Dimitris Papanikolaou

I am a Doctor of Design student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Previously I was at the Smart Cities and Changing Places groups at the MIT Media Lab and before that I was at the MIT Design Computation Group.

My research interests focus on how technology and policy can create intelligent human environments, products, and services from a design perspective. In my thesis I explore the use of sensor networks, incentive mechanisms and data visualization techniques to create a self organizing and financially sustainable operation model for bike sharing systems. Such model uses market design techniques to ensure that revenues from overpaying users satisfy the needs of rewarded users bringing the need of distribution of resources in balance with the prices that everyone is willing to pay for.

I am currently working with Prof Jose Gomez Ibanez from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Prof Martin Bechthold from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Prof John Sterman from the MIT Sloan School of Management to explore the intersection of those domains. Previously I worked with Prof William J. Mitchell from the MIT Media Lab and Prof David Parkes from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

I hold two Master of Science degrees (in Media Arts and Sciences and in Architecture studies) from MIT, and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.