Pattie Maes is the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab and an affiliated faculty member at MIT's center for Neuro-Biological Engineering. She leads the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group, which aims to radically reinvent the human-machine experience. Coming from a background in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, she is particularly interested in the topic of cognitive enhancement, or how immersive and wearable systems can actively assist people with memory, attention, learning, decision making, communication, and wellbeing.

Maes pioneered the concept of Software Agents in the 90s and remains focused on the question of how computer systems and digital devices might augment people and assist them with issues such as memory, learning, decision making, health and wellbeing.

Maes is the editor of four books, has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for many professional journals and conferences. She is the recipient of numerous awards including Netguru’s “Hidden Heroes: the people who shaped technology” (2022), Time Magazine has included several of her designs in its annual list of inventions of the year, The American Association for Artificial Intelligence gave her the “classic paper 2012” prize, Fast Company named her one of 50 most influential designers (2011); Newsweek picked her as one of the “100 Americans to watch for” (2000), TIME Digital selected her as a member of the “Cyber Elite,” the World Economic Forum honored her with the title “Global Leader for Tomorrow,” Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize, and in 2025 she was recognized with the “Lifetime Achievement Award in Human Computer Interaction” by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Prior to becoming a MIT Media Lab professor, Maes received her BA and PhD degrees in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and later joined the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab as a visiting professor and a research scientist working with AI luminaries Marvin Minsky and Rodney Brooks.