Marwa AlAlawi

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT HCI Engineering Group , advised by Prof. Stefanie Mueller.

As a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher and Mechanical Engineer, I study how manufacturing and computational design can directly weave intelligence into mechanical form. During my PhD I was a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo with Prof. Yasuaki Kakehi, and previously interned as a VR developer at REACT Neuro and GREE Japan. My research is supported by the Crown Prince's International Scholarship Program.

Outside the lab: digital art & animation, game design, and language learning (Japanese, Korean, Chinese).

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Updates

Sept 2026:🏅I am the recipient of the MIT Den Hartog Award (Mechanics).
Aug 2026: I am an Associate Chair (AC) for ACM TEI 2026, where I review and evaluate research on interactive systems and tools.
Aug 2026: I am co-organizing "The AI-Augmented Maker" workshop at ACM UIST'26 Website
Aug 2026: "Bifur-circuit" and "SensorGen" are accepted to ACM UIST'26 and featured on MIT News
July 2026: Third year teaching a Japanese-language STEAM workshop in Kesennuma with MIT Japan.
May 2026:🏅I am the recipient of the MIT Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Crane Award for Outstanding Graduate Research.
March 2026: Invited by MIT Center for International Studies and MIT Japan as guest speaker for "Beyond 3.11: Tohoku Moving Forward”, to talk about teaching STEAM in Tohoku region.
Feb 2026: Arduino writes a blog-post about my work, "Meta-antenna".
Feb 2026: I will be serving as the ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication (SCF) Student Volunteer Co-chair.
Nov 2025: 🏅 "Ori-TENG" receives Jury Honorable Mention at ACM UIST'25
Oct 2025: I was invited by the Korean Consulate General in Boston as a guest speaker to share my journey on learning Korean.
Aug 2025: "Ori-TENG" is accepted to ACM UIST'25 (See you in Busan!)
Aug 2025: My paper, "Meta-antenna" is accepted to ACM UIST'25 and is an MIT News spotlight piece (See you in Busan!) Article
Aug 2025: My paper, "Meta-antenna" is accepted to ACM UIST'25 and is an MIT News spotlight piece! Article
Jul 2025: Second year teaching a Japanese-language STEAM workshop in Kesennuma with MIT Japan.
Jun 2025: I am a visiting researcher at U. Tokyo with Prof. Yasuaki Kakehi.
Jun 2025: My Comic book "Research, Reflections, and Rants" is published with MIT Mind Hand Heart. Read
Apr 2025: Accepted to CHI'25 Doctoral Consortium (See you in Yokohama!). Paper
Mar 2025: 1st place at the New England Korean Speech Competition.
Mar 2025: Art exhibit, "Interwoven", is invited to MIT Artfinity. Article
Jan 2025: I was Interviewed by Bahrain National TV on Actuated Xperiences. Interview
Dec 2024: I Designed & developed an open-source engineering class, "Actuated Xperiences" for MIT Bahrain GTL & American University of Bahrain. Site
Oct 2025: Launched "Interwoven" exhibition at MIT's Wiesner Gallery. Article
Oct 2024: Recieved MIT Council of the Arts Fund for art Exhibition "Interwoven".
Oct 2024: 🏅 "Speed-Modulated Ironing" is named Best Demo Nominee (People's Choice) at UIST'24.
Sep 2024: "Speed-Modulated Ironing," with TU Delft, is accepted to UIST'24.
Aug 2024: Taught a Japanese-language STEM workshop in Kesennuma with MIT Japan.
Apr 2024: I was awarded the MIT Chancellor's Innovation Fund to publish a grad-student comic book.
Feb 2024: I Passed my MechE qualifying exams — officially a PhD candidate!
Apr 2023: I am the recipient of the MIT MISTI Ambassador Award Article
Mar 2023: MechSense is featured on MIT News and on international engineering outlets! Article
Jan 2023: My paper, MechSense, is accepted to CHI'23.
Oct 2022: I have Co-launched MIT's first MISTI Bahrain program. News
Oct 2022: I will be demoing LeviCircuits at UIST 2022 & also serve as a student volunteer!

EDUCATION

2020

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering

2023

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering

Present

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

Publications

My research is published in the premiere, most prestigious peer-reviewed HCI venues: ACM CHI (h5-index: 139) and ACM UIST (the leading technical HCI venue, h5-index: 53). My research utilizes smart materials and multi-material additive manufacturing to fabricate intelligent mechanical structures.

Full Paper Publications

Marwa AlAlawi, Regina Zheng, Abdullah Negm, Jiaji Li, Emma Li, Yasuaki Kakehi, Yoshihiro Kawahara, Junyi Zhu, Ticha Sethapakdi & Stefanie Mueller. "Bifur-circuits: Interactive and Modular Metamaterial Building Blocks via Bifurcated Geometries." UIST 2026 (to appear).

DOI Project Video MIT News

Kexin Wang, Marwa AlAlawi, Minglu Fang, Marcello Tania, Jiaming Liu, Ruipeng Wang, Qingfeng Zhou & Stefanie Mueller. "Biocompiler: Compiling Spatial Network Optimization Problems into Living Solvers with Digital Fabrication System" NeurIPS Creative AI Track 2026 (to appear).

DOI Project Video

Marwa AlAlawi, Regina Zheng, Sooyeon Ahn, Katherine Yan, Ticha Sethapakdi, Junyi Zhu & Stefanie Mueller. "Meta-antenna: Mechanically Frequency-Reconfigurable Metamaterial Antennas." UIST 2025.

DOI Project Video MIT News

Jiaji Li, Tianshu Dong, Mingming Li, Zhiqi Wang, Xin Tang, Marwa AlAlawi & Stefanie Mueller. "XpendFab: 3D Printing Expendable Mechanisms for Functional Breakage, Splitting, and Disassembly." Design and AI, 2025.

DOI

Mehmet Ozdemir, Marwa AlAlawi, Mustafa Doga Dogan, Jose F. Martinez Castro, Stefanie Mueller & Zjenja Doubrovski. "Speed-Modulated Ironing: A Method for High-Resolution Shade and Texture Gradients in Single-Material 3D Printing." UIST 2024. [Best Demo Nominee 🏅]

DOI Project Video MIT News

Marwa AlAlawi, Noah Pacik-Nelson, Junyi Zhu, Ben Greenspan, Andrew Doan, Brandon Wong, Benjamin Owen-Block, Shanti Mickens, Wilhelm Schoeman, Michael Wessely, Andreea Danielescu & Stefanie Mueller. "MechSense: A Design and Fabrication Pipeline for Integrating Rotary Encoders into 3D Printed Mechanisms." CHI 2023.

DOI Project Video MIT News

Extended Abstracts

Marwa AlAlawi, Faraz Faruqi, Stefanie Mueller & Ticha Sethapakdi. "SensorGen: Prompt-Driven Exploratory Design and Synthesis for Floating Capacitor Sensor Geometries." UIST 2026 EA (to appear).

DOI Project

Kexin Wang, Marwa AlAlawi, Yitong Sun, Jiaming Liu & Stefanie Mueller. "TriFlock: Selective Electrostatic Flocking via Multi-material 3D Printing" SCF 2026 EA (to appear).

DOI Project

Marwa AlAlawi, Kexin Wang, Regina Zheng, Adelene Chan, Martin Feick, Stefanie Mueller. "Ori-TENG: 3D Printed Origami Tessellations as Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Self-Powered Sensing and Energy Harvesting." UIST 2025 EA. [Best Poster Nominee 🏅]

DOI Project Video

Marwa AlAlawi. "Hybrid Functional Identities for Mechanical Elements." CHI 2025 EA, Doctoral Consortium.

DOI

Doga Ozbek, Marwa AlAlawi, Michael Wessely. "AcceloPrint: Fabricating Customizable Accelerometers with Multi-Material 3D Printing." CHI 2025 EA.

DOI Video

Doga Ozbek, Marwa AlAlawi, Till Max Eckroth, Michael Wessely. "Demonstration of AcceloPrint: Fabricating Accelerometers with Multi-Material 3D Printing." SCF 2024 EA.

DOI

Marwa AlAlawi, Brandon Wong. "LeviCircuits: Ad-Hoc Electrical Circuit Prototyping using Ultrasound Levitation." UIST 2022 EA, Student Innovation Contest.

DOI Video

Workshops (as organizer)

Marwa AlAlawi, Ticha Sethapakdi, Dishita Turakhia, Katherine Song, Ilan Moyer, Liang He, Lvmin Zhang, Ruofei Du, Stefanie Mueller. "The AI-Augmented Maker: Challenges and Opportunities in Designing Intelligence for Community-Driven DIY Cultures." UIST 2026 Workshops (to appear).

DOI Website

Exhibitions

Marwa AlAlawi, Sara Wilson, Supreetha Krishnan. "Artfinity: The MIT Festival for the Arts." MIT Museum After Dark, 2025.

News Video

Marwa AlAlawi, Sara Wilson, Supreetha Krishnan. "Interwoven: The Interdisciplinarity of Sustainability at MIT." MIT Wiesner Art Gallery, Oct–Nov 2024.

News Video

Books

Marwa AlAlawi. "The Great Book of Research, Reflections, and Rants." August 2025.

Online Version

Selected Press Features

Arduino, "Morphing Meta-antennas Enable Frequency Manipulation" (2025)
MIT News, "A Shape-Changing Antenna for More Versatile Sensing and Communication" [Spotlight] (2025)
Interesting Engineering, "'Bunny Ears': MIT Creates Shape-Changing Antenna to Transform Wireless Tech" (2025)
MIT News, "New 3D Printing Technique Creates Unique Objects Quickly and with Less Waste" [Spotlight] (2024)
TU Delft News, "New 3D Printing Technique by TU Delft and MIT Delivers High-Resolution Textures from a Single Material" (2024)

All About Circuits, "MIT Creates New Way to Incorporate Sensors Into 3D-Printed Designs" (2023)
3DPrinting.com, "MIT Develops 3D Printed Sensors that Sense Rotation" (2023)
MIT News, "3D-Printed Revolving Devices can Sense How They are Moving" (2023)
Hackster.io, "MIT Engineers Use Ultrasound Levitation to Prototype Circuits" (2022)

Employment

Research Internships

University of Tokyo, Japan — advised by Yasuaki Kakehi & Yoshihiro Kawahara (2025)
MIT Mechanical Engineering, Device Realization Group — advised by Brian Anthony (2019–2020)
Personal Robots Group, MIT Media Lab — advised by Cynthia Breazeal (2019)
MIT Mechanical Engineering, Biomimetics Group — advised by Sangbae Kim (2017)

Work Experience

REACT Neuro, Cambridge, MA (Remote) — VR Experience Designer (2020–2021) — developed a VR breathing exercise for Pico Neo 2.
GREE, Tokyo, Japan — XR Intern (2018) — built an educational VR game for JAXA using Unity and HTC Vive; voice-acted the Japanese support character "Maru-Chan."

Professional Service

Associate Chair

ACM TEI — Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (2027)

Chairing

ACM SCF — Student Volunteer Co-Chair (2026)

Student Volunteer

ACM UIST (2022)

Academic Reviewer

ACM CHI (2025–2026)
ACM SIGGRAPH — SIGGRAPH Posters (2024)
ACM UIST (2024–2026)
HCI Journal — Human–Computer Interaction Journal (2023, 2024)
ACM DIS — Designing Interactive Systems (2023, 2025)
Elsevier C&G — Computers & Graphics Journal (2026)
ACM TEI (2025–2026)
ACM SCF — Symposium on Computational Fabrication (2022, 2024, 2026)

*Received 5 special recognitions for Outstanding Reviews (ACM CHI'26; ACM UIST'24, '25).

Teaching Experience

Co-Instructing / Curriculum Development

Co-Founder, MIT Bahrain Global Teaching Lab (2023–Present) — built MIT's first STEAM initiative in the Gulf region; open-source HCI curricula in robotics, wearables, and digital fabrication for 200+ students.
Lead Instructor, Actuated Xperiences (MIT Bahrain GTL) (Winter 2025) — ran a 1-month engineering design course for 55 students and a 5-person teaching team; hosted at AUBH, sponsored by Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait.
Lead Instructor, Intro to Design Through Engineering Process (MIT Japan) (2024–2026) — taught structural engineering design in Japanese to 100+ middle school students in Kesennuma.
Course Director, Intro to Wearable Technology (MIT Bahrain GTL) (Winter 2024) — directed strategy, hardware procurement, and teaching team for 50 students.
Course Co-Director, Robotics from Scratch (MIT Bahrain GTL) (Winter 2023) — secured inaugural program grants; co-directed curriculum for 40 students.
Co-Instructor, Introduction to Making (MIT Jordan GTL) (Winter 2020) — taught 3D modeling, VR, and circuit design to 60+ Jordanian high school students.

Teaching Assistant

MIT 2.810, Manufacturing Processes and Systems (Fall 2026)
MIT 2.00, Introduction to Design (Fall 2024)
MIT 2.00b, Toy Product Design (Spring 2020 & Spring 2022) — mentored 6-student teams on toy design and fabrication; guided 30+ students on shop machines and electronics.
MIT 2.009, Product Engineering Processes (Remote) (Fall 2020) — developed concept art, costume design, and 2D animation for a virtual theme reveal.
MIT 8.01, Classical Mechanics (Fall 2017) — supported 27+ students with problem solving and weekly grading.

Manufacturing Mentorship

MIT Makerworkshop — Student Machine Shop Mentor (2019–2022)
MIT Makerlodge — Student Machine Shop Mentor (2017–2018)

Mentoring

All MIT students are co-advised by Professor Stefanie Mueller.

Masters Students (MEng)

Abdullah Negm (2025–2026)

Undergraduate Research Assistants (UROP)

Wilhelm Schoeman (2022)
Shanti Mickens (2022)
Benjamin Owen-Block (2022)
Andrew Doan (2022)
Brandon Wong (2022–2023)
Adelene Chan (2023)
Katherine Yan (2024)
Audrey Garon (2024)
Nathan Syvash (2024)
Regina Zheng* (2024–2026)
Emma Li (2025–2026)

*MIT MechE Carl G. Sontheimer Prize for Best Undergraduate Researcher

Awards & Recognitions

Fellowships & Honors

Crown Prince International Scholarship, Bahrain (2014–Present) — most prestigious national scholarship (10 awarded/yr); funds undergraduate through PhD.
Wunsch & Silent Hoist Award, MIT MechE (2026) — outstanding graduate student excellence across MechE.
JST ASPIRE Fund Recipient, Japan Science and Technology Agency (2025) — funded summer research at the University of Tokyo.
Pi Tau Sigma (PTS) Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, MIT

Research Awards

ACM UIST Best Poster Nominee (Jury Choice), Korea (2025)
ACM CHI Doctoral Consortium, Japan (2025) — highly selective venue for 21 PhD students in HCI.
ACM UIST Best Demo Nominee (People's Choice), USA (2024)

Service, Arts & Leadership Awards

MIT MISTI Ambassador Award (2023) — awarded to 0–1 student annually; nominated by MIT Japan and MIT Arab World.
MIT Mind Hand Heart Grant Recipient (2024) — for "Research, Reflections and Rants: A Comic Book About MIT Graduate Student Experiences."
MIT Arts Grant Recipient (2024) — to build the month-long exhibition Interwoven at the MIT Wiesner Gallery and MIT Museum.
1st Place, 6th Annual New England Korean Speech Competition, MA (2025) — hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Boston.

Invited Talks

Research & Technical Talks

University of Tokyo, hosted by Takeo Igarashi & Koya Narumi — "Digital Fabrication" (2025)
University of Tokyo, hosted by Takeo Igarashi & Koya Narumi — "A Design & Fabrication Pipeline for 3D Printing Rotary Encoders" (2024)
3D Micro Printing, hosted by Mike Pinelis — "3D-Printed Revolving Devices with Integrated Sensors" (2023)
American University of Bahrain, hosted by Bradley J. Cook — "Novel Material Technologies" (2023, 2024)
MIT Nano, hosted by Brian Anthony — "Design of a Virtual Environment for Physiological and Subjective Monitoring of User Presence in VR" (2020)
University of Bahrain, coordinated by Shatha Ahmad — "Using OCR to Build a Physical Japanese Text Translator" (2019)

Global Leadership, Outreach & Panel Presentations

MIT Center for International Studies, hosted by Chris Pilcavage (MIT Japan) — "Beyond 3:11: Tohoku Moving Forward" (2026)
Korean Consulate of Boston, ft. National Peace Corps — Friends of Korea Event, guest speaker (2026)
Bahrain National Television, hosted by Bahrain Now Variety Show — "MIT Global Teaching Labs in Bahrain" (2025)
MIT MISTI, hosted by MIT Japan & MIT Arab World — "MISTI Tech Re-unions: Supporting Global Changemakers" (2023)
MIT, hosted by MIT Japan & MIT South Asia — International Women's Day Panel (2023)
MIT, hosted by Eduardo Rivera — MISTI Alumni Career Panel (2021)
CleverPlay, hosted by Latifa AlKhalifa — "The STEMCast: Mechanical Engineering Through HER Eyes" (2021)
National Space Science Agency — "Women in STEM: Investigating Space Through VR," keynote (2021)
The Hill Editorial, hosted by Steve Clemons & Embassy of the UAE — "Aspiration and Resilience: The New Space Age" (2021)

Other Academic & Community Service

President, MIT MechE Graduate Association of Women (MEGAWomen) (2025–2026)
Bilingual Guest Liaison & Translator, Boston Cultural Exchange Initiatives (2023, 2024, 2026) — Japanese–English interpretation and liaison for visiting delegates.
Cultural Program Coordinator, Showa Japan Women's University Friendship Circle, Boston, MA (2024)
International Mentor, Showa Japan Women's University College Connection, Boston, MA (2022–2023)
Student Mentor, Japanese High School Student Exchange Fellowship, Boston, MA (2023)

Selected Service & Teaching Press

MIT News, "Scene at MIT: Artfinity Brings Artistic Celebration to Campus" (2025)
Arts at MIT, "Craft, Community, and Climate" (2024)
MIT Science & Technology Initiative (MISTI), "A Launchpad Into MIT Students' Careers While Helping Them Become Global Citizens" (2023)
Bahrain News Agency, "In a First for GCC, MISTI Program to Be Launched in Bahrain" (2022)
MIT Japan Program, "Marwa AlAlawi, MechE, Class of 2020 @ GREE Japan" (2022)