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| Established | 1985; 40 years ago (1985)[1] |
|---|---|
| Budget | $80 million[2] |
Field of research | Technology,multimedia,sciences,art,design |
| Directors | Jessica Rosenworcel,Tod Machover |
| Location | Cambridge,Massachusetts, United States |
| Website | media |
TheMIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in theSchool of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws fromtechnology,media,science,art, anddesign.[3] As of 2014[update], Media lab's research groups includeneurobiology,[4]biologically inspired fabrication,[5]socially engaging robots,[6]emotive computing,[7]bionics,[8] andhyperinstruments.[9]
The media lab was founded in 1985 byNicholas Negroponte and former MIT PresidentJerome Wiesner, and is housed in theWiesner Building (designed byI. M. Pei), also known as Building E15. The lab has been written about in the popular press since 1988, whenStewart Brand publishedThe Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T., and its work was a regular feature of technology journals in the 1990s. In 2009, it expanded into a second building.[10]
The media lab came under scrutiny in 2019 due to its acceptance of donations from convicted child sex offenderJeffrey Epstein. This led to the resignation of its director,Joi Ito,[11] and the launch of an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation into the "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein" byL. Rafael Reif, the president of MIT.[12][13]
In December 2020,Dava Newman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and former deputy administrator ofNASA underObama, was named the new director of the MIT Media Lab.[14]
The founding director of the lab wasNicholas Negroponte, who directed it until 2000. Later directors wereWalter Bender (2000–2006),Frank Moss (2006–2011),[15] andJoi Ito (2011-2019) who resigned in connection with theJeffrey Epstein scandal.[11] Later,Dava Newman (2021–2025) took the position as the first woman to do so.[16]
Following Newman's departure,Jessica Rosenworcel was selected for a new role of "Executive Director", in charge of the public-facing duties, sharing responsibilities withTod Machover, who was named "Faculty Director" to oversee the academic and research side of the lab.[17][18][19]
As of 2014[update], the media lab had roughly 70 administrative and support staff members. Associate directors of the lab wereHiroshi Ishii andAndrew Lippman.Pattie Maes andMitchel Resnick were co-heads of the program in media arts and sciences, and the lab's chief knowledge officer was Henry Holtzman.
The media lab has at times had regional branches in other parts of the world, such as Media Lab Europe and Media Lab Asia, each with their own staff and governing bodies.[20][21]
The lab's primary funding comes fromcorporate sponsorship. Rather than accepting funding on a per-project or per-group basis, the lab asks sponsors to fund general themes; sponsors can then connect with media lab research. Specific projects and researchers are also funded more traditionally through US government institutions including theNIH,NSF, andDARPA. Also, consortia with other schools or other departments at MIT are often able to have money that does not enter into the common pool.
MIT Media Lab has an approximately $75 million annual operating budget.[22]
Companies sponsoring the lab can share in the lab's intellectual property without paying license fees or royalties. Non-sponsors cannot make use of media lab developments for two years after technical disclosure is made to MIT and media lab sponsors. The media lab generates approximately 20 new patents every year.[citation needed]
Some recurring themes of work at the media lab include human adaptability,[23]human computer interaction, education and communication, artistic creation and visualization, and designing technology for the developing world. Other research focus includes machines with common sense, sociable robots, prosthetics, sensor networks, musical devices, city design, and public health. Research programs all include iterative development of prototypes which are tested and displayed for visitors.[24]
Each of these areas of research may incorporate others. Interaction design research includes designing intelligent objects and environments. Educational research has also included integrating more computation into learning activities – including software for learning, programmable toys, and artistic or musical instruments. Examples includeLego Mindstorms, thePicoCricket, andOne Laptop per Child.[25]
The lab has over twenty research groups.[26]
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 have a close relationship with the media lab. Most media lab faculty are professors of media arts and sciences. 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. Over 1,000 students apply to the MAS program and the admission is less than 5% per year.
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In addition to the media lab, the combined original Wiesner building (E15) and new (E14) buildings also host theList Visual Arts Center, theSchool of Architecture and Planning's Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), and MIT's Program in Comparative Media Studies.
In 2009, the media lab expanded into a new building designed byPritzker Prize-winning Japanese architectFumihiko Maki.[27] The local architect of record was Leers Weinzapfel Associates, of Boston. The Maki building has predominantly glass walls, with long lines of sight through the building, making ongoing research visible and encouraging connections and collaboration.[28]
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."[29]
As of 2014[update], there are more than 25 faculty and academic research staff members, including a dozen named professorships. A full list of media lab faculty and academic research staff, with bios and other information, is available via the media lab website.[30]
As of August 2019[update],Alex Pentland is professor of media arts and sciences, Toshiba Professor and Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program Director.[31]
In August 2019, directorJoi Ito said that the organization had received funding from multimillionaire convicted child sex offenderJeffrey Epstein through foundations Epstein controlled; that Ito had visited several of Epstein's residences; and that Epstein had invested "in several of my funds which invest in tech startup companies outside of MIT".[32][33] Ito later admitted to taking $525,000 in funding from Epstein for the lab. In 2019, media lab founder Nicholas Negroponte expressed support for Ito's decision to accept the funding from Epstein.[34] Also in 2019, a federal court deposition was unsealed in whichVirginia Giuffre stated that Epstein's associate directed her to have sex with former media lab professorMarvin Minsky.[35][36][37][38]
In September 2019, it was revealed by emails leaked toRonan Farrow ofThe New Yorker that Ito and Peter Cohen, the MIT Media Lab's director of development and strategy at the time, have worked for years to solicit anonymous donations from Epstein despite Epstein being marked as Disqualified by the university as a donor. Ito has referred to Epstein as "fascinating".[39]
Ito resigned due to the scandal shortly after the New Yorker article.[11] L. Rafael Reif, the president of MIT, announced an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation to be led by an outside law firm into the "extremely serious" allegations.[12]
On January 10, 2020, the executive committee of the MIT Corporation, the institute's governing board, released the results ofGoodwin Procter's fact-finding regarding interactions between Jeffrey Epstein and the Institute.[40] The report revealed that Epstein made 10 donations through various entities to MIT totaling $850,000, including nine donations, totaling $750,000, made after his 2008 conviction. In 2002, four years before Epstein's first arrest for a sex offense, Epstein made a $100,000 donation to MIT through a charitable foundation to support the research of ProfessorMarvin Minsky (former Toshiba Professor of media arts and sciences, media lab). Epstein's $100,000 donation in May 2013 was intended to be used at Joi Ito's discretion. His donations in November 2013 and in July and September 2014, totaling $300,000, were made to support research byJoscha Bach, a media lab research fellow from Germany whom Epstein introduced to Ito in 2013.Bach declined to be interviewed for Goodwin Procter's fact-finding.[41] Epstein's other donations to the media lab between 2015 and 2017, totaling $350,000, were made to support ProfessorSeth Lloyd (Professor of Mechanical Engineering, $225,000), and ProfessorNeri Oxman (associate professor of media arts and sciences, $125,000).
Shortly after signing a petition in support of Ito, attorney and political activistLawrence Lessig argued that the undesirable nature of donations to academic institutions from criminals like Epstein, whose fortune does not derive from their crimes, is partially mitigated if the donations are anonymous. He argues that it was "a mistake to take this money, even if anonymous," but that "if you take them, at least don't give the criminal a chance to publicly launder his reputation". "Everyone seems to treat it as if the anonymity and secrecy around Epstein's gift are a measure of some kind of moral failing," Lessig wrote. "I see it as exactly the opposite."[42][43]
The Boston Globe reported it had seen emails indicatingBill Gates had donated $2.2 million to the media lab through Epstein.[44]
On March 24, 2018, Saudi Arabian Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman visited MIT and prompted protests.[45] Salman's non-profit foundation MiSK was a member company of the lab until 2018.[46] According toThe New York Times, a sizable part of the annual budget of the lab comes from corporate patrons, who pay at least $250,000 each year. Prince Mohammed's personal foundation was among the roughly 90 members at their time of membership.[47]
Books
Some media lab-developed technologies made it into products or public software packages, such as theLego Mindstorms, LEGO WeDo and thepointing stick in IBM laptop keyboards[citation needed], theBenton hologram used in most credit cards, the Fisher-Price's Symphony Painter,[48] the Nortel Wireless Mesh Network,[49] the NTT Comware Sensetable,[50] the Taito's Karaoke-on-Demand Machine.[51] A 1994 device called the Sensor Chair used to control a musical orchestra was adapted by several car manufacturers into capacitive sensors to prevent dangerousairbag deployments.[52][53]
The MPEG-4 SA project developed at the Media Lab madestructured audio a practical reality[54] and theAspen Movie Map was the precursor to the ideas inGoogle Street View.
In 2001, two research centers were spun off:Media Lab Asia andMedia Lab Europe. Media Lab Asia, based inIndia, was a result of cooperation with theGovernment of India but eventually broke off in 2003 after a disagreement. Media Lab Europe, based inDublin,Ireland, was founded with a similar concept in association withIrish universities andgovernment, and 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.[55]
Launched in 2003,Scratch[56] is a block-based programming language and community developed for children 8–16, and used by people of all ages to learn programming.[57] Millions of people have created Scratch projects in a wide variety of settings, including homes, schools, museums, libraries, and community centers.
In January 2005, the lab's chairman emeritusNicholas Negroponte announced at theWorld Economic Forum a new research initiative to develop a$100 laptop computer. A non-profit organization,One Laptop per Child, was created to oversee the actual deployment, MIT did not manufacture or distribute the device.
The Synthetic Neurobiology group created reagents and devices for the analysis of brain circuits are in use by hundreds of biology labs around the world.
In 2011,Ramesh Raskar's group published theirfemto-photography technique, that is able to image the movement of individual light pulses.[58]
In 2013, the Media Lab launched E14 Fund as a program to support and invest in MIT Media Lab startups.[59] In 2017, E14 Fund[60] launched its first seed stage venture fund to invest in the MIT Media Lab startup community. It invested in companies likeFormlabs,Affectiva, Tulip Interfaces, Wise Systems, Figur8 and more.[61]
Media Lab industry spin-offs include:[62]
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