May 27, 2026, marked my fifth anniversary of my arrival at Caltech, when I was freshly off the boat – or rather, off the plane. Here in Southern California, the weather seems almost unchanged from one day to the next, and the lack of dramatic seasonal shifts can create the illusion that time is stagnant (unless you are a birder paying close attention to migrants). But as we approach this year’s commencement, I cannot help but reflect on how quickly time has passed.
The Tech is collecting student input for future coverage on the Honor Code, exam formats and related topics. Caltech’s Honor Code states, “No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.” In classes, the Honor Code is often reflected in rules about collaboration, outside resources, exams and tools such as large language models.
On the night of May 19, Blacker Hovse summoned students to quite the chimerical Interhovse: Ancient Egypt by way of glowstick fever dream. The invitation arrived less as an announcement than an incantation — “The pharaoh’s curse beckons you” — calling partygoers to “flood the courtyard at 10pm sharp” for what it promised would be a “body thumping blood pumping rave inside the neon pyramid.”
On the night of May 16, Fleming House staged its own festival revival with “Flemchella,” a 2016/Coachella-themed Interhouse that invited students to “Blast From the Past” in the Fleming courtyard from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The announcement promised a return to something relatively precious: to flower crowns, festival fits, overexposed desert aesthetics, and whatever collective psychic residue still clings to our shared concept of 2016.
On Friday, April 17, Caltech held the Student Life and Experience Conference (SLEC) in the Hameetman Multipurpose Room, bringing together students, staff, and faculty to discuss undergraduate life. Several committees presented findings and recommendations based on responses from the SLEC survey sent out in January.
Lloyd brought a touch of the surreal to Interhouse this year with an Alice in Wonderland-themed Lloyderhouse — equal parts whimsical and unhinged in a perfectly Caltech fashion. Walls came alive with Carollian iconography, from a looming Red Queen to playing cards and warped storybook motifs, while a vivid multicolored Cheshire Cat grinned beside the DJ booth, flickering in and out of view under the lights.
By the time the doors opened at Scott Brown Gym on March 10, the students of Caltech’s ME 72 capstone course had already spent months living inside the problem. For roughly 15 weeks, teams of mechanical and civil engineering undergraduates had designed, machined, wired, coded, tested, broken, repaired, and rebuilt robots for one public reckoning: the 41st Annual ME 72 Engineering Design Competition. When the machines finally rolled onto the floor, the question was no longer whether the ideas were clever. It was whether they would work under pressure.
Okay, so I’ve thrown a lot of philosophy at you. But here’s the thing: this isn’t meant to be intellectual trivia for impressing people at parties. The ancient Greeks called philosophy a “way of life” — not an academic subject, but a set of practices for living well.
Did you know that hummingbirds are a family of birds found exclusively in the Western Hemisphere (here chants the Bad Bunny version listing all American countries)? When I first arrived at Caltech, I found these hovering drones such a blessed sight.
On the night of February 21, Dabney Hovse welcomed students across campus for its Lunar New Year-themed Interhovse celebration. The courtyard centerpiece was a striking red dome topped with gold, glowing from within with shifting colored lights that illuminated the space throughout the night.
