Olivetti Group

Elsa Olivetti

Mission Director, MIT Climate Project
Strategic Advisor, MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium
Jerry McAfee Professor in Engineering; Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Office: 8-403, email: elsao [at] mit [dot] edu

Education:
PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, 2007
BS, Engineering Science, University of Virginia, 2000

Professor Olivetti’s research focuses on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of materials in the context of rapid-expanding global demand. She has a particular passion for visiting manufacturing and recycling facilities as well as studying complex systems problems through a lens of materials science. If she can couple that with rock climbing and bike touring, all the better!

Kevin Huang

Research Scientist, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Education:
PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, 2015
MS, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2007
BS, Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, 2006

Office: 8-403; email: kjhuang [at] mit [dot] edu

Alongside others in the group, Kevin works toward the development of a machine learning platform to predict synthetic routes for new, desired materials. Additionally, Kevin investigates how such synthesis processes in the lab scale to industrial manufacturing capacities in order to identity processes and materials that may be commercially viable at wide deployment. Previously, Kevin studied the composition, structure, and performance of nanocrystal bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices. And during his PhD, Kevin completed a minor in the Technology & Policy Program, for which he studied the attributes and predictors of venture capital investment in emerging energy technology companies.

Soroush Mahjoubi

Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Education:
PhD, Civil Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, 2023
MS, Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, 2017
BS, Civil Engineering, Kharazmi University, 2014

Office: E19-695; email: mahjoubi [at] mit [dot] edu

Soroush serves as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Olivetti Group and the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) at MIT. He currently focuses on improving the embodied emissions associated with cement-based products by leveraging data analytics, machine learning, optimization, and experimental investigations. His works span from the development of alternative binders to intricate mix designs and comprehensive in-situ performance evaluations. His PhD research primarily focused on material property prediction, material characterization, and discovery of chemical reactions of materials, especially cementitious composites, by using machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP) techniques. He also did research on the AI-integrated design of low-carbon ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and engineered cementitious composites (ECC).

Yixi Tian

Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Education:
PhD, Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, 2022
MS, Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, 2018
BE, Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 2016

Office: 13-5005; email: yixitian [at] mit [dot] edu

Yixi is involved in several projects studying materials processing, urban mining, and sustainable waste management based on the circular economy. During her PhD, Yixi developed experimental research to study the characterization, stabilization, and utilization of Waste-to-Energy (WTE) residues in civil engineering applications. With the Olivetti group, Yixi focuses on industrial residues (e.g., WTE residues, steel slag, mining tailings, etc.), including the beneficial uses of cement/concrete materials and the recovery of valuable metals. The research aims to optimize the processes to achieve commercial viability that is also environmentally acceptable. Outside of research, she likes street photography, dance choreography, and exploring restaurants in cities.

Anagha Belavadi S

PhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering
BTech Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Madras, 2022

Office: 8-419; email: anaghabs [at] mit [dot] edu

Anagha works on environmental assessment of electronics, specifically focusing on computing devices, including CMOS-based memory and processors. She is also focused on developing the Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm (PAIA) tool. Her aim as a researchers is to solve real-world problems, and hopes to make significant progress in achieving that through this work. In her free time, she enjoys watching TV, cooking, and baking. She also enjoys practicing Indian classical music and dance.

Isabel Diersen

PhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering
BA Chemistry and Physics (Secondary in Computer Science), Harvard University, 2022

Office 8-403; email: idiersen [at] mit [dot] edu

Isabel’s research studies methods to facilitate the development of sustainable technologies with machine learning, statistics, and economic modeling. Her current work designs environmental and economic solutions to energy and technology demands by analyzing materials markets models. When away from her computer, Isabel enjoys writing short stories, watching movies, and practicing mixed martial arts.

Yifei Duan

SM Student, Technology & Policy Program
BE Environmental Engineering (with minor in Applied Computer Science), Tsinghua University, 2022

Office: 8-403; email: duanyf99 [at] mit [dot] edu

Yifei’s general research interests lie in the intersection of computational analysis and sustainability. During his time with the Olivetti Group, he is working on “AI/Machine Learning for Sustainable Concrete Design”. The project makes use of industrial datasets and literature resources, and works towards optimal concrete mix design (climate impacts and economic costs), informed by machine learning algorithms and techniques that also draw from domain knowledge. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, watching movies and TV series, painting, playing badminton, and visiting art museums.

Oksana Makarova

PhD Candidate, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Harvard University
MS Applied Physics, Harvard University, 2022
BS Applied Physics, Purdue University, 2019
BE Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, 2019

Office: 8-419; email: oksanama [at] mit [dot] edu

Global waste production is continuing to increase at alarming rates as the economies keep on growing. Oksana’s general area of interest is adapting circular economy ideas in an industrial setting through modeling and data analysis motivated by economic and policy concepts. Her current work focuses on the effective recovery of metals from industrial waste. Oksana enjoys spending her free time at home with her cats, usually reading, doing yoga, or developing new vegan baking recipes.

Luca Montanelli

PhD Student in Materials Science and Engineering
BS Materials Science and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 2017
MSc Materials Science and Engineering, EPFL, 2020

Office: 8-403; email: montanel [at] mit [dot] edu

Materials informatics is a budding field integrating materials and computational sciences into one cohesive framework. Luca’s thesis will contribute to the growing research in this field by incorporating domain knowledge in computational methods, looking specifically at aluminum alloys. He is excited to explore novel ways of approaching both sciences that can promote a more technologically advanced and sustainable world. Day to day, Luca enjoys cultural history, heraldry, and endlessly browsing Google Maps and Wikipedia, as well as consuming cheese, chocolate and tea.

Mrigi Munjal

PhD Student in Materials Science and Engineering
B. Tech with Honors, Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, IIT Bombay, 2021

Office: 8-419; email: mrigi [at] mit [dot] edu

Mrigi’s research will focus on assessing materials barriers to scaling of solid-state sodium/sodium-ion batteries in terms of how processes in the lab scale to manufacturing processes, using techniques such as techno-economic analysis, machine learning techniques like keyphrase extraction, and discussions with relevant equipment suppliers. Outside of research, Mrigi can be found practicing several languages or playing table tennis and pickleball.

Aleyna Beste Ozhan

PhD Student, Materials Science and Engineering
BS Materials Science and Nano Engineering, Sabanci University, 2021
BS Computer Science and Engineering, Sabanci University, 2022

Office: 8-403; email: ozhan [at] mit [dot] edu

Aleyna Beste works at the intersection of computer science and materials science, with a primary focus on advancing sustainable material solutions. Her research involves extracting data from scientific literature and employing feature engineering and data science techniques to construct organized datasets. These datasets then form the basis for machine learning models aimed at predicting and improving specific material properties, with a particular emphasis on cement systems. Apart from her academic pursuits, she plays basketball, engages in amateur photography, and enjoys reading detective and science fiction novels.

Elton Pan

PhD Student in Materials Science and Engineering
B.S., Chemistry, Imperial College, London, 2020

Office: 8-419; email: eltonpan [at] mit [dot] edu

At the nexus of machine learning, data science, and materials informatics, Elton’s research focuses on the development and application of machine learning algorithms (natural language processing and generative models) for accelerating materials discovery and synthesis. Outside of research, Elton loves bouldering, working out, and watching sunsets.