David Colby Reed is a systems designer, educator, and technologist. 

He is currently a PhD student at the Media Lab, where he's a member of the Space Enabled research group and a cofounder of the Space Governance Collaborative.  His research focuses on designing participation, voice, and equity into the architectures of complex systems like law, economies, and technologies. The Big Idea is to design systems that create patterns of social relations that are compatible with democracy. 

Prior to coming to MIT, he founded, with Lee-Sean Huang, Foossa, a service design, strategy, and futuring practice based in NYC. His Foossa projects have ranged from one-day design thinking and problem-framing workshops, to years-long service innovation projects in partnership with clients and other stakeholders. He's worked to design public services for the City of New York, storytelling experiences for the Kigali Genocide Memorial, technology tools for multilateral organizations, and financial instruments to advance economic security, among other projects. 

He's also worked on projects to advance the ethical governance of artificially intelligent systems, and he's a past Fellow of the Assembly program at the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard and the MIT Media Lab. 

He's a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and a former trustee of the NYC chapter of the Awesome Foundation. He has served on his local community board in Manhattan for several years, and been a lecturer in design and management at the Parsons School of Design at The New School as well.  

He studied cognitive science at Harvard (BA), public policy and economics at NYU (MPA), and, at the Media Lab (MSc '20, PhD in progress), he's taking courses from across the Institute that help him think through how to balance democratic engagement with technical expertise in complex systems. 

Alvin Donel Harvey is a MIT PhD candidate in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Human Systems Lab and a member of the Navajo Nation. He is of the Tó-baazhni'ázhi (Two Who Came To the Water) clan and born for theHonágháahnii (One-walks-around) clan.

His current PhD research focuses on developing virtual reality systems for satellite constellation development, operation, and management; as well as developing methods of analyzing space technology as tool for tribal sovereignty. Prior work of Alvin includes research in partial gravity biomechanics and simulation, applied thermodynamics, and extensive historical research examining cases of conflict between Indigenous nations and space agencies and entities. His current historical work also includes examining MIT’s ties to Indigenous land and lives through the Morrill Land Grant Acts, MIT’s relationship with its own Indigenous students, and its associations with local Indigenous nations.

As the president of the MIT Native American Student Association he continues to be an advocate for Indigenous students at MIT, working together with MIT’s chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society to have MIT celebrate its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day, create an on-campus space for Indigenous students, and address historical concerns and conflicts between MIT and Indigenous people.

He studied mechanical engineering at New Mexico State University (BS), while attaining his private pilot’s license, and Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT in the Human Systems Lab (SM ’20, PhD in progress). As Alvin continues his technical research he also continues to concentrate on advocating for Indigenous view points and space policy throughout the various space exploration fields.