- Lifelong Kindergarten
- MAS Affiliated Research Assistants
Hi, I'm Alexis Hope. I am a designer and researcher based at the MIT Media Lab and MIT Center for Civic Media. I also study Industrial & Furniture Design at Massachusetts College of Art & Design and the North Bennet Street School. In my free time, I play in a band called Calico Beach Party, tinker with electronics, and watch too much Star Trek.
What I’m up to lately:
- Serving as Design Director for the "Make the Breast Pump Not Suck" project, an effort to bring together a diverse community to hack technology, policy, and systems in support of breastfeeding parents and babies
- Working with Katy Croff Bell and the MIT Open Ocean Initiative to gather and mobilize a global and interdisciplinary community of ocean explorers
- Creating a tool for sculptural drawing in zero-gravity
- Teaching a class on Technology and Social Change at MIT with Ethan Zuckerman
- Working on my General Exams for the MIT Media Lab PhD program, advised by Ethan Zuckerman, Michelle Millar Fisher, and Danielle Wood.
My earlier work focused on technology for global health. Prior to joining MIT, I led a project to develop a portable, low-cost ultrasound machine with midwives and radiologists in Kenya, Uganda, and Seattle. I was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow from 2012 - 2015, focusing on bringing human-centered and participatory research methods to technology design. As part of my commitment to participatory design, I help organize unique hackathons and civic technology workshops around the world.