MIT Media Lab

MIT Media Lab

The MIT Media Lab (also known as the Media Lab) is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a series of practical inventions in the fields of wireless networks, field sensing, web browsers and the World Wide Web. More recently it has focused particularly on design and technologies that address social causes.^[1] The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) was one of the notable research efforts which grew out of the Media Lab.

The MIT Media Lab was founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte and former MIT President Jerome Wiesner (now deceased) and opened its doors in the Wiesner Building (designed by I.M. Pei), or the E15 building at MIT in 1985. It grew out of the work of MIT’s Architecture Machine Group, and remains within MIT School of Architecture and Planning.

Administration

On April 25, 2011, it was announced that the next director of the Media Lab will be Joichi Ito.^[2] Ito will succeed previous directors Nicholas Negroponte (1985-2000), Walter Bender (2000-2006), and Frank Moss (2006-2011).

The Media Lab has approximately 70 administrative and support staff members. Associate Directors of the Lab are Hiroshi Ishii and Andrew Lippman. Pattie Maes and Mitchel Resnick are co-heads of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences. The Lab's Chief Knowledge Officer is Henry Holtzman.

Current research focus

"Inventing a better future" is the theme of the Media Lab's work. A current emphasis of Media Lab research, which encompasses the work of several research groups, is on human adaptability. This focus was highlighted by the May 9, 2007 symposium h2.0: new minds, new bodies, new identities. The event was organized by Hugh Herr and John Hockenberry, and featured Oliver Sacks, Michael Graves, Aimee Mullins, Michael Chorost, Susan Hockfield, among other speakers. The day-long program featured work that is blurring the distinction between "able bodied" and "disabled," demonstrating technologies at the neural-digital interface. Work represented emphasized the merging of technology with bodies and minds, altering the conceptions of human capability. New research initiatives were discussed, such as techniques to treat conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or depression, to sociable robots for monitoring the health of children or the elderly, to the development of smart prostheses that can mimic—and exceed—the capabilities of biological limbs. The symposium provided many examples of work that is the next step in the so-called "digital revolution." Research projects at the Media Lab aim to have a deep impact on humanity at large. This work, while initially intended for those considered to be "disabled," will ultimately improve life for all humanity.

One of the founding focuses of the Media Lab was technology for the developing world, work that continues with projects such as the One Laptop per Child project and other work. Current projects at the Media Lab continue with this core value, which is expanded and enhanced by increased collaboration within the Media Lab itself, as well as across MIT and with the world at large.

Other research foci include machines with common sense, viral communications, "smart" prostheses, advanced sensor networks, innovative interface design, and sociable robots. Projects range from a program that can convert drawings to musical compositions, to wearable sensors for monitoring health, to electronic ink.

A large number of research groups focus on topics related to human computer interaction. While this includes traditional user interface design, most groups working on this take a broader view. Several groups are working on adding sensors and actuators of different sorts to common objects in the environment, to create "intelligent objects" that are aware of their surroundings, capable of predicting the user's goals and emotional state, and so can assist the user in a more effective way.

The Media Lab also does research into integrating more computational intelligence into learning activities. This includes software for learning but also "smart" educational toys such as programmable bricks like Lego Mindstorms and the PicoCricket.^[3] A number of groups are pursuing hybrid art-engineering projects, in developing new tools, media, and instruments for music and other forms of art.

Research at the Media Lab is creative. There is much hands-on building of demos and prototypes, which are then tested extensively and put through many iterations to see what happens when they are used.

The Media Lab maintains a detailed Web site research that is thoroughly updated several times per year.

Funding model

The Lab’s primary source of funding comes from corporate sponsorship. The Media Lab is unique in that it is almost 100% industrially funded. Rather than accepting funding on a per-project or per-group basis, the Media Lab asks sponsors to fund general themes of the Lab; sponsor companies can then connect with Media Lab research in a way that is more spontaneous, but at the same time companies are guided by structured relationships with specific members of the Lab's faculty and research staff, who assist the sponsor companies in deriving the greatest benefit possible from their sponsorship of the Media Lab. The Media Lab is also exploring new methods for making a connection between sponsor businesses and Lab research.

In addition, specific projects and researchers are funded more traditionally through government institutions including the NIH, NSF, and DARPA. Also, consortia with other schools or other departments at MIT are often able to have money that does not enter into the common pool.

Intellectual property

Companies sponsoring the Lab at the "consortium" level or higher can share in the Lab’s intellectual property without paying license fees or royalties. Non-sponsors are precluded from making use of Media Lab developments for at least two years after technical disclosure is made to MIT and Media Lab sponsors. The Media Lab generates approximately 20 new patents every year.

Academic arm

The Media Arts and Sciences program is a part of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, and includes three levels of study: a doctoral program, a master's of science program, and a program that offers an alternative to the standard MIT freshman year as well as a set of undergraduate subjects that may form the basis for a future joint major. All graduate students are fully supported (tuition plus a stipend) from the outset, normally by appointments as research assistants at the Media Laboratory, where they work on research programs and faculty projects, including assisting with courses. These research activities typically take up about half of a student’s time in the degree program.

The Media Arts and Sciences academic program has a very close relationship with the Media Lab. The majority of the Media Lab faculty are professors of Media Arts and Sciences. With very few exceptions, students who earn a degree in Media Arts and Sciences have been predominantly in residence at the Media Lab, taking classes and doing research. Some students from other programs at MIT, such as Mechanical Engineering, or Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, do their research at the Media Lab, working with a Media Lab/Media Arts and Sciences faculty advisor, but earn their degrees (such as MEng or an MS in EECS) from other departments.

Buildings

The new Media Lab building

The Media Lab has expanded with a new building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki.^[4] The 163,000-square-foot (15,100 m²), six-story building features an open, atelier-style, adaptable architecture specifically designed to provide the flexibility to respond to emerging research priorities. High levels of transparency throughout the building's interior will make ongoing research visible, encouraging connections and collaboration among researchers.^[5]

Work began on the building in mid-2007 and occupancy took place in 2009. Construction had been delayed for several years by funding issues related to the dot-com bubble.

Apart from the Media Lab, the building also hosts the List Visual Arts Center, the School of Architecture and Planning's Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), and MIT's Program in Comparative Media Studies.

Faculty and academic research staff

Media Arts and Sciences faculty and academic research staff are principal investigators/heads of the Media Lab's various research groups. They also advise Media Arts and Sciences graduate students, and mentor MIT undergraduates. "Most departments accept grad students based on their prospects for academic success; the Media Lab attempts to select ones that will best be able to help with some of the ongoing projects."^[6]

Currently there are more than 25 faculty and academic research staff members, and two emeritus professors, Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert.

There are several named professorships in the Media Arts and Sciences program:

• E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• Asahi Broadcasting Corporation Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• AT&T Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• Benesse Career Development Professor of Research in Education
• Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. (1954) Professor
• LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research
• LG Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• NEC Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• Sony Corporation Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology

A full list of Media Lab faculty and academic research staff, with bios and other information, is available via the Media Lab Website.^[7]

Selected publications

• Frank Moss: The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives
• Dan Ariely: Predictably Irrational (HarperCollins 2008)
• Stephen A. Benton and V. Michael Bove, Jr.: Holographic Imaging (Wiley 2008)
• William J. Mitchell: Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century, Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City
• Marvin Minsky: The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind, Society of Mind
• John Maeda: The Laws of Simplicity, Design by Numbers
• Cynthia L. Breazeal: Designing Sociable Robots, Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robots (co-editor with Yoseph Bar-Cohen)
• Vanessa Stevens Colella, Eric Klopfer, Mitchel Resnick: Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo
• Rosalind W. Picard: Affective Computing
• Neil Gershenfeld: When Things Start to Think
• Nicholas Negroponte: Being Digital
• Seymour Papert: The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
• Marvin Minsky, Seymour Papert: Perceptrons—Expanded Edition: An Introduction to Computational Geometry
• Mitchel Resnick: Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds
• Idit Harel Caperton: Children Designers

Accomplishments

The MPEG-4 SA project developed at the Media Lab made structured audio a practical reality,^[8] the Aspen Movie Map (precursor to the ideas in Google Street View).

Large numbers of Media Lab-developed technologies made it into products, such as the LEGO Mindstorms and the LEGO WeDo and the pointing stick in IBM laptops, the Benton hologram used in most credit cards, the Fisher-Price's Symphony Painter,^[9] the Nortel Wireless Mesh Network,^[10] the NTT Comware Sensetable,^[11] the Taito’s Karaoke-on-Demand Machine.^[12]

In 2001, MIT Media Lab collaborated to create two spin-offs: Media Lab Asia and Media Lab Europe. Media Lab Asia, based in India, was a result of cooperation with the Government of India but eventually broke off in 2003 after disagreement. Media Lab Europe, based in Dublin, Ireland, was founded with a similar concept in association with Irish universities and government. Media Lab Europe closed in January 2005.

Created collaboratively by the Computer Museum and the Media Lab, the Computer Clubhouse, a worldwide network of after-school learning centers, focuses on youth from underserved communities who would not otherwise have access to technological tools and activities.^[13]

In January 2005, the Lab's chairman emeritus Nicholas Negroponte announced at the World Economic Forum a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop computer, a technology that could revolutionize how the world's children are educated. A non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child, was created to oversee the actual deployment, i.e., MIT will not manufacture or distribute the device.

The Synthetic Neurobiology group creates reagents and devices for the analysis of brain circuits are in use by hundreds of biology labs around the world.

Honors and awards

The Media Lab Web site has a section "Annual report to the president"^[14] that shows major achievements on a year-to-year basis.

Spin-offs

Media Lab industry spin-offs include:

• E Ink, which makes electronic paper displays
• First Mile Solutions, which brings communications infrastructure to rural communities^[15]
• Ambient Devices, which produces glanceable information displays
• nTag Interactive, which makes interactive name tags^{[citation needed]}
• Mobule, an application for mobile phones that can instigate interactions between people.^{[citation needed]}
• Squid Labs, engineering consulting company^{[citation needed]}
• Wireless 5th Dimensional Networking, Inc.^[16] (acquired in 2006),^[17] which developed the first hybrid search engine
• Nanda, a company that markets the Clocky alarm clock^{[citation needed]}
• Harmonix, game company creator of Guitar Hero.
• reQall, a memory aid company.
• Dimagi, a company that develops software for healthcare in the developing world.^{[citation needed]}
• Oblong industries^[18]
• Potion Design, an interactive design firm
• Elance^{[citation needed]}
• Sifteo, a company that has developed a tabletop gaming platform.
• One Laptop per Child's XO laptop^{[citation needed]}
• Sugar Labs, designer of the One Laptop per Child's XO's Sugar graphical user interface
• The Echo Nest, a music intelligence platform

See also

• SixthSense (device)

References

1. ^ Robert Weisman (August 12, 2006). "At Media Lab, less whiz, more bang: High-flying MIT unit refocuses on the practical". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/08/12/at_media_lab_less_whiz_more_bang/. Retrieved 2007-11-21. 
2. ^ John Markoff (April 26, 2011). "M.I.T. Media Lab Names a New Director". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/science/26lab.html. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 
3. ^ "Picocricket.com". Picocricket.com. http://picocricket.com. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
4. ^ Campbell, Robert (December 6, 2009). "Media Lab aims to elevate transparency". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/12/06/mit_media_lab_elevates_transparency/. 
5. ^ September 26, 2006 (2006-09-26). "Web.MIT.edu". Web.MIT.edu. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/media-lab-building.html. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
6. ^ Timmer, John. "Building The Next Big Thing: 25 Years of MIT's Media Lab". Wired News. October 24, 2010.
7. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/people/faculty.html. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
8. ^ Sound.media.MIT.edu^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsorship/getting-value/collaborations/symphonypainter. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
10. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsorship/getting-value/collaborations/nortel. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
11. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsorship/getting-value/collaborations/ntt. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
12. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/sponsorship/getting-value/collaborations/taito. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
13. ^ "Computerclubhouse.org". Computerclubhouse.org. http://www.computerclubhouse.org/. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
14. ^ "Media.MIT.edu". Media.MIT.edu. http://www.media.mit.edu/publications. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
15. ^ "Firstmilesolutions.com". Firstmilesolutions.com. http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/about.php. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
16. ^ "WI5D.net". WI5D.net. http://wi5d.net. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
17. ^ "Panthean.com". Panthaen.com. http://panthaen.com. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
18. ^ "Oblong.com". Oblong.com. http://oblong.com. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 

External links

• Official site
• LabCAST
• LabCAST Media Lab episode
• Twitter account

Coordinates: 42°21′39″N 71°05′16″W / 42.36080°N 71.08768°W / 42.36080; -71.08768