The MIT-Pillar AI Collective announced three inaugural fellows for the fall semester of 2023. With the program’s support, graduate students, who are in their final year of a master’s or doctoral program, will conduct research in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and of data science with the aim of commercializing their innovations.
The MIT-Pillar AI Collective, launched by the MIT School of Engineering and Pillar VC in 2022, supports faculty, postdocs, and students conducting research in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. Supported by a gift from Pillar VC and administered by MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovationthe program’s mission is to advance research toward commercialization.
The MIT-Pillar AI Collegiate Fellows for Fall 2023 are:
Alexander Andonian SM ’21 is a PhD candidate in electrical engineering and computer science whose research interests are in computer vision, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. More specifically, it focuses on building a general, multimodal AI scientist driven by generative visual language model agents capable of proposing scientific hypotheses, performing computational experiments, evaluating supporting evidence, and verifying conclusions in the same way as a human researcher or reviewer. . Such an agent could be trained to distill and communicate its findings for human consumption and understanding. Andonian’s work promises to create a concrete foundation for rigorous construction and holistic testing of the next-generation autonomous AI agent for science. In addition to his research, Andonian is the CEO and co-founder of Reelize, a startup that offers an AI video creation tool that effortlessly turns long videos into short clips — and grew out of his business classes and was supported by the MIT Sandbox. Andonian is also a founding AI researcher at Poly AI, an early-stage YC-backed startup building AI design tools. Andonian earned an SM from MIT and a BA in neuroscience, physics, and mathematics from Bates College.
Daniel Magley is a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology who is passionate about making a healthy, fully functioning mind and body a reality for everyone. His cutting-edge research focuses on the development of an ingestible wireless thermal imaging capsule that could be used to treat and monitor inflammatory bowel diseases and their manifestations, such as Crohn’s disease. By providing increased sensitivity and eliminating the need for bowel preparation, the capsule has the potential to significantly improve treatment efficacy and the overall patient experience at regular follow-up. The capsule has completed animal studies and is entering human studies at Mass General Brigham, where Magley leads a team of engineers at the hospital’s largest translational research laboratory, the Tearney Lab. After pilot studies in humans, the major technological and regulatory risks will be cleared for translation. Magley will then begin focusing on a multi-site study to bring the device to clinics, with the promise of benefiting patients across the country. Magley earned a degree in electrical engineering from Caltech.
Madhumitha Ravichandra is a PhD candidate interested in advancing heat transfer and surface engineering techniques to improve the safety and performance of nuclear power systems and reduce their environmental impacts. Leveraging deep knowledge of integrating explainable artificial intelligence with high-throughput autonomous experimentation, he seeks to transform the development of rad-hard sensors, which could potentially withstand and operate at radiation levels that would render conventional sensors useless . Incorporating explainable artificial intelligence with high-throughput autonomous experimentation, it aims to rapidly iterate designs, test under a variety of conditions, and ensure the final product is both robust and transparent in its operations. Her work in this space could be a paradigm shift in hard radio sensor development, addressing a glaring gap in the market and redefining standards, ensuring that nuclear and space applications are safer, more efficient and at the cutting edge of technology. Ravichandran earned a BTech in mechanical engineering from SASTRA University, India.