DOCSLIB.ORG

Micah Eckhardt [email protected]

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Micah Eckhardt Micahrye@.Mit.Edu 60 Wadsworth Street Apt 3G Cambridge MA, 02142 Micah Eckhardt [email protected] Research Statement My research focuses on (1) the design and implementation of participatory learning technologies (2) immersive-interactive stories (3) language and social-emotional communication (4) assistive and learning technology for children diagnosed with autism. Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology,​ S​eptember 2008 - Present Doctor of Philosophy, Media Art and Science (MIT Media Lab), June 2015 Master’s of Science, Media Art and Science (MIT Media Lab), June 2010 Master’s Thesis: Eyes Up: Influencing Social Gaze Through Play Advisor: Rosalind Picard, Affective Computing University of California, San Diego,​ S​eptember 2003 - March 2006 Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science Minors: Computer Science, Mathematics Employment Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA 08/08 - Present Research Assistant, Affective Computing Group Primary responsibility is the creation and research of innovative technologies. I am also responsible for the mentoring, and managing of undergraduate researchers and a staff engineer. Furthermore, I have responsibility for helping maintain relations with high-level corporate sponsors of the MIT Media Lab. The following highlights my work. StoryScape Development of an interactive and immersive story platform capable of connecting the physical environment to the digital story world. Platform integrates mobile, web, and hardware technologies. Research on its use with a wide range of children, age and ability, with a particular focus on story co-creation with children diagnosed with autism. FrameIt: A blended digital-tangible puzzle game designed to help children diagnosed with autism look at faces and understand emotional expressions. Fabricated custom parts, electronics, and developed software. BobblyBot Robots: Design, fabrication and testing of a modular-plush robots for use with children. Required skills in user-centered design, plastic molding, electronics, and textiles. United States Department of State Assistive Technology Outreach: Requested by the DoS to take part in a inaugural outreach program to promote assistive technologies in Turkey. I worked with the DoS, and Turkish leaders in the autism and assistive learning communities as a means of knowledge sharing. Conducted two assistive technology innovation workshops for local leaders. Co-organizer of inaugural S​ierra Leone Youth Innovation Competition: Traveled to Sierra Leone to work with local government officials, news organizations, and youth throughout the country to organize the largest youth innovation competition in Sierra Leone. MIT Media Lab Inaugural India Initiative: Chosen as an instructor for the inaugural MIT Media Lab India Initiative held in Pune, India. Worked with 40 engineering and design students to develop working prototypes of innovative technologies addressing local problems. Machine Perception Laboratory, University of California San Diego, CA 08/05 - 6/08 Staff Research Assistant Primary responsibility software engineering and research. The following highlights my work. Facial Feature Detector: Developed a state of the art facial feature detection system implementing a hierarchical Viola-Jones approach. Facial feature detector was later part of machine vision packaged integrated onto sony cameras. Robotics: Developed an autonomous robot for teaching toddlers language. First work to show the use of an autonomous robot for teaching language to toddlers. Awards/Leadership IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing (TAFFC) reviewer 2010 Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC) reviewer 2010 Winner of the MIT-Bank of America ATM redesign contest 2009 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) reviewer 2009 International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (IJPRAI) reviewer 2008 Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) 2005-2006 Invited Talks UMass Medical School, Shriver Center 2014 ABAI Panel Speaker, Chicago 2014 Northeastern University, Graduate Clinician support 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival 2012 Istanbul Technical University 2012 Publications Eckhardt M.​, Ferguson C. and Picard R. W., ​"A​ Platform for Creating Stories Across Digital and Physical Boundaries,"​ ​Work in Progress of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. ACM, Munich, Germany, February 2014 M. Eckhardt,​ C. Ferguson, R. Picard, “StoryScape: A Platform for Supporting Communication and Language,” CHI Workshop on Supporting Children with Complex Communication Needs. Vancouver, Canada 2014 M. Eckhardt,​ E. McVay, R. Picard, “The Missing Data of the App Phenomena,” In the Extended Abstract of IMFAR, Atlanta, USA, 2014. Abstract, Poster M. Eckhardt,​ M. Goodwin, and R.W. Picard, "Eyes Up: Interactive Tangible-Digital Puzzles for Learning about Eyes; in the Extended Abstract of IMFAR 2010, Philadelphia, PA, USA, May 20-22, 2010 J. Movellan, M​ . Eckhardt,​ Marjo Virnes and A. Rodriguez. “Sociable Robot Improves Toddler Vocabulary Skills” Late Breaking Abstract, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2009. M. Eckhardt,​ and R.W. Picard, “A More Effective Way to Label Affective Expressions,” International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (Demo Session), 2009. K. Kim, M​ . Eckhardt,​ N. Bugg, R. W. Picard, “The Benefits of Synchronized Genuine Smiles in Face-to-Face Service Encounters,” IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, vol. 4, pp. 801-808, 2009. M.R. Eckhardt,​ I.R. Fasel and J.R. Movellan. “Towards Practical Facial Feature Detection” International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence Volume 23, 2009. M. Madsen, R. el Kaliouby, M​ . Eckhardt,​ M. Hoque, M. Goodwin, and R.W. Picard, “Lessons from Participatory Design with Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum” Proc. Computer Human Interaction, CHI 2009. M. Eckhard,​ M. Madsen, Y. Kashef, A. Nasser, M. Hoque., R. el Kaliouby, M. Goodwin, and R.W. Picard, "User-Centered Design of Technology for Just-In-Time, In-Situ Exploration of Facial Affect for Persons on the Autism Spectrum" in the Extended Abstract of IMFAR 2009. E. Hedman, M​ . Eckhardt,​ M.Z. Poh, M. Goodwin, L.J. Miller, B. Brett-Green, S.A. Schoen, M.D. Nielsen, and R.W. Picard "Heart Rate Variability and Electrodermal Activity in Children with Atypical Sensory Processing: Exploratory Pattern Analysis" in the Extended Abstract of IMFAR 2009. J.R. Movellan, F. Tanaka, I. Fasel, C. Taylor, P. Ruvolo and M​ . Eckhardt.​ The RUBI project: a progress report, Proc. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2007. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Eliciting and Detecting Affect in Covert and Ethically Sensitive Situations
    ELICITING AND DETECTING AFFECT IN COVERT AND ETHICALLY SENSITIVE SITUATIONS by Philip Charles Davis B.S., Physics Brown University, 2000 B.A., Mathematics Brown University, 2000 Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2005 © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All Rights reserved Author Program in Media Arts & Sciences May 6, 2005 Certified by Dr. Rosalind W. Picard Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Program in Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Supervisor Accepted by Dr. Andrew P. Lippman Chair, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students Program in Media Arts & Sciences 2 ELICITING AND DETECTING AFFECT IN COVERT AND ETHICALLY SENSITIVE SITUATIONS by Philip Charles Davis Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning on May 6, 2005, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Abstract There is growing interest in creating systems that can sense the affective state of a user for a variety of applications. As a result, a large number of studies have been conducted with the goals of eliciting specific affective states, measuring sensor data associated with those states, and building algorithms to predict the affective state of the user based on that sensor data. These studies have usually focused on recognizing relatively unambiguous emotions, such as anger, sadness, or happiness. These studies are also typically conducted with the subject’s awareness that the sensors are recording data related to affect.
    [Show full text]
  • Product Grammar: Constructing and Mapping Solution Spaces
    Product Grammar: Constructing and Mapping Solution spaces By Ryan C.C. Chin Master of Architecture MIT, 2000 Bachelor of Science in Architecture & Bachelor of Civil Engineering The Catholic University of America, 1997 SUBMITTED TO THE PROGRAM IN MEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2004 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Signature of Author: __________________________________________________________________________ MIT Program in Media Arts and Sciences August 13, 2004 Certified by: __________________________________________________________________________________ William J. Mitchell Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences Academic Head, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab Accepted by: _________________________________________________________________________________ Andrew B. Lippman Chair, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students 2 Product Grammar: Constructing and Mapping Solution spaces By Ryan C.C. Chin Master of Architecture MIT, 2000 Bachelor of Science in Architecture & Bachelor of Civil Engineering The Catholic University of America, 1997 Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning on August 13, 2004 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences ABSTRACT Developing a design methodology
    [Show full text]
  • Invited Talk Prof
    MCTS Munich Center for Technology in Society Technische Universität München Invited Talk Prof. Danielle Wood Head, Space Enabled Group Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Designing Complex Systems to Apply Space Technology for Sustainable Development The presentation outlines the research agenda of the new Space Enabled Research Group of the MIT Media Lab. Space Enabled is built on the premise that technology from the space sector has the potential to contribute profoundly to reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Six space technologies are already being used to support sustainable development. The Space Enabled Research Group implements projects with development leaders at the multi-lateral, national, regional and local scale. During these projects, Space Enabled implements an integrated design process that includes techniques from engineering design, art, social science, complex systems modeling, satellite engineering and data science. This work includes creating new applications of space for development, new methods to apply complex systems modeling and new approaches within satellite engineering. Professor Danielle Wood serves as an Assistant Professor in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences within the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Within the Media Lab, Prof. Wood leads the Space Enabled Research Group which seeks to advance justice in earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space. Prof. Wood is a scholar of societal development with a background that includes satellite design, earth science applications, systems engineering, and technology policy. In her research, Prof. Wood applies these skills to design systems that harness space technology to address development challenges around the world. Most recently, Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Dhruv Jain — CV Portfolio: Dhruvjain.Info/Portfolio
    Dhruv Jain | CV portfolio: dhruvjain.info/portfolio Contact Research Assistant, MS in Media Arts and Sciences Information Media Lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology Email: [email protected] Research Human Computer Interaction, Persuasive Computing, Design and Prototyping, Assistive Technology Interests Education and MIT Media Lab Sep 2014 { Jun 2016 Professional Masters, Media Arts and Sciences Advisor: Chris Schmandt, GPA: 5.0/5.0 Experience University of Maryland, College Park May 2014 { Aug 2014 Research Internship Advisors: Jon Froehlich, Leah Findlater Indian Institute of Technology Delhi May 2013 { Apr 2014 Research Associate Advisors: M. Balakrishnan, P.V.M. Rao Microsoft Research India, Bangalore Aug 2013 { Dec 2013 Research Internship Advisors: Kalika Bali, Bill Thies, Ed Cutrell David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Delhi Jun 2013 { Aug 2013 Desk Research Advisor: Aaditeshwar Seth Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Jul 2009 { May 2013 B.Tech, Computer Science and Engineering GPA: 9.231/10.0; Class Rank: 3/81 University of Wisconsin-Madison May 2012 { Aug 2012 Summer Internship Advisor: Vinay Ribeiro Stanford India Biodesign, AIIMS, Delhi Dec 2011 { Jan 2012 Visiting Researcher Publications Dhruv Jain and Chris Schmandt, \JogCall: Persuasive System for Couples to Jog Together", In and Poster Adjunct Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Persuasive Technology Presentations (PERSUASIVE), 2015. Dhruv Jain, Leah Findlater, Jamie Gilkeson, Benjamin Holland, Ramani Duraiswami, Dmitry Zotkin, Christian Vogler and Jon Froehlich, \Head-Mounted Display Visualizations to Support Sound Awareness for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing", In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Hu- man Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2015. Dhruv Jain, \Pilot Evaluation of a Path-Guided Indoor Navigation System for Visually Impaired in a Public Museum", In Poster Proceedings of the ACM SIGACCESS conference on Com- puters and accessibility (ASSETS), 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge
    contributed articles Doi:10.1145/1924421.1924441 how more recent developments (such Finding 10 balloons across the U.S. illustrates as social media and crowdsourcing) could be used to solve challenging how the Internet has changed the way problems involving distributed geo- we solve highly distributed problems. locations. Since the Challenge was an- nounced only about one month before By John C. tanG, manueL Cebrian, nicklaus a. GiaCoBe, the balloons were deployed, it was not hyun-Woo Kim, taemie Kim, anD Douglas “BeaKeR” WickeRt only a timed contest to find the bal- loons but also a time-limited challenge to prepare for the contest. Both the dif- fusion of how teams heard about the Challenge and the solution itself dem- Reflecting onstrated the relative effectiveness of mass media and social media. The surprising efficiency of apply- ing social networks of acquaintances on the DaRPa to solve widely distributed tasks was demonstrated in Stanley Milgram’s celebrated work9 popularizing the no- tion of “six degrees of separation”; that is, it typically takes no more than six in- Red Balloon termediaries to connect any arbitrary pair of people. Meanwhile, the Internet and other communication technolo- gies have emerged that increase the Challenge ease and opportunity for connections. These developments have enabled crowdsourcing—aggregating bits of information across a large number of users to create productive value—as a popular mechanism for creating en- cyclopedias of information (such as ThE 2009 dARPA Red Balloon Challenge (also known Wikipedia) and solving other highly distributed problems.1 as the DARPA Network Challenge) explored how the The Challenge was announced at the Internet and social networking can be used to solve “40th Anniversary of the Internet” event a distributed, time-critical, geo-location problem.
    [Show full text]
  • BTO Peer Preview Speakers
    1 BTO Peer Preview MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2020 VIRTUALLY AS GOOD AS THE REAL THI NG – REMOTE I NSPECTI O NS Steve Byers C EO , Ene rgyLogic St eve Byers is t he CEO of EnergyLogic, a Colorado based builder professional services company that specializes in energy, sust ainabilit y and risk management. He’s passionate about EnergyLogic and the impact it has t oday and will have t omorrow. He’s a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, started out wit h the Sout hface Institute and has served on a variety of indust ry boards and committees. His two daughters and his wife are all amazing humans that he loves very much. Jason Elton Senior Consultant, Earth Advantage Jason is a Senior Consultant at Earth Advantage. He helped create and implement Remote quality assurance and mentoring services at Earth Advantage. Jason has been actively working in the home performance industry for over 10 years. His field work includes energy audit ing, energy scoring, diagnostic testing, mentoring, t raining and qualit y assurance. Jason holds certifications from t he Building Performance Institute and is a qualified Home Energy Score Mentor. He and his wife are proud parents of three daughters and a yellow Lab. Valarie Evans Building Official, City of Las Vegas Valarie Evans is the City of North Las Vegas Building Official. Sh e is a Master Electrician and has been in the construction industry since 1985. A fun fact about Valarie is that she likes the crumbs at the bottom of the cereal box more than the cereal, and yes, she is all about the crust.
    [Show full text]
  • 2018Community Involvement Report
    MIT LINCOLN LABORATORY COMMUNITY 2018 INVOLVEMENT REPORT Contents MIT LINCOLN LABORATORY outreach // by the numbers 2018 Lincoln LaboratoryOUTREACH Outreach BY THE 2018 NUMBERS Scientists & engineers Hours per year supporting Donated to the American Military Fellows at volunteering STEM Heart Association Lincoln Laboratory 575 11,560 6,000 42 Care packages Dollars contributed to the Jimmy Dollars raised for Alzheimer Dollars raised by Laboratory sent to troops Fund by Laboratory cyclists in the Support Community since 2009 employees in 2018 Pan-Mass Challenge A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR 02 - 03 04 - 39 01 ∕ EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH 137 16,600 401,500 108,546 $ 06 K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach Charities receiving Lincoln Laboratory Students seeing Students touring 24 Partnerships with MIT STEM demonstrations Lincoln Laboratory donations K-12 STEM programs 30 Community Engagement 02 ∕ EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIONS 40 - 59 18,000 42 University Student Programs 33 46 MIT Student Programs Toys donated to Summer Internships Staff in Lincoln 52 Military Student Programs 35 Toys for Tots drive Scholars 57 Technical Staff Programs 60 - 80 03 ∕ COMMUNITY GIVING 518 246 200 62 Helping Those in Need 3,600 69 Helping Those Who Help Others 72 Nourishing Mind, Soul, and Character A Message From the Director Community outreach and education programs are an important component of the Laboratory’s mission. From the beginning, our outreach initiatives have been inspired by employee desires to help people in need and to motivate student interest and participation in engineering and science. The Laboratory’s educational outreach provides in-classroom presentations and Science on Saturday demonstrations to regional K–12 schools.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Fragments and Historiographies Data Mining the William J Mitchell Archive
    QUOTATION: What does history have in store for architecture today? Digital Fragments and Historiographies Data Mining the William J Mitchell Archive Peter Raisbeck The University of Melbourne Peter Neish The University of Melbourne Abstract The acceleration of digital design and production poses new problems for the architectural archivist, historian and theorist. Architectural history and theory has primarily been constructed on the quotation of fragments from physical archives. But, what can be said about architectural historiography if the quotation or fragment itself is a digital entity? The recently acquired Melbourne University archive of William J Mitchell, one of Melbourne University’s most distinguished graduates, poses these questions because the material culture of archive includes a diverse range of digital materials: audio-visual slides, electronic storage media and software. The Mitchell archive contains a number of 3.5 inch floppy disks related to Topdown. Topdown was a parametric program that was intended to create a large knowledge base and library of architectural fragments to be used in CAD. The review of Topdown raises issues about the archival logics and context of digital fragments; as well as, the tantalising fact that those fragments themselves are the result of attempts to codify the architectural fragment into a digital system. At a practical level the shift to digital practices, as exemplified in the Mitchell archive, indicates a need to revise principles governing architectural historiography, hybrid and digital media collections and conservation. This is because the logic of digital archives suggests a different order of so called metadata is needed. As a result, this situation suggests the need for architectural historians to develop new instruments and approaches to both architectural historiography and theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Angela N. Koehler
    Angela N. Koehler Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT Office: 617-324-7631 Department of Biological Engineering, MIT Email: [email protected] 76-361C Website: http://koehlerlab.org 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Education Ph.D. Chemistry, Harvard University 2003 B.A. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Reed College 1997 Professional Appointments Associate Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, MIT 2019-present Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard 2019-present Founding Member, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine 2018-present Goldblith Career Development Professor in Applied Biology 2018-2021 Intramural Faculty, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT 2014-present Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, MIT 2014-2018 Karl Van Tassel (1925) Career Development Professor 2014-2017 Director, Transcriptional Chemical Biology, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute 2010-2013 Project & Center Manager, Broad NCI Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Center Institute Fellow, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute 2003-2009 Director, Ligand Discovery, NCI Initiative for Chemical Genetics (ICG) at Harvard Research Training Graduate Student, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University 1998-2003 Laboratory of Professor Stuart L. Schreiber Committee: Professors Eric. N. Jacobsen, David R. Liu Thesis: Small molecule microarrays: A high-throughput tool for discovering protein-small molecule interactions Researcher, Department
    [Show full text]
  • MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE of TECHNOLOGY Faculty Personnel Record Date: September 27, 2020 Full Name: Rosalind Wright Picard Depart
    MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Faculty Personnel Record Date: September 27, 2020 Full Name: Rosalind Wright Picard Department: Program in Media Arts & Sciences 1. Date of Birth: May 17, 1962 2. Citizenship: U. S. Immigration Status: N/A 3. Education: Georgia Institute of Technology Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (w/highest honors) 1980 - 1984 Certificate in Computer Engineering 1983 - 1984 MIT S. M., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 1984 - 1986 MIT Sc. D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 1987 - 1991 4. Title of Thesis for Most Advanced Degree: Texture Modeling: Temperature Effects on Markov/Gibbs Random Fields 5. Principal Fields of Interest: Affective Computing, Artificial Intelligence with Emotional Intelligence, Affective Machine Learning, Technology for Health & Wellbeing, Physiological Signal Processing, Autism Technology, Human- Computer Interaction, 6. Name and Rank of Other Departmental Faculty in Same Field: None 7. Name and Rank of Faculty of Other Departments in Same Field: None 8. Non-MIT Experience (including military service): Scientific Atlanta Technical Assistant, Satellite Communications 6/81 - 9/81 Hewlett Packard Sales Assistant, Technical Computers 6/82 - 9/82 IBM Junior Design Engineer 6/83 - 9/83 Georgia Institute of Technology Calculus Teaching Assistant 9/83 - 12/83 AT&T Bell labs Member of the Technical Staff 6/84 - 3/87 Boston College Visiting Scholar, Department of Psychology 7/05 - 6/06 Affectiva Chairman 1/10 - 12/12 Affectiva Chief Scientist 1/10 - 4/13 Physiio International,
    [Show full text]
  • The Limits of Social Mobilization
    The limits of social mobilization Alex Rutherford ∗, Manuel Cebrian y z, Sohan Dsouza ∗ , Esteban Moro x, Alex Pentland {, and Iyad Rahwan1 ∗ k ∗Computing & Information Science, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE,yDepartment of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA,zNICTA, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,xDepartment of Mathematics, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain,{Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and kSchool of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1 To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected] The Internet and social media has enabled the mobilization of target cities [10], demonstrating yet another example of time-critical large crowds to achieve time-critical feats, ranging from map- social mobilization in tasks that require covering large geographies. ping crises in real-time, to organizing mass rallies, to conducting Despite these numerous successes, we still have limited under- search-and-rescue operations over large geographies. Despite standing of the limits of technology-mediated mobilization. If we significant success, selection bias may lead to inflated expecta- are to rely on social media to react to time-critical emergencies, it is tions of the efficacy of social mobilization for these tasks. What are the limits of social mobilization, and how reliable is it to op- important to understand the conditions under which they can be suc- erate at these limits? We build on recent results on the spatio- cessful, and the risks of failure associated with them.
    [Show full text]
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Credit MIT Media Lab building in Cambridge, Mass. Photo by Andy Ryan To stay at the cutting edge, MIT went outside a its comfort zone reneGade in the laB By lawrence M. Fisher hen the Media Lab at MIT sought a new director last year, from a global list of candidates, it’s safe to say the recruitment committee did not go looking for a college dropout, a former “rave” organizer or a godson of the late Timothy Leary. But they got all that and more in Joichi Ito, a Japanese venture capitalist, social activist and world citizen whose résumé makes up in unusual pursuits what it lacks in formal academic credentials. A traditional search produced hundreds of qualified applicants, who were narrowed over a year to a short list, but without yielding a good fit. Nicholas Negraponte, the lab’s founder and its director for many years, had publicly clashed with the outgoing leader, Frank Moss, describing his tenure as “a five-year period like the Dark Ages.” He knew Ito socially and personally recruited him, tracking the peripatetic venture capitalist down to Santa Catalina Island, where he was indulging in his latest interest/ obsession, scuba diving. “I had never been to the lab,” says Ito, who is 46 but looks decades younger. Commuting to work on his single- speed bicycle, he could pass for a grad student. “I had things to do; I was running Creative Commons, investing, living in Dubai, diving every weekend. Nicholas called me in between dives. Oddly the technology didn’t work and we could barely hear each other.
    [Show full text]