Former MIT dean Christine Ortiz is building a radical nonprofit research institution focused on the intersection of technology and humanity, to increase college access for underprivileged students.
Imagine a university without classrooms, lectures, disciplinary departments, or majors.
Such is the goal of Dr. Christine Ortiz, former dean for graduate education at MIT, who is using technology to build a new kind of residential research institution from the ground up. At IdeaFestival 2016, Ortiz explained that universities are not keeping up with technology advances, or adequately preparing students for life in the 21st century. She is laying out a plan to change that.
"Technology is accelerating, and modernization and expansion of the higher education system is desperately needed," Ortiz said. "Our higher education system is still stuck in the Middle Ages."
Our current university system has not changed significantly in over 1000 years, Ortiz said. So she and her colleagues are building a nonprofit university that:
- focuses on the transdisciplinary interface between
