Watch archived videos from the event, including mainstage programming and selected demos; note that you must have a Media Lab login to access these videos. If you are an employee of a member organization and do not have a Media Lab login, you may request one.

Registration is closed.

If you have any questions, please contact events@media.mit.edu .

Lodging + Transportation

Several hotels are within walking distance of the Media Lab and Kendall Square's dynamic, innovation-focused neighborhood. Many more are accessible via public transit, taxi, or rideshare.  

Detailed Agenda

Schedule is subject to change. All times are US Eastern Time.

Virtual: A livestream of the event's main stage will be hosted on this page.

As this is an invitation-only event, the livestream will be password-protected. The password has been sent to all attendees via email. 

Virtual Open House sessions will be held over Zoom. See details on the research below in the agenda.

–  April 3, 4:30pm (US Eastern): mit.zoom.us/j/97731843826
–  April 4, 4:30pm (US Eastern): mit.zoom.us/j/93654700730

The passcode has been sent to all attendees via email. 

DAY 1:  Monday, April 3

8:00am – 8:45am:  Registration + Breakfast

Registration in E14 Lobby; Breakfast on the 6th floor in Winter Garden
Prospect and New Member Breakfast in Director’s Suite  (E14-245)

8:45am – 9:00am:  Welcome in Multi-Purpose Room

Prof. Dava Newman Opening Remarks

Research Futures:

9:00am – 10:00am:  Discover 

• 9:00 – 9:10  Prof. Pattie Maes, Fluid Interfaces
• 9:10 – 9:20  Prof. Hiroshi Ishii,  Tangible Media
• 9:20 – 9:30  Prof. Deblina Sarkar, Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek
• 9:30 – 9:40  Prof. Joseph Paradiso, Responsive Environments
• 9:40 – 9:50  Dr. Andrew Lippman, Viral Communications
• 9:50 – 10:00  Prof. Zach Lieberman, Future Sketches

10:00am–10:15am:  Break

10:15am – 11:15am:  Create

• 10:15 – 10:25  Prof. Canan Dagdeviren, Conformable Decoders
• 10:25 – 10:35  Prof. Mitchel Resnick,  Lifelong Kindergarten
• 10:35 – 10:45  Prof. Ramesh Raskar, Camera Culture
• 10:45 – 10:55  Prof. Ekene Ijeoma, Poetic Justice
• 10:55 – 11:05  Kent Larson, City Science
• 11:05 – 11:15  Prof. Tod Machover, Opera of the Future

11:15am – 12:00pm:  Research Theme Highlights Panel 

A unique panel discussion moderated by Prof. Dava Newman with audience interaction.  Participants include:
Pat Pataranutaporn, Hope Schroeder, Ziv Epstein, Dr. Minoo Rathnasabapathy; Moderator: Prof. Dava Newman

The research themes include:

• Life with AI:  AI-focused on people—especially how novel AI technologies and applications can improve the human experience. 
• Decentralized Society:  Designing a more resilient, equitable, secure, participatory, and open future—focusing on Web3 and digital currency.
• Future Worlds:  Energy, food, and security for sustained life on Earth and beyond.

12:00pm – 12:50pm:  Lunch in the Winter Garden 

12:50pm – 2:20pm:  Cultivating Creativity (Part 1)

The accelerating disruptions and disconnections in today’s society highlight the urgency for us all to become more inventive, empathetic, and—especially—creative in everything we do. In this session, Media Lab faculty and grad students join renowned arts, education, business, and government leaders to explore strategies, practices, and technologies to catalyze a global creativity movement. Through panel discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on creative activities, we’ll explore how everyone can unlock and unleash their creative potential to spark a more joyful, meaningful, and equitable future. 

• 12:50 pm: Yo-Yo Ma performance video
• 1:00 pm: Cultivating Creativity: What? Why Now? Why Here?
  Prof. Tod Machover, Prof. Mitchel Resnick
• 1:05 pm: Creativity + Curiosity: Yo-Yo Ma
  ...in discussion with Prof. Tod Machover and Prof. Mitchel Resnick
• 1:15 pm: Cultivating Creativity at the Media Lab
  A conversation with faculty/researchers moderated by Prof. Tod Machover, and Prof. Mitchel Resnick
  Prof. Zach Lieberman, Future Sketches, Prof. Danielle Wood, Space Enabled, Dr. David Kong, Community Biology, and Prof. Ekene Ijeoma, Poetic Justice
  
• 1:40 pm: A Worldwide Movement of Creativity
  Moderated by Prof. Mitchel Resnick
  Tiffany Chu, Chief of Staff to City of Boston Mayor, Michelle Wu
  Songyee Yoon, President, NCSOFT, Member of the MIT Corporation, and Founder, The Projectory
  Rupal Jain, Director of Creative Learning Initiatives, Lifelong Kindergarten group
• 2:00 pm: Creative Bursts—The Future of Creativity
  A discussion with MAS grad students, moderated by Dr. David Kong
  Vera van de Seyp, Future Sketches; Prathima Muniyappa, Space Enabled; Jaleesa Trapp, Lifelong Kindergarten; Manaswi Mishra, Opera of the Future; Jessie Mindel, Opera of the Future

2:20pm – 2:30pm:  Intermission (Jacob Collier concert video)

2:30pm – 3:15pm:  Cultivating Creativity  (Part 2) in Multi-Purpose Room

Extreme Creativity...for Everyone!  Speaking and Singing with Jacob Collier, composer/performer/producer/motivator
Moderated by Prof. Tod Machover, featuring Ben Bloomberg: music tech visionary, Jacob Collier collaborator, and MAS PhD (2020).

3:15pm – 3:25pm:  Closing Remarks for Day 1 in Multi-Purpose Room

Prof. Hiroshi Ishii

3:25pm – 6:15pm:  Media Lab Open House

• 4:30pm: Virtual Open House on Zoom: 
  mit.zoom.us/j/97731843826 / passcode via email to virtual attendees
  Research from the Tangible Media group
  –  Jack Forman:  FibeRobo: Powerful Body-Temperature Morphing Fibers
  –  Ozgun Afsar:  RoboFluid/LumiFab: a fluidic knitted network of hydraulic microactuators and fiber-based electrohydrodynamic pumps with a self-contained architecture.
  –  D. Pillis:  TeleAbsence—ambientPhoneBooth: Place a "phone call" to a time and place where the presence of a loved one is available. 
  

6:15pm – 7:45pm: Reception

• 6:30 pm: Experimental Performances of new work by Opera of the Future students in the 6th Floor Lecture Hall (E14-633)
  Jessica Shand, Manuel Cherep, and Kimy Lecamwasam; Charlie Lovell-Jones - violin
• 7:30 pm: First U.S. Performance of Tod Machover’s Resolve Remote for violin and electronics in the Multipurpose Room
  Charlie Lovell-Jones, violin

DAY 2: Tuesday, April 4

8:00am – 8:30am:  Registration + Breakfast

Registration in E14 Lobby; Breakfast on 6th floor in Winter Garden 

8:30am – 8:45am: Welcome in Multi-Purpose Room

Dr. Andrew Lippman

Research Futures:

8:45am – 9:45am:  Evolve 

• 8:45 – 8:55  Prof. Kevin Esvelt, Sculpting Evolution
• 8:55 – 9:05  Prof. Rosalind Picard, Affective Computing
• 9:05 – 9:15  Prof. Hugh Herr, Biomechatronics
• 9:15 – 9:25  Prof. Cynthia Breazeal, Personal Robots
• 9:25 – 9:35  Prof. Joseph Jacobson, Molecular Machines
• 9:35 – 9:45  Prof. Deb Roy, MIT Center for Constructive Communication

9:45am – 10:00am:  Break

10:00am – 11:00am:  Explore 

• 10:00 – 10:10  Prof. Danielle Wood, Space Enabled
• 10:10 – 10:20  Dr. Neha Narula, Digital Currency Initiative
• 10:20 – 10:30  Prof. Alex Pentland, Human Dynamics
• 10:30 – 10:40  Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, Space Exploration Initiative
• 10:40 – 10:50  Dr. David Kong, Community Biotechnology
• 10:50 – 11:00  Prof. Fadel Adib, Signal Kinetics

11:00am – 12:00pm:  E14 Fund Startup Showcase in Multi-Purpose Room

Thirteen portfolio companies of the E14 Fund—the early-stage venture capital firm from and for the Media Lab startup community—take the stage to introduce their startups.

11:00am – Welcome
Habib Haddad and Calvin Chin, Managing Partners, E14 Fund

11:04 am – Jifei Ou, OPT Industries
11:07 am – Q&A with Habib Haddad, Calvin Chin and Jifei Ou
11:10 am –Tristan Swedish, Ubicept
11:13 am – Elaheh Ahmadi Themis AI
11:16 am – Leo Bonnani, Sourcemap
11:19 am – Q&A with Habib Haddad, Calvin Chin and Leo Bonnani
11:22 am – Raven Smith, Figur8
11:25 am – Jeff Orkin, Central Casting AI
11:28 am – Loewen Cavill, Amira
11:31 am – Brendan Smith, SiTration
11:34 am – Vinayak Ramesh, Ikigai
11:37 am – Joyce Wang, Ontologic
11:40 am – Andrew Magyar, Capra Biosciences
11:43 am – Marcelo Coelho, Formlabs
11:46 am – Layla Shaikley, Wise Systems
11:49 am –Q&A with Habib Haddad, Calvin Chin, and Layla Shaikley

12:00pm – 1:00pm:  Lunch in the Winter Garden | All Liaison Meeting in E14-245

1:00pm – 2:00pm:  Connected Mind + Body

We aim to shape the future intersection where technology meets the human body and mind.  Creating new kinds of sensing and interfaces, affective AI, and completely new ways to make technology ultra-tiny, we are enabling new ways to influence health and experiences daily and nightly, to see and know things about ourselves that were not visible before, and even to go directly into the brain and change how it is healed.  Beyond understanding the normal mind-body connection, we seek to improve human health and experience in ways never before achievable.

The Now

• 1:00pm –  Introduction
  Dr. David Kong, Moderator

• 1:05pm — Reading brain state of mental health from body signals (wearables + AI + smartphone data)
  Dr. Szymon Fedor,  Affective Computing
• 1:15pm — Robots/Chatbots/Stories + Humanizing AI for Emotional Wellbeing
  Jocelyn Shen, Personal Robots
• 1:25pm — Seamless Integration of Nanoelectronics with Biology
  Baju Joy, Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek
• 1:35pm — Aastha Shah, Conformable Decoders
• 1:45pm — Sleep Interventions: Altering Sleep Onset, Sleep Depth, Memory + Performance with Sleep Interfaces
  Dr. Nathan Whitmore + Abhinandan Jain; Fluid Interfaces
• 1:55pm — Part 1 Wrap Up
  Dr. David Kong

2:00pm – 2:15pm:  Break

2:15pm – 3:10pm:  Connected Mind + Body

The Future

• 2:15pm — Question Gathering
• 2:20pm — "The Bar" is  Open
• 2:25pm — Panel at the Bar
  Dr. David Kong, bartender
  –  Prof. Rosalind Picard
  –  Prof. Deblina Sarkar
  –  Prof. Canan Dagdeviren
  –  Prof. Pattie Maes
• 3:00pm — Last Call
  A toast to the MIT Media Lab and its members for making this future possible.  Thank you, and join us in inventing a better and more just future—by, with, and for all.

3:10pm – 3:20pm:  Closing Remarks for Day 2

Prof. Ramesh Raskar

3:20pm – 6:15pm:  Media Lab Open House

• 4:30pm: Virtual Open House on Zoom: 
  mit.zoom.us/j/93654700730 / passcode via email to virtual attendees
  Research from the City Science group
  –  Andres Rico: Axol Sensing System: Low-cost sensors to help informal communities in Guadalajara, Mexico manage their water resources more effectively.
  –  Thomas Sanchez Lengling, Markus ElKatsha: RoboScope: a transformable, tangible-interface developed for the CityScope platform.
  – Leticia Izquierdo, Vincy Xiao and Gabriela Bílá: ImmerScope: Generative AI for Cities utilizing machine learning algorithms to imagine and extrapolate current and proposed scenarios in reaction to complex urban problems.

6:15pm – 7:45pm:  Reception

DAY 3: Wednesday, April 5

• Office Hours for members - contact your External Relations Manager to make arrangements.
• Research Theme-centered discussion group.

Arts Around the Lab

1: Ground Level 

• Danielle Wood (Space Enabled) 
  Design for the Future: A Choreopoem 
• Erik Strand (Center for Bits and Atoms); Anna Buchele; Marcus Edmonds; Manaswi Mishra (Opera of the Future); Paris Myers (Biomechatronics); Serge Vasylechko
  Junkyard RAVE 
• Vera van de Seyp (Future Sketches)
  ZenBot 

2: Second Level 

Phillip Cherner (Space Enabled); Kachina Studer (MIT); Serge Vasylechko (MIT); Daniel Jacobs-Luengo (MIT)
Dream Machine

• Eyal Perry (Molecular Machines); Isabella Loaiza-Saa (Human Dynamics)
  VisionWeb: Co-Created Future Research Map 
• Russ Gant (Harvard), Studio125, Harvard Viz Lab, MIT Media Lab Viz Lab, Scalable Display Technologies, and NeCSys
  In-Vision

3: Third Level 

• RNKOLEKTIVE (Alfonso Parra Rubio, The Center for Bits and Atoms; Jurģis Ruža, MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering) 
  Metallic Kusudama 
• AI Alchemy Labs (Amy Smith, Viral Communications, MIT-D Lab; Ziv Epstein, Human Dynamics; Hope Schroeder, MIT Center for Constructive Communication) 
  AI Alchemy Labs 
• Cathy Fang (Tangible Media) 
  MuMa 
• Chelsi Cocking (Future Sketches), assisted by Kelly Lu (Future Sketches UROP IAP 2022), and Eri-ife Olayinka (Future Sketches UROP Spring 2023) 
  Photorythms Interactive 
• D. Pillis (Tangible Media), in collaboration with Erick Oduniyi (Viral Communications); Ozgun Kilic Afsar (Tangible Media); Simeon Radev (Molecular Machines); Dong Won Lee (Personal Robots); Lige Zhang 
  Media Lab Metaverse 
• Eric Schilling (Lifelong Kindergarten) 
  OctoStudio Compilation 
• Jack Reid (Space Enabled) 
  Scenes of Our Home 

4: Fourth Level 

• Cathy Fang (Tangible Media) 
  A Shadow Projection of Calligraphic Motion 
• Manuj Dhariwal (Lifelong Kindergarten) 
  Who Am I? 
• Mich Lin (Space Exploration Initiative) 
  Hyperbolic Geometry Through Fiber Arts 
• Paris Myers (Biomechatronics) 
  Dynamic Pseudo-Hologram

5: Fifth Level 

• Cassie Lee (MIT Center for Constructive Communication) 
  Impractical Questions 
• Don Derek Haddad; Cedric Honnet; Irmandy Wicaksono (Responsive Environments) 
  Sonic Knit: Making Music with a Textile Touch Sensor 
• Kyung Yun Choi (Tangible Media) 
  The Stranger 
• Ufuoma Ovienmhada (Space Enabled) 
  Listening to the Margins: Narratives of Environmental Injustice from Incarcerated People

6: Sixth Level 

• D. Pillis (Tangible Media) 
  Please Take Me With You 
• Manuel Cherep; Jessica Shand (Opera of the Future) 
  MOTHERBIRD for flute and electronics 
• Tod Machover (Opera of the Future) 
  Resolve Remote