The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS), based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), have joined their fellowship programs for the 2009-2010 academic year. This collaboration will intensify both Centers’ exchanges across the University and stimulate multidisciplinary research efforts in areas ranging from ethics to economics.
“Integration with the CRCS program is a major milestone along the Berkman Center’s transition into its new status as a University-wide initiative,” said Berkman Center co-founder and faculty co-director Jonathan Zittrain ’95. “CRCS affiliates have expertise in areas that are highly complementary to those of the Berkman community we have assembled for the upcoming year. We’re looking forward to learning from CRCS’s work and producing new interdisciplinary research.”
“The collaboration with the Berkman Center will greatly advance CRCS’s mission of driving computer science research towards important societal problems,” said Salil Vadhan, Vicky Joseph Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at SEAS and current director of CRCS. “By facilitating deeper interactions with social scientists and legal scholars, fellows will be able to explore entirely new avenues of research and existing projects will become equally enriched.”
The combination of fellowship programs will provide for regular community discussions through which joint ventures and grants may be developed in such areas of mutual interest as privacy, human cooperation, voting, and crowd-sourcing. The 2009-2010 year will provide a basis for exploration of a permanent, formal relationship between Berkman and CRCS.