Publication Research

Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people

Kory Westlund., J. M., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P. L., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. L. (2017). Children use non-verbal cues to learn new words from robots as well as people. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Thesis Research

A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions

Jin Joo Lee. A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017.
Publication Research

Backchannel Opportunity Prediction for Social Robot Listeners

HW Park, M Gelsomini, JJ Lee, T Zhu, and C Breazeal (2017). Backchannel Opportunity Prediction for Social Robot Listeners. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
Publication Research

How to Train Your DragonBot: Socially Assistive Robots for Teaching Children About Nutrition Through Play

E Short, K Swift-Spong, J Greczek, A Ramachandran, A Litoiu, E Grigore, D Feil- Seifer, S Shuster, JJ Lee, et al (2014). "How to Train Your DragonBot: Socially Assistive Robots for Teaching Children About Nutrition Through Play." In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Edinburgh, UK).
Project Research

Networked Playscapes: Dig Deep

Networked Playscapes re-imagines outdoor play by merging the flexibility of the digital world with the tangible, sensorial properties of ...
Thesis Research

Algorithmically Supported Moderation in Children’s Online Communities

Tan, Flora. Algorithmically Supported Moderation in Children’s Online Communities. Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017.
Post Research

Human Dynamics team tops Fragile Families Challenge

Media Lab researchers win three of six categories in inaugural contest.
Project Research

1:1 Laptops: Learning with the Hundred-Dollar Laptop

Suppose that one could put a connected, portable computer into the hands of all the children of the world who lack access to the kind of ...
Archived
Post Research

Making new (robot) friends

Understanding children's relationships with social robots
Article Research

Montessori Was the Original Personalized Learning. Now, 100 Years Later, Wildflower Is Reinventing the Model

For a classroom of a dozen 3- through 6-year-olds, things are surprisingly quiet inside Wildflower Montessori. The most audible sounds, t...
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Research
Playful Systems

Designing systems that become experiences to transcend utility and usability
Article Research

Code Lab for Anki Cozmo

Anki collaborates with the MIT Scratch Team to bring robotics programming to kids.
Article Research

Projects, passion, peers and play: Seymour Papert’s vision for learning

Mitchel Resnick—on the power of Papert's ideas for learning.
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Project Research

Children Use Nonverbal Cues to Learn from Robots

When learning from human partners, infants and young children will pay attention to nonverbal signals, such as gaze and bodily orientatio...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Socially Assistive Robotics: An NSF Expedition in Computing

Our mission is to develop the computational techniques that will enable the design, implementation, and evaluation of "relational" robots...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Storytelling Companion

Children’s oral language skills in preschool can predict their academic success later in life. Helping children improve their language an...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Robotic Learning Companions

The language and literacy skills of young children entering school are highly predictive of their long-term academic success. Children fr...
Archived
Post Research

Kids, AI devices, and intelligent toys

What do children think about machines that think?
Publication Research

Deception, Secrets, Children, and Robots: What’s Acceptable?

Kory Westlund, J., & Breazeal, C. (2015). Deception, Secrets, Children, and Robots: What’s Acceptable? Workshop on The Emerging Policy and Ethics of Human-Robot Interaction, held in conjunction with the 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
Publication Research

Effects of Framing a Robot as a Social Agent or as a Machine on Children's Social Behavior

Kory Westlund, J. M., Martinez, M., Archie, M., Das, M., & Breazeal, C. (2016). Effects of Framing a Robot as a Social Agent or as a Machine on Children's Social Behavior. In S. Y. Okita, T. Shibata, & B. Mutlu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) (pp. 688-693). IEEE: Washington, DC.
Publication Research

Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative

Kory Westlund, J., Jeong, S., Park, H. W., Ronfard, S., Adhikari, A., Harris, P. L., David DeSteno, & Breazeal, C. (2017). Flat versus expressive storytelling: young children's learning and retention of a social robot's narrative. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Publication Research

A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people

Kory Westlund, J., Dickens, L., Jeong, S., Harris, P., DeSteno, D., & Breazeal, C. (2015). A Comparison of children learning from robots, tablets, and people. In Proceedings of New Friends: The 1st International Conference on Social Robots in Therapy and Education.
Article Research

HUBweek Change Maker: Andrew Sliwinski

Completely unexpected moments of expression and creativity can spring from the humble tools we design.
Archived
Project Research

Robotic Language Learning Companions

Young children learn language not through listening alone, but through active communication with a social actor. Cultural immersion and c...
Archived
Project Research

Getting Started with Scratch

Every day, young people around the world use the Scratch programming language to create and share thousands of interactive projects on th...
Project Research

Microworlds

The MIT Scratch Team is exploring ways to make it easier for newcomers to get started creating with coding. We are designing "microworlds...
Project Research

Foundations : Design of Codified Curricula in Coding, Design, Fabrication, Games, Music, Media, etc.

Foundations (2015 - 2016): The Year 1 MIT/Google collaboration program has Pilot Labs in NYC and Oakland. In the Labs, we introduce a coh...
Project Research

Team Edge: Design of Codified Curricula in Coding, Design, Fabrication, Games, Engineering, etc.

Team Edge (2016 - 2017): The Year 2 MIT/Google Collaboration. For it, we design and author Curricula and Learning Activities in the follo...
Project Research

Scratch Extensions

The Scratch extension system enables anyone to extend the Scratch programming language through custom programming blocks written in JavaS...
Project Research

Duct Tape Network

The Duct Tape Network (DTN) is a series of fun, hands-on maker clubs that encourage young children (ages 7-10) to use cardboard, tape, wo...
Article Research

After-School Coding Program Comes To Oakland's Fruitvale Neighborhood
Article Research

Scratch Blocks: Making It Easier to Develop Coding Apps for Kids

We want to empower developers to build great creative learning apps for kids.
Project Research

ScratchJr

ScratchJr makes coding accessible to younger children (ages 5-7), enabling them to program their own interactive stories, games, and anim...
Project Research

Scratch 3.0

Since the release of Scratch in 2007, young people around the world have programmed and shared more than 15 million Scratch projects . Th...
Article Research

Can technology help teach literacy in poor communities?

This article originally appeared in the MIT News. Visit the link for more details.For the past four years, researchers at MIT, Tufts Univ...
How people and objects can tell tales of their experience and learn from others as they navigate through the vast media fabric made up of intertwining storied threads.
Archived
How to build characters that have the everyday common sense, the ability to learn, and the sense of empathy that one finds in animals such as dogs.
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Archived
Research
eRationality

How we can understand human behavior (rationality, semi-rationality, bounded rationality, and just plain irrationality) in day-to-day behaviors, and in particular in electronic environments.
How to give computers human-like intuition so they can better understand us.
Archived
How to engage diverse audiences in creating their own technology by situating computation in new contexts and building tools to democratize engineering.
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How to enhance understanding, enable creativity, and ease our interactions with the technological environment.
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Archived
Research
Grassroots Invention

How to engineer and disseminate powerful, low-cost design and fabrication technologies at a grassroots level.
How various phenomena of mind emerge from the interactions among many kinds of highly evolved brain mechanisms.
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Research
Future of Learning

How to redefine and expand the conceptual framework and language of learning by creating new technologies and spheres of practice.
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Research
New Media Medicine

How radical new collaborations will catalyze a revolution in health.
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Research
Physics and Media

How to bring the programmability of the digital world to the physical world.

How to create better online environments and interfaces for human communication.
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Next Billion Network
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How to improve mobility with higher-quality and lower-power-consumption display technology.
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How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants.
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Spatial Imaging
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How artists and engineers can refigure technology for the full range of human experience.
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Research
SIMPLICITY
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Research
Nanoscale Sensing

How to detect the activity of biological molecules with micro- and nanofabricated devices.
How to design machines that use what we do, where we are, and how we feel to add to our social, educational, and functional success.
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How to give computers "common sense"�the ability to think about the everyday world as people do.
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How simplifying the basic tools for digital expression will lead to a new creative digital economy. For more Physical Language Workshop projects, see Henry Holtzman.
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NEXT
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How to create seamless and pervasive connections between our physical environments and information resources.
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Research
quanta

How we can construct information technology and intelligence from the fundamental building blocks of physical media: atoms and molecules.
Center for Future Banking
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Digital Life
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Project Research

ShapeBlocks

ShapeBlocks is a play analytics observatory that tracks, remembers, and aids players in building traditional LEGO-style structures. As pl...
Archived
Project Research

Start Making!

The Lifelong Kindergarten group is collaborating with the Museum of Science in Boston to develop materials and workshops that engage youn...
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Archived
Project Research

MaKey MaKey

MaKey MaKey lets you transform everyday objects into computer interfaces. Make a game pad out of Play-Doh, a musical instrument out of ba...
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Project Research

Wildflower Montessori

Wildflower is an open-source approach to Montessori learning. Its aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the ...
Project Research

Squish: Using Toys to Direct Interactive Characters

Joysticks are a natural interface for controlling F-11s. Mice and keyboards suffice for document preparation. But what is the right inter...
Archived
Article Research

The Google Lab That’s Building a Legion of Diverse Coders
Article Research

Google Opens Computer Science Lab in Oakland for Young People of Color