Editing MIT Media Lab (section)

{{Short description|Research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}
{{Infobox laboratory
| name             = MIT Media Lab
| native_name      =
| image            =
| caption          = 
| logo             = MIT Media Lab logo.svg
| motto            =
| established      = {{Start date and age|1985}}<ref>[http://www.media.mit.edu/files/inventing-future.pdf "Inventing the future" – Corporate brochure]</ref>
| budget           = [[US Dollar|$]]80 million<ref>[https://dam-prod.media.mit.edu/x/2018/10/15/at-a-glance-2018.pdf Overview of the MIT]</ref>
| debt             =
| research_field   = [[Technology]], [[multimedia]], [[sciences]], [[art]], [[design]]
| president        =
| vice-president   =
| dean             =
| director         = [[Dava Newman]]
| head             = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| address          =
| city             = [[Cambridge (Massachusetts)|Cambridge]]
| state            = [[Massachusetts]]
| country          = United States
| coor             = 
| zipcode          =
| website          = {{official url}}
| footnotes        =
}}

The '''MIT Media Lab''' is a research laboratory at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the [[MIT School of Architecture and Planning|School of Architecture]].  Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from [[technology]], [[multimedia|media]], [[sciences|science]], [[art]], and [[design]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.media.mit.edu/news/fact-sheet |title = Fact Sheet |author = MIT Media Lab |access-date= 2012-09-12 }}</ref> {{as of|2014}}, Media lab's research groups include [[Neuroscience|neurobiology]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/synthetic-neurobiology|title=Synthetic Neurobiology|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref> [[Biomimetics|biologically inspired fabrication]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/mediated-matter|title=Mediated Matter|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref> [[Social robot|socially engaging robots]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/personal-robots|title=Personal Robots|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref> [[Affective computing|emotive computing]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/affective-computing|title=Affective Computing|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref> [[bionics]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/biomechatronics|title=Biomechatronics|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref> and [[Tod Machover#Hyperinstruments|hyperinstruments]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/opera-future|title=Mediated Matter|author=MIT Media Lab|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref>

The media lab was founded in 1985 by [[Nicholas Negroponte]] and former MIT President [[Jerome Wiesner]], and is housed in the [[Wiesner building|Wiesner Building]] (designed by [[I. M. Pei]]), also known as Building E15.  The lab has been written about in the popular press since 1988, when [[Stewart Brand]] published ''The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T.'', and its work was a regular feature of technology journals in the 1990s. In 2009, it expanded into a second building.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://capitalprojects.mit.edu/projects/media-lab-complex-e14|title=MIT Capital Projects: Media Lab Complex, Building E14|website=capitalprojects.mit.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-01-11}}</ref>

The media lab came under scrutiny in 2019 due to its acceptance of donations from convicted child sex offender [[Jeffrey Epstein]]. This led to the resignation of its director, [[Joi Ito]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/business/mit-media-lab-jeffrey-epstein-joichi-ito.html|title=Director of M.I.T.'s Media Lab Resigns After Outcry Over Jeffrey Epstein Ties|last1=Tracy|first1=Marc|date=2019-09-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-07|last2=Hsu|first2=Tiffany|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and the launch of an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation into the "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein" by [[Leo Rafael Reif|L. Rafael Reif]], the president of MIT.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein|title=How an Élite University Research Center Concealed Its Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein|last=Farrow|first=Ronan|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2019-09-07|access-date=2019-09-07|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m-i-t-media-lab-director-resigns-after-criticism-over-n1051116|title=MIT Media Lab director resigns after criticism for financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein|website=NBC News|date=7 September 2019 |language=en|access-date=2019-09-07}}</ref>

In December 2020, [[Dava Newman]], professor of aeronautics and astronautics and former deputy administrator of [[NASA]] under [[Barack Obama|Obama]], was named the new director of the MIT Media Lab.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dava Newman named director of MIT Media Lab|url=https://news.mit.edu/2020/media-lab-director-newman-1222|access-date=2020-12-22|website=MIT News {{!}} Massachusetts Institute of Technology|date=22 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref>