was founded in 2017 by Dr. Katy Croff Bell, National Geographic Explorer and former Vice President of the Ocean Exploration Trust. The goal of Open Ocean was to reimagine the future of deep-sea science, a field that today is far too inefficient, exclusive, and expensive to be accessible to many people. Bell selected the Media Lab because of the interdisciplinary nature of the culture, its focus on the intersection of art, science, design, and engineering, and the Lab's aspirational goal of inventing the future.