PRESS OFFICE • 15 MetroTech Center, 6th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201
CONTACT • Karl Greenberg
646.997.3802 / mobile 646.519.1996
[email protected]
Immediate Release:
Thursday, June 1, 2017
CONFERENCE TO SPOTLIGHT HOW PEOPLE AND MACHINES
CONNECT FOR SOCIAL GOOD
The GovLab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Hosts Annual
Collective Intelligence Conference
BROOKLYN, New York – Humans have relied upon collective intelligence — in which they work, learn
and play in groups — since the Paleolithic Era. Today, collective intelligence is powered by the remote
collaboration among individuals and even between groups of computers: Wikipedia and Facebook are
just two of the platforms that enable large numbers of people to work together in new ways; techenabled decision-making might make representative democracy obsolete; collective (“swarm”)
intelligence among autonomous cars may one day relegate traffic jams to our collective memory.
But can group intelligence enabled by technology drive public good? At the fifth annual Collective
Intelligence Conference, to be held this year at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering on June 15 and
16, experts in human computation, predictive analytics, public policy, social and behavioral sciences,
civil and computer engineering, and institutional design will share insights and spotlight projects
focused on collaborative problem-solving in the service of public interest. Founded by MIT Sloan
School of Management Professor Thomas Malone, this year’s conference focuses on how collective
intelligence can improve the ways in which we govern.
Professor Beth Simone Noveck, director of The NYU GovLab, is conference chair. Stanford University
Computer Science Professor Michael Bernstein and Arizona State University Professor Erik Johnston,
who specializes in policy infomatics, serve as co-chairs. The NYU Stern School of Business, the
-more-
University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have hosted prior Collective
Intelligence Conferences.
“This event represents a unique opportunity for top researchers and practitioners to explore the
impact of the Internet and big data on the ways in which people exchange knowledge and skills
online,” said Noveck. “The scope of research that will be presented here is stunning; the work that this
diverse group of experts is doing has profound implications not just for how people connect and share
information, but how the connection between groups of humans and machines can lead to more
intelligent behavior and more effective problem-solving.”
With applicants from 21 countries, the two-day conference will feature panels and presentations by
more than 40 top researchers and more than three dozen poster presentations. They will address
issues such as global climate change, criminal justice, and education; explore methods of online
collaboration including crowd-based forecasting and crowdsourcing; and examine new technology like
blockchains.
Plenary sessions will address citizen innovation and government use of public participation. Speakers
include

Darlene Cavalier, founder of citizen-science platform SciStarter and Science Cheerleader, an
organization of more than 300 current and former National Football League and National
Basketball Association cheerleaders in STEM careers

Noshir Contractor, the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at
Northwestern University

R. Luke DuBois, artist, musician, and co-director of Integrated Digital Media at NYU Tandon

Bernardo Huberman, noted distributed information researcher at Stanford University and
formerly at HP Labs

Tom Kalil, former deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Dana Lewis, founder of #OpenAPS, the Artificial Pancreas System

MIT’s Malone, founder of its Center for Collective Intelligence

Lauren McCarthy, University of California, Los Angeles Design Media Arts

Geoff Mulgan, chief executive of U.K.-based National Endowment for Science Technology and
the Arts (NESTA)
(For the full list of speakers visit here; the program is available here.)
“Collective intelligence holds vast potential to solve some of the most pressing challenges we face
today,” said Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan. “It is a testament to The GovLab’s reputation for thought
leadership that it was chosen to host the 2017 Collective Intelligence Conference. Their work
exemplifies that service to society is not just an axiom at NYU Tandon but a motivating force for how
we approach all aspects of engineering.”
Registration deadline is June 8. Student discounts are available. For more information or to register,
visit http://collectiveintelligenceconference.org. Join the conversation on Twitter at #ciconf17 and
@cicon17.
The Program Committee for the conference includes Sabine Brunswicker, Purdue University;
Cesar Hidalgo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ece Kamar, Microsoft; Erin Krupka and Walter
Lasecki of the University of Michigan; Matt Lease, University of Texas, Austin; Kurt Luther, Virginia
Tech; Winter Mason, Facebook; Anita McGahan, University of Toronto, Rotman School of
Management; Geoff Mulgan, NESTA; Aaron Shaw, Northwestern University; Kate Starbird, University of
Washington; Chris Welty, Google Research; Lixiu Yu, Bosch Research; and Haoqi Zhang, Northwestern
University.
About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York
University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic
Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of
education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and
entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main
location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country’s largest
private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and
NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and
Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit
http://engineering.nyu.edu.
###
www.facebook.com/nyutandon
@NYUTandon