Industries, 1940, founder Fred C. Koch (SB), sons William (SB, PhD), David (SB)
Qualcomm, 1985, co-founders Irwin M. Jacobs (SM, PhD) and Andrew Viterbi (SB, SM)
Raytheon, 1922, co-founder Vannevar Bush (DEng, Professor)
Renaissance Technologies, 1982, founder James Simons (SB)
Scale AI, 2016, founder Alexandr Wang (drop-out)
Texas Instruments, 1930, founder Cecil Howard Green (SB, SM)
TSMC, 1987, founder Morris Chang (SB, SM)
VMware, 1998, co-founder Diane Greene (SM)
== Traditions and student activities ==
The faculty and student body place a high value on meritocracy and on technical proficiency. MIT has never awarded an honorary degree, nor does it award athletic scholarships, ad eundem degrees, or Latin honors upon graduation. However, MIT has twice awarded honorary professorships: to Winston Churchill in 1949 and Salman Rushdie in 1993.
Many upperclass students and alumni wear a large, heavy, distinctive class ring known as the "Brass Rat". Originally created in 1929, the ring's official name is the …
