursday, January 29 @ 2pm (1hr)

Maintaining a server is kind of like taking care of a pet. It comes with a lot of responsibility, and it's rewarding. Thinking about becoming running a server? Get hands-on with servers in our dual session workshop, made for beginners. You'll learn by doing—from setting up a server, to potentially registering a domain, to sorting out SSL/TLS certs. We'll cover how DNS works, firewalls, VMs and VPSs, SSH, and best security practices. We'll also go over some of your options for hardware or "the cloud", particularly if you're an MIT student, and discuss what you can even do with a server.

Part I comes with some optional "homework" of setting up your own server, so that in Part II we can do more direct practice of sysadminning Linux servers. While you're encouraged to attend both sessions, it is not requirement!

Prerequisite(s): None
Pre-registration: Filling out the RSVP form is appreciated, but everyone is welcome!
Contact: Madison Landry, almonds at mit dot edu