Annalyn Bachmann
PhD Student & Researcher
Northeastern University
I am a PhD student in Political Science at Northeastern University studying collective intelligence and its applications in governance. My research explores how groups, organizations, and societies can harness collective knowledge and decision-making to address complex governance challenges — from policy design to democratic participation. Before Northeastern, I spent several years at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and MIT Open Learning building the research platforms and programs that put these ideas into practice.
Research Interests
Wilderness Search & Rescue
A growing focus of mine: how volunteer search and rescue teams govern themselves, and how they coordinate with local and federal law enforcement in the field. These groups are largely self-organizing yet operate alongside formal agencies — a striking case of collective action meeting institutional authority.
Collective Intelligence
How groups aggregate information, coordinate action, and produce outcomes beyond individual capability.
Governance Applications
Designing collective decision-making mechanisms for public institutions, policy, and democratic systems.
Computational Social Science
Using computational methods to study social phenomena at scale.
Participatory Systems
Platforms and processes that enable meaningful civic and organizational participation.
Recent Work
Using Collective Intelligence to Assess the Future with the Pandemic Supermind
The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance, 2023