Undergrad's Research Targets Climate

Ava Waitz '21 loves materials science and engineering. Her major “is a very cool mix of all the sciences, and it also seems like the closest thing to magic,” says Waitz, a fan of the Harry Potter series. “It allows one to create energy from sunlight, polymers that mimic the properties of skin, and metals that are lighter and stiffer.”

Through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), she has worked on two long-term research projects related to the topic: one focused on the development of transparent solar cells that could be applied to large surface areas like windows, the other on analyzing greenhouse gas emissions with the ultimate goal of creating better regulations for controlling them. Continue reading.