Mitchel Resnick

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Princeton University.

Career

Resnick"s research group has developed a variety of educational tools that engage people in new types of design activities and learning experiences, including the "programmable bricks" that were the basis for the award-winning LEGO Mindstorms and StarLogo software. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse, an award-winning network of learning centers for youth from under-served communities. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Resnick is also involved in the next generation of Programmable Bricks and in the $100 laptop project Resnick, a graduate of Haverford High School (Pa), earned a Bachelor in physics at Princeton University (1978), and Mississippi and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988, 1992).

He worked for five years as a science/technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has consulted widely on the uses of computers in education.

He is author of the book Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams, co-editor of Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo (2001). He has been listed as one of the 100 most creative people in Business 2011 by Fast Company.

He has also collaborated extensively with researchers such as Natalie Rusk, Brian Silverman, and Yasmin Kafai.

Achievements

• Resnick currently serves as the head of the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, the academic program that grants master"s degrees and Ph.Ds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory Resnick is also a co-founder and a co-principal investigator of the Center for Civic Media. Resnick was awarded a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award in 1993. Doctor Resnick is a winner of the 2011 Harold W. McGraw Junior. Prize in Education.