This interview is part of a series of short interviews from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, called Student Spotlights. Each spotlight features a student answering their choice of questions about themselves and life at MIT. Today’s interviewee, Aria Eppinger ’24, graduated with her undergraduate degree in Course 6-7 (Computer Science and Molecular Biology) last spring. This spring, she will complete her MEng in 6-7. Her thesis, supervised by Ford Professor of Engineering Doug Lauffenburger in the Department of Biological Engineering, investigates the biological underpinnings of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth and preeclampsia, by applying polytope-fitting algorithms.

Q: Tell us about one teacher from your past who had an influence on the person you’ve become. 

A: There are many teachers who had a large impact on my trajectory. I would first like to thank my elementary and middle school teachers for imbuing in me a love of learning. I would also like to thank my high school teachers for not only teaching me the foundations of writing strong arguments, programming, and designing experiments, but also instilling in me the importance of being a balanced person. It can be tempting to be ruled by studies or work, especially when learning and working are so fun. My high school teachers encouraged me to pursue my hobbies, make memories with friends, and spend time with family. As life continues to be hectic, I’m so grateful for this lesson (even if I’m still working on mastering it).

Q: Describe one conversation that changed the trajectory of your life.

A: A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to chat with Warren Buffett. I was nervous at first, but soon put to ease by his descriptions of his favorite foods — hamburgers, French fries, and ice cream — and his hitchhiking stories. His kindness impressed and inspired me, which is something I carry with me and aim to emulate all these years later.

Q: Do you have any pets?

A: I have one dog who lives at home with my parents. Dodger, named after “Artful Dodger” in Oliver Twist, is as mischievous as beagles tend to be. We adopted him from a rescue shelter when I was in elementary school. 

Q: Are you a re-reader or a re-watcher — and if so, what are your comfort books, shows, or movies?

A: I don’t re-read many books or re-watch many movies, but I never tire of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” I bought myself an ornately bound copy when I was interning in New York City last summer. Austen’s other novels, especially “Sense and Sensibility,” “Persuasion,” and “Emma,” are also favorites, and I’ve seen a fair number of their movie and miniseries adaptations. My favorite adaptation is the 1995 BBC production of “Pride and Prejudice” because of the cohesion with the original book and the casting of the leads, as well as the touches and plot derivations added by the producer and director to bring the work to modern audiences. The adaptation is quite long, but I have fond memories of re-watching it with some fellow Austinites at MIT.

Q: If you had to teach a really in-depth class about one niche topic, what would you pick?

A: There are two types of people in the world: those who eat to live, and those who live to eat. As one of the latter, I would have to teach some sort of in-depth class on food. Perhaps I would teach the science behind baking chocolate cake, or churning the perfect ice cream. Or maybe I would teach the biochemistry of digesting. In any case, I would have to have lots of hands-on demos and reserve plenty for taste-testing!

Q: What was the last thing you changed your mind about?

A: Brisket! I never was a big fan of brisket until I went to a Texas BBQ restaurant near campus, The Smoke Shop BBQ. Growing up, I had never had true BBQ, so I was quite skeptical. However, I enjoyed not only the brisket but also the other dishes. The Brussels sprouts with caramelized onions is probably my favorite dish, but it feels like a crime to say that about a BBQ place!

Q: What are you looking forward to about life after graduation? What do you think you’ll miss about MIT? 

A: I’m looking forward to new adventures after graduation, including working in New York City and traveling to new places. I cross-registered to take Intensive Italian at Harvard this semester and am planning a trip to Italy to practice my Italian, see the historic sites, visit the Vatican, and taste the food. Non vedo l’ora di viaggiare all’Italia! [I can't wait to travel to Italy!]

While I’m excited for what lies ahead, I will miss MIT. What a joy it is to spend most of the day learning information from a fire hose, taking a class on a foreign topic because the course catalog description looked fun, talking to people whose viewpoint is very similar or very different from my own, and making friends that will last a lifetime.

MIT faculty and researchers receive many external awards throughout the year. The MIT School of Engineering periodically highlights the honors, prizes, and medals won by community members working in academic departments, labs, and centers. Winter 2025 honorees include the following:

• Faez Ahmed, the American Bureau of Shipping Career Development Professor in Naval Engineering and Utilization and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE), received a 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The CAREER program is one of NSF’s most prestigious awards that supports early-career faculty who display outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research.
   
• Martin Zdenek Bazant, the E.G. Roos (1944) Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChemE), was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Membership in the NAE is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Angela Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), received the National Medal of Science. The award is the nation’s highest honor for scientists and innovators.
   
• Moshe E. Ben-Akiva, the Edmund K. Turner Professor in Civil Engineering, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Emery Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering, received the National Medal of Science. The award is the nation’s highest honor for scientists and innovators.
   
• Charles L. Cooney, professor emeritus of the Department of ChemE, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Yoel Fink, the Danae and Vasilis (1961) Salapatas Professor in the DMSE, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• James Fujimoto, the Elihu Thomson Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), is a 2025 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Inductees are patent-holding inventors whose work has made all our lives easier, safer, healthier, and more fulfilling.
   
• Mohsen Ghaffari, an associate professor in the Department of EECS, received a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship. The fellowship honors exceptional researchers at U.S. and Canadian educational institutions, whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.
   
• Marzyeh Ghassemi, the Germeshausen Career Development Professor and associate professor in the Department of EECS and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, received a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship. The fellowships honor exceptional researchers at US and Canadian educational institutions, whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.
   
• Linda Griffith, the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation in the Department of Biological Engineering, received the 2025 BMES Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award. The award is given to individuals who have demonstrated impactful leadership and accomplishments in biomedical engineering science and practice.
   
• Paula Hammond, MIT’s vice provost for faculty and an Institute Professor in the Department of ChemE, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The award is the nation’s highest honor for scientists and innovators.
   
• Kuikui Liu, the Elting Morison Career Development Professor and an assistant professor in the Department of EECS, received the 2025 Michael and Sheila Held Prize. The award is presented annually to honor outstanding, innovative, creative, and influential research in combinatorial and discrete optimization or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory.
   
• Farnaz Niroui, an associate professor in the Department of EECS, received a DARPA Innovation Fellowship. The highly selective program chooses fellows to develop and manage a portfolio of high-impact, exploratory research efforts to help identify breakthrough technologies for the U.S. Department of Defense.
   
• Tomás Lozano-Pérez, the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Excellence in the Department of EECS, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Kristala L. Prather, the Arthur Dehon Little Professor and head of the Department of ChemE, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Frances Ross, the TDK Professor in DMSE, received the Joseph F. Keithley Award for Advances in Measurement Science. The award recognizes physicists who have been instrumental in developing measurement techniques or equipment that have impacted the physics community by providing better measurements.
   
• Henry “Hank” Smith, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering Emeritus in the Department of EECS, received the SPIE Frits Zernike Award for Microlithography. The award is presented for outstanding accomplishments in microlithographic technology, especially those furthering the development of semiconductor lithographic imaging and patterning solutions.
   
• Eric Swanson, research affiliate at the Research Laboratory of Electronics, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Evelyn N. Wang, MIT's vice president for energy and climate and Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of MechE, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Membership in the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education.”
   
• Bilge Yildiz, the Breene M. Kerr (1951) Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the DMSE, received the Faraday Medal. The award is given to individuals for notable scientific or industrial achievement in engineering or for conspicuous service rendered to the advancement of science, engineering, and technology.
   
• Feng Zhang, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience and professor of brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The award is the nation’s highest honor for scientists and innovators.

The Hospital Preparedness Program helps hospitals and emergency managers save lives in wildfires, tornadoes, pandemics and other mass-casualty events.

Critics say the investment in climate-cooling research, like refreezing sea ice and brightening clouds, distracts from the need to cut planet-warming emissions.

New guidance revokes a Biden-era climate metric of $190 per ton of carbon dioxide.

A hearing in Rhode Island marked the second time in a month that the oil giant sought to blunt one of the first climate lawsuits.

A federal complaint accuses Clif Zbars of misleading consumers by promoting a climate certification provided by a private business.

CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller got a Senate committee’s vote of approval after sharing a new timeline for a landmark plastic waste reduction program that Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered redone.

The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is crippling an entire industry that hand-harvests geoducks in the Pacific Northwest.

Canada’s biggest bank abandoned its pledge after pointing to changes to the country’s Competition Act that restrict the kinds of environmental claims firms can make.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02338-6

Expanding cracks

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02340-y

Responsibility attribution in Africa

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02339-5

Public R&D investment

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02341-x

Carbon in river floodplains

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 09 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02347-5

Many voices are needed in the climate change discussion to reach across society. Pope Francis is one example who offered his voice and support, in the conversation that needs to continue.

The MIT Supply Chain Management (MCM) master’s program has recognized 34 exceptional students from nine renowned undergraduate programs specializing in supply chain management and engineering across the United States. Twenty-one students have won the 2025 MIT Supply Chain Excellence Award, while an additional 13 were named honorable mentions.

Presented annually, the MIT Supply Chain Excellence Awards honor undergraduate students who have demonstrated outstanding talent in supply chain management or industrial engineering. These students originate from the institutions that have collaborated with the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics’ Supply Chain Management master’s program since 2013 to expand opportunities for graduate study and advance the field of supply chain and logistics.

In this year’s awards, the MIT SCM master’s program has provided over $800,000 in fellowship funding to the recipients. These students come from schools like Arizona State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Lehigh University, Michigan State University, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Mexico), Penn State University, Purdue University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Syracuse University.

Recipients can use their awards by applying to the SCM program after gaining two to five years of professional experience post-graduation. Fellowship funds can be applied toward tuition fees for the SCM master’s program at MIT, or at MIT Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) network centers.

Winners ($30,000 fellowship awards):

• Grace Albano, Lehigh University
• Addison Clauss, Purdue University
• Avery Geiger, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Patrick Estefan, Michigan State University
• Addison Kiteley, Michigan State University
• Sarah Seo, Michigan State University
• Dakarai Young, Michigan State University
• Denver Zhang, Michigan State University
• Mickey Miller, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Ana Paula Martínez Caldera, Monterrey Tech
• Valeria Quinto Lange, Monterrey Tech
• Alejandro Garza, Monterrey Tech
• Mariana Otero Becerril, Monterrey Tech
• Drew Gibble, Penn State University
• Gabe Marshall, Penn State University
• Eric Chen, Arizona State University
• Dachi Tabatadze, Arizona State University
• Srishti Garg, Arizona State University
• Amanda Gong, Arizona State University
• Austin Hurley, Arizona State University
• Emily Wong, Arizona State University

Honorable Mentions ($15,000 fellowship awards):

• Alisa Chen, Arizona State University
• Sean Ratigan, Arizona State University
• Natalie Alexander, Arizona State University
• Chris Lewis, Arizona State University
• Aiden Lyons, Arizona State University
• Mia Thorn, Syracuse University
• Devangi Deoras, Michigan State University
• Api Sen, Michigan State University
• Ashley Sheko, Michigan State University
• Mila Straskraba, Michigan State University
• Abeeha Zaidi, Michigan State University
• Valeria Gonzalez Garcia Monterrey Tech
• Ceci Herrera Guerrero, Monterrey Tech

The MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) is a world leader in supply chain management research and education, with over 50 years of expertise. The center’s work spans industry partnerships, cutting-edge research, and the advancement of sustainable supply chain practices to creates supply chain innovation and drive it into practice through three pillars: research, outreach, and education. 

Founded in 1998 by the CTL, MIT SCM attracts a diverse group of talented and motivated students from across the globe. Students work directly with researchers and industry experts on complex and challenging problems in all aspects of supply chain management. MIT SCM students propel their classroom and laboratory learning straight into industry. They graduate from our programs as thought leaders ready to engage in an international, highly competitive marketplace. For more information, contact Kate Padilla.

The newly established Morningside Academy of Design (MAD) Professorships recognize outstanding faculty whose teaching, research, and service have significantly shaped the field of design at MIT and beyond. The appointments support a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, mentorship, and the development of new educational approaches to design. 

These appointments mark the creation of the MAD Professorships and were formally announced on April 29 at the MAD in Dialogue event, where faculty members, introduced by their department heads, each gave a short presentation on their work, followed by a shared conversation on the future of design education. 

The inaugural chair-holders are Behnaz Farahi, assistant professor of media arts and sciences and director of the Critical Matter Group in the MIT Media Lab; Skylar Tibbits, associate professor of architecture, co-founder and director of the MIT Self-Assembly Lab, and assistant director for education at MAD; and David Wallace, professor of mechanical engineering, MacVicar Fellow, and Class of 1960 Innovation in Education Fellow. 

John Ochsendorf, MAD’s founding director, reflects that “the professorships are more than titles — they’re affirming the central role of design in empowering students to solve complex challenges. Behnaz, Skylar, and David are all celebrated designers who each bring a unique perspective to design education and research. By supporting them, we will cultivate more agile, creative thinkers across MIT.”

Professor Farahi’s MAD professorship appointment will begin Sept. 1, upon the completion of her Asahi Broadcast Corp. professorship. Tibbits’ and Wallace’s appointments are effective immediately. The faculty members will remain affiliated with their respective departments. 

Behnaz Farahi

Having joined the MIT faculty in fall 2024 as an assistant professor in media arts and sciences, Behnaz Farahi brings her critical lens to design research and education. With a foundation in architecture, her career spans fashion and creative technology. Farahi takes interest in addressing critical social issues with a design practice engaging emerging technologies, human bodies, and the environment. As director of the Critical Matter research group at the MIT Media Lab, Farahi aims to re-integrate the tradition of critical thinking in philosophy and social sciences with the concerns of “matter” in science and technology. 

She has won awards including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Digital Design Award, Innovation by Design Fast Company Award, and the World Technology Award. Her work has been included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and has been exhibited internationally.

Her most recent installation, “Gaze to the Stars,” projected video closeups of MIT community members’ eyes onto the Great Dome, with encoded personal stories of perseverance and transformation. The project integrated large language model and computer vision tools in service of a collective art experience.

Currently the recipient of the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation Career Development Professorship in Media Arts and Sciences, Farahi’s MAD appointment will begin after the completion of her present chair. She will remain affiliated with the MIT Media Lab. 

Skylar Tibbits

An architect by training, Skylar Tibbits combines design and computer science as co-founder and director of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT and associate professor of design research in the Department of Architecture. Dedicated to broadening the reach of design education, he directs the undergraduate design programs at MIT and contributes to its curricula.

At the Self-Assembly Lab, Tibbits oversees the advancement of self-assembly and programmable material technologies such as 4D knitting and liquid metal printing, with a plurality of applications ranging from garments and housing to coastal resilience.

He has designed and built large-scale installations and exhibited in galleries around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and various others. 

David Robert Wallace

David Wallace has long been a recognized leader in design research and education at MIT and around the world. Wallace began his research career focused on computational tools for design representation and has evolved his interests over time to environmentally-conscious design approaches, developing software tools to enhance design and creativity, and incorporating new media and tools into the design classroom to empower engineers and designers. His research goals are to develop new methods that impact upon the practice of product development and to help inspire and equip the next generation of engineering innovators.

Wallace is known both inside and outside of MIT for his development of two iconic design classes at MIT, 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes), and 2.00B (Toy Product Design). In sculpting and refining 2.009 over many years, Wallace merged a studio-based approach with rigorous engineering to create a new paradigm for team-based, project-based design. In these courses, students experience hands-on building and testing in real-world contexts so they experience what it means to design for real users, not just design in theory. 

His approach to design education is captured in the video series “Play Seriously!,” which follows one semester of 2.009. For his tremendous educational contributions, he has been awarded the Baker Award for Teaching Excellence and was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, which is MIT’s highest teaching award.

Researchers from MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered that a class of peptides expressed in pancreatic cancer cells could be a promising target for T-cell therapies and other approaches that attack pancreatic tumors.

Known as cryptic peptides, these molecules are produced from sequences in the genome that were not thought to encode proteins. Such peptides can also be found in some healthy cells, but in this study, the researchers identified about 500 that appear to be found only in pancreatic tumors.

The researchers also showed they could generate T cells targeting those peptides. Those T cells were able to attack pancreatic tumor organoids derived from patient cells, and they significantly slowed down tumor growth in a study of mice.

“Pancreas cancer is one of the most challenging cancers to treat. This study identifies an unexpected vulnerability in pancreas cancer cells that we may be able to exploit therapeutically,” says Tyler Jacks, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Jacks and William Freed-Pastor, a physician-scientist in the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, are the senior authors of the study, which appears today in Science. Zackery Ely PhD ’22 and Zachary Kulstad, a former research technician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Koch Institute, are the lead authors of the paper.

Cryptic peptides

Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer — about 10 percent of patients survive for five years after their diagnosis.

Most pancreatic cancer patients receive a combination of surgery, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. Immunotherapy treatments such as checkpoint blockade inhibitors, which are designed to help stimulate the body’s own T cells to attack tumor cells, are usually not effective against pancreatic tumors. However, therapies that deploy T cells engineered to attack tumors have shown promise in clinical trials.

These therapies involve programming the T-cell receptor (TCR) of T cells to recognize a specific peptide, or antigen, found on tumor cells. There are many efforts underway to identify the most effective targets, and researchers have found some promising antigens that consist of mutated proteins that often show up when pancreatic cancer genomes are sequenced.

In the new study, the MIT and Dana-Farber team wanted to extend that search into tissue samples from patients with pancreatic cancer, using immunopeptidomics — a strategy that involves extracting the peptides presented on a cell surface and then identifying the peptides using mass spectrometry.

Using tumor samples from about a dozen patients, the researchers created organoids — three-dimensional growths that partially replicate the structure of the pancreas. The immunopeptidomics analysis, which was led by Jennifer Abelin and Steven Carr at the Broad Institute, found that the majority of novel antigens found in the tumor organoids were cryptic antigens. Cryptic peptides have been seen in other types of tumors, but this is the first time they have been found in pancreatic tumors.

Each tumor expressed an average of about 250 cryptic peptides, and in total, the researchers identified about 1,700 cryptic peptides.

“Once we started getting the data back, it just became clear that this was by far the most abundant novel class of antigens, and so that’s what we wound up focusing on,” Ely says.

The researchers then performed an analysis of healthy tissues to see if any of these cryptic peptides were found in normal cells. They found that about two-thirds of them were also found in at least one type of healthy tissue, leaving about 500 that appeared to be restricted to pancreatic cancer cells.

“Those are the ones that we think could be very good targets for future immunotherapies,” Freed-Pastor says.

Programmed T cells

To test whether these antigens might hold potential as targets for T-cell-based treatments, the researchers exposed about 30 of the cancer-specific antigens to immature T cells and found that 12 of them could generate large populations of T cells targeting those antigens.

The researchers then engineered a new population of T cells to express those T-cell receptors. These engineered T cells were able to destroy organoids grown from patient-derived pancreatic tumor cells. Additionally, when the researchers implanted the organoids into mice and then treated them with the engineered T cells, tumor growth was significantly slowed.

This is the first time that anyone has demonstrated the use of T cells targeting cryptic peptides to kill pancreatic tumor cells. Even though the tumors were not completely eradicated, the results are promising, and it is possible that the T-cells’ killing power could be strengthened in future work, the researchers say.

Freed-Pastor’s lab is also beginning to work on a vaccine targeting some of the cryptic antigens, which could help stimulate patients’ T cells to attack tumors expressing those antigens. Such a vaccine could include a collection of the antigens identified in this study, including those frequently found in multiple patients.

This study could also help researchers in designing other types of therapy, such as T cell engagers — antibodies that bind an antigen on one side and T cells on the other, which allows them to redirect any T cell to kill tumor cells.

Any potential vaccine or T cell therapy is likely a few years away from being tested in patients, the researchers say.

The research was funded in part by the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the Lustgarten Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute.

Cameron Hamilton, the acting disaster chief, appeared to contradict Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem by defending the agency on Wednesday.

It’s been a scientific truth so universally acknowledged that it’s taught in classrooms and repeated in pop-science videos: An egg is strongest when dropped vertically, on its ends. But when MIT engineers actually put this assumption to the test, they cracked open a surprising revelation. 

Their experiments revealed that eggs dropped on their sides — not their tips — are far more resilient, thanks to a clever physics trick: Sideways eggs bend like shock absorbers, trading stiffness for superior energy absorption. Their open-access findings, published today in Communications Physics, don’t just rewrite the rules of the classic egg drop challenge — they’re a lesson in intellectual humility and curiosity. Even “settled” science can yield surprises when approached with rigor and an open mind.

At first glance, an eggshell may seem fragile, but its strength is a marvel of physics. Crack an egg on its side for your morning omelet and it breaks easily. Intuitively, we believe eggs are harder to break when positioned vertically. This notion has long been a cornerstone of the classic “egg drop challenge,” a popular science activity in STEM classrooms across the country that introduces students to physics concepts of impact, force, kinetic energy, and engineering design.

The annual egg drop competition is a highlight of first-year orientation in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Every year we follow the scientific literature and talk to the students about how to position the egg to avoid breakage on impact,” says Tal Cohen, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering. “But about three years ago, we started to question whether vertical really is stronger.” 

That curiosity sparked an initial experiment by Cohen’s research group, which leads the department’s egg drop event. They decided to put their remaining box of eggs to the test in the lab. “We expected to confirm the vertical side was tougher based on what we had read online,” says Cohen. “But when we looked at the data — it was really unclear.”

What began as casual inquiry evolved into a research project. To rigorously investigate the strength of both egg orientations, the researchers conducted two types of experiments: static compression tests, which applied gradually increasing force to measure stiffness and toughness; and dynamic drop tests, to quantify the likelihood of breaking on impact.

“In the static testing, we wanted to keep an egg at a standstill and push on it until it cracked,” explains Avishai Jeselsohn, an undergraduate researcher and an author in the study. “We used thin paper supports to precisely orient the eggs vertically and horizontally.”

What the researchers found was it required the same amount of force to initiate a crack in both orientations. “However, we noticed a key difference in how much the egg compressed before it broke, says Joseph Bonavia, PhD candidate who contributed to the work. “The horizontal egg compressed more under the same amount of force, meaning it was more compliant.”

Using mechanical modeling and numerical simulations to validate results of their experiments, the researchers concluded that even though the force to crack the egg was consistent, the horizontal eggs absorbed more energy due to their compliance. “This suggested that in situations where energy absorption is important, like in a drop, the horizontal orientation might be more resilient. We then performed the dynamic drop tests to see if this held true in practice,” says Jeselsohn.

The researchers designed a drop setup using solenoids and 3D-printed supports, ensuring simultaneous release and consistent egg orientation. Eggs were dropped from various heights to observe breakage patterns. The result: Horizontal eggs cracked less frequently when dropped from the same height.

“This confirmed what we saw in the static tests,” says Jeselsohn. “Even though both orientations experienced similar peak forces, the horizontal eggs absorbed energy better and were more resistant to breaking.”

Challenging common notions

The study reveals a misconception in popular science regarding the strength of an egg when subjected to impact. Even seasoned researchers in fracture mechanics initially assumed that vertical oriented eggs would be stronger. “It’s a widespread, accepted belief, referenced in many online sources,” notes Jeselsohn.

Everyday experience may reinforce that misconception. After all, we often crack eggs on their sides when cooking. “But that’s not the same as resisting impact,” explains Brendan Unikewicz, a PhD candidate and author on the paper. “Cracking an egg for cooking involves applying locally focused force for a clean break to retrieve the yolk, while its resistance to breaking from a drop involves distributing and absorbing energy across the shell.”

The difference is subtle but significant. A vertically oriented egg, while stiffer, is more brittle under sudden force. A horizontal egg, being more compliant, bends and absorbs energy over a greater distance — similar to how bending your knees during a fall softens the blow.

“In a way, our legs are ‘weaker’ when bent, but they’re actually tougher in absorbing impact,” Bonavia adds. “It’s the same with the egg. Toughness isn’t just about resisting force — it’s about how that force is dissipated.”

The research findings offer more than insight into egg behavior — they underscore a broader scientific principle: that widely accepted “truths” are worth re-examining.

Which came first?

“It’s great to see an example of ‘received wisdom’ being tested scientifically and shown to be incorrect. There are many such examples in the scientific literature, and it’s a real problem in some fields because it can be difficult to secure funding to challenge an existing, ‘well-known’ theory,” says David Taylor, emeritus professor in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Biomedical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, who was not affiliated with the study.

The authors hope their findings encourage young people to remain curious and recognize just how much remains to be discovered in the physical world.

“Our paper is a reminder of the value in challenging common notions and relying on empirical evidence, rather than intuition,” says Cohen. “We hope our work inspires students to stay curious, question even the most familiar assumptions, and continue thinking critically about the physical world around them. That’s what we strive to do in our group — constantly challenge what we’re taught through thoughtful inquiry.”

In addition to Cohen, who serves as senior author on the paper, co-authors include lead authors Antony Sutanto MEng ’24 and Suhib Abu-Qbeitah, a postdoc at Tel Aviv University, as well as the following MIT affiliates: Avishai Jeselsohn, an undergraduate in mechanical engineering; Brendan Unikewicz, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering; Joseph Bonavia, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering; Stephen Rudolph, a lab instructor in civil and environmental engineering; Hudson Borja da Rocha, an MIT postdoc in civil and environmental engineering; and Kiana Naghibzadeh, Engineering Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow in civil and environmental engineering. The research was funded by U.S. Office of Naval Research with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation.