IAP Prototype Update

November 16, 2016

The law.MIT.edu research team provided an update to MIT Human Dynamics Lab today, spotlighting current work on prototyping a blockchain enabled Automated Loan Fund providing valid identity, enforceable contracts and legal notices.  Many thanks to collaborators Dan Buchner of Microsoft and Mark Oblad of Valcu for their creative open source contributions!  

 

For more information about the MIT/IAP Blockchain Legal Intensive, see: http://law.mit.edu/BlockchainLegalIntensive

2016, November 28 Update: The research update video garnered a good question in the YouTube comments.  The answer may be of broader interest, and is provided below:

 

Tom Bachar
Tom Bachar 

What classes or degree are these courses associated with at MIT?

 

law.MIT.edu
 

law.MIT.edu 

 
Hi Tom, 

This video is a research project update for the Human Dynamics group of the MIT Media Lab.  The Automated Loan Fund research project will is directly connected to a short course tentatively called "Analytics and Blockchain Legal Intensive" planned for late January at MIT (course number and syllabus are in the works now).  This short course is part of the MIT "Independent Activity Period" and classes may be taken for credit or not for credit by currently matriculating MIT students.  People with no MIT affiliation will be permitted to apply to participate in the upcoming Analytics and Blockchain Legal Intensive IAP course.   The Automated Loan Fund research project also forms the basis of part of a lecture on "Ethics of Machine Learning  Applied to Legal Use Cases" (with a deeper dive in some of the problem sets) of the "Social Physics" graduate seminar offered this semester.   

The Media Lab has a research side and an academic side.  Academic activities at the MIT Media Lab are under the "Program in Media Arts and Sciences" (MAS), which offers both Masters and PhD degrees.  Research projects like this at the Media Lab may may not be directly connected to a particular class or academic track, but the academic and research activities are generally well aligned at a high level and sometimes are directly interconnected.  

The Master of Science. Requires:
* Residency of two academic years (one semester may be a summer semester)
* Research thesis
* Five academic course subjects over two years, in addition to research work

Doctor of Philosophy in Media Arts and Sciences Requires: 
* Qualifying examination (consisting of written and oral components)
* Program of original research leading to a thesis, and a thesis defense
Students pursuing the PhD degree without a master’s in media arts and sciences are usually admitted first as master’s students; continuation to the doctoral program is then conditional on performance in the master’s program.

For more information about academics at the MIT Media Lab in general, check out: https://www.media.mit.edu/admissions/faqs and for more information on the emerging research track focused on computational systems and law see generally law.mit.edu or reach out to us at law.MIT.edu/contact  

Thanks,
 - Dazza Greenwood, law.MIT.edu