MIT School of Engineering Welcomes 15 New Faculty Members

The MIT School of Engineering is excited to introduce 15 new faculty members who will join six of its academic departments. These talented individuals, who have recently started or will begin their roles within the next year, bring a wealth of expertise across a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Many of the new faculty members engage in interdisciplinary research, holding positions not only in the School of Engineering but also in other units across MIT. Notably, faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) also report to the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Additionally, several new faculty have joint appointments with the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the School of Science.

“I am delighted to welcome this cohort of talented new faculty to the School of Engineering,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Their interdisciplinary research is poised to make a significant impact. I look forward to their growth as researchers and educators.”

Here are the new additions to the engineering faculty:

Stephen Bates joins the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as an assistant professor. He focuses on using data and AI for reliable decision-making amid uncertainty, developing tools for statistical inference with AI models and data influenced by strategic behavior. His previous roles include postdoc positions at UC Berkeley’s Statistics and EECS departments. Bates earned his BS in statistics and mathematics from Harvard University and his PhD from Stanford University.

Abigail Bodner starts as an assistant professor in both the Department of EECS and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Her research encompasses climate, physical oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics, and turbulence. Previously a Simons Junior Fellow at NYU’s Courant Institute, Bodner holds a BS in geophysics and mathematics and an MS in geophysics from Tel Aviv University, along with an SM in applied mathematics and a PhD from Brown University.

Andreea Bobu will join the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics as an assistant professor. Her research intersects robotics, mathematical human modeling, and deep learning. Bobu previously worked at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute. She earned her BS in computer science and engineering from MIT and her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.

Suraj Cheema will be an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and has a joint appointment in the Department of EECS. His research focuses on atomic-scale engineering of electronic materials to address challenges in energy consumption, storage, and generation, aiming for sustainable microelectronics. Cheema earned his BS in applied physics and applied mathematics from Columbia University and his PhD in materials science and engineering from UC Berkeley.

Samantha Coday joins the Department of EECS as an assistant professor and will be part of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Her research involves ultra-dense power converters for renewable energy integration, hybrid electric aircraft, and space exploration. Coday holds a BS in electrical engineering and mathematics from Southern Methodist University and an MS and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.

Mitchell Gordon will be an assistant professor in the Department of EECS and a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). His research combines human-computer interaction with machine learning. Gordon is currently a postdoc at the University of Washington and holds a BS from the University of Rochester and an MS and PhD from Stanford University.

Kaiming He joins as an associate professor in the Department of EECS and CSAIL. His work in computer vision and deep learning aims to develop computer models for learning representations and intelligence. Previously a research scientist at Facebook AI, He earned his BS from Tsinghua University and his PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Anna Huang will be an assistant professor in the departments of EECS and Music and Theater Arts, focusing on music technology. She previously worked at Google Brain and DeepMind and is known for creating Music Transformer and Coconet. Huang holds a BM in music composition and a BS in computer science from USC, an MS from the MIT Media Lab, and a PhD from Harvard University.

Yael Kalai returns to MIT as a professor in the Department of EECS and a member of CSAIL. Her research in cryptography, theory of computation, and security focuses on non-interactive proofs. Kalai earned her bachelor’s degree from Hebrew University, a master’s degree from Weizmann Institute of Science, and a PhD from MIT.

Sendhil Mullainathan will join as a professor in EECS and Economics, using machine learning to tackle problems in human behavior, social policy, and medicine. Mullainathan previously taught at MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago. He earned his BA from Cornell University and his PhD from Harvard University.

Alex Rives will be an assistant professor in EECS with a core membership at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His research focuses on AI for scientific discovery in biology. Rives, who previously worked with Meta, holds a BS in philosophy and biology from Yale University and is completing his PhD in computer science at NYU.

Sungho Shin will join the Department of Chemical Engineering as an assistant professor, focusing on control theory, optimization algorithms, and high-performance computing for decision-making in complex systems. Shin earned his BS in mathematics and chemical engineering from Seoul National University and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jessica Stark is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Engineering, developing technologies for immunological discovery and immunotherapy using cell-surface sugars. Stark was an American Cancer Society postdoc at Stanford University and holds a BS from Cornell University and a PhD from Northwestern University.

Thomas John “T.J.” Wallin joins the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as an assistant professor, specializing in advanced manufacturing of functional soft matter for wearable technologies. Wallin previously worked at Meta’s Reality Labs Research and holds a BS from the College of William and Mary, and an MS and PhD from Cornell University.

Gioele Zardini is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, also affiliated with LIDS and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. His research interests include sociotechnical systems, applied category theory, and intelligent transportation systems. Zardini holds a BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich.