Media Lab to Launch Wellness Initiative with $1 Million Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Skip to main content
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  • Our Vision
    • Our Vision Overview
    • Why Health Equity
    • Focus Areas
    • Measuring RWJF Progress
  • Grants
    • Grants Overview
    • Active Funding Opportunities
    • Awarded Grants
    • Grantee Stories
    • Grant Process
    • Grantee Resources
  • Insights
    • Insights Overview
    • Blog
    • Our Research
    • Advocacy And Policy
  • About RWJF
    • About RWJF Overview
    • Our Guiding Principles
    • How We Work
    • Impact Investments
    • Staff And Trustees
    • Newsroom
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
Find A Grant

    Media Lab to Launch Wellness Initiative with $1 Million Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

    Sep-08-2014 | 3-min read
    1. About RWJF
    2. Newsroom
    3. Media Lab to Launch Wellness Initiative with $1 Million Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    High school student Kenyon McGriff was overweight due to eating junk food. Kenyon is now a member of Students Run Philly Style and has a better understanding of healthy eating.  Commission to Build a Healthier America - Kenyon McGriff. Philadelphia, PA.

     

    Princeton, N.J.—The MIT Media Lab this week launched a wellness initiative designed to spark innovation in the area of health and wellbeing, and to promote healthier workplace and lifestyle behaviors.

    With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which is providing a $1 million, one-year grant, the new initiative will address the role of technology in shaping our health, and explore new approaches and solutions to wellbeing. The program is built around education and student mentoring; prototyping tools and technologies that support physical, mental, social, and emotional wellbeing; and community initiatives that will originate at the Lab, but be designed to scale.

    The program begins with the fall course Tools for Wellbeing, followed by Health Change Lab in the spring. In addition to concept and technology development, these courses will feature seminars by noted experts who will address a wide range of topics related to wellness. These talks will be open to the public, and made available online. Speakers include such experts as Walter Willett, noted nutrition and clinical medicine researcher; Chuck Czeisler, physician and sleep expert; Ben Sawyer, game developer for health applications; Matthew Nock, expert in suicide prevention; Dinesh John, researcher on health sciences and workplace activity; Lisa Mosconi, neuroscientist studying the prevention of Alzheimer’s; and Martin Seligman, one of the founders of the field of positive psychology.

    The RWJF grant will also support five graduate-level Research Fellows from the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, who will be part of a year-long training program. The funding will enable each Fellow to design, build and deploy novel tools to promote wellbeing and health behavior change at the Lab in a living lab environment, and then at scale.

    One of the significant ways that this program will impact Media Lab culture is in the review of all thesis proposals submitted by students in the Media Arts and Sciences program. The Media Lab faculty recently added a new requirement that all thesis proposals consider the impact of the proposed thesis work on human wellbeing.

    Other Lab-wide aspects of the initiative include:

    • A monthly health challenge that would engage the entire Lab, with review and analysis of each month's deployment to help inform the next month's initiative
    • A buddy system to pair students at the Lab with one another—to build an awareness of wellbeing as a social function, and not just a personal one, and to draw on people's inclination to solve the problems of others differently than we would solve our own.
    • The Media Lab will host a special event on October 23, 2014, when the creators of the X-Prize convene at MIT, presenting on a new X-Prize for Wellbeing.

    “Wellbeing is a very hard problem that has yet to be solved by psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, biologists or other experts in the scientific community,” said Rosalind Picard, professor of Media Arts and Sciences and one of the three principal investigators on the initiative. “It’s time to bring MIT ingenuity to the challenge.”

    "RWJF is working to build a culture of health in the U.S., where all people have opportunities to make healthy choices and lead healthy lifestyles. Technology has long shaped the patterns of everyday life and it is these patterns—of how we work, eat, sleep, socialize, recreate and get from place to place—that largely determine our health,” said Stephen Downs, chief technology and information officer at RWJF. “We're excited to see the Media Lab turn its creative talents and its significant influence to the challenge of developing technologies that will make these patterns of everyday life more healthy."

    The three principal investigators on the Advancing Wellness initiative are: Rosalind Picard, professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Pattie Maes, the Alex W. Dreyfoos Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; and Kevin Slavin, assistant professor.  PhD candidate Karthik Dinakar, Reid Hoffman Fellow at the Media Lab, will co-teach the two courses with the three principal investigators.  Susan Silbey, Leon and Anne Goldberg Professor of Humanities, Sociology and Anthropology, will also create independent assessments through the year on the impact of this project.

     

    About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

    For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve the health and health care of all Americans. We are striving to build a national Culture of Health that will enable all Americans to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

    Related Content

    Blog Post

    Bigger, Better Health Data from Patients Themselves

    New mobile apps will provide a rich source of research data on five diseases, from those who know their conditions best. The data will be collected and aggregated on a platform developed by an RWJF grantee, using a software framework developed by Apple. 


    0-min read

    Public and Community Health

    Subscribe to receive Funding Alerts & more

    Explore the latest in reflection and research from subject matter experts at RWJF and our wide network of partners.

    Email address already subscribed. Please check your inbox to manage your subscriptions.

    Subscribed!

    Thank you. You are now subscribed.

    Tell us what type of content you want to receive.

    Be informed with our weekly newsletter updating you with relevant news and research around a Culture of Health, as well as the latest funding opportunities.

    Get funded by RWJF: Receive notifications when new funding opportunities are released.

    Receive monthly updates on RWJF-sponsored research that informs many robust health policy debates on Capitol Hill, covering topics like health equity, improving access to quality healthcare, equitable housing, and more.

    Shop talk for researchers. This monthly newsletter covers research news and opportunities from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

    Sometimes we have news, announcements or opportunities that don't quite fit the subscription parameters above. If you're interested, we'll send you this information under "There's more...". *If you've indicated you are an EU resident, we will only send these communications if you intentionally check this box.

    Yes! I want to tell you more about myself and receive personalized communications in the future.

    Area(s) Of Interest

    Which profession or pursuit best describes you?

    Unsubscribe

    Stop receiving all emails from RWJF

    This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
    +

    SHARE

    • CONTACT RWJF

      50 College Road East

      Princeton, NJ 08540-6614

       

      US Toll Free: (877) 843-7953

      International: +1 (609) 627-6000

    • MANAGE YOUR GRANTS

      MyRWJF Login

      • Twitter link
      • Facebook link
      • LinkedIn link
      • YouTube link

    • Our Vision
      • Our Vision Overview
      • Why Health Equity
      • Focus Areas
      • Measuring RWJF Progress
    • Grants
      • Grants Overview
      • Active Funding Opportunities
      • Awarded Grants
      • Grantee Stories
      • Grant Process
      • Grantee Resources
    • Insights
      • Insights Overview
      • Blog
      • Our Research
      • Advocacy And Policy
    • About RWJF
      • About RWJF Overview
      • Our Guiding Principles
      • How We Work
      • Impact Investments
      • Staff And Trustees
      • Newsroom
      • Careers
      • Contact Us

    ©2001- 

    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. All Rights Reserved. 

     

    • Manage Email
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms and Conditions