Members
Core Members
César A. Hidalgo
Asahi Broadcast Corporation Career Development Professor
Assistant Professor in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
César A. Hidalgo is an assistant professor and the Asahi Broadcast Corporation Career Development Professor at the MIT Media Lab and a faculty associate at Harvard’s University Center for International Development. Before joining MIT, César worked as an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development.
Professor Hidalgo’s work focuses on improving the understanding of systems using and developing concepts of complexity, evolution and network science. His areas of application include (i) economic development, where he has pioneered the use of networks to quantify the productive structure of countries and its evolution, (ii) systems biology where he has published work on disease co-morbidity and genetic regulation, and (iii), social systems, where he has worked on human mobility and social network analysis using mobile phone data. Dr. Hidalgo is also a graphic art enthusiast and has published and exhibited artwork that uses data collected originally for scientific purposes. César A. Hidalgo holds a PhD in physics from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s in physics from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.
Other Affiliations: Faculty Associate, Center for International Development, Harvard University
Shahar Ronen
Master’s Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Shahar Ronen is a graduate student and research assistant in the Macro Connections group at the MIT Media Lab. Before joining the Media Lab, Shahar researched and developed solutions for long-term digital preservation and cloud storage as a Research Staff Member at IBM Research. He also led the software testing team of the Philips Brilliance 16 CAT scanner, and worked as programmer and technologist at Harvard Business School.
Shahar is currently researching inter-cultural and inter-lingual connections. Using large datasets of digital and real-life activity, he aims to draw the paths through which ideas disseminate among cultures and identify common denominators and differences. Shahar is also an enthusiast of history and classics and develops tools and methodologies to facilitate the use of large datasets and network approach by historians.
Shahar holds a B.S. in computer science and an M.A. in ancient history, both from the University of Haifa. His master’s thesis examined the manipulation of divine cults according to propaganda needs in late-republican Rome.
Phil Salesses
Master’s Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Phil played lacrosse for the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, where he studied for two years before transferring to George Mason University. While at GMU, he worked full-time for Apple, Inc. as a business consultant and later for Marriott International as a technology analyst. Phil transferred one last time, this time to James Madison University, where he completed his B.S. in geographic science while doing some research for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
While working for the USACE within their Topographic Engineering Center, a federal research laboratory focused on geospatial research, he served as a Principal Investigator, exploring methods of autonomously classifying vegetation from unmanned ground vehicles. He also moonlighted as a programmer for the US Army Geospatial Center where he helped develop a web application capable of serving up high-resolution, 360°, street-level imagery, similar to Google’s Street View™.
Alexander Simoes
Master’s Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Alex graduated from the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University in Boston MA. He is a creative minded person and appreciates art in many forms, especially those that engage the user or viewer. For that reason, Alex is particularly interested in the use of technology with creative design.
As Josef Albers, a famous designer and Bauhaus professor once said “In design, sometimes one plus one equals three.” In other words, the juxtaposition of applied sciences and artistic expression will often make for radically new compositions that have a certain hand-made aesthetic in a computer age. Growing up in a time when so many different technologies are readily available, Alex has tried to take advantage of as many tools and mediums as he could get his hands on, and for that reason, his portfolio may seem a bit eclectic.
Sandy Senner
Administrative Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Prior to joining the Media Lab, Sandy served as administrative assistant at the MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development and MIT Center for Cancer Research. Prior to coming to MIT, Sandy designed clothing for manufacturers and private customers, including sportswear for women and children, bridal gowns, and nursing uniforms. Additionally, Sandy has produced period costumes for Gore Place, a Federal period house museum.