Professor Kaitlyn Becker
Kait is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at MIT, where she leads the Fabrication Integrated Design Lab. Her research focuses on co-development of mechanism design and the methods by which we make them, taking inspiration from biology, and manufacturing methods ranging from traditional to cutting edge. This is rooted in a deep interest in the intersection of design and manufacturing, which she discovered as a mechanical engineer and a glassblower at MIT. Motivating her work is the creation of tools for working in challenging environments like the deep sea and working with specimens that are delicate, compliant, and complex.
Current Members
Charlotte Folinus
PhD Candidate
Charlotte is a mechanical engineer with a background in mechanical, computational, and stakeholder-center design. In her research, she studies how materials and fabrication processes impact the performance and reliability of soft machines. By better understanding the limitations of materials and fabrication methods, she incorporates this knowledge into design processes to create machines with improved capabilities such as higher payload, improved mechanical robustness, and longer lifetimes. Charlotte is an NSF GRFP Fellow and a MAD Design Fellow. Outside of work, you can find her in a machine shop or in the mountains.
Samuel Gollob
PhD Candidate
Sam’s work focuses on developing fuel-based power systems for untethered soft robots and devices. This follows from his earlier research, using soft actuator modelling tools to design medical devices. His other research interests include actuator design and modelling, multi-agent and distributed systems, and biohybrid robotics. Sam has also participated in designing engineering courses and is interested in engineering education, digital media for instruction, and large-scale educational reform.
Qifan Yu
PhD Candidate
Qifan is a third year PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering. He has been working on the fabrication-integrated design of fluidic elastomeric systems including actuators, logic components, sensors, as well as their integration into systems that demonstrate embodied intelligence. Qifan received the Shih-Ying & Lena Y. Lee Fellowship in 2023, and he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at UC San Diego in 2022.
Cat arase
Graduate Student
Cat is a 3rd year PhD student working on design and manufacturing of soft-rigid hybrid robots. Cat is an NSF GRFP fellow, and completed both her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. In her free time, she spends time as a mentor in Metropolis, an on campus makerspace.
Daniel Massimino
Graduate Student
Daniel is a 3rd year graduate student working on glass additive manufacturing. His research focuses on utilizing glass as a circular building or structural material on Earth and the Moon. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Columbia Unviersity in 2017 and worked for 5 years as a Boeing manufacturing engineer at NASA’s Michoud Facility.
Nina Cao
Graduate Student
Nina is a third year PhD candidate with a background in physics, now studying mechanical engineering and focusing on fabricating and studying multimodal sensing artificial ciliary arrays. She is a DOE CSGF Fellow and completed her Bachelor’s degree in physics at Harvard in 2022.
Annie Doris
Graduate Student
Annie is a second year graduate student working on computational design and AI for design & manufacturing. Her current focus is on testing and developing multimodal large language models that can assist engineers in understanding and applying technical documentation. Annie is an NSF GRFP fellow, and she completed her Bachelor’s degree in ME and Physics at Harvard in 2022. She is also a member of the MIT Decode lab.
Evan Comiskey
UROP
Evan is a senior in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His passion lies with robotics and advanced machine design, and he seeks to leverage novel scientific findings to develop technologies which will ease the lives of those around him. He hopes to do this through the pursuit of a PhD following his undergraduate studies, and has industry experience working as a mechanical design engineer with Caterpillar, and an industrial controls engineer with Symbotic. Outside of engineering, Evan dedicates most of his free time to MIT’s NCAA Division III Varsity Football program, and philanthropic pursuits through the Be The Match foundation.
Olivia velten-lomelin
UROP
Via is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering with a focus on design and controls. Currently, she is focused on soft robotics and their sensing and proprioceptive capabilities. Via is particularly interested in the intersection between soft robots and ocean systems. Prior to her work at FIDL, she worked at MIT Sea Grant, where she published a paper on ocean robotics.
Thomas Bigler
UROP
Thomas is a 4th year undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering. He is working alongside Daniel in the realm of circular building with glass, specifically focusing on the development of an interlayer for between glass blocks. Outside of the lab, Thomas is working on fixing up a 1994 Volvo station wagon and is a member of the ROTC program. After graduation, he will be commissioning as a Project Engineer into the Air Force!