Dear CEE Community and Friends,

February has been a short and sweet month for CEE. News of the MIT Climate Grand Challenges finalists were announced with CEE faculty leading and taking a major role on seven of the projects. Research co-authored by Prof. Xuanhe Zhao presents a safe, degradable, alternative to hand-sewn sutures to repair leaks and tears in biological tissues. Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm and three of our alumni were named new members of the National Academy of Engineering; Prof. Bourouiba wins a $2.2M NIH grant and named 2022 AIMBE Fellow; alumna Ana Pinheiro Privette is profiled alongside two other remarkable scientists for International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Also in this issue, graduate student Meshkat Botshekan tells us what a single car can say about traffic and Prof. Cathy Wu shares how she’s using AI to build the roadways of our future. We also spotlight graduate student, Lucas Medeiros, who aims to protect our natural ecosystems in order to preserve the important services they provide to humanity. 

Lastly, we have some fun events planned for the CEE community during the MIT Random Act of Kindness Week. I encourage you to check them out below and attend. 

Sincerely,

Ali Jadbabaie

JR East Professor

Department Head, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering

Core Faculty, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

27 interdisciplinary research projects were selected as finalists in the first MIT Climate Grand Challenges competition and CEE is leading and taking a major role on seven of the project teams. Each of the finalist teams received $100,000 to develop a comprehensive research and innovation plan.

Prof. Ulm and three CEE alumni elected to the NAE

Prof. Franz-Josef Ulm, IBM Fellow, John Cohn, and alumni Michael Dettinger ‘79; Youssef Hashash ‘87, ’88 SM, ’92 PhD; and Guy Nordenson ’77 were named new members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for 2022.  

Bourouiba wins $2.2M NIH Grant and named AIMBE Fellow

Associate Professor Lydia Bourouiba won a $2.2M grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the biophysics of airborne droplet transmission of mycobacterium tuberculosis and was elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.

Discovering nature's properties through nonlinear solid mechanics

The Tech spotlight's Cohen's Mechanics Group, led by Professor Tal Cohen. A lab started 5 years ago that researches the field of nonlinear solid mechanics with its widespread applications from creating stronger buildings to studying the nature of brain injuries. 

Alumna Pinheiro Privette empowers positive change

Dr. Ana Pinheiro Privette '98 MEng is profiled about her work with Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative for International Day of Women and Girls in Science and says her "fascination with data started while taking a Master's of Engineering in water quality and an extra remote sensing class at MIT."

Engineers in the MIT Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering have developed a kind of surgical duct tape — a strong, flexible, and biocompatible sticky patch that can be easily and quickly applied to biological tissues and organs to help seal tears and wounds.

How will our roads need to change to ensure safety and smooth travel in high traffic cities like Boston and beyond? MIT Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Cathy Wu shares what she’s building using machine learning to help address this question on the latest episode of the Robot Brains Podcast.

Meshkat Botshekan, a PhD student working with the MIT CSHub, is discovering a more efficient and affordable physics-inspired alternative to measure traffic properties that require vast amounts of data

Growing up in the lush tropical environment of São Paulo, Brazil, Medeiros saw first-hand the importance of preserving our natural ecosystems. Learn more about his research focus and interests in our graduate spotlight.

#MITRAK Week for CEE Community

MIT Random Act of Kindness Week is March 7-11. Check out the events happening in Parsons and Building 1 and get ready for some creative, relaxing, and fun moments with the CEE community.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil 

and Environmental Engineering

77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-290 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 

(617) 253-7101

CEE.MIT.EDU