A photo of students in colorful helmets running through Killian Court was what first drew Sharmi Shah ’23 to the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE), but a desire to make the world a better place inspired her to pursue a degree in the field and focus on robotics.
“When I started, I thought I wanted to study mechanical engineering, but there wasn’t a lot of solid grounding for that,” she says. She considered several majors, including pre-med and computer science, but ultimately settled on 2-A/6 MechE. “2-A/6 is a major in mechanical engineering,” Shah explains. “You take the core classes, but you can also choose between computer science and electrical engineering.”
Course 2-A is a variation of the conventional 2-major, mechanical engineering. By combining the major’s core courses with a customized curriculum, students can focus on their personal interests—such as robotics, entrepreneurship, or energy. Students can choose from a list of existing specializations, such as 2-A/6, also known as Control, Measurement and Robotics (CIR) or propose your own.
As a 2-A/6 student, Shah spent a year working on a robotic system called PEARLa enormous sensor robot developed by Engineering Systems Laboratory that collects solar energy to charge autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and connects to constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit for high-speed data transmission.
Inspired by the potential in robotics, she began taking more robotics classes and eventually took most of the classes offered. In Professor Sangbae Kim’s 2.74 (Bio-Inspired Robotics) class, she and her team built a hula-hoop robot. “We had everything from control to mechanical design to software,” she says. In Professor Russ Tedrake’s (Robotic Manipulation and Underactuated Robotics) class, she gained more experience with optimization techniques, perception, planning, and nonlinear control.
Shah returned to MechE as a graduate student this fall and currently works in Kim’s Biomimetic Robotics Lab. Biomimetics is a field that uses understanding processes from nature, biology, and the natural world to create models, materials, machines, or systems that support solve sophisticated human problems.
In graduate school, she plans to focus on the work she began on her sense of touch as an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program graduate student, but she knows her path could unfold in ways she’s not yet fully aware of—an uncertainty she’s accepting.
“Not everything turns out as planned and it’s A-OK,” he says. “You learn along the way … that thinking can apply to career planning or coursework, but also to engineering — you try something, you try again, you make a little progress. You keep trying.”
She found a supportive community in MechE and across campus, especially as a member Mirchinationally ranked dance team, MIT’s Bollywood Fusion. She also frequents campus makerspaces and the MechE lounge, a space for faculty to meet and collaborate. Community is critical to Shah. “I’m grateful for all the friends I’ve made here and for my family…they’re my biggest supporters.”
Shah says she is excited to return to MIT for graduate school. “I can always learn more… and I want to keep learning.”