About Me

I am currently a distinguished postdoctoral fellow at MIT in the Computational Design and  Fabrication Group in computer science (CSAIL/EECS/SCC), and I am supervised by Professor Wojciech Matusik. I am developing computational methods for acoustic self-assembly process optimization and for molecule design. On the side I am involved in MIT's Video Game Orchestra (playing cello) and MIT's Language Exchange. 

I received my Ph.D. from MIT in 2023 working in the Mechanosynthesis and Non-Newtonian Fluids labs at the intersection of fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, mechanical design, and manufacturing. I was supported by a MathWorks Engineering Fellowship from MIT and an NDSEG Fellowship from the US Department of Defense. 

On this website, you can learn more about some of my research projects including LEGOfluidics and Oreology, and my selected class projects. 

Helpful links: 

• Google scholar page & ResearchGate Profile & arXiv profile (all my papers should have at least one source that's free to access - if not, let me know and I'll fix it)

• LinkedIn Profile ← this is a good way to contact me (please include a message with a contact request if I don't know you) 

• Github 

• Women in Innovation and STEM Database at MIT (WISDM) profile

Bio: 

I am currently a distinguished postdoctoral fellow at MIT in the Computational Design and  Fabrication Group supervised by Professor Wojciech Matusik. Here, I am working on methods of material design and manufacturing using coarse-grained algorithmic representation of materials. I am also using computational methods to design novel acoustic self-assembly processes, building on prior work. 

During my PhD, I was co-advised by Gareth McKinley and A. John Hart, both professors in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. During my PhD, I developed printing processes for carbon nanotube-based electronics using insights from fluid/solid interactions and complex fluid rheology. Towards these efforts, I established the field of Oreology - the study of the flow of sandwich cookie filling - and I re-developed a family of measurement tools for rheometry, "vanes," using optimized parametric design. I also interned at Volta Labs (a spin-out from the MIT Media Lab) as an R&D engineer working on digital microfluidics. I enjoyed mentoring a set of brilliant undergraduate researchers in my lab, and received MIT's Institute Award (1 award across all MIT) for Outstanding Undergrad Research Mentor in 2022. 

Around campus, I was a certified bartender (eTIPS) and trained MIT mascot, and a founding member of MIT's Sidney-Pacific Walking Club. I was also involved in MIT's Communication Lab and MIT Hyperloop. During early COVID times I created virtual poster sessions and competitions in Gather.town for MIT events, and received MIT's Institute Award (1 award across all MIT) for Outstanding Event in 2021 for our virtual Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition.

During my MS degree, supported by the NSF GRFP fellowship, I studied the mechanics of assembly of LEGO bricks and used this to invent a method of modifying store-bought LEGOs to be a modular, reconfigurable microfluidics platform. 

Prior to MIT, I studied Mechanical Engineering and Math at Duke University, where I was a research assistant in Prof. Gabriel López's research lab developing tools and Brownian dynamics simulations for acoustic patterning of microparticles. I was also a research technician in the Chen Research Lab studying nuclear import of proteins contributing to plant gene expression changes in response to light reception, and a microbiology research intern at DuPont - Pioneer (now known as Corteva) studying various bacterial strains and silage inoculants for fungistatic properties.