Prof. Kaitlyn P Becker

Kaitlyn Becker is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at MIT, where she leads the Fabrication-Integrated Design Lab (FIDL). Her research focuses on co-development of mechanism design and the methods by which we make them, taking inspiration from biology, and manufacturing methods ranging from traditional to cutting edge. This is rooted in a deep interest in the intersection of design and manufacturing, which sh discovered as a mechanical engineer and a glassblower at MIT. Motivating Becker's work is the creation of tools for working in challenging environments like the deep sea and working with specimen that are delicate, compliant, and complex.

Becker completed her PhD in the Microrobotics lab at Harvard University, where she designed and fabricated soft robots for gentle grasping and biological sampling in the deep-sea. After her PhD, Becker was a postdoctoral researcher in the Soft Math lab at Harvard, where I worked on coordinated and transformable structures.

Prior to graduate school, Becker completed her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at MIT in 2009 and then worked on the electronic assembly of subcutaneous defibrillators as a manufacturing engineer for Cameron Health, now owned by Boston Scientific. Following that, she moved on to on high precision replica molding, high flow UV water purification, and electro-spinning, as a research and development engineer for a Nano Terra Inc., a nano-technology company. Becker is also a senior instructor in MIT glass lab, where she teaches intermediate classes that combine fundamental glassblowing techniques with creative design and technical concepts from core mechanical engineering curricula.