Hi, I’m Sebastian Rodriguez! I’m a researcher and engineer with an interdisciplinary background that spans the digital humanities, information science, social science, and internet studies. I currently work as a research engineer for metaLAB (at) Harvard within the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. I also lead engineering for the AI Pedagogy Project, and work with the Data Nutrition Project on AI research and educational initiatives.
My work examines the social, political, and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence. Over the past three years, I helped build the AI Pedagogy Project, which provides open educational resources that helps educators critically and creatively engage with AI in education. In addition, my MSc thesis at Oxford examined how activists use physical and digital design to resist AI-driven policing technologies like predictive policing and facial recognition. I also design AI curricula, including courses for Sage Publishing, Johns Hopkins University, and Harvard, and co-organize a Public AI Summit with the AI Pedagogy Project and the Data Nutrition Project.
Earlier research brought me to the fields of surveillance, disinformation, and critical security studies, including a publishing paper on the legal structures enabling U.S. mass surveillance, a mapping project on domestic drone deployment, and a policy report on the disinformation strategies of authoritarian empires. As an engineer, I translate work from educators and researchers into interactive, accessible websites, including platforms for the University of Toronto’s Failure: Learning in Progress Project, the Toronto Initiative for Diversity & Excellence, and the REFLECT Project.
I obtained a Master of Science in Social Science of the Internet from the University of Oxford, and a Bachelor of Information from the University of Toronto.