Who I Met Today

Rupa Kurinchi-Vendhan (MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or CSAIL) is able to read coral health from the sky and listen to marine life while on land. Remote sensing, computer vision, machine learning, and more — Rupa explains how AI is revolutionizing conservation, helping scientists learn more about the planet's most uncharted landscapes through data and models.

Ida Marie Nervik, a civil engineer by practice, is now diving into materials science at MIT. We discuss strength, structural integrity, compatibility, durability, fracture healing – all important foundations for buildings... and relationships.

Andy Haverly was just developing software, until one day, he fell into a rabbit hole of the climate crisis. Determined to fix the problem, he began investigating one radical method that could offer a solution: nuclear bombs. No further description needed here. Blow your mind in this episode and in his published paper:  https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.17174v1

The optimum number of robots cooking in a kitchen? The best way to cut paper? The most efficient combination of actions for the highest productivity? Computer scientist Lucy Liu at Harvard University uses algorithms to try to figure this out – and in the journey, we uncover enlightened lessons about the flaws of perfection.

Researcher Kye Shimizu designs interfaces. “Algorithmic couture," wearable stimulants, shifting identities. What exactly he (and MIT’s Media Lab) does is often unclear – the fuzzy boundary where information passes between you and a computer, the blurry line that defines you and not you.

Architect Joris Komen, currently at MIT, is using computational design (like problem-solving computer algorithms, simulations, and data analysis) to rethink what the neighborhood could look like for wildlife neighbors. Chairs for gorillas and buildings for elephants?

If you ask James Brice what he does, at first he might say marine science. Then architecture. And previously physics. Animal husbandry. Navy. We conduct a thorough analysis of his identity now – at MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences – and beyond.

Physicist Katie Barajas studies quantum photonics. She explains what each word means, individually and together, and how she’s building light-bending tools that could advance the future of quantum computers and more.

Bioengineer (and astrobiologist) Ciara Sypherd at Harvard University explains how she uses computers to empathize with (eavesdrop on) ants, pigs, whales, chimps, and more. From there, we go on to contemplate extraterrestrial life and whether they’d want us to say hi, and what we’d say if they did.

Chemical engineer Stefano Toso, currently at MIT, explains what quantum dots are, what they’re used for, how to make them, and you shouldn’t make them at home.