October 14, 2019

Nicole Rigillo and Jason Stanley: Research Fellow and Design Research Lead at Element AI: challenging the distinction of social and non-social science

39 minutes

Today we talk to Nicole and Jason about their rather different professional paths which led them both to Element AI – a global artificial intelligence solutions provider. What sparked our interest in the interview is that Element AI has become the space in which social scientists thrive and we wanted to find out why. We were curious to know how Nicole and Jason engage in the same work bringing diverse individual expertise and academic perspectives.

Jason explains how in the field of his work, building a good team isn’t about comparing or contrasting social to non-social science but about finding the synthesis of qualities required by a particular case. He gives examples from his personal journey of how to achieve those skills which are not included in university programs.

Nicole, on the other hand, brings her anthropological lens into the scientific context and generates discussions about how the work that is being undertaken has deep and irreversible consequences for the way social scientists think. Lastly, they share their advice to young graduates considering to follow a similar path.

Mentioned in Podcast:

Berggruen Institute Fellowship Program, https://www.berggruen.org/fellowship-program/

Element AI, https://www.elementai.com/

Hackathon, https://www.hackathon.com/

Social Media:

Nicole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolerigillo/

Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonstanley2/

...more