Paulo Blikstein is an Associate Professor of Education, Technology and Design at Teachers College, and an Affiliate Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. An engineer by training, Blikstein holds a PhD. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University and an MSc. from the MIT Media Lab, and was on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University from 2008 to 2018.

His research focuses on how new technologies can deeply transform the learning of science, computer science, and engineering, and focuses on the applications of data mining, AI and multimodal learning analytics for learning. Blikstein created in 2010 the first research-based program to bring makerspaces to schools, the FabLearn Project, now present in 22 countries.

A recipient of the National Science Foundation Early Career Award and the AERA Jan Hawkins Early Career Award, Blikstein has published widely in venues such as the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Nature Biotech, the Journal of Engineering Education, and the Journal of Learning Analytics. Blikstein’s work has been featured in the New York Times, ABC News, Scientific American, Wired, The Guardian, and several others outlets. He holds two patents for the development of Google Bloks, a tangible programming toolkit for preschool children, developed in collaboration with Google Creative Labs.