Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab, announced the creation of a new type of fellowship, the Director’s Fellows, designed to involve individuals with “less-than-traditional backgrounds” in the innovative work the Lab is doing, and the first class is quite impressive, including the likes of chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley and director J.J. Abrams.

“Our new Director’s Fellows initiative creates a way for these extraordinary individuals to take part in Media Lab research alongside our faculty and students,” Ito wrote in a blog post introducing the fellows. “We’re bringing a cohort of characters from a broad range of sectors and geographies to join us in doing collaborative research and to expand our growing global community. The fellows will not only work with the Lab’s students and faculty, but also with each other.”