Human Dynamics
Alex (Sandy) Pentland
How social networks can influence our lives in business, health, and governance, as well as technology adoption and diffusion.
Human communities are increasingly a mixture of people and machines, with technologies like cell phones and email strongly influencing how we interact and even who we are. We focus on inventing technologies that can produce qualitatively better lives and societies, both by augmenting an individual's capabilities and by providing better mediation for human networks. Example applications include: wearable devices for support of elderly in their homes, for coordinating emergency workers, or for coordinating health care in developing nations.
What We're Looking For
Students interested in the technologies that will drive the next generation of mobile Web applications, with a special need for people with strong skills in quantitative modeling of social networks from mobile interaction data, understanding human behavior from sensor observations, and exploiting commercial opportunities for mobile applications in emerging markets.
