Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Creating collaborative bridges across Harvard, educating the next generation of global leaders, and addressing society's greatest challenges.
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Through teaching and collaborative research, The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) discovers, designs and creates novel technologies and approaches to societal challenges—in service to the world, the nation, and our community. We bridge disciplines, both within engineering and the applied sciences and beyond, to prepare broadly trained leaders, to advance foundational science, and to achieve translational impact.

Mechanical engineering concentrator and softball outfielder Lael Ayala turned a real need on the field into a time-savin...
06/01/2026

Mechanical engineering concentrator and softball outfielder Lael Ayala turned a real need on the field into a time-saving innovation.

For her senior thesis, Lael built an autonomous “SoftBot” that roams the outfield after hitting drills, detects softballs using machine learning, and collects them with a roller and onboard storage—like a Roomba for softball practice.

She tackled this while balancing a full load: Harvard softball, a demanding mechanical engineering curriculum, Army ROTC, leadership with Harvard Athlete Ally, and giving tours SEAS.

After graduation, Lael will attend cadet summer training, be commissioned as an Army officer, and continue building her startup, Gander Robotics, which is developing autonomous underwater drones that use sonar to help locate victims in maritime search and rescue missions.

Innovation, teamwork, and service—all in one incredible student story. https://bit.ly/4fbV6NK

Kausalya Mahadevan, Ph.D. in materials science & mechanical engineering, will be staying in the Katia Bertoldi Group as ...
05/29/2026

Kausalya Mahadevan, Ph.D. in materials science & mechanical engineering, will be staying in the Katia Bertoldi Group as a short-term postdoctoral student.

“I have been a little obsessed for a long time with sewing, textiles and the way we put them together,” she said. “The really obvious applications that I would’ve cited before I started my Ph.D. were fashion or clothing-related, but I really got to dive into home textiles, and think about things at a larger architectural scale or smaller biological scale. Those are things I’m really excited to expand on in the future.”

Sarah Hancock, Ph.D. in environmental science & engineering, will stay with Prof. Daniel Jacob’s Atmospheric Chemistry M...
05/29/2026

Sarah Hancock, Ph.D. in environmental science & engineering, will stay with Prof. Daniel Jacob’s Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group as a staff researcher.

“I had researched air quality before coming here, and if you’re working on air quality, this is the place to be,” she said. “There are a lot of great minds in atmospheric science here. The fact that we all choose to come here and be Ph.D. students is a testament that we care a lot about what we’re working on and want to make an impact.”

Nicholas Balasus, Ph.D. in environmental science & engineering, will continue his methane emissions research with a post...
05/29/2026

Nicholas Balasus, Ph.D. in environmental science & engineering, will continue his methane emissions research with a postdoctoral position at the nonprofit Carbon Mapper.

“Prof. Daniel Jacob’s group is great,” he said. “It’s so large – a lot of Ph.D. students, a lot of postdocs, so you can be around a lot of people that know a lot about what you’re working on. We’re excited about it. It’s great that people care about your research.”

Xing Zhao, Ph.D. in bioengineering, will be continuing her research as a postdoctoral researcher“SEAS doesn’t just teach...
05/29/2026

Xing Zhao, Ph.D. in bioengineering, will be continuing her research as a postdoctoral researcher

“SEAS doesn’t just teach you to think within one engineering field,” she said. “In our lab we have people from not only engineering backgrounds, but also backgrounds in chemistry and physics. That allows us to brainstorm in a multidisciplinary way as we try to solve problems.”

Philipp Arens, Ph.D. in electrical engineering, will be continuing in Prof. Conor Walsh’s Harvard Biodesign Lab as a pos...
05/29/2026

Philipp Arens, Ph.D. in electrical engineering, will be continuing in Prof. Conor Walsh’s Harvard Biodesign Lab as a postdoctoral researcher.

"A lot of my research pertains not to designing devices, but deciding how we can assist users in the most optimal ways," he said. "Different users have different needs, different bodies, may or may not be impaired, and so they all have different requirements for what these systems need to know. Figuring out when to apply assistance, how much assistance to apply, and how to optimize and personalize the settings to each user was the focus of my Ph.D.”

Elle Weeks, Ph.D. in applied math, has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the mathematics departmen...
05/28/2026

Elle Weeks, Ph.D. in applied math, has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the mathematics department at Kenyon College in Ohio

“It’s been cool to see all the different ways you can use math to understand things like climate,” she said. “I found an advisor, Eli Tzipperman, that I was really excited to work with, who was doing the most exciting math problems and most exciting problems in the climate space.”

Victor Klippgen, M.E. in computational science and engineering, will be co-founding a company developing sensors to trac...
05/28/2026

Victor Klippgen, M.E. in computational science and engineering, will be co-founding a company developing sensors to track and classify insects.

"We’re selling early detection of crawling species such as bedbugs, cockroaches or moths," he said. "We’re hoping to start with the food processing and hospitality industries."

Eliot Atlani, S.M. in data science, will be working at Palantir."Harvard is one of the best universities in the world," ...
05/28/2026

Eliot Atlani, S.M. in data science, will be working at Palantir.

"Harvard is one of the best universities in the world," he said. "I always wanted to do AI-related research, and this is the best place to do it."

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