AI and Human Flourishing

Professor and Director of Affective Computing Research at the MIT Media Lab, Rosalind Picard invents technologies for understanding the emotions and behaviors that impact health and wellbeing. She wrote the book Affective Computing, which described how to give machines the skills of emotional intelligence, and is credited for launching the growing field of Affective Computing. Author of over 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles and inventor on over a dozen patents, Picard co-founded two companies: Empatica, providing the first AI-based smart watch cleared by FDA, and Affectiva, enabling measurement of facial and vocal expressions. Picard serves as MIT’s faculty chair for MindHandHeart, a campus-wide wellbeing initiative, and as chief scientist for Empatica. She has received numerous honors and awards including one of the highest an engineer can receive, election to the National Academy of Engineering, for her contributions to wearable and affective computing.