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The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) is reimagining how people listen, make sense, and build understanding across differences. Our work spans three core research areas: listening and conversation networks, deliberation and collaborative problem-solving, and media understanding, all in service of our mission to prototype a better future for communication.
We combine AI, computational methods, design, and field-based research to create new systems for dialogue, facilitation, sensemaking, and community engagement. Through our translational research process, these ideas move beyond theory: students have opportunities to test prototypes in real communities, work with community partners, and see how research can directly influence how people gather, decide, and solve shared problems. If you are excited by work that blends rigorous research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world impact, CCC offers an extraordinary environment to explore, build, and contribute.
As a student in the lab, you will be part of an interdisciplinary community of designers, engineers, social scientists, and practitioners who are redefining what human–AI collaboration can look like in civic life. Depending on your interests, you might build new AI tools for narrative sensemaking, develop interfaces that support facilitators and organizers, analyze real-world conversation data, or co-design field pilots with universities, schools, cities, and community partners. You will learn how to navigate the full arc of translational research—from exploratory prototypes to real-world deployment—and gain hands-on experience with the social, ethical, and technical dimensions of communication systems. We welcome students who are curious, collaborative, and eager to push research into practice in ways that strengthen trust, understanding, and collective agency.