Alex Pentland, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one of the world’s “most powerful data scientists,” according to Forbes, first became involved with phones even before they were invented.
Pentland, who lectured at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy yesterday evening, said in the 1990s it was evident that computers were getting smaller and wireless. In what he called the “Pentland Project” at MIT, Pentland and his students built miniature computers powered by motorcycle batteries to simulate what it would be like to have a phone.