MIT Mechanical Engineering

MechE Alumna Stacy Godfreey-Igwe ’22 (bottom row, left) is one of six from MIT to be awarded a 2026 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Godfreey-Igwe attended MIT as a QuestBridge and Gates Scholar, graduating in 2022 with a BS in mechanical engineering and a concentration in sustainable design. A Burchard Scholar, she also became the first student at MIT to complete a major in African and African diaspora studies. She is currently a doctoral student in the joint engineering and public policy - civil and environmental engineering program at Carnegie Mellon University.

https://meche.mit.edu/news-media/six-mit-awarded-2026-paul-and-daisy-soros-fellowships-new-americans

For a class this spring, Emerson College students used the capabilities of the MIT.nano Immersion Lab to create their own virtual productions. Donning full-body motion-capture suits that pair to cameras, students can become their own avatars — generating virtual characters that dance, fight, or play the guitar. Participant Evan Costa will be joining the MIT Learning Engineering and Practice Group, led by MechE principal research scientist John Liu, as an intern this summer to continue exploring virtual production.

https://meche.mit.edu/news-media/bridging-real-human-movement-digital-technology

With a swipe of a magnet, microscopic “magno-bots” perform complex maneuvers. A fabrication technique developed by Associate Professor Carlos Portela, graduate students Rachel Sun and Andrew Chen, and collaborators at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and the University of Cincinnati can produce soft, microscopic structures with magnetically activated moving parts. Their new type of soft magnetic hydrogel could be the basis for microscopic, magnetically responsive robots and materials.

https://meche.mit.edu/news-media/swipe-magnet-microscopic-“magno-bots”-perform-complex-maneuvers

Scenes from yesterday's School of Engineering & Schwarzman College of Computing advanced degree ceremony. Congratulations to our advanced degree recipients, and to all of this year's graduates! 📸s: Tony Pulsone

Celebrations continue today with the OneMIT Commencement ceremony. Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, will deliver the address.

Meet the MechE students graduating with their master’s or doctoral degrees in 2026: https://youtu.be/Fk_F-l_P11I?si=SQ1zJeEhS6fVgBfK

MIT’s Commencement celebrations begin today! To help members of the Class of 2026 start their post-Tech journeys, the MIT Alumni Association has gleaned tips from some of the 150,000 alumni living and working across the globe. Story via MIT Slice: https://alum.mit.edu/slice/graduates-lessons-mit-alumni-2026-edition.

📸: Gretchen Ertl