Daniella DiPaola

Daniella DiPaola, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab. Her work lies at the intersection of AI, children, and society. She conducts human-AI interaction research, develops K-12 curricula on the responsible creation and use of AI, and supports educational policy on AI in schools. Her research has been featured in top ACM and IEEE conferences in human-computer interaction and STEM education, and her learning activities have reached millions of students worldwide through educational organizations such as Day of AI, Edward M. Kennedy Institute, and Project STEM.

Daniella earned her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab, where she also holds a Master’s degree in Media Arts and Sciences. Her dissertation, “AI Literacy as Civic Literacy: Developing Youth as Responsible Citizens in a World with AI,” argued for framing AI literacy as a civic skill and developed programs to help youth share their voices on AI.

Prior to graduate school, Daniella was a design researcher at Jibo, Inc., where she helped study the world’s first social robot for the home, named Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year in 2017. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University.