In our projects and research work, we fully adhere to the Fluid Interfaces group ethics statement, where AttentivU project was born:
We seek to make tools for real world impact, enhancing quality of life with innovative design, science and engineering inspired by research in brain and biological sciences. Every new tool we create in turn enables exploration of new scientific questions. We conduct novel research, we share tools with other labs to further discovery, and we aim to shepherd a conversation about the future of a rapidly changing field.
We understand that our work can influence both public dialogue and corporate development: Our developments, systems, protocols and interfaces can prompt discussions of privacy, power dynamics and societal norms. Both inside and outside the research lab, we aim to engage in critical conversations about these techniques and technologies which are increasingly becoming part of us and our society. We welcome feedback on the potential benefits as well as potential negative impacts and misuse of the technology we develop. We are also committed to designing and sharing our projects in a way that minimizes potential for harmful use of our work.
We are responsible for presenting our work transparently. We strive to clearly describe the potentials and limitations of our research. We categorize our work to improve clarity of public perception with respect to the stage of the research, i.e. whether a work is at the level of a concept, early prototype, evaluated prototype, or technology ready for deployment. Some technologies might remain artifacts of curiosity in the lab, while others grow to be fully developed and available for use by other researchers or the general public.
As researchers and community members, our responsibility is to create tools that can benefit and inspire many sectors of society; we strive to include diverse groups of people in our studies to avoid biased development. We believe it is essential to work with the communities that our research might be useful for, and are committed to hearing the voices of specialized populations. We take the stance that quality of life is a value to be defined by each unique individual. Thus, when we build and communicate research, we aim to:
- Enable rather than enforce behavior
- Support development rather than create dependency
- Design alongside target users
- Maximize privacy of data
- nkosmyna@mit.edu
- MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group, 75 Amherst St E14-548, Cambridge, MA 02139
- Interested in participating in a research study? Sign up here and we will get back to you with more information.
Nataliya Kosmyna
Project Lead, Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab
Nataliya obtained her Ph.D in Computer Science with a specialization in Brain-Computer Interfaces as a member of EHCI team of the Université Grenoble-Alpes, France in 2015. She is the author of research projects measuring visual attention, fatigue and engagement using brain activity (EEG) and eye movements (EOG). The majority of her research since 2010 has been in Brain-Computer Interfaces in the context of consumer grade applications. At the Fluid Interfaces group at MIT Media Lab, Nataliya works on designing and testing novel hardware solutions and paradigms for different applications (such as learning, driving) and user groups (adults, children with ADD/ADHD).
Nataliya has won multiple awards for her work: a prize for best PhD dissertation from Université Grenoble Alpes; a 2016 fellowship from L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science, she was recognized as Top French Talent 2017 by MIT Tech Review’s Innovators Under 35. Her work is supported by Dassault Systems US Foudnation, MIT Integrated Learning Intitiative among others. Her work has been covered in more than 100 TV appearances, radio and other news outlets all around the world including but not limited to: France Culture, France Inter, E=M6, iTELE, ARTE, Le Parisien, Le Figaro, Le Point, Paris Match, Sciences et Avenir, Nouvel Observateur, 20 Minutes, Capital, Dauphiné Libéré, Boston Globe, Reuters.
Past Members
Tushar Goyal
Software Engineering
Tushar is a recent graduate from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He is a full stack engineer who likes to explore the intersection of art and technology.
Portfolio
mailtushargoyal@gmail.com
Sofia C. Sacal Slovik
Research and UX/UI
Sofia is an undergraduate studying Neuroscience and Psychology at Boston University. She is passionate about leveraging her neuroscience and psychology background to enhance user experiences through research-driven insights and intuitive design.
sofiasacals@gmail.com
Sophia Rim
Web and App UX/UI Design
Sophia is an undergraduate at Wellesley College pursuing Media Arts and Science. She is passionate about designing experiences and wearables that enhance human connectivity, productivity, and creativity.
srim2@wellesley.edu
Gaby Nugent
Web and UX/UI Design
Gaby is an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is majoring in Informatics with a certificate in Social Research Analysis. She is interested in website development and design as well as Human-Computer Interaction and UI/UX design.
gnugent@umass.edu
Cassie Scheirer
Web Design and Creative Media
Cassie is an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts and minors in Human-Computer Interaction and Science, Technology and Society. She is interested in discovering how interactive and immersive art can be a tool for cognitive development.
Portfolio
cscheire@andrew.cmu.edu
Chris Markus
Hardware Design
Chris is a graduate student at Tufts University studying Computer Engineering. He received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University. Chris is passionate about creating devices that enable novel insights and experiences. He is designing the next generation of EEG data capture hardware for the AttentivU project.
Portfolio
christopher.markus@tufts.edu
Nina Cragg
UX/UI and Hardware Design
Nina is an undergraduate at USC studying Art, Technology, and the Business of Innovation with a double major in Electrical Engineering. She is interested in creative technology, soft robotics, synthetic biology, and wearables.
ncragg@usc.edu
Noah Pacik-Nelson
signal processing and machine learning
Noah is a recent CS graduate from University of Connecticut specializing in Data Analytics.
noahpaciknelson@gmail.com
AttentivU stems from the Fluid Interfaces research group at the MIT Media Lab.
While today's pervasive digital devices put the world’s information at our fingertips, they do not help us with some of the cognitive skills that are arguably more important to leading a successful life, such as motivation, attention, memory, creativity, and emotion regulation. Building upon insights from psychology and neuroscience, the Fluid Interfaces group creates systems and interfaces for cognitive enhancement. Our designs enhance cognitive skills by teaching users to exploit and develop the untapped powers of their mind and by seamlessly supplementing users' natural cognitive abilities. The solutions we design are compact and wearable to support real-life studies and interventions. Our work is highly interdisciplinary and combines insights and methods from human computer interaction, sensor technologies, machine learning, brain computer interfaces, psychology, and neuroscience to create new opportunities for studying and intervening in human psychology in-the-wild.
