Person

Ekblaw, Ariel

Is the founder and lead of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, a team of over 50 students, faculty and staff engaged in actively prototyping our Sci-Fi space future. For the Initiative, Ariel coordinates space research and launch opportunities across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, and design and builds collaborations on this work with MIT and Space Industry partners. Ariel is simultaneously a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, where she is completing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Structures in Dr. Joseph Paradiso’s Responsive Environments group. Her current research explores self-assembling space architecture with natively embedded sensor networks ; Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States; Experience: MIT Space Exploration Initiative, Founder & Lead, May 2016- ; became Director in September 2020; Systems Engineering Intern, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jun 2017-Aug 2017; Program Manager at Microsoft Azure - Data Analytics, Aug 2014-Aug 2015; Research Assistant, CERN, May 2011-Dec 2012; Education: Yale University, B.S., Physics and Mathematics and Philosophy, 2010-2014; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S., MIT Media Lab, 2015-2017; Ph.D., Aerospace Structures applied to Space Architecture (MIT Media Lab), 2015-2020