MIT's First Human Factor Conference

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the first MIT Human Factors conference. This event was hosted by the MIT Club of Northern California in partnership with MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS).

I am not an MIT alumna and worried that I would be a total fish out of the water at the event. I graduated undergrad in 2020 when the world shut down. Therefore, attending industry conferences is a totally new experience for me.

The event was held at the lovely SF Jazz center in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. Despite coming alone, I had the pleasure of chatting with attendees at the brunch before the event.?

Pulitzer Prize winner, Deborah Blum , graced the stage for our first talk. Science journalism is a topic that I know little about yet Blum’s presentation was engaging.?This was a great experience of having the opportunity of learning something completely new.

Adam Berinsky 's Political Rumors discussion also appealed to me. With the rise of pandemic-fueled misinformation, I’ve been interested in the ethical positions of technologists. As someone who is quite close to free-speech absolutism in ideology, I cringe at the thought of expanding internet censorship. Yet, as bad actors have attempted to trigger societal unrest I can’t help but consider the role that big tech should play. Berinsky took an objective position in his talk which I appreciated,?

Caspar Hare's What Tech-Driven Future Should We Aim For? tied in with my thoughts on the Political Rumors presentation. He gave a great briefing on Utilitarianism ideology and its associations with the modern Effective Altruism movement. I really appreciated the philosophical nature of this talk.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed the speakers and committee that put this conference together. Even as a non-MIT alumna, I thoroughly enjoyed this event. If the Northern California MIT club puts this on next year I will definitely be in attendance.