Playful Invention Company
About Playful Invention
Paula Bontá and Brian Silverman are the Playful Invention Company (PICO).
We are based in Montreal but collaborate with people from all over the world, including our friends at the MIT Media Lab, LCSI, and LEGO.
We have been fortunate to have the playful collaboration of a diverse network of talented individuals; some of them as crazy, and all of them just as passionate as we are about the future of technology and education. This list includes Robbie Berg, Chad Burt, Mads Purup, Mitchel Resnick and Natalie Rusk, as well as the members of the Lifelong Kindergarden Group at the MIT Media Lab. We are also grateful to the LEGO Company, particularly Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and Erik Hansen, for wonderful collaboration and financial support.
The Playful Invention Company would not be what it is today without the inspiring and dedicated contributions of Chad Burt, Catou Cournoyer, Mike Durcak, Adrian Gabriel, Mike Gillis, Jack Geddes, Simon Jelliffe, Danielle Hamel, Caroline Lavergne, Danny Lutz, Sophie Manfredi, Laurelle Miciak, Mari Moreshead, Samantha Sullivan, Nailisa Tanner, Matthew Thomson and Martin Rodriguez.
Paula is Co-Founder of the Playful Invention Company (PICO). She holds a degree in computer science from her native Argentina and a graduate degree from the Education and Technology program at Harvard. She contributed to the design of several award-winning products for children, including MicroWorlds, the “My Make Believe” series of products from LCSI, the PicoCricket Kit and TurtleArt from PICO, the LEGO WeDo System and LEGO Universe, and ScratchJr. Paula is a consultant for the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, and worked as a consultant for the LEGO Company for several years.
You can also visit Paula’s Wikipedia page here.
Since the late 1970s, Brian Silverman has been involved in the invention of learning environments for children. His work includes dozens of Logo versions (including LogoWriter & MicroWorlds), Scratch, LEGO robotics, TurtleArt and the PicoCricket. Brian is a consultant for the LEGO company and was a Consulting Scientist to the MIT Media Lab. He enjoys recreational math, and is a computer scientist and master tinkerer. He once built a tictactoe-playing computer out of TinkerToys.
You can also visit Brian’s Wikipedia page here.
Browse PICO projects.