People

Josephine Voigt Carstensen

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Josephine Carstensen leads the top+ad group. She an Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology. Her research revolve around the development of advanced structural design methods, including generative design such as topology optimization. Josephine earned a PhD and a MSE in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and holds a MSc and BSc in Building Structures from the Technical University of Denmark. 

Andrew Novillo

Masters of Engineering Candidate

Andrew Novillo is a Master of Engineering student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at MIT. Andrew believes architecture is undergoing a technological revolution that is changing the way buildings are imagined. His research focuses on how the hybridization of Topology Optimization and Additive Manufacturing can present opportunities for the techniques to inform each other throughout the design process. Prior to MIT, he graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Architecture while pursuing structural engineering courses through the Architectural Engineering department.

Yan Liu

Masters of Engineering Candidate

Yan Liu is a Master of Engineering student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on developing the logistics and testing the validity of topology optimization algorithms. He is also seeking for practical applications of optimization tools in the build environment and how they can be used to enhanced people’s architectural experience. Yan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2018. Yan’s goal as a structural engineer is to build cool structures around the world and tell stories about them.

Oluwanifemi Ajayi

Masters of Engineering Candidate

Nifemi Ajayi is a Master of Engineering student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at MIT. Her research is in the extension of current methods of discrete object projection, a subset of continuum topology optimization, to allow variable shape inclusions. She is interested in following the trend of past engineers in understanding how new technologies can inform new methods of design and construction. Nifemi graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Structural Engineering.