Although there has been little change in the lab itself in the past dozen years, some say a strikingly different type of student is being drawn here. What students are looking for today is a new way of expression. They want to be an active participant in creating culture. These days, the student body is divided almost evenly between those who arrive with computer skills and those who have few. Those with little background are aided by MIT undergraduates who work part-time at the lab.
Interaction is vital.
The undergraduates in engineering and sciences learn from the non-technical graduate students, who in turn are themselves learning and teaching. He and partner Penn Jillette have had a relationship with the Media Lab for almost 10 years as groupies, occasional lecturers and featured performers. Maeda expects the student body here to continue to evolve. That includes people like Eric Scheirer, a grad student whose first love is playing jazz trombone. Artists come along who have used the technology for fundamentally different things than artists before.