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QUICK FACTS

  • Year founded: 1985
  • Director: Frank Moss
  • Graduate Concentration: Media Arts and Sciences
  • Number of Graduate Students (2009-2010): 138 (73 master's, 65 PhD)
  • Number of Faculty and Principal Investigators: 28
  • Number of sponsors: 60+
  • Annual budget (2008-2009): approx. $26 million

The MIT Media Lab applies an unorthodox research approach to envision the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life—technologies that promise to fundamentally transform our most basic notions of human capabilities. Unconstrained by traditional disciplines, Lab designers, engineers, artists, and scientists work atelier-style in close to 30 research groups conducting more than 400 projects that range from neuroengineering, to how children learn, to developing the city car of the future. Lab researchers foster a unique culture of learning by doing, developing technologies that empower people of all ages, from all walks of life, in all societies, to design and invent new possibilities for themselves and their communities.