Talk WHAT: Chris Csikszentmihályi and Mitchel Resnick: "What's New at the MIT Media Lab?: Technologies for the Young and the Restless" WHEN: Thursday, March 31, 2005; 5:00 PM EST WHERE: Bartos Theatre, MIT Media Lab (E15) HOST: MIT Communications Forum SUMMARY: In this forum, Media Lab professors Chris Csikszentmihályi and Mitchel Resnick discuss their efforts to develop technologies to empower children and those outside traditional power structures. The session will include examples of projects that are moving out of the Lab and into the world. BIO: Chris Csikszentmihályi is the Benesse Career Development Professor of Research in Education and directs the Computing Culture group at the MIT Media Lab. Interested in cultural narratives, his work typically aims to create a new technology to embody a particular social agenda. "Afghan Explorer," for example, was a technology designed to defend the First Amendment by creating a tele-operated robot reporter that bypasses American military censorship. It recently won an International Association of Art Critics award for Best Web Art. His "Natural Language Processor" was commissioned by the KIASMA Museum in Helsinki, Finland. Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, explores how new technologies can help people learn new things in new ways. Resnick's research group developed the ideas and technologies underlying the LEGO Mindstorms robotics construction kit, used by millions of kids around the world. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, a worldwide network of after-school centers, and is author Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams (1994) and co-author of Adventures in Modeling (2001). MIT Media Laboratory Home Page | Events Main Index