MIT Technology and Policy Program

TPP student Graham Turk’s research shows how electricity rate design is not a zero-sum game. Smart electricity rates can reduce the need for costly grid upgrades while encouraging electrification and protecting households that can’t yet afford a heat pump or electric car.

A new map shows which U.S. counties have the highest concentration of jobs that could be affected by the transition to renewable energy. The work was developed by TPP alum Kailin Graham and Chris Knittel.

Through research combining drug policy, race, and criminal justice – and through advocacy and community action – TPP student Ben Lewis champions harm reduction.

TPP student Chelsea Conard models threats to cyber systems where data privacy and sensitivity are high, seeking comprehensive insights and benchmarks through close collaboration with the Federal Reserve and industry partners.

New paper co-authored by TPP graduate student Michael Giovanniello shows how policymakers could encourage the nascent clean hydrogen industry without indirectly increasing its carbon emissions.

Hundreds of participants from around the world joined the sixth annual MIT Policy Hackathon to develop data-informed policy solutions to challenges in health, housing, and more.

TPP alum and PhD Candidate Thomas González Roberts has made Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science list for his research in satellite behavior. 

“Climate change mitigation and resilience is such a complex problem, and at MIT we have practice in working together across disciplines on many challenges,” says Professor Elsa Olivetti one of many TPP research supervisors.

TPP alum Thomas González Roberts won for creating human- and machine-readable datasets that succinctly describe the international agreements that govern satellite operations. Current TPP student Kailin Graham earned honorable mention for his work with Professor Christopher Knittel on U.S. employment carbon footprints.

TPP student Johnattan Ontiveros is working with Professor Siqi Zheng, one of the six faculty members awarded funding from the Fast Forward Faculty Fund, on the Climate Crisis and Real Estate: Science-based Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies project.

Michael Giovanniello, Johnattan Ontiveros, and Graham Turk took first place at the Avangrid Clean Energy Hackathon, where they examined the problem of school bus electrification from the perspectives of both the school district and the utility.

TPP student Dansil Green contributed to this article in the August issue of MIT Science Policy Review which describes the potential dangers to satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) beyond commonly referenced orbital debris and satellite collisions.

The Manhattan Project mobilized the U.S. government to provide the funding, resources, and political backing needed to solve a complex problem in a short amount of time. TPPers Nirmal Bhatt and Peter Heller assess whether the Manhattan Project framework should be deployed to tackle the challenge of climate change.

Through a combination of optimization and regulatory policy analysis, TPP student Graham Turk’s research focuses on how smarter electricity rates can speed up decarbonization.

Recent TPP alum Alexa Canaan SM ’23 fused economics, data science, energy science, and energy policy into research that developed strategies for decreasing consumption and connecting more renewables to the grid.

Nadia Khan’s research into lunar waste management brings together systems thinking, microeconomics, geology, space systems engineering, and space law.

The Senior Research Engineer, longtime TPP staff member, and MIT alum takes on the role as Noelle Selin helms IDSS for the 2023-2024 academic year.

These five women, including TPP alums Dava Newman SM ’89, PhD ’92 and Danielle Wood ’04, SM ’08, PhD ’12, at the MIT Media Lab are advancing aerospace science and research, driven by a love of our home planet.

TPP alum Jordan Kearns SM ’17 and David Bierman SM ’14, PhD ’17 are commercializing a thermal battery that lets manufacturers use renewable energy around the clock.

TPP student Amy Huynh received the MIT Golden Beaver Award (Group) 2023 for her work as co-president of the Graduate Association of Aeronautics & Astronautics (GA^3).

TPP student Mrigi Munjal’s research into sodium-ion batteries was complemented by an internship with a company aiming to accelerate the deployment of sustainable energy storage solutions in southern Africa.

In this article, TPP student Chelsea Conard explains why the French Digital Bill and Military Planning Law (LPM) that give authorities the necessary tools to combat looming cyber threats may set a dangerous precedent that dismantles online freedom.

At the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Energy Storage Student Slam in March 2023, the third-place award went to Mrigi Munjal, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Technology and Policy Program, for her research on unlocking industrial-scale sodium-ion batteries.

Three TPP students—Serena Patel, Rameen Hayat Malik, and Ethan Harrison—discuss the impact of the Tata Fellowship on their research, perspectives, and time at MIT.

Forbes 30-under-30 honoree Olamide Oladeji SM ’18, AF ’20 is a TPP alum, PhD candidate, MicroMasters learner, data scientist, and entrepreneur looking to answer climate change questions with help from advances in artificial intelligence.

Recent TPP graduate Maja Svanberg SM ’23 studies how the proliferation of AI is likely to affect market dynamics.

As Canada’s wildfires continue to be felt downwind, TPP Director Noelle Selin weighs in on what to expect in the coming months, with wildfire season underway.

While researching a just transition away from fossil fuels, Yiran He’s internship with an energy non-profit provided a window to how organizations can impact the development of energy policies.

This summer, TPP student Deepika Raman will travel to Kenya as part of a new fellowship to explore how governance innovations are making governments more transparent and accountable to citizens in regions of the world that are underrepresented in global innovation and design research.

IDSS and TPP celebrated the 2023 graduates during the School of Engineering and Schwarzman College of Computing Advanced Degree Ceremony on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. TPP awarded 25 Master of Science degrees.

TPP student Alexa Reese Canaan is featured in this article describing her research on household energy consumption to Massachusetts State Senator Michael J. Barrett, chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy.

Mahmoud Ramadan TPP ’23, a member of MIT’s Science Policy Initiative Executive Board, organized a trip to Capitol Hill to advocate for continued and increased federal support for scientific research. The delegation included TPP students Nirmal Bhatt, Amy Huynh, and Graham Turk.

Philipp Zimmer TPP ’23 connects the dots between his humanitarian work in Uganda and his research into social media’s varying impacts on different societies and regimes.

Kali Benavides TPP ’23 explores the role of hydrogen and carbon capture in decarbonizing heavy industry processes like making steel.

“You want to make sure that science enters the conversation — every big decision, every big policy action,” says TPP alum Tina Bahadori ’84, SM ’88.

If reactors are retired, polluting energy sources that fill the gap could cause more than 5,000 premature deaths, researchers including TPP Director Noelle Selin and TPP alum Guillaume Chossière SM ’17, PD ’20, PhD ’21 estimate.

Assistant Professor and TPP alum Danielle Wood discusses the future of space sustainability. “I hope that humans pause and note that the actions we’re taking now and in the next 10 years really are going to be decisive in the relationship between humans and our planet, and humans and other locations, like the moon,” says Wood.

TPP alum Bruce Cameron’s research interests include technology strategy, system architecture, and the management of product platforms.

Manon Revel TPP ’19, who works at the intersection of computational social choice and political theory, hopes to uncover ways to improve governance in AI systems, democracies, and corporate environments.

Vivienne Zhang’s research on data quality when predicting wind power output, plus an internship in machine learning operations, leads her to join Nvidia’s Deep Learning team.

Research by first-year undergraduate Maanas Sharma ’26 on Covid in prisons began at the MIT Policy Hackathon, which he first attended as a junior in high school.

Recent TPP graduate Kevin Paeth SM ’23, who researches human computer interaction, says his internship in AI policy reinforced a core TPP lesson: “the overwhelming importance of successful communication between technical and non-technical audiences.”

A team including TPP director Noelle Selin has developed a new modeling approach that could enable decision-makers to reduce hazardous emissions and improve public health through combined climate and air-quality policies.

Tweaking US wind energy strategy could quadruple the positive impact on public health, a new study from TPP director Noelle Selin finds.

Oladeji SM ’18 and Izunna Okonkwo ’16 cofounded Pastel with Abuzar Royesh to provide offline-enabled software tools for small businesses.