http://danielarus.csail.mit.eduDaniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Rus’ research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science.

The focus of her work is developing the science and engineering of autonomy, toward the long-term objective of enabling a future with machines pervasively integrated into the fabric of life, supporting people with cognitive and physical tasks. Her research addresses some of the gaps between where robots are today and the promise of pervasive robots: increasing the ability of machines to reason, learn, and adapt to complex tasks in human-centered environments, developing intuitive interfaces between robots and people, and creating the tools for designing and fabricating new robots quickly and efficiently. The applications of this work are broad and include transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, monitoring the environment, underwater exploration, smart cities, medicine, and in-home tasks such as cooking.

Rus serves as the Associate Director of MIT’s Quest for Intelligence Core, and as Director of the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center, whose focus is the advancement of AI research and its applications to intelligent vehicles. She is a member of the Toyota Research Institute advisory board.

Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the 2017 Engelberger Robotics Award from the Robotics Industries Association. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

John has created a career out of bringing ideas, networks and people together to generate powerful results. Currently, John serves as Managing Director and Partner at Link Ventures, and as Chief Network Officer, SVP Corporate Development of Cogo Labs. Before joining Link Ventures and Cogo Labs, John’s deep curiosity and penchant for problem-solving led him to a diverse set of roles spanning many fields and interests. Previously, John was a VP at Meta, a Y-Combinator augmented reality startup based in Silicon Valley. John’s also served as the Head of Innovation and New Ventures at the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group, and the Managing Director of Emerging Worlds SIG, where he led the launch of collaborative innovation centers in Mumbai, Nashik, and Hyderabad.

John also channels his passion and curiosity into cultivating platforms for thought and exchange. John is the Founder & CEO of ARIA, a community focused on the potential of augmented reality and the Blockchain+AI+Human, which takes place at MIT and the World Economic Forum in Davos with MIT Professor Sandy Pentland. John also founded Ideas in Action Inc., a non-profit that creates and produces TEDxBeaconStreet, whose talks have accumulated 250+ million YouTube views.

John was also a co-Founder of Citizen Schools, an advisor for PhotoButler, Vestigo Ventures and Founders Forum (Boston), an MIT Connection Science Fellow, a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a graduate of Hamilton College. John was recognized by Harvard Business Review for his leadership; by BostonInno in 2014 as a top 50 on Fire in Boston; Boston Chamber with a TOYL (Ten Outstanding Young Leaders) Award in 2006. In his free time, John is a passionate photographer and an accomplished triathlete (qualified for the worlds and 4x nationals). John and his family live in Brookline, MA.

Rucha is a sophomore (originally from Ames, Iowa) at MIT; she is a candidate for a Bachelor’s Degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, on a pre-med track. She was nominated for the FRC Dean’s List Award by mentors on her high school FRC team, was an NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Affiliate Award Recipient, and is a Dr. Bart Kamen Memorial FIRST Scholar. She is currently pursuing a research position in the Gabrieli Lab at MIT and is a member of the Medical Career Exploration Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her interests include dancing on the Bhangra team, travelling, and exploring new cultures.

Stephanie is a sophomore (originally from Manhattan, KS) planning on double-majoring in computer science and music. She is a developer for MIT Battlecode, was a HackMIT 2019 organizer, and is actively involved in music and dance on campus. Stephanie has been named an NCWIT Aspirations in Computing National Winner, all-state violinist, and 2-time Google Code-in finalist, but by far her greatest accomplishment is being awarded the MIT pirate’s certificate. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys playing and listening to all genres of music, teaching violin, participating in hackathons, and napping whenever she gets the chance to find a comfy beanbag.

Vittorio is a sophomore studying aerospace engineering and physics at MIT. He grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut, where he attended Trumbull High School. Outside of TEDx, he serves as Propulsion Lead for the MIT Rocket Team, and has engaged in projects in both the Space Systems and Space Propulsion Laboratories. Some of his work includes modifying the test data processing software used for REXIS, an instrument aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, and developing new materials for electrospray thruster emitter chips. His interests include space exploration, propulsion, and photography.

Nathan(iel) Boerner is a second-year student at MIT majoring in mechanical engineering. Originally from Cincinnati, Nathan home educated, picking up music, computer graphics and advanced procrastination on the side. He has used all three regularly at MIT as a cellist in the MIT Symphony Orchestra, a vocalist/beatboxer for the MIT Cross Products acapella group, a researcher in MIT’s mechanical engineering department, and an all-round maker/designer type. He is an alumnus of the Davidson Young Scholars Program and the John Hopkins Study of Exceptional Talent, received recognition as a FIRST Lego League mentor, and is a 2018 U.S. Presidential Scholar. He also doesn’t have a right arm. Shark incident or some such…

Shelly is a first-year student at MIT studying Computer Science and Political Science. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Shelly went to Bexley High School. In high school, she was a clarinet player in the school band and was a kid’s karate instructor. At MIT, in addition to being Publicity Chair for TEDxMIT, Shelly is a mentor in CodeIt (a program that teaches middle school girls and non-binary students how to code in Scratch), a Freshman Rep in the Society of Women Engineers’ Girl Scout Outreach Program, and is a sister in Alpha Chi Omega. Other things that she is passionate about include: CrossFit, exploring cities, and giving back to the community.

Janice is a second-year student at MIT studying Computer Science. She grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, and attended Taipei American School. She is a passionate musician and dancer, singing for MIT’s East Asian interest a cappella group MIT Syncopasian as a soprano and soloist, and acting as stage director and publicity chair for the group. As a member of one of MIT’s sororities Alpha Chi Omega, she also does work for the chapter’s philanthropy involving healthy relationships and domestic violence awareness. She is very passionate about travel and meeting new people.

Brandon is a sophomore at MIT majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Brandon took an interest from an early age in computers, robotics, and science at large which he naturally migrated to his experience at MIT. In addition to his duties for TEDxMIT, Brandon participates in Poker Club, front-end website development, and Android application development for MIT D-Lab. Brandon is also a varsity athlete for MIT’s swim and dive team with 14 years of experience. In his spare time, Brandon enjoys hiking, metalsmithing, learning new languages, and doing hackathons/personal projects with his friends.

Alan Edelman is a Professor of Applied Mathematics, and, in 2004, founded Interactive Supercomputing (acquired by Microsoft). He received the B.S. & M.S. degrees in mathematics from Yale in 1984 and the Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT in 1989 under the direction of Lloyd N. Trefethen. Following a year at Thinking Machines Corp and at CERFACS in France, Edelman went to U.C. Berkeley as a Morrey Assistant Professor and Lewy Fellow, 1990-93. He joined the MIT faculty in applied mathematics in 1993. Edelman’s research interests include high performance computing, numerical computation, linear algebra and stochastic eigenanalysis (random matrix theory). He has consulted for Akamai, IBM, Pixar, and NKK Japan among other corporations. A Sloan fellow, Edelman received an NSF Faculty Career award in 1995. He has received numerous awards, among them the Gordon Bell Prize and Householder Prize (1990), the Chauvenet Prize (1998), the Edgerly Science Partnership Award (1999), the SIAM Activity Group on Linear Algebra Prize (2000), and the Lester R. Ford Award, (2005). In 2011, Edelman was selected a Fellow of SIAM, “for his contributions in bringing together mathematics and industry in the areas of numerical linear algebra, random matrix theory, and parallel computing.” Edelman was named a 2018 Fellow of the IEEE for his “contributions to the development of technical-computing languages,” namely the Julia language for numerical/scientific computing.

Anni is captivated by the idea of creating a new kind of drug using live rationally designed ‘living therapeutics’, the bacteria living in and on our human bodies. The idea of “bugs as drugs” fascinates her, especially its potential to treat diabetes, asthma, obesity, depression, and autism. She hopes that her research can provide new opportunities to tackle these chronic and complicated diseases. She is now building an integrated analysis method to combine genomes, meta-omics, isolates, and model animals to mine new knowledge and applications in Alm Lab, MIT (http://almlab.mit.edu/index.html). She is also studying how the industrialization impacts our gut microbiome, as a new member of the Global Microbiome Conservancy (http://microbiomeconservancy.org/).

Dr. Catherine McCartin is a computer scientist at Massey University New Zealand. Alongside her husband, she also runs a sheep and beef farm in the Central North Island. Her academic research encompasses algorithmic aspects of phylogenetics and software analysis. She enjoys working as a conduit between scientists and farmers. Catherine has an MSc (Computer Science) from Cornell University USA and a PhD (Computer Science) from Victoria University New Zealand.

Darya Guettler is a Junior (Class of 2021) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is majoring in Course 2 (Mechanical Engineering) and 17 (Political Science). Coming from Germany and the United States, she became interested in the field of sustainability because of her aunt, but decided to pursue her passions in the field because Climate Change is “such a real threat to the world,” and she thinks that we need as many people as possible working on mitigating it.

Darya is the co-president of the Undergraduate Energy Club. She is a member of the MIT Symphony Orchestra, the MIT Climate Action Team and the Solar Electric Vehicle Team, and has spent her summer interning at Tesla Energy. In her free time, she likes hiking, watersports, performing in her Indie-Rock band, and visiting new countries.

David McGee’s paleoclimate research focuses on understanding how precipitation patterns respond to climate change. Using natural climate archives such as lake deposits, stalagmites, and deep-sea sediments, his group reconstructs water availability in past climates in order to test theories and models used to project future changes. David is also the Director of the Terrascope First-Year Learning Community at MIT, which engages first-year undergraduates in student-led exploration of challenges related to sustainability and the environment. He received his bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, then taught secondary school science for seven years prior to obtaining a master’s degree from Tulane University and a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University. David was a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota before joining MIT’s faculty in 2012.

Hilary Vogelbaum is a senior at MIT (Class of 2020) in Materials Science & Engineering, with a concentration in business and energy. She has been passionate about energy and the environment her entire life, starting with a birthday party turned rainforest fundraiser when she was 8, and continuing through her work in advocacy for clean energy, and service trips to see the impact of energy access on people’s lives. 

During her time at MIT, Hilary has taken a systems-level approach to energy, participating in research to better model the emissions and economic impact of energy technologies. Through her internships, she has worked with a great variety of energy players, from oil and gas companies to utilities to investors, and has seen the different strengths and challenges each part of the energy puzzle faces. 

On campus, Hilary is involved with MIT Energy Club and her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Outside of school, she enjoys writing short stories, playing tennis, hiking, and reading.

John E. Fernández, MIT class of 1985, has been on the faculty of MIT since 1999. He is a full Professor and Director of the Building Technology Program in the Department of Architecture and is Director of the Urban Metabolism Group, a highly multidisciplinary research group focused on the resource intensity of cities and design and technology pathways for future urbanization. He is also co-Director of the International Design Center at MIT, a large internationally funded center for design studies across engineering and architecture. 

He is the author of two books, numerous articles in scientific and design journals including Science, the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Building and Environment, Energy Policy and others, author of nine book chapters and a frequently invited speaker at conferences and symposia worldwide. He has organized, chaired or co-chaired 7 international conferences. He is Chair of Sustainable Urban Systems for the International Society of Industrial Ecology and Associate Editor of the journal Sustainable Cities and Society.

The Founding Director of the Life Sciences Project at Harvard Business School, Enríquez is also a fellow of Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. His work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Foreign Policy, Science, and The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth (Current-Penguin Group, 2015), Homo Evolutis: Please Meet the Next Human Species (TED, 2012), As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth (Crown Business, 2005), and The United States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future (Random House, 2005). He works in business, science, and domestic/international politics.

Karthish Manthiram is the Warren K. Lewis Career Development Professor in Chemical Engineering at MIT. His lab is focused on electrifying chemical manufacturing, so that air, water, and renewable electricity can be used to make diverse chemicals. Examples include converting air and water into fertilizers, fuels, and plastics. Karthish received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley, and, most recently, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology. Karthish’s research and teaching have been recognized with several awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, Dan Cubicciotti Award of the Electrochemical Society, 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, and the C. Michael Mohr Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Mohamadou Bella Bah sees coordination problems everywhere. A Junior (2021) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (6-2), Bella’s research interests include artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, and algorithms and controls for cyber-physical systems. Bella believes that many of today’s cyber-physical systems can be made fully autonomous; wherein, a human operator provides no additional instruction beyond providing the desired system state. Bella’s research addresses how to achieve coordination in networks that have numerous, diverse, and independent agents, through the interactions of autonomous and intelligent agents — particularly in the context of smart grids. Bella’s most recent project is a communications and services platform for smart grids that enables distributed energy resources to autonomously self-coordinate pursuant of demands made by a system operator.

Noelle Eckley Selin is the Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research uses atmospheric chemistry modeling to inform decision-making on sustainability challenges, including air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Her work also examines interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations and develops systems approaches to address sustainability challenges. She received her PhD from Harvard University in Earth and Planetary Sciences as part of the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group. Her M.A. (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and B.A. (Environmental Science and Public Policy) are also from Harvard University. Her articles were selected as the best environmental policy papers in 2015 and 2016 by the journal Environmental Science & Technology.  She is the recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011), a Leopold Leadership fellow (2013-2014), Kavli fellow (2015), a member of the Global Young Academy (2014-2018), an American Association for the Advancement of Science Leshner Leadership Institute Fellow (2016-2017), and a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021).

Raffaele Ferrari studies the circulation of the ocean, its impact on present and past climates, and its role on shaping biological productivity. His group combines observations, theory and numerical models to investigate the physics of the ocean and atmosphere from scales of centimeters to thousand of kilometers.  

Ferrari has PhDs in Oceanography (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2000) and Fluid Dynamics (Politecnico di Torino, 1999). Before joining the faculty in 2002 he spent time as a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Since 2012 Ferrari has been Director of the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate.

Talia Khan is a Senior studying Materials Science & Engineering and Music. Her passion for the environment/sustainability comes from growing up in the beautiful deserts of Phoenix, Arizona and the core Jewish teaching of Tikkun Olam (repair/care of the world). Talia is incredibly excited to share her experiences and ideas with you, and hopes it gets you thinking about your interactions with the materials you use every day.

Timothy Gutowski is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. His current area of study is focused on the climate change consequences and mitigation strategies for engineered systems including; manufacturing, transportation, buildings and energy systems. He attended college in Wisconsin (B.S. Mathematics, 1967), Illinois (M.S. Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1968) and Massachusetts (MIT, PhD Mechanical Engineering, 1981).  He has worked at Wiss, Janney, and Elstner (structural engineer) and Bolt, Berank and Newman (noise and acoustics consultant) and has taught mechanical engineering at the Escuela Politécnica Nacional in Quito, Ecuador, while he was in the Peace Corps. He has over 150 technical publications, three books, and seven patents and patent applications.  His most recent books are: Thermodynamics and the Destruction of Resources, (with Bhavik Bakshi and Dušan Sekulić ) Cambridge University Press 2011, and Advanced Composites Manufacturing, Wiley 1997. And in 1972 he wrote Conceptos Básicos de la Teoría de Vibraciones.

Having received his B.Sc. (Physics) from Manchester University and D. Phil. (Physics) from Oxford University, Professor Thomas Peacock of the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT is the Director of the Environmental Dynamics Laboratory (ENDLab). His research group conducts field studies, laboratory experiments and modeling of environmental flows with an emphasis on ocean dynamics and transport. Professor Thomas Peacock received NSF and ONR sponsored projects, including recent studies in the Arctic Ocean, the Timor Sea, and the Western Pacific. Recently, he established a research program at MIT that studies scientific and societal aspects of deep-sea mining, with activities ranging from plume dynamic studies in the Pacific Ocean to the development of an international royalty payment regime for the International Seabed Authority.

Vibha is a fourth-year student studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. Her passion for sustainability comes from her belief  that everyone has the right to basic needs, and that things like clean water, a safe environment, nutritious foods, and access to education are the key to helping people accomplish their personal goals. She loves learning about other communities, and is inspired by Tanzania’s move towards solar energy. At MIT Engineers Without Borders, she’s served as External Relations Manager, Electrical Team Lead, Technical Lead, and President; this club has given her amazing opportunities to grow as a leader and change-maker. (She’s also been involved with MIT D-Lab in the past. )

Mike Berners-Lee consults, writes and researches on climate change and the wider challenges for humanity in the 21st century. 

He is the founder of Small World Consulting (http://www.sw-consulting.co.uk/), an associate company of Lancaster University, which is a world leader in the field of supply chain carbon metrics and management. Small World works with organisations of all sizes and sectors, from the world’s largest tech giants to SME’s. Mike is a professor at Lancaster University, where his research includes sustainable food systems and carbon metrics. He has made numerous speaking, radio and television broadcast appearances to promote public awareness of sustainability and climate change issues, and most notably featured in BBC1’s Climate Change: The Facts (https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2019/16/climate-change-the-facts), presented by Sir David Attenborough. He is the author of three acclaimed books.

His latest book, There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years (www.theresnoplanetb.net) is a practical and holistic tour of the 21st century’s biggest challenges, laced throughout with perspective-forcing statistics and analysis and practical guidance for individuals, businesses and politicians. 

Ryan is the Senior Fellow for Transportation and the Built Environment at Project Drawdown, a nonprofit organization that assesses, maps, models, and communicates the world’s most substantive solutions to reversing climate change. Ryan leads research at Project Drawdown that models transportation and buildings, sectors important to urban life. He has been involved in developing the underlying models that support all of Project Drawdown’s 80+ solution and sector models across the land-based, energy generation, waste, and human rights solutions,  which give him a broad perspective on approaches to solving the climate crisis. His work focuses on ensuring that Project Drawdown’s published results are based on sound and updated scientific analysis and data. Ryan’s span of experience in the academic, nonprofit, consulting, and finance worlds across two continents and four islands allows a divergence of perspectives on global climate change that enables communication of deep scientific knowledge to a wide range of individuals. Ryan publishes in the academic literature on sustainable infrastructure and also regularly presents his work at conferences around the world. He earned PhD and MSc degrees in Transportation Systems at the University of Lisbon in Portugal within the MIT Portugal Program, and a BSc in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering at MIT, as part of the Class of 2006. Ryan is also on the MIT Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Suki is a second-year student at MIT studying Computer, Economics, and Data Science. On campus, she is one of the administrators for Waste Watchers under MIT Office of Recycling and Waste Management, a director for the MIT Fall Career Fair, and a member of Mock Trial. Most recently, Suki conducted research on cybersecurity with MIT Sloan. In past summers, she worked as a strategy intern for a boutique fitness gym and interned with JP Morgan as a project analyst. In her free time, Suki enjoys volunteering/teaching, reading the news, and running.

Natalie is an undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying Systems Engineering, Data Science and Public Policy. She is actively involved in campus sustainability groups including Waste Watchers, a group providing event sustainability education; Trash2Treasure, an annual collection and sale of unwanted goods on campus; and the Baker Foundation, a student life improvement committee. Additionally, she rows on the Women’s Lightweight Varsity Crew team and is the Nordic Skiing Chair for the MIT Outing Club.

Vivian Song is a senior majoring in Materials Science & Engineering at MIT. She has a passion for sustainability and has acted as co-chair for the MIT Undergraduate Association Committee on Sustainability Outreach. Currently, she serves as one of the administrators and founders of Waste Watchers under the MIT Recycling and Materials Management Office. In her free time, she likes to write stories and listen to musicals.