I’m a PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab, researching Human-AI Interaction, where I explore how AI and new interfaces can help people better understand and navigate complex systems and create within them. My path has spanned aerospace engineering, design, prototyping, large companies, and startups—from early work in automotive in Detroit and emerging technology in Palo Alto to running my own global design studio, leading AI platform efforts at a startup, and now building Latent Lab, a Media Lab project and spinout focused on making insight from unstructured information more visible and useful. Across it all, I have been most energized by turning big, ambiguous ideas into tangible things in the world. I care deeply about work that blends technical depth with human meaning, and outside the lab I am usually making things by hand, whether through glass blowing, pottery, or woodworking, exploring the outdoors through surfing, snowboarding, and hiking, or chasing the kinds of experiences and travel that lead to new perspectives. Thanks for stopping by, you can reach me at dunnell@media.mit.edu