The mission of MIT Connection Science is to revolutionize technology-mediated human networks through analysis, prediction, data-driven design, and evaluation.    Watch who we are, and what we do.

Update Fall 2020: 

Four global financial efforts using digital currency and blockchain are under way thanks to development help from the MIT Connection Science Research Initiative.

The first government bank ever to launch a digital currency was rolled out by the Central Bank of the Bahamas this month. The country’s “Sand Dollar” — a state-backed virtual currency — is now available nationwide. Given the roughly 90% adoption rate of smart phones in the country, Sand Dollar transfers are made by mobile phone.

“The MIT initiative contributed to high level design [of the Bahamian effort] over several years, especially the digital identity and anti-money-laundering features,” said Alex “Sandy” Pentland, founding faculty director of the Connection Science Research Initiative. According to the Sand Dollar website, Bahamians can use the digital currency at any merchant “with a Central Bank approved e-Wallet on their mobile device.” Transaction fees are minimal.   In addition, MIT is also collaborating closely with Bermuda on its soon-to-be-released digital currency.

In another new implementation, MIT helped develop the Swiss Trust Chain system. Pentland said the idea is similar to Ethereum, but is highly efficient and offered by Switzerland's national carrier, Swisscom, and the SwissPost national postal service. This blockchain system was just released for trading of all digital assets. MIT helped with asset exchange technology and market design, Pentland said.

And in the U.S., Fidelity Investment's privacy-preserving asset transfer spin-off, Akoya, adopted MIT’s Open Algorithms and digital identity design plans that link major banks and investment firms.

China’s Central Bank Digital Currency and Smart Cities blockchain efforts spurred others such as Singapore, Switzerland, Bermuda, and the Bahamas to accelerate developments, Pentland said. The MIT Connection Science Research Initiative has been working on its efforts for six years. 

Customers and banks will benefit by much lower cost, greater privacy and security, and importantly, much better auditability, he said. In addition, “the transparency on how money, data, and other assets move will produce fairer, less corrupt, outcomes for individuals, companies, and societies.”

Evidence of the urgent need for our work is all around us. Our choices, behaviors, beliefs and actions are continuously influencing or being influenced by networks and devices.  The unintended consequences of our data-driven lives, both positive and negative, make news daily in every aspect of society … finance, mobility, politics, healthcare, and beyond.  At the same time, the rapid pace of technological and behavioral change has antiquated time honored methods used to analyze and solve problems.

MIT Connection Science is a cross-disciplinary effort, drawing on the strengths of faculty, departments and researchers across the Institute, to decode, analyze, predict and interpret trends in this new environment.  Our aim is to help executives, entrepreneurs and policymakers open up new possibilities by providing deeper insights into improving lives in our ever-changing, hyper-connected world.

We lead a global community of researchers and practitioners from leading organizations who are working together to invent the future or Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Big Data, for good.

MIT Connection Science receives generous support from the following organizations: