Named after the polymath, mathematician, first computer programmer, and early innovator of the computer age, Ada Lovelace, this collaborative project with Microsoft Research is the first architectural pavilion project to incorporate AI.

Ada is a cyber physical architecture that is adaptive, personal, data-driven and informed by individual and collective participation.

Working with researchers and engineers at Microsoft Research, Ada is driven by individual and collective sentiment data collected and housed within the Microsoft Research Building 99. A network of sensors and cameras located throughout building offer multiple opportunities for visitors and participants to engage, interact with, and drive the project. The data includes facial patterns, voice tones, and sound that are processed by AI algorithms and correlated with sentiment.

Three scales of responsive and gradated lighting including a network of addressable LEDs, a custom fiber optic central tensegrity cone, and five external PAR lights respond in real time to continuous streams of data. Specific sentiment data are correlated with colors, spatial zones within the project, and responsive materials.