MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) Fellow Caitlin Morris is an architect, artist, researcher, and educator who has explored psychology and utilized online learning tools to acquire coding and various other skills. She possesses a gentle demeanor and exhibits a profound interest in how individuals interact with their environments and utilize spatial areas. By merging her observational abilities with active community involvement, she operates at the convergence of technology, education, and human connection to enhance digital learning platforms.
Morris was raised in rural upstate New York in a family of creators. From a young age, she acquired skills in sewing, cooking, and woodworking. One of her earliest recollections is of a small handsaw she crafted — with assistance from her father, a skilled carpenter. It featured wooden handles on both ends to facilitate her sawing.
Eventually, whenever she sought to learn something new, she opted for project-based communities over books. Late into the night, she taught herself to code by leveraging community-driven platforms where individuals respond to inquiries and share sketches, giving her insight into the coding behind the creations of others.
“For me, that was a significant ‘aha’ moment, realizing that there existed a way to express myself outside of a conventional computer-science classroom,” she shares. “I believe this is partly why I feel so fervently about my current endeavors. That was the major shift: having that community accessible in such a personal, project-driven manner.”
Consequently, Morris has engaged in community-centric learning in various capacities: she co-organizes the MIT Media Lab’s Festival of Learning, leads creative coding community gatherings, and has been actively involved in the development of open-source software communities.
“My years coordinating learning and making communities — both offline and online — have illustrated the immense power of social interaction for motivation and curiosity,” Morris noted. “My research primarily focuses on identifying which facets of that social dynamism are vital so we can create digital spaces that effectively support those interactions.”
Even in her artistic endeavors, Morris occasionally collaborates with a collective. She has participated in the creation of around 10 large-scale art installations that integrate movement, sound, visuals, lighting, and other technologies to immerse visitors in an experience reflecting some element of nature, such as flowing water, birds in transit, or group dynamics. These extraordinary installations are both commanding and tranquil, likely due to their ability to engage the mind, eye, and occasionally, the ear.
She accomplished much of this work alongside New York-based Hypersonic, a collective of artists and technologists specializing in significant kinetic installations within public domains. Prior to that, she obtained a BS in psychology and a BS in architectural building sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, followed by an MFA in design and technology from the Parsons School of Design at The New School.
Throughout, in between, afterward, and sometimes simultaneously, she has taught design, coding, and various technologies at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.
“What initially attracted me to teaching was that my learning experience as a child differed significantly from what occurred in traditional classrooms,” Morris clarifies. “I later observed this in many of my students. I sensed that the conventional approach to learning wasn’t resonating with them, leading them to feel it was their own shortcoming. They often felt unwelcome in the traditional educational framework.”
Morris explains that when she worked with those students, discarding traditional methods and instead stating — “You know, we’re simply going to create this animation, or we’ll design this website or these graphics, and we’re going to tackle it entirely differently” — she witnessed individuals “kind of unlock and think, ‘Oh my gosh. I never realized I could achieve that.’
“For me, that’s what draws me in, that’s the enchantment of it. Coming from the perspective of having to discover those unlocking mechanisms for myself, it was incredibly exhilarating to share those enlightening moments with others.”
For her doctoral research with the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, she is concentrating on personal space and emotional gaps related to learning, particularly in online and AI-assisted environments. This study builds on her past experiences in enhancing human connection within both physical and virtual learning atmospheres.
“I’m developing a framework that merges AI-driven behavioral analysis with human expert evaluations to explore social learning dynamics,” she indicates. “My research examines how patterns of social interaction affect the development of curiosity and intrinsic motivation in learning, particularly by understanding how these dynamics vary between actual peers and AI-supported contexts.”
The primary phase of her investigation involves identifying which elements of social interaction cannot be substituted by an AI-based digital tutor. Following this assessment, her objective is to construct a prototype platform for experiential education.
“I’m crafting tools that can simultaneously monitor observable behaviors — such as physical activities, language signals, and interaction trends — while also capturing learners’ personal experiences through reflection and interviews,” Morris elaborates. “This methodology connects what individuals do with their feelings about their learning journey.
“I aspire to make two fundamental contributions: first, analytical tools for studying social learning dynamics; and second, prototype tools that showcase practical methodologies for fostering social curiosity within digital learning environments. These contributions could facilitate bridging the gap between the efficiency of digital platforms and the rich social interactions prevalent in effective in-person learning.”
Her ambitions make Morris an ideal candidate for the MIT MAD Fellowship. A statement in MAD’s mission is: “Breaking free from traditional education, we cultivate creativity, critical thinking, making, and collaboration, exploring a variety of dynamic methodologies to prepare students for complex, real-world challenges.”
Morris aims to assist community organizations in navigating the swift AI-enhanced transformations in education after she completes her doctorate in 2026. “What actions should we take concerning the ‘physical space versus virtual space’ divide?” she inquires. That is the context currently captivating Morris’s contemplation.