Instagram story viewer> @harvardseas> Posts

Harvard SEAS

@harvardseas

32.9K

followers

90

following

Where engineering, foundational science, and the liberal arts converge. #HarvardSEAS

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

For Aryenne Ysabelle Rodrigo, water engineering is personal.

After Typhoon Pablo destroyed her home in the Philippines, Rodrigo witnessed how communities rebuild—and how critical well-designed, properly inspected infrastructure can be.

At Harvard SEAS, she has turned that experience into a commitment to helping communities address water-related challenges. During her summer internship with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (@nycwater), she learned about stormwater permitting, inspections, wastewater treatment and infrastructure planning. She also developed a Python tool to optimize pipe configurations and reduce project costs.

“With stormwater management practices in New York, I think one of the differences I see is that everything is digitized,” she said. “There’s also great cooperation between developers, not just public but also the private sector. There are clear criteria: if you disturb an amount of land, or if you make a place more impervious than it was before, then you have to submit a storm management practice design that would meet the water quality volume requirements.”

Now, she is helping lead Harvard’s Engineers Without Borders initiative to improve water access in Mirador, Guatemala.

“It’s very important for me to understand how connected we are to our environment, and how it affects communities,” she said.

Rodrigo hopes to bring the knowledge and experience she gains at Harvard back to communities like the one where she grew up.

#Harvard #SEAS #EnvironmentalEngineering #WaterAccess #StormwaterManagement #EngineersWithoutBorders #HarvardSEAS Harvard SEAS student Aryenne Ysabelle Rodrigo wearing a yellow New York City Department of Environmental Protection by @harvardseas

530

21

3 days ago

Five Harvard SEAS computer science graduate students have been named 2027 Siebel Scholars.

Congratulations to Prashanth Amireddy, Tian (Sunny) Qin, Paula Rodriguez-Diaz, Itai Shapira and Kevin Zhang.

Their groundbreaking research explores:
• Computational complexity and pseudorandomness
• Data-centric AI and public-sector decision-making
• AI alignment and human values
• Large-scale model training and reinforcement learning
• Software security and vulnerability discovery

Each scholar will receive a $35,000 award for their final year of graduate studies and join a global community of more than 2,000 Siebel Scholars, researchers and entrepreneurs.

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #ComputerScience #SiebelScholars by @harvardseas

59

0

9 days ago

One campus. Countless passions. Endless possibilities. 🚀🤖🎨💻

From robotics and aerospace to AI, quantum computing, art and technology, engineering, computer science, and community-focused clubs, our students are learning, creating, leading, and having fun along the way.

Find your people. Explore your interests. Build what’s next.

Discover the clubs that make the SEAS community special! ✨

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #StudentClubs #CampusLife #STEM #Engineering #ComputerScience #StudentCommunity by @harvardseas

463

4

9 days ago

Forest edges may be playing a bigger role in carbon storage than current models recognize.

During an 11-week summer research program at Harvard Forest, Luna Yin combined fieldwork, coding and airplane LiDAR data to study differences in tree growth between forest edges and interiors.

Her model underestimated biomass in edge plots by 12%. Identifying and correcting these biases could improve estimates of how much carbon forests can capture and store.

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #ForestResearch #CarbonCapture #ClimateScience #Biomass #LiDAR #EnvironmentalEngineering #HarvardForest by @harvardseas

298

3

10 days ago

Amy Zhang’s summer research brought together bioengineering, artificial intelligence and drug development.

As a PRISE Fellow in the Zhou Laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Zhang explored computational protein design, antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies. By combining AI predictions with hands-on wet-lab work, she gained new insight into how engineering principles can help shape biological systems and improve cancer therapies.

“I want to be able to apply engineering principles to biology,” she said. “With a lot of protein design, you're kind of altering how a biological system behaves to get a desired treatment outcome from the drugs that you're creating. This past summer I discovered that engineering for biology was something that I was really interested in. I got to make things that are biological compounds, but I also got to test them out, design them, and incorporate other tools to make a refined product.”

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #bioengineering #cancer #research #danafarber Harvard SEAS student Amy Zhang by @harvardseas

447

21

11 days ago

Detailed understanding of how protein changes affect health is considered a grand challenge of biology.

Supported by The National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award, Harvard SEAS bioengineering professor Mo Khalil and team will lead the development of a new biotechnology involving synthetic probes that can precisely alter individual protein activity. The technology should enable large-scale experiments similar to genetic screens, but focused on proteins, rather than genes.

Leveraging his lab’s expertise in synthetic biology and continuous evolution, Khalil’s team is creating small, protein-based tools called nanobodies that bind to proteins and alter their activity. By being encoded into DNA, the nanobodies will allow scientists to make and test many different protein perturbations at once, enabling large-scale experiments equivalent to today’s CRISPR screens that activate or repress genes across a cell population. The nanobody screens should give researchers insight into how protein changes lead to different disease states, regardless of whether the related gene has been affected.

They will first apply their nanobodies to G-protein coupled receptors — cell-surface proteins that control many processes related to health and disease.

“Ultimately, our goal is to establish a blueprint for using functional continuous evolution systems to generate protein modulators for many classes of proteins,” Khalil said. “This will allow us to understand the landscape of how individual protein activities coordinate to produce cellular and disease states.”

He added: “This vision grew out of the collective ideas, expertise, and creativity of a remarkable team of researchers who came together in our lab around a shared scientific challenge. The award gives us the opportunity to pursue that vision together."

#HarvardSEAS #Harvard #engineering #bioengineering #syntheticbiology #proteinbiology #CRISPR #continuousevolution #biotechnology #proteinresearch #genetics #research #health #medicine #NIH #cancerresearch harvard professor mo khalil by @harvardseas

42

0

12 days ago

What does wildfire smoke look like from 65,000 feet? Follow Sophie Abou-Rizk of Keutsch Group at Harvard as she takes us behind the scenes of the INSPYRE Mission, a NASA and Naval Research Laboratory mission studying wildfire smoke in the upper atmosphere. @harvardseas by @harvardseas

57

0

13 days ago

Ever wonder how just flour, water, and a little time can turn into a crackly, tangy loaf of bread? 🍞🔬

Join us for the next Harvard Science & Cooking Public Lecture:

Water, Flour, and Time: The Chemistry of Sourdough

Featuring:

🥖 Nicole Walsh — baker and co-owner of Clear Flour Bread in Brookline, known for her dedication to traditional breadmaking, pastry, and high-quality ingredients. She has helped carry forward the legacy of one of the Boston area’s most respected artisan bakeries.

📍 Where: Harvard Science Center, Hall C

📅 When: Monday, October 5

🕖 Time: 7:00 PM

Discover the science behind every great loaf — from wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria to gluten networks, fermentation, and that perfect golden crust. This promises to be a delicious and eye-opening evening exploring the living chemistry that makes sourdough, sourdough. 🌾✨

Follow us for more information: @scicookharvard

#ScienceAndCooking #Harvard #FoodScience #Sourdough #CulinaryScience ClearFlourBread Fermentation ArtisanBread Baking FoodChemistry ScienceCommunication HarvardEvents CambridgeMA BostonEvents Brookline by @harvardseas

369

12

17 days ago

What happens when engineering meets business innovation?

For environmental engineering alum Zander Sebenius, it can help transform climate solutions from promising ideas into scalable projects.

From residential solar and energy efficiency to carbon markets and carbon removal, Sebenius has built a career focused on advancing technologies and business models that can benefit both the economy and the climate.

Today, he evaluates nature-based and technology-based carbon removal projects at Rubicon Carbon, looking closely at their integrity, measurability, durability, additionality and potential benefits for communities and ecosystems.

His advice for anyone interested in climate tech: explore different angles. The field needs engineers, investors, entrepreneurs, lawyers, accountants and more.

“My north star has always been working on climate technologies with innovation from both the engineering and business sides,” he said. “The climate space is rich with opportunities, where you can apply both technical and business perspectives to unleash new business models that can make a positive impact on the world.”

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #ClimateTech #Decarbonization #EnvironmentalEngineering #CarbonRemoval #CleanTechnology Zander Sebenius: A.B. '13, MBA '19 by @harvardseas

31

1

19 days ago

Ever wonder what makes ice cream so creamy — and why it doesn’t just turn into an ice cube? 🍦🔬

Join us for the next Harvard Science & Cooking Public Lecture:

Cold, Creamy, and Complex: The Physics and Chemistry of Ice Cream

Featuring:

🍨 Gus and Mimi Rancatore — founders of Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge, a beloved local institution since its founding in 1981. Known for their inventive flavors and small-batch production, they have played a central role in shaping Cambridge’s ice cream culture.

📍 Where: Harvard Science Center, Hall C

📅 When: Monday, September 28

🕖 Time: 7:00 PM

Discover the science behind your favorite frozen treat — from crystal formation to texture and flavor. This promises to be a delicious and eye-opening evening exploring the physics and chemistry that make ice cream, ice cream. 🍦✨

Follow us for more information: @scicookharvard

#ScienceAndCooking #Harvard #FoodScience #IceCream #CulinaryScience Toscaninis SmallBatch FrozenDesserts FoodChemistry ScienceCommunication HarvardEvents CambridgeMA BostonEvents Cooking by @harvardseas

495

14

22 days ago

From high school physics to utility-scale solar and storage, Rebecca Gracia’s engineering journey has been driven by curiosity, collaboration and a commitment to sustainability.

A member of the SEAS Class of 2018, Gracia built her foundation through hands-on projects, including designing and building a robot in "ES51: Computer-Aided Machine Design." She later transitioned from product design to renewable energy, where she now helps create solutions for a growing and increasingly complex energy system.

“The conversation can always shift about whether we want renewable energy resources, but I think at the end of the day, we need them,” she said. “Our energy demands have just continued to grow. Our grid is continually overburdened, and we see this play out with energy outages. It is the largest growing energy sector, and it continues to grow and improve over time.”

Her story is a reminder that engineering is not only about solving technical problems. It is also about working across disciplines, building community and creating a more sustainable future.

#Harvard #SEAS #HarvardSEAS #MechanicalEngineering #RenewableEnergy #SolarEnergy #EnergyStorage #EngineeringCareers Harvard SEAS alum Rebecca Gracia by @harvardseas

72

0

23 days ago

With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence in daily life, software coding has become increasingly automated, with powerful AI systems known as coding agents able to write and revise computer programs almost autonomously.

But what happens when an AI agent must contend not just with digital command lines, but with the physical world of robotics?

A team led by Harvard SEAS Professor Na Li and Professor Bo Dai at Georgia Tech have developed an evaluation tool known as a benchmark that tests how well AI coding agents can perform the challenging task of engineering an actual, physical robot.

The benchmark, called RLE-Bench, is like a standardized test for an AI robot learning engineer — a role that combines machine learning, robotics, control, software, and hardware.

The new benchmark contains 48 tasks for general-purpose coding agents, ranging from developing control and perception algorithms to designing robot hardware and interfaces.

“Benchmarks are important because they give the field a common measuring stick, allowing us to compare systems under the same conditions and identify where important capability gaps remain,” Li said. “Robotics already has many valuable benchmarks, but many focus primarily on learning and evaluating control policies. RLE-Bench takes a broader view. Can an AI system perform the range of engineering tasks required to make a robotic system actually work?”

The team includes Harvard graduate student Haitong Ma, and Chenxiao Gao and Rushi Qiang at Georgia Tech.

#HarvardSEAS #Harvard #computerscience #engineering #robotics #benchmark #software #codingagent #machine learning #artificialintelligence #AI #automation by @harvardseas

86

0

a month ago