Professor Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, head of the Human Dynamics research group, and Media Lab alum Catherine D’Ignazio (Civic Media) are among the recipients of new seed grants established by the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), an initiative of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

These grants aim to inspire MIT researchers to make a meaningful contribution to responsible technology development and deployment. SERC received nearly 70 submissions and selected sixteen projects. These projects are led by MIT researchers from nine departments across all five schools and the college, and have been selected to receive up to $100,000 in funding.

Two of the sixteen projects are led by Media Lab community members:

• “Experiments on Generative AI and the Future of Digital Democracy,” led by Lily Tsai, Ford Professor of Political Science, and Alex Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
• “A Framework for Participatory Methods and Community Engagement Across the AI/ML Pipeline,” led by Catherine D’Ignazio, associate professor of urban science and planning, and Nikki Stevens, postdoctoral researcher in the Data + Feminism Lab