Marina Umaschi Bers

Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers is a professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University, with a secondary appointment in the Computer Science Department. She heads the interdisciplinary DevTech research group. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote young children’s positive development. She also developed and serves as director of the graduate professional development certificate on Early Childhood Technology at Tufts University. Dr Bers co-developed the free ScratchJr programming language, and created the KIBO robotic kit.To make KIBO widely available, she co-founded a start-up, KinderLab Robotics, Inc . As of 2020, KIBO can be found in over 61 countries. Furthermore, Singapore and Argentina have launched national programs including it. Dr Bers is the author of six books on the topic of children, new technologies and education, and many peer-reviewed journal articles. She is a pioneer in the field of early childhood technology with projects of national and international visibility and she has received multiple awards for her work, including the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). She currently serves as content director for the upcoming Wombats! animated show produced by WGBH Boston to air through PBS. Since the late 90’s, when she did her doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab with Seymour Papert, Dr. Bers has conceived and designed diverse technological tools ranging from robotics to virtual worlds. Her early projects focused on helping teenagers explore issues of identity and values in complex, multicultural societies and her current work focuses on early childhood settings.