Research Quick Takes

Priyanshu Alluri, Zequn Chen, and Wesley Marrero

Jan 29, 2026

A Socially-Fair Framework for Measuring Student Well-Being

Priyanshu Alluri '26, PhD student Zequn Chen, and Professor Wesley Marrero presented a socially-fair framework, published in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association - Open, that ensures homogeneous clustering performance across demographic groups while minimizing within-cluster variability. "The study integrates fairness considerations into clustering algorithms to reduce discrepancies in risk stratification and provides insights into socioeconomic drivers of student well-being," said Marrero.

Jan 29, 2026

Making Skin Stick

Hixon Lab PhD candidate Adelaide Cagle is first-author on "Keratin Additive for Cellular Adhesion in Transcutaneous Prosthetics," with co-authors including NH BioMade trainee Lois Szulc, Jack Flaggert '26, Yowis Arias '24 Th'25, Annika Nikhar '26, and Professor Katie Hixon. Published in Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, the paper explores how incorporating hydrolyzed keratin into electrospun and cryogel scaffolds enhances cell adhesion and proliferation. "This study highlights a promising biomaterials strategy to improve dermal integration at skin-implant interfaces," said Hixon.

Jan 22, 2026

Converting Carbon Emissions into Fuels for Net Neutrality

PhD students Huilin Qing and Baiheng Li, and Professor Weiyang "Fiona" Li co-authored "Protonation pathway for CO2 reduction mediated by coordinated H2O on active sites" published in Nature Communications. This work, presented by Qing, was nominated for "Best Poster Award" at the 2025 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting which drew over 6,000 attendees from 50+ countries.

Jan 15, 2026

More Profitable Strategies

PhD student Bruno Miranda Henrique and Professor Gene Santos co-authored "Cryptocurrencies trading using Parrondo's Paradox" published in the International Review of Economics & Finance. The paper applies a concept from game theory and physics known as Parrondo's Paradox, in which two losing strategies can be combined to produce a winning outcome. "The paper shows that by systematically switching between three cryptocurrencies according to simple, predefined rules, investors can often achieve higher returns than a traditional buy‑and‑hold strategy. Against the backdrop of recent cryptocurrency price swings and heightened market uncertainty, the research adds to ongoing discussions about whether systematic trading strategies can offer an edge over passive investment in digital assets," said Santos.

Jan 08, 2026

Cryosphere Science Lecture

Professor Hélène Seroussi was selected to give the John F. Nye Lecture at the Cryosphere section reception of the AGU Fall Meeting. The award recognizes recent accomplishments and outstanding ability to communicate scientific research. "My talk was about 'Preparing for Sea-Level Rise: Are ice sheet models up to the challenge?' which discussed current capabilities and challenges of ice sheet models to help improve predictions of sea-level rise," said Seroussi.

Jan 08, 2026

Better Airline Crew Recovery Plans

Professor Vikrant Vaze co-authored "Large-Scale Airline Crew Recovery Using Mixed-Integer Optimization and Supervised Machine Learning" published in Transportation Science. Based on work by Vaze's co-advisee at MIT, Ahmet Esat Hizir (pictured), this research won the "Best Innovation" award at AGIFORS' 2024 Crew Management Study Group Meeting. "By teaching a computer to learn from past disruption recovery attempts and then guiding a powerful optimizer with those lessons, we have built a fast, flexible tool that helps airlines get their crews back on schedule more efficiently, cut costs dramatically, and reduce the ripple effects on passengers," said Vaze.

Dec 18, 2025

LISP Lab at NeurIPS

Three members of Professor Peter Chin's LISP Lab—PhD students Mai Pham and Junyan Cheng, and post-doc Xavier Cadet—presented at the Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025) which drew a record-breaking 26,000 attendees. Their presentations addressed optimal auction design, multi-agent cooperation, and language models for autonomous scientific discovery.

Dec 11, 2025

Guide for Generating Spatial Data

PhD student Ruixu (Rachel) Huang is a co-lead author of "Systematic benchmarking of imaging spatial transcriptomics platforms in FFPE tissues" published in Nature Communications. A collaboration between the Goods Lab and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the study is the first to compare commercial platforms for generating spatial data.

Dec 04, 2025

Better Printed Solar Cells

Postdoc Yanan Li, PhD students Julia Huddy and Masha Klymenko, and Professor Will Scheideler coauthored "Spatial-Uniformity–Driven Bayesian Optimization for Rapid Development of Printed Perovskite Solar Cells" published in Small. (This came out of work recently funded by DOE in Scheideler's SENSE Lab.) "Metal halide perovskites are a promising emerging solar technology, but challenges in reliability and large‑area scalability still hinder widescale adoption. This work uses a machine‑learning–driven Bayesian optimization approach to improve the uniformity of printed perovskite films—addressing a key bottleneck for scaling low‑cost, roll‑to‑roll manufacturing and enabling higher‑efficiency, more reliable solar cells," said Scheideler.

Nov 20, 2025

Toward Optimal Auctions

PhD student Mai Pham, will present her paper, coauthored with professors Vikrant Vaze and Peter Chin, titled "Advancing Differentiable Mechanism Design: Neural architectures for combinatorial auctions" for a workshop at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems. Although auctions are considered an effective way of allocating limited resources when demand is high, designing auctions that are simultaneously optimal for the participants, system operator, and greater society is challenging. The paper presents a new approach that leverages modern deep learning architectures and algorithms to meet this challenge.

Nov 20, 2025

TERMIS-AM Conference Winner

Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Founder and CEO of NovaGyn Becca Thomson '20 Th'21 Th'25 attended the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Americas Conference in Detroit. There she was a finalist in the Business Plan Competition and winner of the $1,000 People's Choice Award and $2,000 Judges' Award. "Winning these awards was an incredible honor and a huge validation for NovaGyn's mission of advancing surgical solutions in women's health," said Thomson. "I'm thrilled that our innovative approach to tissue engineering resonated with both experts and the community. This recognition motivates us to continue pushing the boundaries of regenerative medicine and bring meaningful solutions to patients worldwide."

Nov 13, 2025

Research Startup Showcase

Postdoc researcher Yanqiao Li Th'25, advised by Professor Jason Stauth, presented his startup, uDrive, at The Engine's Blueprint Showcase in Boston—the culmination of a program that helps researchers build "tough tech" startups. Leveraging Li's PhD research at Thayer, uDrive develops technologies for next-generation haptics and compact cooling solutions for mobile devices. Smartphones currently use basic haptics [vibrations] for notifications," Li explained. "High-definition haptics, enabled by new piezoelectric actuators, can do much more—such as allowing you to feel the texture of clothes while shopping online. The widespread adoption of this technology, however, is currently limited by a lack of high-voltage, energy-efficient electronics. Our startup is bridging this gap."