I’m a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) double MSc. graduate in Course 6 (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science) and System Design & Management. As a student, I was also a SERC Scholar at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.
My research interests bring together equal expertise in machine learning and human-computer interaction (HCI). Specifically, I want to explore how effective HCI can be used to build mixed-initiative, human-AI systems to unlock new levels of productivity and creativity. I also seek to understand how it can be used to exacerbate or mitigate the harms in deployed machine learning to build more resilient, fair, and ethical systems.
I was primarily part of the CSAIL Visualization Group, advised by Arvind Satyanarayan. Other research groups at MIT I have been involved with include: Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group (TangiBel Soundscapes team), CSAIL HCI Engineering Group, Lincoln Lab Supercomputing Center (via the USAF-MIT AI Accelerator), and CSAIL FutureTech Group.
Before MIT, I worked for seven years at a large internet infrastructure company, primarily as an applied research data scientist. My functional areas spanned cybersecurity, network deployment, and process improvement for planetary-scale networks. Key contributions have included spearheading the company’s use of state-of-the-art machine learning in adversarial resilience using natural language processing (using LLMs in their infancy); applying large-scale data science and engineering to security incident response; establishing core processes and key infrastructure for data science operations; tracking and optimizing datacenter hardware deployments; and realizing cost savings in the $X00,000’s range.
I have also previously served as a Production Lead for the Together Boston music festival and an Audio Engineer for the venerable Make it New, at the time one of the longest-running house and techno electronic music events on the US East Coast.
My hobbies include photography, modular synthesizers (Eurorack), sailing, hiking, coffee, food, and of course - travel!
Want to connect? I can be reached at benjtang (at) mit (dot) edu!