colleges

A. Find "Them"

University of California at Berkeley
Where: Berkeley, Calif.
Department: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

SETI@home taps the power of thousands of ordinary PCs over the Web to create, in effect, one of the most powerful supercomputers anywhere. It analyzes data from radio telescopes looking for signals from intelligent life. Berkeley students help improve the search algorithms and refine the software that ties all the computers together.

“Design for extreme environments” sounds like a new cable show, but it’s actually a class at RISD that focuses on building habitats for truly challenging locations—like the moon. Last fall, NASA asked the students to design a mobile dwelling for its next manned mission to the moon, scheduled for 2020. “NASA wanted a rover that could house four people for two weeks in 24-hour sunlight,” says student Zack Kamen.

The Lions Gate Bridge carries some 70,000 cars almost a mile across the entrance to Vancouver’s harbor every day. In a city polishing itself up for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the bridge is prime postcard fodder.

Many American universities have proud traditions based around excellence in sports or the matriculation of future presidents. This is not that story. While success on the grid iron measures the worth of jocks at big state schools, for the students at America’s most intellectual colleges, the means of glory is the prank. In schools like Cal Tech, MIT and the University of Chicago, showing off who’s smarter has become the nerd version of Michigan vs. Ohio State. Popular Science has a run down of schools of some of the brainiest pranks in the college history. Launch the gallery here.

Men once greatly outnumbered women in collegiate athletics—Title IX brought equality. Men currently outnumber women in science—could Title IX have the same effect?