Isaac Record
Lyman Briggs College
W25D East Holmes Hall
919 East Shaw Lane
East Lansing, MI 48825
Lyman Briggs College
35 East Holmes Hall
919 East Shaw Lane
East Lansing, MI 48825
+1 (517)402-2540
irecord@msu.edu
Skype isaacrecord
Zoom https://msu.zoom.us/my/isaacrecord
Isaac Record is a teaching professor at Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, where he directs the Collaborative Experiential Learning Laboratory (CELL) and teaches courses in philosophy of science, science and technology studies, and critical making. His research seeks to situate our epistemic and ethical circumstances within a network of values, capabilities, and material and social technologies. Isaac holds a PhD and MA from the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) at the University of Toronto and a BS in Electrical Engineering and BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Maine.
The Collaborative Experiential Learning Laboratory (CELL) provides the space and material infrastructure to support hands-on group investigations that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. Part showcase, storeroom, and workshop, the CELL invites playful experimentation and takes pride in trial and improvement. The CELL is host to traditional craft tools such as hand saws, clamps, paint, and sewing machines, as well as advanced prototyping equipment such as a 3D printer, desktop mill, laser cutter, and electronics kits. The CELL was designed by a large team of students in Isaac’s classes, an effort that improved both the classroom experience and the product—the CELL itself.
Before coming to MSU, Isaac was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Semaphore Lab within the University of Toronto iSchool exploring the epistemic, ethical, and practical dimensions of emerging technologies such as 3D printers, programmable controllers, and sensor toolkits as well as practices like participatory design and critical making that can best make use of them. He and his team prototyped new tennis balls for the Toronto Blind Tennis Club, explored the prospects for regulating so-called “disruptive” technologies as 3D printed guns, and partnered with the Bata Shoe Museum to study the educational effectiveness of 3D printers in teaching historical-cultural content.
Isaac’s dissertation (University of Toronto, 2012) examines the development of the digital computer as a scientific instrument, with particular attention to the development of the Monte Carlo technique in atomic research and the subsequent development of simulation as a methodology within science.
Isaac’s undergraduate Honors Thesis (2003) examines the power and limits of our disciplinary thought patterns, with special attention to linear versus nonlinear mathematical models, asking how the way we think ends up affecting what we come to know. He continues to explore this question in various forms.
Isaac is married to another academic, Eleanor Louson, and has three kids.
