Oded Nov, an assistant professor of Technology Management at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, has been selected to participate in the 2012 National Academies Keck Future Initiative. The conference “The Informed Brain in the Digital World,” held from Nov. 14 to 17 in Irvine, Calif., is a meeting of top researchers in fields like science, engineering and medicine. Nov is one of 100 researchers who have been invited to participate.

NAFKI, a program created by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and W.M. Keck Foundation, is a prestigious convention that provides a forum for researchers to discuss interdisciplinary research and to create unique solutions to global issues.

This year’s conference will explore the consequences of a digital world on the field of neuroscience, including how an increasingly connected world will impact learning processes, social behavior, memory, attention and decision-making.

Researchers from across the country apply to attend the conference, and 100 are selected to share ideas related to a single theme. The conference’s attendees undergo a competitive application process and are then assigned a team in which they brainstorm possible solutions to given problems. Teams are comprised of researchers, representatives from public and private funding organizations and lead members from universities and government.

Previous participants of the conference, including Muhammad Zaman from Boston University, commend the conference for its impact on their research.

“It was a fascinating experience,” said Zaman, a 2008 participant. “The NAFKI conference on ‘Complexity’ was enlightening in complex ways, the trajectory has been non-linear, but profoundly rewarding.”

Nov’s area of research focuses on the ways humans use social technology to come together and take united action. He also studies the effects of social psychology on the design and management of accessible technologies like Wikipedia.

Nov said he is excited to participate in the conference.

“Taking part in NAFKI will enable me to work closely with researchers from different disciplines on issues relating to how the human brain deals with computer mediated collaboration, and to explore new ways to improve large-scale technology mediated collaboration,” Nov said.

Bharat Rao, an associate professor in the department, said Nov’s participation in the conference could raise national awareness to his project and to make it easier for NYU-Poly to receive funding.

“It would help him create new linkages with other faculty researchers, which in turn could lead to joint project proposals that would have a better chance of being funded,” Rao said. “It would raise the national profile of the Technology Management and Innovation department at NYU-Poly. It would also attract research oriented students to the department and school.”

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Nov. 16 print edition. Jacqueline Hsia is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].