Bio

Dr. Elisabeth (Lis) Sylvan studies how people create, collaborate, and make decisions with emerging technologies, especially AI. Her work sits at the intersection of design engineering education, sociotechnical systems, and human-computer interaction (HCI). It follows three connected threads:

tools and learning environments that make the technical, social, and political tradeoffs of sustainability visible
the governance of emerging technologies, particularly how AI affects agency and trust in education
speculative and dialectical methods that support creative synthesis with generative and agentic tools

Dr. Sylvan is Visiting Associate Professor of Sociotechnical Systems at Olin College of Engineering. There she teaches courses on generative AI, HCI, collaborative design, and products and markets, and serves on the college's AI Steering Committee. She is also adjunct faculty at Brown University's School of Engineering. She teaches AI-first business and entrepreneurship in the PRIME master's program and previously worked in the Brown–RISD Master of Arts in Design Engineering (MADE) program. At Brown she is a member of Brown's Creative Scholars Project, which explores creativity with and without AI. She has also taught generative AI at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Technical University of Munich's School of Politics and Public Policy. Across her teaching, she emphasizes thinking critically about technology, applying design principles to real projects, and designing with empathy for the people technology serves.

From 2019 to 2024, Dr. Sylvan held executive leadership roles at Harvard University'sBerkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, including Managing Director, Interim Executive Director, and Senior Director for Strategy and Programming. She led the Center's educational programs, including the Research Sprints and the Summer Institute. She also co-led the Co-Designing Generative Futures initiative and represented the Center in the Global Network of Internet & Society Centersand the International Network on Digital Self-Determination. She serves on the Board of the Network of Centers' Digital Hub Association, is an associate editor of the journal Critical AI, and is an expert advisor to the AI Policy Observatory. Earlier in her career, Dr. Sylvan was Vice President of Education at The Tech Interactive in Silicon Valley, Director of Learning and Community at Manylabs, Maker in Residence at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College, and Research Scientist and Project Director at the education R&D nonprofit TERC.

Her work has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Mercator Foundation, and the Research Council of Norway, among others. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab, where her research examined influence and interaction in online communities of creators such as Scratch. She also holds a B.S. in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.

Short version (75 words) Dr. Elisabeth (Lis) Sylvan is Visiting Associate Professor of Sociotechnical Systems at Olin College of Engineering and adjunct faculty at Brown University's School of Engineering. She studies how people create, collaborate, and make decisions with AI, at the intersection of design engineering education, sociotechnical systems, and HCI. She previously held executive leadership roles at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and advises governments on AI policy. She holds a Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab.