Media Lab alum Ben Fry — an alum of the Aesthetics + Computing/Physical Language Workshop and now a lecturer in MIT’s Architecture Department — is founder of Fathom Information Design, a studio in Boston focused on understanding complicated data problems. The studio's primary project for the past five years has been Sentinel, which brings together a wide network of collaborators to build an “outbreak surveillance framework that prevents pandemics through local empowerment of communities.”

The MacArthur Foundation has awarded Sentinel its 100&Change prize, a $100 million grant that will support the continuation and expansion of this work. Fry and his team have been deeply involved in the project, contributing data-visualization efforts as part of the broader collaboration.