In an interview with the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center Director Ali Jadbabaie, he explains the importance of the work that is currently undergone here in this space.
What is SSRC?
The Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC) is one of 11 laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The SSRC lab serves as the infrastructural space that manages all the ongoing research projects and proposals of pre and post-award processing. It’s a convening space for performing interdisciplinary research at the interface of social sciences and engineering. SSRC works closely with IDSS the Institute for Data Systems, and Society, which is a new academic unit at MIT.
What is SSRC’s goal?
“Our goal at the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center is to address complex societal problems that require a multidimensional, multifaceted approach whether it’s social and political systems, transportation and financial networks, or otherwise we can now make these disciplines that have been traditionally very qualitative we can now make them more quantitative.
What kind of research is done at SSRC?
“Some of our work is theory-focused some is experimental some is more computational. We have social scientists. We have engineers. We have mathematicians. We address things ranging from approval processes for pharmaceuticals, policy aspects of a variety of problems, to complex infrastructure systems. How do we design and develop better power grids? How do we bring in renewable energy? How do we utilize advances in data science to help farmers grow better crops? Every human endeavor now leaves a huge data footprint. We go from data, to models, to decisions.” says Ali Jadbabaie, Director of SSRC.
Watch the full interview here:
[intense_video video_type=”youtube” video_url=”https://youtu.be/MVWKzmXe_3k”]
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