By Janae Sharp

This is the first installment of a two-part story on Rosalind Picard, Sc.D., who is the pioneer of affective computing, which began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. She has two startups in the affective computing space, including Empatica, which makes a wearable to help with epilepsy management. Picard recently spoke at the Intersystems Global Summit, and I had the chance to talk with her about artificial intelligence (AI), depression and autism before her keynote. An edited rundown of our discussion is below.
 
Rosalind Picard started her early work with a question: Can we build computers that think the same way the human brain functions?

This desire to build a better computer meant she needed a better understanding of which parts of the brain were responsible for intelligence and thinking.