Prof. Alex 'Sandy' Pentland
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
Head, Human Dynamics Group
Senior Research Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
Senior Research Fellow, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)
Primary DLC
MIT Media Lab
MIT Room:
E15-387
Areas of Interest and Expertise
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer-Aided Design Systems
3-D Computer Graphics
Wearable Technology
Wearable Computing
Social Networking
Big Data
Management Science
Information Technology
Blockchain
Computer-Aided Design Systems
3-D Computer Graphics
Wearable Technology
Wearable Computing
Social Networking
Big Data
Management Science
Information Technology
Blockchain
Research Summary
Professor Pentland is a pioneer in organizational engineering, mobile information systems, and computational social science. Pentland's research focus is on harnessing information flows and incentives within social networks, the big data revolution, and converting this technology into real-world ventures. Pentland is founder and director of the Human Dynamics Lab, and the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program. He advises the World Economic Forum, Nissan Motor Corporation, and a variety of start-up companies. He is among the most-cited computer scientists in the world, and in 1997 Newsweek magazine named him one of the 100 Americans likely to shape this century. His book, Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World was published in 2008 by the MIT Press.
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Books
Publication date: March 1, 2022BooksGlobal Fintech: Financial Innovation in the Connected World
Publication date: April 30, 2020BooksBuilding the New Economy: Data as Capital
Publication date: February 15, 2018BooksNew Solutions for Cybersecurity
Publication date: February 1, 2017BooksTrust::Data: A New Framework for Identity and Data Sharing
Publication date: January 31, 2017BooksFrontiers of Financial Technology: Expeditions in future commerce, from blockchain and digital banking to prediction markets and beyond
Publication date: September 27, 2013BooksSocial Physics: How Ideas Turn into Action
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Video
10.25.23-Digital-Pentland
Keynote: Community Transformers 2.18.21-Pentland-Shrier.Kim
Alex Pentland
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Connection Science
David Shrier
Professor of Practice, AI & Innovation, Imperial College Business School
Douglas Kim
Connection Science Fellow, MIT Connection Science11.3.20-Digital-Integration-Alex Pentland
Alex Pentland
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab11.3.20-Digital-Integration-Panel-Discussion-W.Chu-P.Weckesser-K.Ruberg-J.Peng-A.Pentland-J.Williams-A.Sanchez
Wilson Chu
Chairman, Defond Group
Peter Weckesser
Chief Digital Officer, Schneider Electric
Kalev Ruberg
VP Future & Chief Innovation Officer, Teck Resources Limited
John Peng
EVP & Chief Digital Officer, iSoftStone
Alex Pentland
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab
John Williams
Professor of Information Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems
Abel Sanchez
Director, Geospatial Data Center (GDC)10.27.20-New-Retail-Pentland
Concerns about data privacy, national localization, and security are driving dramatic change in the digital systems that support commerce and government. These new systems are distributed, all-digital, natively encrypted, continuously auditable, and feature automatic legal enforcement. Examples are the UBIN systems being fielded by Temasek and Singapore Monetary Authority, the Swiss Trust Chain fielded by SwissPost and SwissComm (which we helped design), and the Chinese national "smart city" system. Along with these commercial systems are financial systems that such as Fidelity's Akoya (which helped design), Intuit and EY's internal tax reconciliation systems, and the national digital currencies being test deployed or seriously considered by most OPEC nations. I will focus on what these next-gen systems are and how they change the game
what security looks like in these new systems
how all this changes AI and the value of data.A Coronavirus Briefing with MIT
A Coronavirus Briefing with MIT
Stephanie Woerner - 2019 ICT Conference
Creating the Next Generation Enterprise
How will your company compete in the digital economy? Based on her book What’s Your Digital Business Model? (Harvard Business School Press, 2018), co-authored with Peter Weill and cited by Forbes as one of the top ten business books in 2018, Stephanie L. Woerner presents six questions for business leaders to answer in order to navigate their digital transformation journeys. Stephanie will describe the future business model framework, based on two dimensions of major change enabled by digitization — getting closer to end consumers and moving from value chains to ecosystems—and show the financial performance of firms pursuing each model with examples drawn from a variety of industries. She will discuss what it takes to succeed in each model and the key capabilities each company must build.2019 MIT Information and Communication Technologies Conference
Alex Pentland - 2019 ICT Conference
MIT TRUST::DATA CONSORTIUM
Developing privacy-preserving identity systems and safe distributed computation, enabling an Internet of Trusted Data. The Trust::Data Consortium addresses the growing tension between societal data proliferation and data security by developing specifications, software, tools and documentation that help organizations adopt a holistic approach to cyber protection. Trust::Data is building new models for digital identity, data provenance, universal access, and secure privacy-preserving transactions to harness the future potential of global data sharing.2019 MIT Information and Communication Technologies Conference
Data Ownership Panel - 2016-ICT-Conference
Data Ownership Impact on Privacy and Security
Encryption as a means of data control (privacy and security):
For a long time, interaction on Web has been less private or secure than many end-users expect and prefer. Now, however, the widespread
deployment of encryption helps us to change that.* Making encryption widespread. For years we have known how to do encryption, but it wasn't widely used, because it wasn't part of overall
system design. In response, particularly as we've become aware of capabilities for network-scale monitoring, standards groups including
IETF and W3C have worked to encrypt more of those network connections at the protocol and API-design phase, and to make it easier to deploy and use encrypted protocols such as HTTPS. Encryption won't necessarily stop a targeted attack (attackers can often break end-user systems where they can't brute-force break the encryption), but it raises the effort required for surveillance and forces transparency on other network participants who want to see or shape traffic.* Secure authentication. Too many of our "secure" communications are protected by weak password mechanisms, leaving users open to password database breaches and phishing attacks. Strong new authentication mechanisms, being worked on for web-wide standards, can replace the password; helping users and applications to secure accounts more effectively. Strong secure authentication will enable users to manage their personal interactions and data privacy, as well as securing commercial data exchange.
2016 MIT Information and Communication Technologies Conference
Alex Pentland - 2016-ICT-Conference
Data Ownership Impact on Privacy and Security
Encryption as a means of data control (privacy and security):
For a long time, interaction on Web has been less private or secure than many end-users expect and prefer. Now, however, the widespread
deployment of encryption helps us to change that.* Making encryption widespread. For years we have known how to do encryption, but it wasn't widely used, because it wasn't part of overall
system design. In response, particularly as we've become aware of capabilities for network-scale monitoring, standards groups including
IETF and W3C have worked to encrypt more of those network connections at the protocol and API-design phase, and to make it easier to deploy and use encrypted protocols such as HTTPS. Encryption won't necessarily stop a targeted attack (attackers can often break end-user systems where they can't brute-force break the encryption), but it raises the effort required for surveillance and forces transparency on other network participants who want to see or shape traffic.* Secure authentication. Too many of our "secure" communications are protected by weak password mechanisms, leaving users open to password database breaches and phishing attacks. Strong new authentication mechanisms, being worked on for web-wide standards, can replace the password; helping users and applications to secure accounts more effectively. Strong secure authentication will enable users to manage their personal interactions and data privacy, as well as securing commercial data exchange.
2016 MIT Information and Communication Technologies Conference
