School of Engineering unveils MIT Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence

In July 2022, the MIT School of Engineering welcomed its to start with class of scholars selected for the Postdoctoral Fellowship Plan for Engineering Excellence. The plan for the fellowship grew from conversations taking location within the school’s Range, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI) Committee — founded in 2020 — that recognized a want to diversify the pool of postdocs used inside of the college. The system seeks to explore and build the up coming technology of school leaders to enable manual the faculty toward a a lot more diverse and inclusive lifestyle.

“We are excited to give this new fellowship possibility,” suggests Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the College of Engineering. “I search forward to the favourable impression these postdoctoral fellows will carry to their do the job and investigate even though also encouraging the University of Engineering continue on our development as a more welcoming and assorted neighborhood for all.”

The plan delivers annual stipends for postdocs to go after study and instructional endeavours that widen the scope and breadth of the school’s recent work, although sustaining its motivation to excellence in engineering. It is partially motivated by MIT’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Checking out Students and Professor Program, which aims to deliver a increased number of varied students to campus.

Engineering is a area at MIT that has extended struggled with supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds. Currently, only 8 per cent of Faculty of Engineering graduate learners establish as an underrepresented minority. Only 5 per cent of undergraduates identify as Black or African American and only 14 percent determine as Hispanic or Latinx. Girls account for about 50 percent of the Faculty of Engineering’s undergraduate enrollment but make up just a third of the school’s graduate learners.

Postdoc demographics are equally disconcerting, says Dan Hastings, the College of Engineering’s associate dean of DEI and head of the Office of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

“If we seemed at the info from institutional study on postdocs in the Faculty of Engineering, the range of that group was horrible. There’s no other way to describe it,” suggests Hastings. “The sense was, why are unable to we have a system like the MLK System that draws in a varied inhabitants of postdocs?”

The Postdoctoral Fellowship Method for Engineering Excellence aims to make on the school’s other initiatives, like its DEI committee, the MIT Summer season Investigation Plan initiative, and the operate of the gender fairness committee. The intention is to exclusively diversify the pool of postdoc scientists employed by the faculty every 12 months. Supporting postdocs is specifically essential, suggests Hastings, simply because selecting for those positions typically transpires via diffuse expert networks and by way of personal college contacts.

“We hope that by intentionally creating a supportive community for our scholars, we can create a room in which postdoctoral students that are traditionally underrepresented in engineering can prosper,” suggests Nandi Bynoe, assistant dean, DEI for the University of Engineering.

Aside from supporting postdocs in their analysis, the application gives prospects for fellows to gain professional expertise required to realize success in potential careers in a few diverse places: entrepreneurship, engineering management — supported by MIT’s Gordon Leadership Software — and academia.

The 2022-23 MIT Postdoctoral Fellows for Engineering Excellence are:

Sofia Arevalo is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Arevalo’s doctoral operate centered on nanomechanical assessment of orthopedic implants to improve the longevity of total joint replacements. Her study abilities is in resources characterization, nanomechanics, health care polymers, and failure investigation. Her postdoctoral research focuses on studying from nature to optimize general performance of self-healing elements for clinical applications. In addition to investigate, she has intensive encounter mentoring and instructing graduate- and undergraduate-stage engineering classes and was a recipient of the University of California at Berkeley’s Remarkable Graduate Student Teacher Award in 2021. Arevalo gained her BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley and was a receiver of the Nationwide Science Basis Graduate Investigation Fellowship System in 2016.

Molly Carton is a Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Office of Mechanical Engineering. Her investigation focuses on applying algorithmic layout and computational fabrication to deliver architected materials and mechanisms with new mechanical houses. Carton earned her BA in physics from Princeton University, and her MS in applied arithmetic and PhD in mechanical engineering from the College of Washington at Seattle.

Steven Ceron is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His study place focuses on leveraging coupled oscillators to enable robot swarms to show varied morphologies and features throughout all duration scales. Ceron gained his BS in mechanical engineering from the College of Florida and PhD in mechanical engineering from Cornell University.

Matthew Clarke is a Boeing School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His analysis focuses on plane design, aerodynamics, and aeroacoustics, with an emphasis on the evaluation and optimization of electric powered automobiles for urban air mobility. Clarke is an alumnus of the MIT Summertime Exploration Program, acquired his BS from Howard College in mechanical engineering, and both equally his MS and PhD from Stanford University in aeronautics and astronautics.

Suhas Eswarappa Prameela is an aeronautics and astronautics College of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. His investigate passions include things like supplies discovery for intense environments, propulsion components for house purposes, equipment mastering, and informatics. Eswarappa Prameela has a PhD in materials science and engineering from Johns Hopkins College, an MS in material science and engineering from Arizona State College, and a BS in mechanical engineering (gold medalist) from RV University of Engineering, India.

Amy Rae Fox is a joint fellow in the MIT Pc Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory METEOR Postdoctoral Fellowship Software and the University of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship Application. She is a College of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science. Her analysis focuses on the function of cognition in data visualization, and she aims to create bridges concerning primary exploration in cognitive psychology and design and style research in human-computer interaction. Fox attained her BS in pc science from College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MSEd in instructional structure from Université Pierre-Mendès France, MA in interdisciplinary experiments from California Point out College at Chico, and PhD in cognitive science from College of California at San Diego.

Timothy Holder is an IBM University of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His research passions include things like development of wearable, non-make contact with, and remote psychophysiological sensor techniques for the detection of affective states, and for the improvement of wellness interventions in underserved populations. He also investigates cognitive and performative latent variables for human-robotic interactions. Holder obtained his BS in chemistry-engineering from Washington and Lee University and his PhD in biomedical engineering from North Carolina Point out University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael Kitcher is a Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Resources Science and Engineering. His analysis examines spin transport and chiral interactions in magnetic supplies with the purpose of developing spintronic devices that address considerably-achieving requires, these types of as electricity-successful computing. Kitcher gained his BS in products science and engineering from MIT in advance of earning his PhD, also in supplies science and engineering, from Carnegie Mellon College.

Ulri Lee is an Electrical Engineering and Computer system Science School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. Lee’s study focuses on acquiring microfluidic technologies to model the blood-mind barrier and examine hyperlinks amongst its dysfunction and neuropsychiatric problems. Lee received her BS and PhD in chemistry from the College of Washington, where by she was the 2020 SLAS Graduate Investigate Fellow.

Jorge Méndez is an IBM School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Electrical Engineering and Pc Science. His study seeks to develop flexible artificially clever methods that accumulate awareness above a life span, with apps in computer system eyesight, robotics, and normal language. Méndez been given his BS in electronics engineering from Universidad Simón Bolívar, and his MSE in robotics and his PhD in laptop or computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kristina Monakhova is a Boeing Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral fellow in Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science. Her study pursuits entail combining computational imaging with device studying to style and design better, smaller, and much more capable cameras and microscopes. Monakhova obtained her BS in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

George Moore is a College of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Mechanical Engineering. His analysis focuses on consumer journeys as a result of style and design considering procedures and the environmental impacts of small-scale producing techniques linked to these style thinking procedures. Moore gained his BS in mechanical engineering from the College of South Alabama, and his MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kimia Nadjahi is a Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her exploration interests lie in coming up with device learning algorithms that provide a great stability involving realistic strengths and theoretical justification, with the lengthy-phrase objective of facilitating their deployment in serious-earth applications. Nadjahi obtained her BS in applied arithmetic and computer science from Ensimag (France), her MS in computer eyesight and machine discovering from ENS Cachan (France), and her PhD from Telecom Paris (France).

Maria Ramos Gonzalez is a Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section of Mechanical Engineering. Her study focuses on the structure of robotic arms that she ideas to translate to upper limb neuroprosthetics. Ramos Gonzalez attained her BS and PhD in mechanical engineering from the College of Nevada at Las Vegas and was selected as the Nevada Program of Higher Schooling Regents’ Scholar.

Matthew Rivera is a Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. His thesis get the job done targeted on organic solvent separations with new composite membranes. At MIT, his perform focuses on knowledge-driven products discovery to handle hard chemical separations issues. Rivera received twin BS degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from Mississippi Point out College, and his PhD in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech.

Joseph Wasswa is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Office of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Working with analytical and computational competencies, his current analysis focuses on comprehending the transformation and fate of contaminants in the environment. Wasswa earned a BS in agricultural engineering from Makerere College, his MS in civil engineering from San Diego State College, and his PhD in civil engineering from Syracuse College. He also obtained a Certificate of Sophisticated Examine in Sustainable Company (CASSE) in 2021 from the Martin J. Whitman Faculty of Management at Syracuse College.