Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dr. Keith Bagley is an Associate Clinical Professor at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Keith also serves as the Boston Director for Khoury’s Align program, broadening participation in computing for non-computer science majors. Keith joined Northeastern in 2019 after spending over 25 years in industry, contributing to initiatives in technology transformation and model-based engineering, all the while remaining connected to academia by teaching masters-level computer science courses. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Howard University, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts. He is multi-vocational, and in addition to his faculty position, he co-pastors two faith-based ministries. A strong advocate for lifelong learning, Keith has earned two theological degrees: a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) from Rockbridge Seminary.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Debra Wise (Director) (she/her) launched Underground Railway Theater in 1978 in Oberlin, Ohio with founding Artistic Director Wes Sanders, who recently completed a digital book documenting URT’s decades as a touring company (URTheaterEbook.com). URT created over 30 new works in the activist and collaborative spirit of its namesake, and venues ranging from Lincoln Center to colleges to community centers; titles included Sanctuary – The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, Home is Where, InTOXICating and The Christopher Columbus Follies. URT also received multiple commissions from the BSO to create shadow puppet spectacles which toured to orchestras across the country (Firebird, Creation of the World, Tempest). Wise specialized in interdisciplinary and site-specific work, collaborating with Boston’s Museum of Science (Aging Puzzle), New Center for Arts and Culture (Jewish Women and Their Salons), the Mary Baker Eddy Library, the MFA and the ICA (Art InterACTions), the Cambridge Arts Council (theater in dialogue with public art). In 2007, URT co-founded Central Square Theater with The Nora Theatre Company, and for 15 years Wise helmed Underground Railway in its first theater home. With playwrights Alan Brody and Jon Lipsky, as well as physicist/author Alan Lightman, she co-founded Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, CST’s science theater partnership with MIT, of which Ada and the Engine is a part. She also led partnerships with Mount Auburn Cemetery (Our Town) and the National Park Service (Roots of Liberty – The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War, featuring actors, dancers, puppeteers, musicians, and guest artists Danny Glover and Edwidge Danticat). Under Wise’s leadership URT won several Elliot Norton awards including The Convert, Constellations, and Bedlam’s St. Joan. Acting appearances on the CST stage include The Half-Life of Marie Curie, Vanity Fair, Homebody, Copenhagen, Brundibar & But the Giraffe!, The Other Place, Distracted, The How and the Why, Einstein’s Dreams, From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story, Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., Breaking the Code, Arabian Nights and A Christmas Memory. Appearances on other stages include Mistero Buffo (Poets’ Theatre); A Boston Marriage and Orson’s Shadow (New Repertory Theatre); Brooklyn Boy and People Places and Things (SpeakEasy Stage Co.); Doll’s House II and Escaped Alone (The Gamm Theatre); and Chosen Child (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); in NYC, The Haggadah (The Public, with Julie Taymor). Her work as a playwright includes States of Grace, inspired by the work of Grace Paley; and Alice’s Adventures Underground, after Lewis Carroll. Wise left her Artistic Director position in 2022, and now serves as Program Director of Catalyst Collaborative@MIT. Upcoming projects include the Oberlin Wellington Rescue Theater Project in Ohio; the audiobook narration for Gregory Maguire’s Oracle of Maracoor; and being part of the acting ensemble for Angels in America at Central Square Theater in 2023.

Des Bennett currently serves as the Community Engagement Manager at CST and leads the Scripts in Play reading group. They are a multi-hyphenated theater artist, facilitator, and maker dedicated to continued learning, iterative experimentation, and collective care as the framework for artistic endeavors. Their recent work includes serving as Assistant Director for Common Ground (Huntington Theater co) and directing My Body Is A Season (SpeakEasy Stage). Des has held Research Assistantships with Dani Snyder-Young PhD on her recent projects, Theatre participation and arts-integrated peer leadership in substance addiction recovery processes and Digital performance, wellness, and equity, and contributed to the article, “Procedurally authored performances of mindful practice: Theatre-for-one, audience labor and self-optimization,” (The Drama Review, 2021). Des holds a BA in Theater from Northeastern University.

Joe Stallone (Dramaturg) A Boston based theater artist, Joe holds B.A. degrees in Theater and Dramatic Literature from Boston College. Recent work at CST includes A Christmas Carol (Asst. Dir.); Bedlam’s Pygmalion (Co-production Designer); Guards at the Taj and Homebody (Asst. Dir., Dramaturg); Arcadia and Journey to the West (Senior Dramaturg.) Joe was the Company Dramaturg at Gloucester Stage Company for 2014 and their Resident Props Designer for three seasons. Select directing credits include: The Graduate, A Little Night Music; Side by Side by Sondheim (AFD Theatre); The Glass Menagerie, The Fantasticks (TCAN Players); Tartuffe (The Umbrella Arts Center); ART; On Golden Pond (Winchester Players); The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (Wellesley Players). Props/Set Dressing Design at CST: Saving Kitty, Brundibar and But the Giraffe, When January Feels Like Summer, Absurd Person Singular, Mr g, Sila, A Disappearing Number, The Other Place, and Distracted. His design work has also been seen at New Repertory Theater, Greater Boston Stage Co., SpeakEasy Stage Co., Boston College, Brandeis University, and Poets’ Theater’s world premiere of Albatross. Joe’s regional real estate brokerage, J Stallone Realty Group, supports theatre and the arts through its “Refer-a-Friend” arts contribution program. JStalloneRealty.com

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Harry Lewis is Gordon McKay Research Professor of Computer Science in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His edited collection of classic computer science papers, Ideas that Created the Future (MIT Press), includes Ada’s writings on the Analytical Engine; his edition (with Lloyd Strickland) of Gottfried Leibniz’s writings on binary arithmetic, Leibniz on Binary, will be published by MIT Press October 25, 2022. Lewis started teaching computer science at Harvard in 1974, and his students have included both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. For eight years he served as Dean of Harvard College, and for half a year as interim Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Durriya Doctor is a Software Engineering and Technology leader. She started her career as a Software Engineer working on Operating Systems. She has worked in a number of different technology areas including Telecom Services, Video Editing and Operating System Services and has a proven track record of bringing new products to the market all the way from ideation to launch in multiple domains including Telecom Services, Video Editing and Operating System Services. Durriya currently works in Technical Program Management at Mathworks, Inc.

Gigliola Staffilani is the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Mathematics at MIT since 2007. She received the B.S. equivalent from the University of Bologna in 1989, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. Following a Szegö Assistant Professorship at Stanford, she had faculty appointments at Stanford, Princeton and Brown before joining the MIT mathematics faculty in 2002. At Stanford, she received the Harold M. Bacon Memorial Teaching Award in 1997, and was given the Frederick E. Terman Award for young faculty in 1998. She was a Sloan fellow from 2000-02. Professor Staffilani was member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1996 and 2003, and member of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2010.
In 2013 Professor Staffilani was elected member of the Massachusetts Academy of Science and a fellow of the AMS, and in 2014 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017 she received a Guggenheim fellowship and a Simons Fellowship in Mathematics. In 2018 she received the MIT Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising and in 2021 she was elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he also served as an inaugural Associate Dean at MIT for Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. He is the author of several award-winning books, including How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival, and Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World. Kaiser co-directs a research group on early-universe cosmology with Alan Guth in MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics, and has also designed and helped to conduct novel experimental tests of quantum theory. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Kaiser has received MIT’s highest awards for excellence in teaching. His work has been featured in Science, Nature, the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine. His group’s recent efforts to conduct a “Cosmic Bell” test of quantum entanglement were featured in a documentary film, Einstein’s Quantum Riddle, which premiered on PBS in 2019. The Cosmic Bell test also inspired an exhibit at the MIT Museum and a related play about quantum entanglement, Both/And, written by Patrick Gabridge and produced by the Catalyst Collaborative partnership between Central Square Theater and MIT.

Katrina LaCurts is a Senior Lecturer and Undergraduate Officer in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Primary academic interests lie in the intersection of computer systems and society, and Dr. LaCurts specializes in the teaching of large undergraduate systems courses and managing the EECS Undergraduate Office, which serves nearly 1700 students. Dr. LaCurts serves on the Office of Minority Education’s Faculty Advisory Committee and has been a member of the EECS Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Dean’s Action Group on Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. In 2021, Dr. LaCurts received the inaugural School of Engineering Distinguished Educator Award.

Kelcey Gibbons is a PhD student at MIT in the HASTS program (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society). Her research focuses on race and technology, particularly the African American experience of technology in the late 19th to mid 20th century. She is interested in the computer as a technology of black freedom, community building, and American citizenship; and in how black betterment organizations wove the computer into black freedom narratives and how the computer (as a device, idea, image) contributed to how those freedoms were imagined, sought-after, communicated. Recent publications include “Inventing the Black Computer Professional”, in Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Kelly Servick is a staff reporter and editor at Science Magazine, where she has covered biomedical research and biotechnology, drug development, and most recently, neuroscience. Her work has also appeared in Scientific American, Wired, and other outlets. Her story on the use of lab-engineered mosquitoes to control insect-borne diseases in Brazil was a finalist for the U.S. National Association of Science Writers Science in Society award. She has a B.A. in cognitive science and is a graduate of the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Wojtek Brzezinski is a freelance science journalist based in Warsaw, and the former creator and host of Poland’s first weekly sci-tech TV news show, “Horyzont Zdarzen.” His recent work focuses on the effects that digital systems have on society and includes co-authoring the book “Strefy Cyberwojny” (“Cyber Warzones”) with Agata Kazmierska. His stories have been published by Tygodnik Powszechny, Poland’s oldest weekly, leading broadcasters like TVN and Polsat News, the Interia.pl news portal, and many other outlets. Brzezinski has won several national and European awards for his work, including the 2006 Prix CIRCOM for Europe’s best regional TV news story.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Joseph Bates is a computer scientist and entrepreneur. His technical activities have been varied, including artificial intelligence for automated mathematics, software tools for developing hardware, emotional interactive animated characters and computational drama, and approximate computing. He was a professor and scientist for 20 years at Carnegie Mellon, the MIT AI and Media Labs, Cornell, where he received his PhD, and Johns Hopkins, which he entered at age 13.

Oliver Strimpel was curator and then Director of The Computer Museum in Boston for 14 years when the museum became internationally recognized for its collections and exhibits. These ranged from the Cold War SAGE computer to the first microprocessors, and from the two-story Walk-Through Computer to the Virtual Fishtank interactive gallery. Prior to this, Oliver was curator at The Science Museum, London, where he created exhibits on computer technology and was responsible for the national collections of mathematics and computing including Babbage’s original Difference Engine No. 2 and a trial piece for the Analytical Engine. Oliver is now a qualified patent attorney and Senior Patent Counsel at Avid Technology, Inc. Oliver has a degree in physics, and advanced degrees in astronomy, astrophysics, and law. He is a keen amateur geologist, visiting geologically unique corners of the planet, and pursuing research into the formation of the Himalaya.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

Woodrow Hartzog is Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, and is internationally recognized for his work in privacy and technology law. His publications focus on the complex problems that arise when powerful new technologies are used to collect, analyze, and share human information. His work has appeared in both scholarly and national publications, such as The Guardian, Wired, New Scientist, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He has testified before Congress on data protection issues and served on the Massachusetts Special Commission on Facial Recognition. He is the author of Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies, published in 2018 by Harvard University Press, and previously held a joint appointment as Professor of Law and Computer Science at Northeastern University School of Law and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?

ERAN EGOZY, Professor of the Practice in Music Technology, is an entrepreneur, musician, and technologist. He is the co-founder and chief scientist of Harmonix Music Systems, the music-based video game company that created the revolutionary titles Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central with sales in excess of one billion dollars. Eran and his business partner Alex Rigopulos were named in Time Magazine’s Time 100 and Fortune Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40. Eran is also an accomplished clarinetist, performing regularly with Radius Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, and freelancing in the Boston area. Prior to starting Harmonix, Eran earned degrees in Electrical Engineering and Music from MIT, where he conducted research on combining music and technology at the MIT Media Lab. Now back at MIT, his research and teaching interests include interactive music systems, music information retrieval, and multimodal musical expression and engagement. His current research project, ConcertCue, is a program-note streaming mobile app for live classical music concerts that has been featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, and the New World Symphony.

Tod Machover has been called “America’s most wired composer” by the Los Angeles Times. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant and innovative composers of his generation. He is also celebrated for inventing new technologies for music performance and creation, such as Hyperinstruments, “smart” performance systems that extend expression for virtuosi, from Yo-Yo Ma to Prince, as well as for the general public. He has been Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media at the MIT Media Lab since it was founded in 1985. His Hyperscore software—which allows anyone to compose original music using lines and colors—has enabled children around the world to have their music performed by major orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and rock bands. Machover is also deeply involved in developing musical technologies and concepts for medical and wellbeing contexts, helping to diagnose conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or allowing people with cerebral palsy to communicate through music. At the MIT Media Lab, Machover is also Academic Head as well as Director of the Opera of the Future Group.He is Visiting Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music (London) and the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia). At Central Square Theater, he composed the music for Remembering H.M., an original play by Wesley Savick about Henry Molaison, who lived for 60 years with virtually no short term memory.

Dick Rubinstein created many props for Ada and the Engine, including a replica of the Difference Engine model that Charles Babbage used to demonstrate his ideas in his famous salons. He also made the Difference Engine simulator displayed in the theater lobby, and its demonstrations. He’s delighted to return to Central Square Theater, where he last consulted on Breaking the Code, another play that focuses on people in the history of science and technology. Dick likes to make and fix things, and has a workspace at the Artisan’s Asylum, a maker space in Somerville. His degrees are in engineering and social science, a combination that led to a career in human factors and user experience. That’s not so different from designing sets and props: whatever the technology on the inside, how should the outside be designed to connect with the people who interact with it?