Experiential Technology at MIT Reality Hack: A Concept Driving Our Evolution
By Scott Greenwald, PhD
Dear Friends of the Hack,
It is with great anticipation that I am finally able to share the new direction the Hack will be taking this year. This initiative represents an enhancement to our current XR focus, not a replacement, and I am confident that it will inspire as much enthusiasm in you as it has in us.
Going forward, we will adopt a term that extends beyond "XR," signaling an exciting new chapter for the Hack. This shift broadens our scope and positions the Hack to remain dynamic and at the forefront of innovation, as it has been for nearly a decade.
I am very excited to tell you that the term experiential technology will be used moving forward to capture the focus of our hackathon.
What's new in experiential technology at MIT Reality Hack 2025?
To offer a glimpse of how this will shape the Hack in 2025: we are witnessing both growing interest in and new feasibility for generative AI, as well as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). While previous Hacks incorporated basic BCIs, more advanced metrics were previously cost-prohibitive and time-consuming to develop. This year, we are significantly enhancing the presence of BCIs at the event with the introduction of new devices and sponsors, as this technology has reached the cutting edge and is now ready to play a key role in the 2025 Hack.
Additionally, we will further integrate AI technologies into the event. This includes AI as part of the development process, leveraging large language models (LLMs) and symbolic systems to power interactive systems and agents, utilizing AI to generate spatial and graphical elements, and embedded hardware that enable advanced computation.
In short, we are thrilled about this evolution of the Hack and look forward to bold new examples of why the MIT Reality Hack continues to be a vital force in the community, driving it forward into 2025 and beyond!
Sincerely,
Scott
READ: Our Technical Definition of Experiential Technology
