Barbara Barry, PhD, is an interdisciplinary research scientist. She develops new technologies that leverage storytelling by people and computers to enable solutions to global education and healthcare crises. She is an expert in the fields of story understanding by computers, a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence, and Human Computer Interaction. Barbara is currently developing systems that teach children and older adults the cognitive, emotional, and social skills needed to prevent and treat clinical depression.
Dr. Barry’s accomplishments while at M.I.T. (Post-doc, PhD, MS) include inventing a video camera with story understanding capabilities, designing a wearable computer for children, and creating computer-aided psychotherapy software. Barbara is also an avid education advocate. She has collaborated on humanitarian projects that provide learning opportunities for children living in emergency contexts, most recently in Gaza and Haiti.
