Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar

Research scientist, Robotics and AI Institute (RAI)

Bio

Pedro Reynolds-Cuéllar is a research scientist at the Robotics and AI Institute (RAI), in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work focuses on cross-disciplinary research around the design, integration, and/or regulation of robotics and AI at its intersection with society.

A Colombian designer and researcher, he holds a PhD from MIT, which he completed in 2024. He was based jointly at the Future Heritage Lab at MIT's Program in Art, Culture and Technology and the Space Enabled Group in the MIT Media Lab. Pedro studied linguistics at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia where he worked on articulatory phonetics and signal processing. He did his master’s degree work with the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, where he focused on designing interactions to explore the role social robots play in fostering children's socio-emotional skills, such as empathy.

He studied and documented the design histories and practices that led to the creation of ancestral technologies in Colombia. This category of technologies holds deep cultural, ecological and socio-historical value for the people and places where they were created. Pedro uses insights from this work to propose design practices and pedagogical approaches that lead to the development of more sustainable and just technologies.

Events

Rethinking Who Designs AI

Public Program, Design Redefined
May 1, 2025

News