People
Current and Previous Members of the TRL (Last Updated on Dec 2025)
Professor Jeffrey Lipton
Leader of the TRL
Dr. Jeffrey Lipton Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Northeastern University in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. Previously he was at the University of Washington in the Mechanical Engineering Department with a courtesy appointment in the Paul G. Allan School of Computer Science and Engineering and a founding Director of the Center for Digital Fabrication. He was a Post Doctoral Associate at the MIT’s CSAIL in the Distributed Robotics Lab under Daniela Rus. He received his BS in Applied and Engineering Physics and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell. His Ph.D. work was under Hod Lipson in the Creative Machines Lab. His work is currently focused on 3D printing and robotics.
His past work on 3D printed foods and 3D printing for the hospitality industry has influenced two of the largest 3D printing companies in America and garnered media attention from the New York Times, BBC, and others. He was the lead developer for the Fab@Home project which supported life science and food science researchers’ 3D printing needs on all six habitable continents.
Kuba Kowalewski
PhD Candidate
Kuba Kowalewski, is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University. His research encompasses the design space analysis of mechanisms and soft robots, with a focus on kinetostatic modeling and data-driven techniques to understand and predict movement in rigid and soft bodies. His recent work includes the Flat Plane Mechanism (FPM), a novel planar motion device with potential applications in large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) and in-process metrology.
Brett Emery
PhD Candidate
Mechanical Engineering PhD student at the Northeastern University focusing on novel applications of additive manufacturing for the development of programmable materials.
I am exploring additive manufacturing for space and space manufacturing applications. In particular, I am developing innovative uses of viscous thread printing for these fields.
Jacob Miske
PhD Candidate
I am working on novel mechanisms for manipulation of surfaces by parallel robotic structures. Machines and people encounter complex surfaces constantly and manipulating these surfaces and operating on them efficiently is key to expanding the capabilities of robotic systems broadly.
Jacob Alpert
UG Researcher
Jacob is a dedicated Mechanical Engineering student at Northeastern University, set to graduate in May 2027. As a first year student in the University Honors Program, Jacob has a junior class standing and actively contributes to the TRL as an undergraduate researcher.
Jacob’s primary activities include 3D printing, 3D modeling, and soft robotic characterization.
Ahyan Maya
UG Researcher
Ahyan O. Maya is a Mathematics and Electrical Engineering student at Northeastern University with a strong interest in applying mathematics to robotics, finance, sociology, philosophy, quantum computation, and machine learning. Beyond his academic work, he is actively involved in the university’s musical community, performing as a cellist and composer in multiple ensembles and serving in a leadership role with the Symphony Orchestra and the NU Growth and Opportunities for Asian American Leaders program. He also participates in various dance and martial arts teams on campus, while pursuing interests in languages, culinary arts, writing, magic and symphonic composition. Looking ahead, Ahyan hopes to engage in research and analysis driven roles across a diverse range of industries, ultimately aspiring to become a mathematics educator in his later life. He seeks to live a life grounded in meaning and introspection, aiming to unite intellectual rigor with human impact in every direction his journey takes.
Albert Lin
UG Researcher
Albert is a CS and MechE student at Northeastern University. He does a lot of Mechanical Engineering work and projects (see github!). If he’s not doing either of those, he is playing video games inside, or electric longboarding outside. He’s good at problem solving, both in the algorithmic CS way, but also the 3d visualization and mechanisms Engineering way. He enjoys working on personal projects, learning and gaining different skills through making cool things. In the future, he wants to work somewhere the preserves this learn-through-making mindset, contributing towards a worthy cause while ever learning more.
Alex Green
UG Researcher
Alex is a rising junior undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student pursuing a minor in History, driven by a passion for thoughtful, user-centered design and emerging technologies. He completed a co-op at SharkNinja as a New Product Development Mechanical Engineer, where he contributed to early-stage design and prototyping of consumer products. Beyond his co-op, he has built devices such as a ski safety system powered by Arduino that detects out-of-sight users at ski jumps. He also worked with the Undergraduate Architectural Robotics Lab at Cornell University, where he helped design an ergonomic casing for the Home+ robotic furniture system. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, spending time outdoors, and skiing.
Daniel Revier
TRL Alumni
Experienced researcher in developing technology and process development to impact real-world problems on a daily basis. Currently focused on lowering the barrier to entry of advanced/additive manufacturing through software side innovations via physical simulation, inverse design, and simplified design interfaces.
Sawyer Thomas
TRL Alumni
Sawyer Thomas is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington, with expertise at the nexus of solid mechanics, computational design, material science, and robotics. Sawyer’s work drives innovation, bridging the gap between intricate research and real-world application.
Ian Good
TRL Alumni
As a materials roboticist, my goal is to architect new metamaterials, integrate them into robots, and unlock new capabilities. As a mentor, my goal is to transfer wisdom, encourage exploration, and reduce barriers to entry. As a professional, my goal is to build cool things with cool people to make the world a better place.
Molly Carton
TRL Alumni
Molly’s research focuses on computational fabrication and how algorithmic design and additive manufacturing methods can be used generate architected materials and reconfigurable mechanisms. Molly graduated from the TRL with her PhD in 2022 and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT.
Aman Garg
TRL Alumni
Aman Garg is a researcher with expertise in solid mechanics, computational design, material science, and robotics. Aman’s work is at the intersection of robotics and medicine. He is a leader at Nimble Surgical, a startup from TRL work out of UW.