Project Research

CivilServant: User-led randomized trials online

The CivilServant project supports online communities to run their own experiments on the effects of moderation practices on antisocial beha…
Archived
Publication Research

Defund Big Tech, Refund Community: Anti-Trust is Not Enough, Another Tech is Possible

Barendregt, W., Becker, C., Cheon, E., Clement, A., Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Schuler, D., & Suchman, L. (2021). Defund Big Tech, Refund Community. Tech Otherwise. https://doi.org/10.21428/93b2c832.e0100a3f
Project Research

Curriculum: Power + AI

Check out the project site here. The pursuit of justice in AI requires more than just tweaking the numbers. It requires us to “study up”—t…
Project Research

Resilience Across Scales

Resilience Across Scales is a research theme that encompasses the work of a few Media Lab Principal Investigators and their research groups…
Project Research

[bike] swarm

As bikes navigate city streets after dark, they are often equipped with lights. The lights make the bikes visible to cars or other bikers, …
Archived
Project Research

Viral Vote

Climate change and the domino effect it creates will require coordination at scales we haven’t seen and new forms of organization to addres…
Archived
Project Research

Gigbox: a research and development toolkit centering workers in the gig economy

Delivery workers, ridehail drivers, and other gig workers are increasingly controlled through algorithmic decision-making, fueled by data a…
Project Research

Corporate surveillance of the commons + Amazon Ring

As of August 2020, Ring has active partnerships with over 1400 law enforcement agencies across the US. These partnerships allow law enforce…
Archived
Project Research

Voter Education through Network Analytics

In “normal” times, the process of voting can be confusing enough for many Americans -- from whether and where they’re registered, to absent…
Archived
Archived
Research
Design Fiction

Sparking discussion about the social, cultural, and ethical implications of emerging technologies through design and storytelling
Article Research

Literati CTO Finds “Tech for Good” in Boxes of Books

Civic Media alum Charlie DeTar talks to the MIT Alumni Association about his work with Literati, using technology for social good, and more.
Archived
Project Research

Streetchange

Computer vision uncovers predictors of physical urban change

Archived
Project Research

Algorithmic Justice League

www.ajl.orgAn unseen force is rising—helping to determine who is hired, granted a loan, or even how long someone spends in prison. This for…
Article Research

Episode 89: Chelsea Barabas

Joshua B. Hoe interviews Chelsea Barabas of MIT about criminal justice monitoring, surveillance, and algorithms
Post Research

City Science team wins Best Student Paper Award at Computing Conference 2020

Congratulations to City Science researchers Alex Berke, Jason Nawyn, Thomas Sanchez Lengeling, and group head Kent Larson!
Archived
Project Research

Moral Machine

The Moral Machine is a platform for gathering a human perspective on moral decisions made by machine intelligence, such as self-driving car…
Archived
Article Research

AI researchers say scientific publishers help perpetuate racist algorithms

“This is why we keep seeing race science emerging time and again," writes Chelsea Barabas. "It’s because publishers publish it."
Publication Research

Contact Tracing Technologies: Methods and trade-offs

Alex Berke and Kent Larson, City Science group, MIT Media Lab (2020).
Project Research

ChampScope

Virtual CityScope Champs-Élysées is an interactive and immersive platform that explores the future of Paris’ most important street.
Post Research

Media Lab @ Design, Technology + Social Innovation Workshop 2020

The following Media Lab students joined the MIT India Initiative in Mumbai for this workshop.
Article Research

Building a more honest internet

What would social media look like if it served the public interest?
Post Research

Joy Buolamwini and Amanda Nguyen chosen for TIME 100 Next 2019

Congratulations to Joy Buolamwini and Amanda Nguyen for being recognized in the "Advocates" category.
Article Research

Artificial intelligence can be biased. Here’s what you should know.

Joy Buolamwini talks to Frontline about bias in AI, and what can be done about it.
Article Research

World's 100 most influential people in digital government 2019

Commending a formidable variety of international change-makers driving digital transformation in government.
Post Research

Alum Erhardt Graeff receives Best Dissertation Award

The Association of Internet Researchers has recognized alum Erhardt Graeff, now an assistant professor of social and computer science at Ol…
Archived
Project Research

Empowerment-based design and evaluation of civic technology

Civic technology should empower us as citizens. But despite its breadth as a field, civic technology often takes its lead from Silicon Vall…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Let's play: Waste at MIT

Let's play: Waste at MIT is a game about trash; it’s also a game about understanding civic infrastructure. This project explores the use of…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Boycott!

A web browser extension that reveals less well-known aspects of corporate public behavior such as environmental respect and political bias.…
Archived
Project Research

RelatiVotey

Many people think their vote doesn't count—that a single vote would not change an election's outcome—and they stay home on Election Day. Ho…
Project Research

CityScope PlayGround: MIT East Campus

This project depicts the design, deployment and operation of a Tangible Regulation Platform, a physical-technological apparatus made for th…
Article Research

Face recognition researcher fights Amazon over biased AI

Joy Buolamwini talks to the AP about her work on algorithmic bias.
Article Research

On recent research auditing commercial facial analysis technology

An open letter asking Amazon to stop selling Rekognition to law enforcement agencies.
Article Research

AI experts question Amazon’s facial-recognition technology

More than three dozen AI researchers have signed an open letter asking Amazon to stop selling Rekognition to law enforcement agencies.
Article Research

‘Atlas of Inequality’ maps where rich, poor do and don’t mix

Visiting professor Esteban Moro talks to Next City about the Atlas of Inequality.
Article Research

'Atlas Of Inequality' shows income segregation around Boston

Esteban Moro talks to WBUR about the Human Dynamics group's Atlas of Inequality.
Article Research

Visualizing where rich and poor people really cross paths—or don’t

These maps show “place inequality"—or why people of different income levels are at different coffee shops.
Article Research

The 'Atlas of Inequality' maps micro-level segregation

MIT Media Lab’s new interactive “Atlas of Inequality” shows that “segregation is not just about where you live, but what you do."
Article Research

Artificial intelligence has a problem with gender and racial bias. Here’s how to solve it.

Joy Buolamwini’s essay is featured in the Optimists issue of Time, guest-edited by Ava DuVernay.
Article Research

Defense of Amazon's face recognition tool undermined by its only known police client

So far Amazon’s frontline defense against advocates and academics has been: Researchers are setting the search parameters incorrectly.
Article Research

Amazon is pushing facial technology that a study says could be biased

Amazon’s system had more difficulty identifying the gender of female and darker-skinned faces than similar services from IBM and Microsoft.
Article Research

Give way to droids, bots, and drones: the driverless city will look like this

An NYC exhibit imagines driverless buses and mobile medical units resembling Popemobiles.
Article Research

Should we be worried about computerized facial recognition?

The technology could revolutionize policing, medicine, even agriculture—but its applications can easily be weaponized.
Article Research

Capturing Challenges

MIT Media Lab professor Ramesh Raskar talks about how his high-tech inventions and initiatives can help solve real-world problems.
Project Research

CityMatrix

An Urban Decision-Support System Augmented by Artificial IntelligenceThe decision-making process in urban design and urban planning is outd…
Article Research

Tech community wrestles over working with government

Hiawatha Bray reports on the unrest bubbling up in the tech industry.
Article Research

AR is transforming tech. What can it do for cities?

Cities need to work to ensure that AR makes the leap from “cool experience,” to a technology that improves residents’ lives.
Thesis Research

Evaluating Civic Technology Design for Citizen Empowerment

Graeff, Erhardt (2018). Evaluating Civic Technology Design for Citizen Empowerment. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Archived
Project Research

Mission Wildlife

Mission Wildlife is a research collaboration between San Diego Zoo Global and the MIT Center for Civic Media to explore the poten…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Action Path

Action Path is a mobile app to help people learn about and engage with issues in their community. The app uses push notifications tied to g…
Archived
Article Research

If you’re a darker-skinned woman, this is how often facial-recognition software decides you’re a man

All people are created equal, but in the eyes of the algorithm, not all faces are just yet.A new study from MIT and Microsoft res…
Article Research

Even when spotting gender, current face recognition tech works better for white dudes

A new review of face recognition software found that, when identifying gender, the software is most accurate for men with light skin&n…
Article Research

Joy Buolamwini: How does facial recognition software see skin color?
Article Research

Why facial recognition software has trouble recognizing people of color
Article Research

Study finds gender and skin-type bias in commercial artificial-intelligence systems

Examination of facial-analysis software shows error rate of 0.8 percent for light-skinned men, 34.7 percent for dark-skinned women.
Article Research

Facial recognition software is biased towards white men, researcher finds

New research out of MIT’s Media Lab is underscoring what other experts have reported or at least suspected before: facial recognition techn…
Thesis Research

POWERSTRUCTURES : the urban form of regulations

POWERSTRUCTURES : the urban form of regulations, Noyman, Ariel, Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2015.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (pages 232-236).
Publication Research

Mission Wildlife: An Augmented Reality Approach to Engaging People About Threats to Endangered Species at a Zoo

Ho, P. H., Miller, G. A., Wang M. Y., Haleftiras, N., Zuckerman, E. 2017. Mission Wildlife: An Augmented Reality Approach to Engaging People About Threats to Endangered Species at a Zoo. In proceedings of Unobtrusive User Experiences with Technology in Nature (NatureCHI'17) at the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI'17).
Archived
Project Research

Open Source Estrogen

Biomolecules to biopolitics: hormones with institutional biopower! Open Source Estrogen combines do-it-yourself science, body and gender po…
Archived
Article Research

MIT creates an AI to predict urban decay

Facebook volunteers and work-at-home moms might be making city planning decisions, thanks to AI research conducted by MIT scientists. Resea…
Article Research

Computer vision shows how Brooklyn streets really are changing

Using computer vision to examine Google Street View, the researchers analyzed how streets and blocks have changed in five American cities.
Article Research

Mit Media Lab Uses Machine Learning to Analyze How Neighborhoods Improve

Tested with five American cities, Streetchange quantifies the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods.
Article Research

Why Neighborhoods Get Better: Research Provides Insights That May Surprise You

A recently published paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looks at factors that predict neighborhood change.
Article Research

Why do some neighborhoods improve?

Researchers have used machine learning to quantify the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods in five American cities.
Post Research

How I'm fighting bias in algorithms

Joy Buolamwini's TED Talk
Article Research

Facial recognition technology is both biased and understudied

Algorithms used by the police are better at identifying some racial groups than others. Why is hardly anyone studying this?
Thesis Research

Open Source Estrogen
Post Research

Designing for Monitorial Citizenship

On April 26, 2017, Erhardt Graeff spoke about "Designing for Monitorial Citizenship" at The Impact of Civic Technology Conference (TICTeC) …
Thesis Research

Action Path: A Location-based Tool for Civic Reflection and Engagement

Graef, E. "Action Path: A Location-based Tool for Civic Reflection and Engagement"
Publication Research

Making Drones Civic: Values and Design Principles for Civic Technology

Graeff, Erhardt and J. Nathan Matias. 2015. ‘Making Drones Civic: Values and Design Principles for Civic Technology.’ Presented during the “Unmanned Rights: Drone Use By Civil Society” panel at ISA 56th Annual Convention, New Orleans, Feb 20.
Publication Research

Strike Debt and the Rolling Jubilee—Building a Debt Resistance Movement

Graeff, Erhardt. 2016. ‘Strike Debt and the Rolling Jubilee—Building a Debt Resistance Movement.’ In Gordon, E. & Mihailidis, P., eds., Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 137–146.