A Fireside Chat with John Maeda by Kevin S. '19

We were so lucky to have the UA Alumni Affairs Committee invite John Maeda — former MIT graduate and MIT Media Lab professor, former President of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and currently Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) — back to campus to share his experiences and thoughts on a variety of topics.

He had a great deal of interesting and insightful anecdotes to share. Here are some notes I sketched out during the talk.

I’m very much interested in the pursuing both comptuer science and design here at MIT (I just declared Course 6-3 on Friday! And there’s also a new Minor in Design that is part of the Course 4 department that I’m planning to tackle on as well. More on that later…). I look up to John Maeda as someone who has successfully pursued the intersection of technology and design.

After the fireside chat, I asked him what advice he has for MIT students in my position to pursue design in an engineering/tech-centered school. His response? Take classes at MassArt. That is something that I will definitely consider in future semesters.

Thanks again, John, for sharing your thoughts!