<p>I mean along the lines on MIT,Caltech...Where they hack scoreboards, steal cannon, hack the MBTA,dump sodium in the Charles, and do things like this MIT</a> hack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>Also I want them to pump out awesome research by the truckload.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The reaction of sodium and water is a familiar one in chemistry labs, and is reasonably safe if amounts of sodium smaller than a pencil eraser are used and the reaction is done behind a plastic shield by people wearing eye protection. However, the sodium-water reaction does** not scale up well*, and is **treacherous* when larger amounts of sodium are used. Larger pieces of sodium melt under the heat of the reaction, and the molten ball of metal is buoyed up by hydrogen and may appear to be stably reacting with water, until splashing covers more of the reaction mass, causing thermal runaway and an explosion which scatters molten sodium, lye solution, and sometimes flame.<a href="18.5%20g%20explosion%20%5B2%5D">/B</a> This behavior is **unpredictable, and among the alkali metals it is usually sodium which invites this surprise phenomenon, because lithium is not reactive enough to do it, and potassium is so reactive that chemistry students are not tempted to try the reaction with larger potassium pieces.
<p>People have already mentioned them, but, Carnegie Mellon and Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>(I am an MIT alum, and those two and Caltech are the ones that I normally heard people describe as being both very strong engineering schools and similar culturally to us.)</p>
<p>Hopkins students once stole "Testudo", the University of Maryland's mascot (a huge and heavy statue of a terrapin turtle) before a lacrosse game and, when it appeared at Hopkins, a riot ensued. Testudo is now fully embedded in concrete at College Park.</p>
<p>The MIT sodium drop is controversial, particularly after last year, when it may have caused some serious burns to cleanup crews. Goggle 'MIT sodium drop' for more info. Generally, it is tossed into the Charles in modest quantities from a bridge. Quanties vary from year to year - up to a pound, I've heard.</p>
<p>For the sake of your pocketbook, you might investigate Cooper Union (in NYC) and Olin (in Boston). I can't speak to their "geek" culture, but they are selective, techy, and potentially tuition-free.</p>