Injectable “satellite livers” could offer an alternative to liver transplantation

More than 10,000 Americans who suffer from chronic liver disease are on a waitlist for a liver transplant, but there are not enough donated organs for all of those patients. Additionally, many people with liver failure aren’t eligible for a transplant if they are not healthy enough to tolerate the surgery.

To help those patients, MIT engineers have developed “mini livers” that could be injected into the body and take over the functions of the failing liver.

In a new study in mice, the researchers showed that these injected liver cells could remain viable in the body for at least two months, and they were able to generate many of the enzymes and other proteins that the liver produces.

“We think of these as satellite livers. If we could deliver these cells into the body, while leaving the sick organ in place, that would provide booster function,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Bhatia is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in the journal Cell Biomaterials. MIT postdoc Vardhman Kumar is the paper’s lead author.

Restoring liver function

The human liver plays a role in about 500 essential functions, including regulation of blood clotting, removing bacteria from the bloodstream, and metabolizing drugs. Most of these functions are performed by cells called hepatocytes.

Over the past decade, Bhatia’s lab has been working on ways to restore hepatocyte function without a surgical liver transplant. One possible approach is to embed hepatocytes into a biomaterial such as a hydrogel, but these gels also have to be surgically implanted.

Another option is to inject hepatocytes into the body, which eliminates the need for surgery. In this study, Bhatia’s lab sought to improve on this strategy by providing an engineered niche that could enhance the cells’ survival and facilitate noninvasive monitoring of graft health.

To achieve that, the researchers came up with the idea of injecting cells along with hydrogel microspheres that would help them stay together and form connections with nearby blood vessels. These spheres have special properties that allow them to act like a liquid when they are closely packed together, so they can be injected through a syringe and then regain their solid structure once inside the body.

In recent years, researchers have explored using hydrogel microspheres to promote wound healing, as they help cells to migrate into the spaces between the spheres and build new tissue. In the new study, the MIT team adapted them to help hepatocytes form a stable tissue graft after injection.

“What we did is use this technology to create an engineered niche for cell transplantation,” Kumar says. “If the cells are injected in the absence of these spheres, they would not integrate efficiently with the host, but these microspheres provide the hepatocytes with a niche where they can stay localized and become connected to the host circulation much faster.”

The injected mixture also includes fibroblast cells — supportive cells that help the hepatocytes survive and promote the growth of blood vessels into the tissue.

Working with Nicole Henning, an ultrasound research specialist at the Koch Institute, the researchers developed a way to inject the cell mixture using a syringe guided by ultrasound. After injection, the researchers can also use ultrasound to monitor the long-term stability of the implant.

In this study, the mini livers were injected into the fat tissue in the belly. In the future, similar grafts could be delivered to other sites in the body, such as into the spleen or near the kidneys. As long as they have enough space and access to blood vessels, the injected hepatocytes can function similarly to hepatocytes in the liver.

“For a vast majority of liver disorders, the graft does not need to sit close to the liver,” Kumar says.

An alternative to transplantation

In tests in mice, the researchers injected the mixture of liver cells and microspheres into an area of fatty tissue known as the perigonadal adipose tissue. Once the cells are localized in the body, they form a stable, compact structure. Over time, blood vessels begin to grow into the graft area, helping the injected hepatocytes to stay healthy.

“The new blood vessels formed right next to the hepatocytes, which is why they were able to survive,” Kumar says. “They were able to get the nutrients delivered right to them, they were able to function the way they're supposed to, and they produced the proteins that we expect them to.”

After injection, the cells remained viable and able to secrete specialized proteins into the host circulation for eight weeks, the length of the study. That suggests that the therapy could potentially work as a long-term treatment for liver disease, the researchers say.

“The way we see this technology is it can provide an alternative to surgery, but it can also serve as a bridge to transplantation where these grafts can provide support until a donor organ becomes available,” Kumar says. “And if we think they might need another therapy or more grafts, the barriers to do that are much less with this injectable technology than undergoing another surgery.”

With the current version of this technology, patients would likely need to take immunosuppressive drugs, but the researchers are exploring the possibility of developing “stealthy” hepatocytes that could evade the immune system, or using the hydrogel microspheres to deliver immunosuppressants locally.

The research was funded by the Koch Institute Support (core) grant from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Leap HOPE Program, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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LAB14 joins the MIT.nano Consortium

LAB14 GmbH, a corporate network based in Germany that unites eight high-tech companies focused on nanofabrication, microfabrication, and surface analysis, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium.

“The addition of LAB14 to the MIT.nano Consortium reinforces the importance of collaboration to advance the next set of great ideas,” says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano and the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technologies at MIT. “At MIT.nano, we are thrilled when our shared-access facility leads to cross-disciplinary discoveries. LAB14 carries this same motivation by assembling the constellation of remarkable interconnected industry partners.”

Comprising eight companies — Heidelberg Instruments, Nanoscribe, GenISys, Notion Systems, 40-30, Amcoss, SPECSGROUP, and Nanosurf — LAB14 is focused on developing products and services that are fundamental to micro- and nanofabrication technologies, supporting industrial and research-driven applications with complex manufacturing and analysis requirements.

The companies of LAB14 operate under a shared organizational structure that enables closer coordination in technology development. This setup allows for faster research progress and more efficient manufacturing workflows.

“Joining the MIT.nano Consortium marks a significant milestone for LAB14 and our companies,” says Martin Wynaendts van Resandt, CEO of LAB14. “This participation allows our network to collaborate directly with world-leading researchers, accelerating innovation in micro- and nanotechnology."

As part of this engagement, LAB14 will provide two pieces of equipment to be installed at MIT.nano within the coming year. The VPG 300 DI maskless stepper, a high-performance, direct-write system from Heidelberg Instruments, will be positioned inside MIT.nano’s cleanroom. This tool will allow MIT.nano users to pattern structures smaller than 500 nanometers directly onto wafers with accuracy and uniformity comparable to typical high resolution i-line lithography. Equipped with advanced multi-layer alignment and mix‑and‑match functions, the VPG creates a seamless link between laser direct writing and e‑beam lithography.

The EnviroMETROS X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS/HAXPES) tool by SPECSGROUP will join the suite of Characterization.nano instruments. This unique system is specialized in nondestructive depth profile measurements using multiple X-ray energies to determine the thickness of thin-film samples and their chemical compositions with highest precision. It supports various analyses across a wide pressure range, allowing MIT.nano users to examine thin‑film materials under more realistic environmental conditions and to observe how they change during operation.

The MIT.nano Consortium is a platform for academia-industry collaboration, fostering research and innovation in nanoscale science and engineering. Consortium members gain unparalleled access to MIT.nano and its dynamic user community, providing opportunities to share expertise and guide advances in nanoscale technology.

MIT.nano continues to welcome new companies as sustaining members. For details, and to see a list of current members, visit the MIT.nano Consortium page.

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W.M. Keck Foundation to support research on healthy aging at MIT

A prestigious grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to Alison E. Ringel, an MIT assistant professor of biology, will support groundbreaking healthy aging research at the Institute.

Ringel, who is also a core member of the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, will draw on her background in cancer immunology to create a more comprehensive biomedical understanding of the cause and possible treatments for aging-related decline.

“It is such an honor to receive this grant,” Ringel says. “This support will enable us to draw new connections between immunology and aging biology. As the U.S. population grows older, advancing this research is increasingly important, and this line of inquiry is only possible because of the W.M. Keck Foundation.”

Understanding how to extend healthy years of life is a fundamental question of biomedical research with wide-ranging societal implications. Although modern science and medicine have greatly expanded global life expectancy, it remains unclear why everyone ages differently; some maintain physical and cognitive fitness well into old age, while others become debilitatingly frail later in life.

Our immune systems are adaptable, but they do naturally decline as we get older. One critical component of our immune system is CD8+ T cells, which are known to target and destroy cancerous or damaged cells. As we age, our tissues accumulate cells that can no longer divide. These senescent cells are present throughout our lives, but reach seemingly harmful levels as a normal part of aging, causing tissue damage and diminished resilience under stress.

There is now compelling evidence that the immune system plays a more active role in aging than previously thought.

“Decades of research have revealed that T cells can eliminate cancer cells, and studies of how they do so have led directly to the development of cancer immunotherapy,” Ringel says. “Building on these discoveries, we can now ask what roles T cells play in normal aging, where the accumulation of senescent cells, which are remarkably similar to cancer cells in some respects, may cause health problems later in life.”

In animal models, reconstituting elements of a young immune system has been shown to improve age-related decline, potentially due to CD8+ T cells selectively eliminating senescent cells. CD8+ T cells progressively losing the ability to cull senescent cells could explain some age-related pathology.

Ringel aims to build models for the express purpose of tracking and manipulating T cells in the context of aging and to evaluate how T cell behavior changes over a lifespan.

“By defining the protective processes that slow aging when we are young and healthy, and defining how these go awry in older adults, our goal is to generate knowledge that can be applied to extend healthy years of life,” Ringel says. “I’m really excited about where this research can take us.”

The W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Co. One of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, the W.M. Keck Foundation supports outstanding science, engineering, and medical research. The foundation also supports undergraduate education and maintains a program within Southern California to support arts and culture, education, health, and community service projects.

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Les Perelman, expert in writing assessment and champion of writing education, dies at 77

Leslie “Les” Perelman, an influential figure in college writing assessment; a champion of writing instruction across all subject matters for over three decades at MIT; and a former MIT associate dean for undergraduate education, died on Nov. 12, 2025, at home in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was 77.

A Los Angeles native, Perelman attended the University of California at Berkeley, joining in its lively activist years, and in 1980 received his PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After stints at the University of Southern California and Tulane University, he returned to Massachusetts — to MIT — in 1987, and stayed for the next 35 years.

Perelman became best known for his dogged critique of autograding systems and writing assessments that didn’t assess actual college writing. The Boston Globe dubbed him “The man who killed the SAT essay.” He told NPR that colleges “spend the first year deprogramming [students] from the five-paragraph essay.” 

His widow, MIT Professor Emerita Elizabeth Garrels, says that while attending a conference, Perelman — who was practically blind without his glasses — arranged to stand at one end of a room in order to “grade” essays held up for him on the other side. “He would call out the grade that each essay would likely receive on standardized scoring,” Garrels says. “And he was consistently right.” Perelman was doing what automatic scorers were: He was, he said in the NPR interview, “mirroring how automated or formulaic grading systems often reward form over substance.” 

Perelman also “ruffled a lot of feathers” in industry, says Garrels, with his 2020 paper documenting his BABEL (“Basic Automatic B.S. Essay Language”) Generator, which output nonsense that commercial autograders nevertheless gave top marks. He saved some of his most systematic criticism for autograders’ defenders in academia, at one point calling out peers at the University of Akron for the methodology in their widely-touted paper claiming autograders performed just as well as human graders. 

At least one service, though, E.T.S., partly welcomed Perelman’s critique by making its autograder available to him for testing. (Others, like Pearson and Vantage Learning, declined.) He discovered he could ace the tests, even when his essay included non-factual gibberish and typographical errors:

Teaching assistants are paid an excessive amount of money. The average teaching assistant makes six times as much money as college presidents. In addition, they often receive a plethora of extra benefits such as private jets, vacations in the south seas, a staring roles in motion pictures. Moreover, in the Dickens novel Great Expectation, Pip makes his fortune by being a teaching assistant. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, since there are three parts to everything you can think of.

MIT career

Within MIT, Perelman’s legacy was his push to embed writing instruction into the whole of MIT’s curriculum, not as standalone expository writing subjects, let alone as merely a writing exam that incoming students could use to pass out of writing subjects altogether. Supported by a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant, he convinced MIT to hire writing instructors who were also subject matter experts, often with STEM PhDs. They were tasked with collaborating with departments to plant writing instruction into both existing curricula and new subjects. That effort eventually became the Writing Across the Curriculum program (today named Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication) with a staff of more than 30 instructors.

Building out the infrastructure wasn’t quick, however. Perelman’s successor, Suzanne Lane ’85, says it took him almost 15 years. It started with proving to others just how uneven writing instruction at MIT actually was. “A whole cohort of students who took a lot of writing classes or got communication instruction in various places would make great progress,” Lane says. “But it was definitely possible to get through all of MIT without doing much writing at all.” 

To bolster his case, Perelman turned to alumni surveys. “The surveys asked how well MIT prepared you for your career,” says Lane. “The technical skills scored really high, but — what is horribly termed, sometimes, as ‘soft skills’ — communication skills, collaboration, etc., these scored really high on importance to career, but really low on how well MIT had prepared them.”

In other words, MIT alumni knew their stuff but were bad at communicating it, at a cost to their careers.

This led Perelman and others to push for a new undergraduate communication requirement. That NSF grant supported a 1997 pilot, designing experiments for courses that would be communication-intensive. It was a huge success. Every department participated. It involved 24 subjects and roughly 300 students. MIT faculty, following “lively” discussion at an April 1999 faculty meeting, approved the proposal of the creation of a report on the communication requirement’s implementation, followed a year later by its formal passage, effective fall 2001.

From that initial pilot of 24, there are now nearly 300 subjects that count toward the requirement, from ​​class 1.013 (Senior Civil and Environmental Engineering Design) to 24.918 (Workshop in Linguistic Research).

Connections beyond MIT

Early in his career, Perelman worked with Vincent DiMarco, a literature scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to publish “The Middle English Letter of Alexander to Aristotle” (Brill, 1978). With Wang Computers as publisher, he was a technical writer and project leader on the “DOS Release 3.30 User’s Reference Guide.” He edited a book and chapter on writing studies and assessment with New Jersey Institute of Technology professor Norbert Elliot. And in a project he was particularly proud of, he worked with the New South Wales Teachers Federation in 2018 to convince Australia to reject the adoption of an automated essay grading regime. 

“Les was brilliant, with a Talmudic way of asking questions and entering academic debates,” says Nancy Sommers, whose work on undergraduate writing assessment at Harvard University paralleled Perelman’s. “I loved the way his eyes sparkled when he was ready to rip an adversary or a colleague who wasn’t up to his quick mind and vast, encyclopedic knowledge.” 

Openness to rhetorical combat didn’t keep Perelman from being a wonderful friend, Sommers says, saying he once waited for her at the airline gate with a sandwich and a smile after a canceled flight. “That was Les, so gracious, generous, anticipating the needs of friends, always there to offer sustenance and friendship.”

Donations in Perelman’s name can be made to UNICEF’s work supporting children in Ukraine, the Lexington Refugee Assistance Program, Doctors Without Borders, and the Ash Grove Movie Finishing Fund.

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Coping with catastrophe

Each April in Japan, people participate in a tradition called “hanami,” or cherry-blossom viewing, where they picnic under the blooming trees. The tradition has a second purpose: The presence of people at these gatherings, often by water, helps solidify riverbanks and protect them from spring floods. The celebration has a dual purpose, by addressing, however incrementally, the threat of natural disaster.

The practice of creating things that also protect against disasters can be seen all over Japan, where many new or renovated school buildings have design features unfamiliar to students elsewhere. In Tokyo, one elementary school has a roof swimming pool that stores water and is used to help the building’s toilets flush, plus an additional rainwater catchment tank and exterior stairs leading to a large balcony that wraps around one side of the building.

Why? Well, Japan is prone to natural disasters, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and flooding. The country’s schools often double as evacuation sites for local residents, and design practices increasingly reflect this. In normal times, the roof pool is where students learn to swim and helps keep the school cool, and the large balcony is used by spectators watching the adjacent school athletics field. In emergencies, water storage is crucial and exterior stairs help people ascend quickly to the gymnasium, built on the second floor — to keep evacuees safer during flooding.

Meanwhile, in one Tokyo district, rooftop solar power is now common. Some schools feature skylights and courtyards to bring in natural light. Again, these architectural features serve dual purposes. Solar power, for one, lowers annual operating costs, and it provides electricity even in case of grid troubles.

These are examples of what MIT scholar Miho Mazereeuw has termed “anticipatory design,” in which structures and spaces are built with dual uses, for daily living and for when crisis strikes.

“The idea is to have these proactive measures in place rather than being reactionary and jumping into action only after something has happened,” says Mazereeuw, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Architecture and a leading expert on resilient design.

Now Mazereeuw has a new book on the subject, “Design Before Disaster: Japan’s Culture of Preparedness,” published by the University of Virginia Press. Based on many years of research, with extensive illustrations, Mazereeuw examines scores of successful design examples from Japan, both in terms of architectural features and the civic process that created them.

“I’m hoping there can be a culture shift,” Mazereeuw says. “Wherever you can invent design outcomes to help society be more resilient beforehand, it is not at exorbitant cost. You can design for exceptional everyday spaces but embed other infrastructure and flexibility in there, so when there is a flood event or earthquake, those buildings have more capability.”

Bosai and barbecue

Mazereeuw, who is also the head of MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, has been studying disaster preparedness for over 30 years. As part of the Climate Project at MIT, she is also one of the mission directors and has worked with communities around the world on resiliency planning.

Japan has a particularly well-established culture of preparedness, often referred to through the Japanese word “bosai.” Mazereeuw has been studying the country’s practices carefully since the 1990s. In researching the book, she has visited hundreds of sites in the country and talked to many officials, designers, and citizens along the way.

Indeed, Mazereeuw emphasizes, “A major theme in the book is connecting the top-down and bottom-up.” Some good design ideas come from planners and architects. Other have come from community groups and local residents. All these sources are important.

“The Japanese government does invest a lot in disaster research and recovery,” Mazereeuw says. “But I would hate for people in other countries to think this isn’t possible elsewhere. It’s the opposite. There are a lot of examples in here that don’t cost extra, because of careful design through community participation.”

As one example, Mazereeuw devotes a chapter of the book to public parks, which are often primary evacuation spaces for residents in case of emergency. Some have outdoor cooking facilities, which in normal times are used for, say, a weekend barbecue or local community events but are also there in case of emergency. Some parks also have water storage, or restroom facilities designed to expand if needed, and many serve as flood reservoirs, protecting the surrounding neighborhood.

“The barbecue facilities are a great example of dual use, connecting the everyday with disaster preparedness,” Mazereeuw says. “You can bring food into this beautiful park, so you’re used to using this space for cooking already. The idea is that your cognitive map of where you should go is connected to fun things you have done in the past.”

Some of the parks Mazereeuw surveys in the book are tiny pocket parks, which are also filled with useful resilience tools.

“Anticipatory design does not have to be monumental,” Mazereeuw writes in the book.

Negotiating through design

To be sure, some disaster mitigation measures are difficult to enact. In the Naiwan district of Kesennuma, as Mazereeuw outlines in the book, much of the local port area was destroyed in the 2011 tsunami, and the government wanted to build a seawall as part of the reconstruction plan. Some local residents and fishermen were unenthusiastic; a seawall could limit ocean access. Finally, after extended negotiations, designers created a seawall integrated into a new commercial district with cafes and stores, as well as new areas of public water access.

“This project used the power of design to negotiate between prefectural and local regulations, structural integrity and aesthetics, ocean access and safety,” Mazereeuw says.

Ultimately, working to build a coalition in support of resilience measures can help create more interesting and useful designs.

Other scholars have praised “Design Before Disaster.” Daniel P. Aldrich, a professor at Northeastern University, has called the book a “well-researched, clearly written investigation” into Japanese disaster-management practices, adding that any officials or citizens around the world “who seek to keep residents and communities safe from shocks of all kinds will learn something important from this book. It sets a high bar for future scholarship in the field.”

For her part, Mazereeuw emphasizes, “We can learn from the Japanese example, but it’s not a copy-paste thing. The book is so people can understand the essence of it and then create their own disaster preparedness culture and approach. This should be an all-hands process. Emergency management is not about relying on managers. It’s figuring out how we all play a part.”

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Featured video: Coding for underwater robotics

During a summer internship at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Ivy Mahncke, an undergraduate student of robotics engineering at Olin College of Engineering, took a hands-on approach to testing algorithms for underwater navigation. She first discovered her love for working with underwater robotics as an intern at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2024. Drawn by the chance to tackle new problems and cutting-edge algorithm development, Mahncke began an internship with Lincoln Laboratory's Advanced Undersea Systems and Technology Group in 2025. 

Mahncke spent the summer developing and troubleshooting an algorithm that would help a human diver and robotic vehicle collaboratively navigate underwater. The lack of traditional localization aids — such as the Global Positioning System, or GPS — in an underwater environment posed challenges for navigation that Mahncke and her mentors sought to overcome. Her work in the laboratory culminated in field tests of the algorithm on an operational underwater vehicle. Accompanying group staff to field test sites in the Atlantic Ocean, Charles River, and Lake Superior, Mahncke had the opportunity see her software in action in the real world.

"One of the lead engineers on the project had split off to go do other work. And she said, 'Here's my laptop. Here are the things that you need to do. I trust you to go do them.' And so I got to be out on the water as not just an extra pair of hands, but as one of the lead field testers," Mahncke says. "I really felt that my supervisors saw me as the future generation of engineers, either at Lincoln Lab or just in the broader industry."

Says Madeline Miller, Mahncke's internship supervisor: "Ivy's internship coincided with a rigorous series of field tests at the end of an ambitious program. We figuratively threw her right in the water, and she not only floated, but played an integral part in our program's ability to hit several reach goals."

Lincoln Laboratory's summer research program runs from mid-May to August. Applications are now open. 

Video by Tim Briggs/MIT Lincoln Laboratory | 2 minutes, 59 seconds

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Turning curiosity about engineering into careers

It’s not every day that aspiring teenage engineers can see firsthand how planes are built. But a collaboration between nonprofit Engineering Tomorrow, aerospace firm Boeing, and alumni of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program working at Boeing is aiming to turn curiosity about aerospace engineering into possible careers for young students.

Boeing is LGO’s longest-standing industry collaborator, hosting LGO internships, recruiting LGO alumni, and hosting plant treks for future engineers. Engineering Tomorrow, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring the next generation of engineers, frames the U.S. engineering workforce shortage as an economic and national security issue — and says the shortage isn’t in just engineers with degrees, but also in trained operators and technicians. They also recognize that many kids often start as natural tinkerers, but get scared off by higher-level math.

To bring more kids into the engineering fold, the organization delivers no-cost engineering labs to middle and high school students by collaborating with influential mentors, such as LGO graduates at organizations like Boeing.

“We want to inspire students by exposing them to professional engineers to illustrate the pathways for them to be problem-solvers in society,” explains Alex Dickson, Engineering Tomorrow’s program coordinator. “The demand for engineers has just gone up dramatically. It’s about being competitive on a global scale. We try to illustrate to students that there are many pathways into these careers.”

How MIT LGO makes engineering dreams a reality

Engineering Tomorrow’s collaboration with MIT LGO grew organically, through a robust alumni network. One of the nonprofit’s board members, LGO alumna Kristine Budill SM ’93, recognized a shared interest: the sizable Boeing LGO community wanted concrete ways to connect more directly with communities, and Engineering Tomorrow does just that.

Budill connected the organization with fellow LGO alumnus Cameron Hoffman MBA ’24, SM ’24, a Boeing manufacturing strategy manager who helped translate that shared mission into a real-world opportunity: an on-site Boeing experience that made engineering tangible for high school students.

The result: One lucky high school engineering design class from Mercer Island, Washington, recently got to experience Boeing 737s being built in person. In November 2025, 30 ninth graders at Mercer Island High School traveled to Boeing’s Renton, Washington, facility to learn how planes are constructed and understand what it really takes to have a career building them.

From the outset, the goal was to avoid the typical spectator field trip. Instead, Engineering Tomorrow and Hoffman designed a structured, multi-touch experience that prepared students before they ever set foot in the factory.

First, an Engineering Tomorrow liaison introduced key aerospace concepts and an associated lab challenge to the class via Zoom, then returned in person to guide Mercer students through a hands-on airplane-design lab, helping them translate theory into practice and answer questions about engineering pathways. Students then visited Boeing’s production facility, where they spoke with engineers from multiple disciplines — not just aerospace — and toured the factory floor.

By the time they arrived, students weren’t just impressed by the scale of the operation; they understood what they were seeing, asked informed questions, and left with a sharp sense of the many routes into engineering and manufacturing careers, Dickson says.

“Cameron set up an incredible on-site experience for the students that really made real-world engineering a more tangible experience for them,” Dickson says. “Many people think Boeing is just about aerospace engineering, because Boeing is an aerospace company. But they got to hear from mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and workers with all sorts of backgrounds who made it clear that there’s no one set pathway into engineering or manufacturing.”

Then came the best part: Students got a VIP tour of the production facility, led by Boeing staff.

A snack and a tour

“It’s awe-inspiring: Dozens of unfinished airplanes are under one site, and you see all of the real-world production engineering that goes into something that oftentimes we take for granted when we step onto an airplane,” Dickson says.

When the big day arrived, students also met with engineering teams to learn about the history of the plant, complete with fun facts geared to high schoolers. (Did you know that a 737 takes off or lands every two seconds?) They learned about different career pathways, from design to production. It was easy to envision themselves working there, Hoffman says.

“Boeing is a company that a lot of folks work at for their entire career and take a lot of pride in the work that they do. We showed them: What does that look like? Do you want to be an engineer for your entire career? Do you want to be a people leader in the facility? Do you want to be a technical expert?” Hoffman says. “And the kids asked great questions.”

Then, the students — after snacks, of course — toured the production floor, where engineers assembled planes and tested parts. For Hoffman, that experience was deeply personal: He wished he’d experienced something similar growing up.

A 10-year Boeing veteran, Hoffman led the group throughout. He started at Boeing in 2015 as a recent college graduate, where he encountered several LGO alums who recommended the program.

“I’d been deeply interested in manufacturing since my early undergrad days. Boeing was an amazing place to work because our products are so complex, and the production systems are so fascinating,” he recalls.

Over time, he wanted to transition into people leadership with an MBA degree. His Boeing colleagues, well-represented among the LGO ranks, urged him toward the MIT program.

“LGO’s network is what makes it so special,” he says.

Upon returning to Boeing after completing his LGO degrees, Hoffman joined Boeing’s LGO/Tauber Leadership Development Program, which allows him to stay regularly engaged with the MIT LGO Program. One such activity where he remains engaged with the program is through the MIT LGO Alumni Board. As part of the board, Hoffman focuses on the social good committee, and the Engineering Tomorrow high school partnership was a perfect fit to meet that committee’s goals.

For Hoffman, these leadership initiatives are what makes LGO distinctive.

“When you graduate from a program like LGO, you’re often so forward-looking. It helps to take time to reflect on what an inspiration you can be to the people who come after you. MIT LGO focuses on both engineering and business. Our students want to study engineering because they want to be problem-solvers. The LGO program, which is at the intersection of engineering and business leadership, is just an incredible inspirational program for young students to see,” Hoffman says.

It was an opportunity he didn’t get as an ambitious young high schooler.

“As a kid, the only engineering class that was available to me was architectural drafting. If this opportunity was offered to me when I was in high school, I would’ve jumped out of my shoes at the chance. You get to see products that are just so complex; you really can't believe it until you see it,” he says.

Setting a positive precedent across industries

Mercer Island engineering design teacher Michael Ketchum had high praise for the field trip, considering it transformative for his students. He estimates that roughly 80 percent of them want to be engineers. He was impressed that the experience was more than just a tour, that it also included classroom support and airplane design kits, reinforcing core engineering concepts. The collaboration allowed them to broaden a previously CAD-focused class into one that also includes 3D printing, electronics, and aerospace applications. 

“For freshmen and sophomores, field trips are key. They stick in their head a bit longer than just school learning. If they get to see people getting excited talking about engineering, and it embeds it a little bit better in their brain,” Ketchum says.

In a post-trip survey, students reported being more likely to consider engineering after the experience.

“They expressed the idea that the conversations with engineers inspired them, and 100 percent of students said that seeing a production facility was one of the coolest parts of the program, which led to them being more inclined to want to be an engineer,” Engineering Tomorrow’s Dickson says.

Next year, the LGO network hopes to expand to partner with additional companies, from health care to biotech.

“The goal is to continue to create exposure. This visit was a really great proof of concept to see what’s valuable to students,” Hoffman says — and, ideally, future LGO alumni.

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