The MIT Rap Challenge | Curtis Northcutt | TEDxMIT

Toward bringing us together during the 2020 pandemic, an MIT student, Curtis Northcutt (a.k.a. PomDP the PhD Rapper) created the MIT rap song with tribute to notables like Claude Shannon, Patrick Winston, and Feynman. The MIT rap song and music video was played at the 2020 MIT graduation during pre-commencement. The song is a single from the upcoming NERD album and the landmark song of the 'MIT Rap Challenge', a challenge to other schools, companies, and communities to create a rap song that empowers and embodies the spirit of their community. Curtis Northcutt (a.k.a. PomDP the PhD rapper) was born and raised in a rural area between Lexington and Athens, Kentucky. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather worked as mailmen and his mother worked minimum-wage jobs. After graduating valedictorian of Vanderbilt's College of Engineering in 2013, Curtis attended MIT, where he created a cheating detection system used by MITx and HarvardX MicroMasters courses and was awarded the MIT Masters Thesis Award (2017). During his PhD at MIT (2017-2021) he developed artificial intelligence algorithms that augment human intelligence. He has worked at Google AI Research (NYC, 2019), Oculus Research (Seattle, 2018), Amazon AI (Boston, 2017), Facebook AI Research (NYC, 2016), Microsoft Research (Bangalore, 2014), MIT Lincoln Lab (2013), NSF REU (Notre Dame, 2011), General Electric (Louisville, 2010), NASA Research (Langley, 2009). Growing up with limited opportunity, Curtis leaned heavily on rap music as a therapy to dream, escape, and empower. He founded MPWR LLC and MPWR Records (read 'Empower') to create music that empowers others. Over the next year, Curtis is releasing three albums: (1) MPWR India, the first album where Indian locals rap about social issues they face, (2) MPWR AI, the first rap album written by artificial intelligence, and his debut mixtape, (3) the NERD album, introducing a new genre of 'smart rap' to normalize tech and AI in hip-hop to empower those otherwise may not be exposed to such content. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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